jfb (u/jfb) - Readit News

jfb commented on Jujutsu worktrees are convenient (2024) shaddy.dev/notes/jj-workt... · Posted by u/nvader

steveklabnik · 3 months ago

What kinds of things do you use it for? I'm always open to learning about newer and better ways to work.

jfb · 3 months ago

I keep my agent workflows distinct; we have (for historic reasons) a lot of non-git controlled context that differs between branches, and moving all that around on checkouts is untenable. I use this tool:

https://github.com/tdhopper/wt

with some custom shell aliases to make it easier.

jfb commented on Jujutsu worktrees are convenient (2024) shaddy.dev/notes/jj-workt... · Posted by u/nvader

steveklabnik · 3 months ago

I wrote a very popular tutorial for jj, and I didn't use workspaces until a few weeks ago. They're useful for the same reasons git worktrees are: most recently, people use them for doing work with multiple AI agents in parallel, but historically, I've seen people use them for things like "this project's build takes 30 minutes so I want to work on something else while I wait for that".

> I don't see how creating a worktree in a new folder and opening a new editor is more convenient than creating a branch at a certain commit.

Worktrees are about being able to work on multiple branches at the same time, fundamentally. When you want to be doing something on one branch and something else on another branch simultaneously.

That does mean it's, IMHO, a fairly niche feature.

jfb · 3 months ago

I think it shouldn't be, and the poor affordances in git have hidden this for a long time.

jfb commented on OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race theverge.com/news/836212/... · Posted by u/goplayoutside

bgirard · 3 months ago

It's a fun trope to repeat but that's not what OpenAI is doing. I get a ton of value from ChatGPT and Codex from my subscription. As long as the inference is not done at a lost this analogy doesn't hold. They're not paying me to use it. They are generating output that is very valuable to me. Much more than my subscription cost.

I've been able to help setup cross app automation for my partner's business, remodel my house, plan a trip of Japan and assist with the cultural barrier, vibe code apps, technical support and so much more.

jfb · 3 months ago

That the product is useful does not mean the supplier of the product has a good business; and of course, vice versa. OpenAI has a terrible business at the moment, and the question is, do they have a plausible path to a good one?

jfb commented on Claude Skills are awesome, maybe a bigger deal than MCP simonwillison.net/2025/Oc... · Posted by u/weinzierl

michael1999 · 5 months ago

We're doing something like this internally. Our monorepo context files were much too big, so we built a progressive tree of fragments to load up for different tasks.

I am struck by how much these kinds of context documents resemble normal developer documentation, but actually useful and task-oriented. What was the barrier to creating these documents before?

Three theories on why this is so different:

1) The feedback loop was too long. If you wrote some docs, you might never learn if they were any good. If you did, it might be years later. And if you changed them, doing an A/B test was impractical. Now, you can write up a context markdown, ask Claude to do something, and iterate in minutes.

2) The tools can help build them. Building good docs was always hard. Especially if you take the time to include examples, urls, etc. that make the documentation truly useful. These tools reduce this cost.

3) Many programmers are egotists. Documentation that helps other people doesn't generate internal motivation. But documentation that allows you to better harness a computer minion to your will is attractive.

Any other theories?

jfb · 5 months ago

I think 2 is the big one; I also built a tool to maintain these fragments, and it's like, huh, this is just ... developer onboarding documentation?

jfb commented on Étoilé – desktop built on GNUStep etoileos.com/... · Posted by u/pabs3

realA12l · 6 months ago

Björn's writing style is intentional. He tries to make it understandable for people that have deeper understanding of the subject, but to keep out the people that doesn't know enough. It's primarily to convey what Arcan is to the people that can do something with Arcan, but to avoid attention that will ultimately lead to flame wars.

Ståhl _hates_ attention, both from being a quite private individual to having problem with weirdos showing up at his apartment when some of his videos have gone viral here on HN. (Everyone's home addresses are public here in Sweden)

jfb · 6 months ago

Oh man, that's awful.

jfb commented on Étoilé – desktop built on GNUStep etoileos.com/... · Posted by u/pabs3

LargoLasskhyfv · 6 months ago

There are yt-videos embedded on the site. They may be helpful.

Otherwise give https://lobste.rs/s/w3zkxx/lobsters_interview_with_bjorn_sta... a try?

jfb · 6 months ago

Yes, it's good! And I have a lot of sympathy for what I perceive to be Stahl's goals, and indeed, his methods. But I think I need an intercessor or interpreter to his prose style. This is probably a me problem and not a him problem, to be maximally fair.

jfb commented on Étoilé – desktop built on GNUStep etoileos.com/... · Posted by u/pabs3

realA12l · 6 months ago

Chisnall has stated several times over on Lobsters that he's thinking of basing is future project on Arcan (https://arcan-fe.com/). It's a very interesting project.

jfb · 6 months ago

This thing about Arcan is that the writing about it is almost deliberately incomprehensible.

jfb commented on Claude says “You're absolutely right!” about everything github.com/anthropics/cla... · Posted by u/pr337h4m

jfb · 7 months ago

The obsequity loop is fucking maddening. I can't prompt it away in all circumstances. I would also argue that as annoying as some of us find it, it is a big part of the reason for the success of the chat modality of these tools.

jfb commented on Loading Pydantic models from JSON without running out of memory pythonspeed.com/articles/... · Posted by u/itamarst

cozzyd · 10 months ago

Funny to see awkward array in this context! (And... do people really store giant datasets in json?!?).

jfb · 10 months ago

My sweet summer child

jfb commented on SQL nulls are weird jirevwe.github.io/sql-nul... · Posted by u/subomi

iefbr14 · a year ago

When the null concept was introduced to me in the seventies, the only thing I could say was that it would be causing a lot of unnecessary confusion in the future. If you have missing values in your datarecord then that datarecord belongs in an exception-queue. And now some 45 years later people are still discussing it like we did then..

jfb · a year ago

Sometimes you want UNKNOWN, sometimes you want MISSING.