I like Anki because it is a calm piece of tech. It has been there for a long time with the same behavior. There is a merit to its boringness. You can also activate FSRS algorithm for supposedly better spaced repetition in profile/deck settings. This was an interesting read: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spa...
I agree that the vibe-coding definition is helpful.
Ideally, headcount can be seen this way: our company is giving many people the chance to do honest work and live dignified, meaningful lives. I think that should be a company's main social responsibility not superficial marketable stuff.
I like the post first explains just what happened in enough detail, then comes with conclusions. It is more helpful to me as a data point.
As the style, images seem weird at first, but they help conveying emotions, point of view. Somehow, they also help with attention for me.
As another commenter said, it seems that guardrails will be important. I believe, 'software is managing complexity' at the end of the day. The complexity and decision-among-options will continue to exist. They need to live and taken care of somewhere.
From the article: "The arm and hand reliefs on the T-shaped pillars found in and around Göbekli Tepe have long reinforced the idea that these stones symbolized humans. This new find at Karahan Tepe, the first to feature a human face carved into a T-shaped pillar, is considered a turning point in Neolithic research."
Thanks for the comment, it triggerred a few thought experiments for me.
For example, if you focus on oral traditions you experiment and create more poems, songs, etc. If you focus on preserving food you discover jams, dried meat, etc.
Is it useful to focus on everything, or global optimal? Is it possible?
Also regarding competition and evolution, what stopped humans to get more capable brains? Is it just resource constraints, like not having enough calories(not having mini nuclear reactor with us)? Or are there other, more interesting causes?
App stores sometimes bring great discoverability and revenue opportunities. But if you don't have close connections working in related big companies, don't depend your future on it.
I categorically erased developing mobile apps from my work/dreams after my bad experience:
My pet theory: The daily agenda is dizzying. There is also always several existential/deeper issue looming around/inside. So we can't have time to discuss small daily things, that actually affect quality of life! It has been like this for decades, maybe more than that. It is sad really. Countries also have an attention span, and we can't pick long-term important stuff over immediate stuff.
I think having a healthy community where children can grow to be well-educated, good citizens benefit everyone in the long run. And it is not like zero-sum game, I think there might be very cheap solutions with good ROI. Solutions can be found if there is a will and concerted effort. I don't live in US, this is the model in my mind.
As a newbie in low-level programming, being able to return "heap-allocated pointer" instead of "stack-allocated pointer to a struct in heap" was a challenge at first :) But I love how everything is explicit in Zig.
Let me tell you my trauma then, with the hopes that it will give you some comfort/consolation...
It is one thing if users don't use your application/project. But, when it is more out of your control, it hits harder.
I was young, I spent all my nights and even my whole summer holiday thinking/coding. I dreamed about the success or career it will bring with my friend.
Then it was a success and we were generating some ad revenue, which was great & much needed for two university students. The money was absorbed by our lives like water dripping onto dry soil. The morale was high, there was an air of optimism for the future!
It was an android app, and one day, I woke up with my friend's call. He was literally crying because the google algorithm deleted and banned our account, without any explanation or recourse. You are right that it never goes away, I can still feel the pain.
After that, I remember walking up and down a popular and long street with my friend, without speaking much and trying to process "end of the adventure" feeling. Not related to google we had other human/life problems in our lives and the simple hope we thought we built for ourselves was also gone. I was heartbroken and lost all my enthusiasm for mobile development.
I still wonder what would happen if I could continue down that path, with initial little success, enough money to survive as a student, and an opportunity to build upon that... It is just a parallel universe now. Google could delete our app, but guide us to the right path. If I could know the rules, I could continue and be a good citizen in google's walled garden. While spammers can always found a way, and find motivation with their low-effort tries... google lost a developer with good intentions. I don't think it had any effect on the algorithm or overall corporate strategy.
On the bright side, this event thought me to never trust a business partnership where I can not shake hands with a human that I trust and who geniunely wants my success/not treat me as some replaceable number. (Also insert some rant about why AI overlords can be harmful and why human history created law-based order with human judgement...)
I think it happened over 10 years ago, I can't even pay money to use a Google service now :) I don't change my email, just so that it reminds me this lesson. But if I was a scammer/spammer I would find many solutions to circumvent google AI. I tried contacting via forms when I couldn't pay for a service and when I felt like doing so. Surprisingly, in some cases I could even reach some people via these official channels. Alas, they are powerless, they had to give template answers. I assume the last word is spoken by the Algorithm, and I'm banned for life :)
Overall, It is the first time I wrote about this online. I hope it helps a little. I should also say that I have no hard feelings for people working at google, they brought us great value over the years. But the brand of the company will always remind me those days, and I will always upvote when someone criticize google :) (What power do I have as a little, disposable developer? ;) ) And, no you can't escape by changing your name to Alphabet or Alphabet soup...