distrill (u/distrill)

distrill commented on We might all be AI engineers now yasint.dev/we-might-all-b... · Posted by u/sn0wflak3s

_dwt · 11 days ago

I am going to try to put this kindly: it is very glib, and people will find it offensive and obnoxious, to implicitly round off all resistance or skepticism to incuriosity. Perhaps to alienate AI critics even further is the goal, in which case - carry on.

But if you are genuinely confused by the attitudes of your peers, try asking not "what do I have that they lack" ("curiosity"?) but "what do they see that I don't" or "what do they care about that I don't"? Is it possible that they are not enthusiastic for the change in the nature of the work? Is it possible they are concerned about "automation complacency" setting in, precisely _because_ of the ratio of "hundreds of times" writing decent code to the one time writing "something stupid", and fear that every once in a while that "something stupid" will slip past them in a way that wipes the entire net gain of AI use? Is it possible that they _don't_ feel that the typical code is "better than most engineers can write"? Is it possible they feel that the "learning" is mostly ephemera - how much "prompt engineering" advice from a year ago still holds today?

You have a choice, and it's easy to label them (us?) as Luddites clinging to the old ways out of fear, stupidity, or "incuriosity". If you really want to understand, or even change some minds, though, please try to ask these people what they're really thinking, and listen.

distrill · 10 days ago

you make it seem like ai hesitation is a misunderstood fringe position, but it's not. i don't think anyone is confused about why some people are uninterested in ai tooling, but we do think you're wrong and the defensive posturing lines in the sand come off as incredibly uncurious.

distrill commented on GPT-5.4 openai.com/index/introduc... · Posted by u/mudkipdev

Palmik · 11 days ago

What are your thoughts on this? https://www.anthropic.com/news/where-stand-department-war

I am honestly unclear on the reasoning of people who flock from OpenAI to Anthropic, and doubly so of those who are not US citizens.

distrill · 10 days ago

this isn't really my opinion, but i think it's a perceived matter of _some_ principle vs just none, a lesser of 2 evils framing. if anthropic is on board with 99% of a government that i oppose, that could be seen as marginally better than openai being on board with 100% of a government that i oppose.

it does get a little weird thinking too hard about how the deal openai accepted was basically the same as the one anthropic was proposing. but this is my read of most of the sentiment in this direction.

distrill commented on OpenAI raises $110B on $730B pre-money valuation techcrunch.com/2026/02/27... · Posted by u/zlatkov

reducesuffering · 18 days ago

Many engineers use Codex 5.3 and find it better, including Hashicorp's Mitchell.

distrill · 17 days ago

i find codex 5.3 roughly on par with (though tbh still not quite as capable as) sonnet models, which are not even anthropic's flagship model family.

distrill commented on Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones ericmigi.com/blog/apple-r... · Posted by u/griffinli

basisword · a year ago

The reason Apple Maps even exists is because Google intentionally crippled their Maps app on iPhone in order to benefit their own OS.

The reason Google loves RCS is because they spectacularly failed 4 or 5 times at introducing their own iMessage competitors.

Competing companies often act in their best interests. And both Google and Apple offer OS’s which have very different value systems. I think that’s good for consumers. If I want open (and all the pros and cons that come with that) I can buy an Android phone. If I want closed (and the pros and cons that come with that) I can buy Apple. If they Apple starts to open up a bit and Google locks things down a bit we get the worst of both worlds and no true options.

distrill · a year ago

i had the same problem with this behavior from google as i do from apple. i would be just as critical of google zealots blaming apple for google shortcomings as i am for apple zealots blaming google for apple shortcomings.

this is definitely an apple culture thing though. it's such a clear product choice to get apple users to pressure their friends into buying apple products.

distrill commented on Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones ericmigi.com/blog/apple-r... · Posted by u/griffinli

skyyler · a year ago

Weird, that seems to work for my partner. I wonder what's breaking for your wife.

distrill · a year ago

perhaps i'm out of date! this may have resolved with the recent increased support of rcs and i maybe haven't heard this complaint lately, it's worth checking into again.

distrill commented on Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones ericmigi.com/blog/apple-r... · Posted by u/griffinli

skyyler · a year ago

What kind of trouble does she have managing rcs conversations? It works fine for my partner on their iPhone.

distrill · a year ago

the thing i hear most frequently is naming group chats with mixed device users

distrill commented on Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones ericmigi.com/blog/apple-r... · Posted by u/griffinli

josefresco · a year ago

I have a very capable smartwatch and it's ridiculously bad how hobbled it is on iOS. I'm glad to see this article specifically highlight the issues, and how it's 100% Apple's intention to make non-Apple wearables on iOS terrible.

distrill · a year ago

it's pretty frustrating how "apple people" just don't care that it's apples fault. i routinely hear my wife mutter "i hate google so much!" when a google maps integration is being intentionally hobbled to keep her using apple maps. or when she has trouble managing rcs conversations because somebody in our social world has the gall to be on an android phone.

distrill commented on Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes cnn.com/2025/02/05/scienc... · Posted by u/pseudolus

RandomBacon · a year ago

Seveneves in case anyone wants to read it. I thought it was okay, certainly captivating enough for me to finish it.

distrill · a year ago

I thought it was quite good, although maybe it should have been a series rather than a single book. That might have given Stephenson time to flesh out the end, which felt a bit rushed.

distrill commented on Show HN: Outerbase Studio – Open-Source Database GUI github.com/outerbase/stud... · Posted by u/burcs

delduca · a year ago

I would use it if it weren’t based on Electron. In recent months, I’ve replaced all Electron apps with native versions, and not only are they more performant, but my RAM is now saved for more important tasks.

distrill · a year ago

it runs in the browser

distrill commented on Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships softwareengineering.stack... · Posted by u/rbanffy

umvi · 2 years ago

(tangential) In theory I like TS. But in practice, unless I'm the one writing it and can KISS, it can quickly turn into an unmaintainable nightmare that nobody understands. TS astronauts, left unchecked, can make extremely complex types using generics, conditionals, and all the esoteric features of TS, resulting in extremely obtuse code.

For example, I doubt anyone could explain this "type" without studying it for several hours:

https://github.com/openapi-ts/openapi-typescript/blob/main/p...

In this case, the "type" is really an entire program.

distrill · 2 years ago

Yes, I find myself in type hell with some regularity. TBH it happens with my own codebase too when libraries I want to use are authored by these type astronauts.