The parent said "it's surprising". It's not surprising.
You're correct in the literal sense that they did say those words, but the entire comment clearly demonstrated a lack of surprise that reveals the opening words to be intended ironically.
Readit NewsTalanes commented on Paragon accidentally uploaded a photo of its spyware control panel twitter.com/DrWhax/status... · Posted by u/CGMthrowaway
It's fascinating how often it is really the tension against the unintended boundaries of virtual worlds that's the thing we remember most.
My friends in I would spend entire weekends in high school "hiking" in Halo: finding spots on campaign levels to clip out of bounds, and then exploring the exterior geometry until we hit a spot that dropped us to our deaths.
Talanes commented on Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app macrumors.com/2026/01/28/... · Posted by u/pier25
> certainly found elsewhere
I agree that if someone discovered the artist elsewhere, Apple has weaker standing in claiming a huge commission. But if they found an artist elsewhere, they would also know that they can support that artist elsewhere and not through the iOS app. If the patron found them through the patreon iOS app and use the app to consume the artist's content, then clearly the patron has indicated that they prefer the iOS experience.
>If the patron found them through the patreon iOS app and use the app to consume the artist's content, then clearly the patron has indicated that they prefer the iOS experience.
I hate IOS enough that I'm running at least a full numbered version behind with updates turned off and never plan to buy another IOS device, and I'm subscribed to multiple Patreons started through the IOS app merely because it was the device in my hand and they automatically funnel Patreon links to it.
So no different than management up to the CEO who simply “delegate” to the underlyings?
Except most those people have developed the separate skillset of playing work politics to make their job seem necessary.
> This statement feels like a farmer making a case for using their hands to tend the land instead of a tractor because it produces too many crops. Modern farming requires you to have an ecosystem of supporting tools to handle the scale and you need to learn new skills like being a diesel mechanic.
This to me looks like an analogy that would support what GP is saying. With modern farming practices you get problems like increased topsoil loss and decreased nutritional value of produce. It also leads to a loss of knowledge for those that practice those techniques of least resistance in short term.
This is not me saying big farming bad or something like that, just that your analogy, to me, seems perfectly in sync with what the GP is saying.
And those trade-offs can only pay off if the extra food produced can be utilized. If the farm is producing more food than can be preserved and/or distributed, then the surplus is deadweight.
Talanes commented on I changed my personality in six weeks bbc.com/future/article/20... · Posted by u/andsoitis
My wife became much more assertive and disagreeable after we had a special needs child in the NICU for nine months and the constant pressure from doctors to get unnecessary procedures like a tracheostomy. They also said we didn’t have to resuscitate her if we didn’t want to. Constant battles and pressure and my wife can be a stone cold bitch now when she needs to be, where she used to just say “okay”.
Our daughter is seven now, she does use a wheelchair, but is normal intelligence and just went in her cute little electric car she got for Christmas with her big sister to a friend’s house down the street. I’m so proud of her, and my wife.
So sometimes these traumatic events improve your personality in the sense that they give you a more realistic way of how the world actually works, and how to achieve your goals (especially when those goals are dearly held, like “I want my child to survive and have the best quality of life possible).
Also, with COVID I’d imagine a lot of the neuroticism going up or down depended on where you were and your philosophy. For me, and a lot of people leaning conservative, living in the Midwest, I think it is less neurotic, perhaps to our detriment. Totally disregarding health warnings, and being insubordinately against precautions rather than becoming more neurotic. Many of these people got covid. One died. Most were fine. There is likely a “correct” amount of neuroticism, although that obviously changes depending on your circumstances.
Extremely high neuroticism would help someone who was Jewish in 1930s Europe decide to get themselves and their family out of there at any cost, but extremely high neuroticism might not be great during the Pax Americana of the last 60 years.
>Totally disregarding health warnings, and being insubordinately against precautions rather than becoming more neurotic.
It's not such a clean map between neuroticism and reaction there. My father was very against the precautions in a clearly neurotic manner. To the point where he was just sitting at home ranting about how he couldn't go anywhere or do anything without the vaccine, months after anywhere except a few voluntarily strict venues had stopped checking.
Talanes commented on The State of AI Coding Report 2025 greptile.com/state-of-ai-... · Posted by u/dakshgupta
From a business perspective, the developer is the expert in lines of code and the assumption is that expertise should agree on the necessity of a line of code. To create lines of code that do not need to be there is akin to simply not doing your job in this perspective. The finished product should have X lines of code
so from a business standpoint, if equivalent expertise amongst staff is assumed then productivity comes down to lines of code created. Just like how you might measure productivity of a warehouse employee by the number of items moved per hour. Of course if someone just throws things across the warehouse or moves things that dont need to be moved they will maximize this metric, but that would be doing the job wrong - which is not a productivity measurement problem. though admittedly the incentive structures and competition make these things often related
the bigger issue to highlight, imo, is that the business side of things have no idea if coders are doing the job sufficiently well or not, and the lack of understanding is amplified by the reality that productivity contribution varies wildly per line, some requiring much more work to conjure than others. The person they need to rely on validate this difference per instance is the same person who is responsible for creating the lines. So there is a catch-22 on the business side. An unproductive employee can claim productivity no matter what the measurement is.
if the variance of work required per line could be understood by the business side then it could be managed for. I used to manage productivity metrics for a medical coding company, and some charts are more dense and harder to code than others. I did not know how to code a medical chart but I could still manage productivity by charts per hour while still understanding this caveat
the point isnt to use the productivity metric as a one stop shop for promoting and firing people but as a filter for attention, where all the middle of the pack stuff will more of less even out and not require too much direct attention. you then just need to get an understanding of how the average difficulty per item varies by product/project.
that said, maybe lines edited is still a step better - so that refactoring in a way that reduces the size of the codebase can still be seen as productive. 1 point for each line deleted and 1 point for each line added.
I understand that every line should be viewed as a liability, not an asset, but thats the job responsibility of the hired expert to figure out how many need to exist. its not the job of the business side of things to manage.
I wouldnt tell my foundation guys how much concrete to use, or my electrician how much wire to use, but if one team can handle more concrete per hour than another and they are both qualified professionals, it really doesnt seem unreasonable to start off conversations with an assumption that one is more productive than the other. Lazy people do exist everywhere, its usually a matter of magnitude of laziness between people more than it is a matter of actual full earnest capability
"Just like how you might measure productivity of a warehouse employee by the number of items moved per hour. Of course if someone just throws things across the warehouse or moves things that dont need to be moved they will maximize this metric, but that would be doing the job wrong - which is not a productivity measurement problem."
I fail to see how having a measurement that clearly doesn't measure what is actually produced isn't exactly a productivity measurement problem. If your measurement is defeated by someone doing their job badly, what use is it?
Talanes commented on Disney Lost Roger Rabbit pluralistic.net/2025/11/1... · Posted by u/leephillips
There's also a legendary Star wars merch rights agreement that only expired because the rights holder forgot to send Lucas a check while the franchise was inactive.
Billions of dollars gone because of an oversight.
Arguably they didn't know Lucas was going to bring it back.
https://equinoxbusinesslaw.com/blog/how-hasbro-almost-blew-a...
There's an argument to be made that Lucas wouldn't have brought it back if they didn't miss the check. A little over half a mil of it's budget came from the initial payout of the new Hasbro deal.
Talanes commented on Disney Lost Roger Rabbit pluralistic.net/2025/11/1... · Posted by u/leephillips
No, they're not different. If I can't sign away the title to my car, it's literally worthless. Exactly the same is true of my IP rights.
You're describing literally Ferrari.
Talanes commented on Yes, Jimmy Kimmel's suspension was government censorship theverge.com/policy/78114... · Posted by u/saubeidl