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nejsjsjsbsb commented on Anthropic: "Applicants should not use AI assistants"   simonwillison.net/2025/Fe... · Posted by u/twapi
sifex · 7 months ago
Because as someone who’s interviewing, I know you can use AI — anyone can. It likely obscures me from judging the pitfalls, and design and architecture decisions that are required in proper engineering roles. Especially for senior and above applications, I want to make an assessment of how you think about problems, where it gives a chance for the candidate to show their experience, their technical understanding, and their communication skills.

We don’t want to work with AI, we are going to pay the person for the persons time, and we want to employ someone who isn’t switching off half their cognition when a hard problem approaches.

nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
Then they shouldn't use libraries, open source code or even existing compilers. They shouldn't search online (man pages is OK). They should use git plumbing commands and sh (not bash of zsh). They should not have potable water in there house but distill river water.
nejsjsjsbsb commented on Anthropic: "Applicants should not use AI assistants"   simonwillison.net/2025/Fe... · Posted by u/twapi
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
Not new they had that 5 years ago at least.

Anthropic interview is nebulous. You get a coding interview. Fast paced, little time, 100% pass mark.

Then they chat to you for half an hour to gauge your ethics. Maybe I was too honest :)

I'm really bad at the "essay" subjects vsm the "hard" subjects so at that point I was dumped.

nejsjsjsbsb commented on Patterns for Personal Web Sites (2003)   rdrop.com/~half/Creations... · Posted by u/matthberg
notpushkin · 7 months ago
I remember some 2010s websites offering a CHM version to download. Pretty neat for some things you might want to reference offline.
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
I used to think creating a CHM was peak professionalism. I'm a mini Microsoft!

Actually I'd go back to CHMs for docs. A modern reader would be good tho.

nejsjsjsbsb commented on Global variables are not the problem   codestyleandtaste.com/glo... · Posted by u/levodelellis
macintux · 7 months ago
And man, the bugs they cause.
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
Man, the bugs they prevent. Vs everyone rolling their own multithreaded file reader/writer code in C. How many programmers would think to journal transactions and ship them for backup for example.

SQL or 15000 lines of C++ or Go or Rust doing whatever with files.

nejsjsjsbsb commented on Global variables are not the problem   codestyleandtaste.com/glo... · Posted by u/levodelellis
paulsutter · 7 months ago
SQL databases are global variables
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
What does the ideal look like then? Data storage encapsulation in the app? Perhaps different DB users with granular access, accessed from different non-global parts of the program. Chuck in some views later when you need performance pragmatism!
nejsjsjsbsb commented on Global variables are not the problem   codestyleandtaste.com/glo... · Posted by u/levodelellis
js8 · 7 months ago
Any program that uses a database has a very similar problem to global variables.

As Gilad Bracha has pointed out, types are antimodular, and your database schema can be considered one giant type that pervades your program, just like globals can be.

I don't think we have tools to compositionally solve this, across different programming languages.

nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
Your program is also one giant type.
nejsjsjsbsb commented on Patterns for Personal Web Sites (2003)   rdrop.com/~half/Creations... · Posted by u/matthberg
pluto_modadic · 7 months ago
hmmm, website isn't loading for me.
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
It is slow. Like geocities.
nejsjsjsbsb commented on Fake thinking and real thinking   joecarlsmith.com/2025/01/... · Posted by u/surprisetalk
satisfice · 7 months ago
I see no reason to accept the premise that “fake thinking” can exist. Occam’s razor suggests a simpler interpretation: telling lies.

It would be like saying Tic Tac Toe is not a real game, but chess IS real. Charades is fake, but Darts is real. They are merely different games, requiring different models and operations.

“Rote thinking” is real thinking, applied to simple pattern matching situation.

The concern of the author can be addressed by focusing on the difference between pretense and authenticity. Am I lying to myself? Am I clothing myself in a patina of reason that I intentionally do not complete or repair, because the story soothes me? If so, that’s not necessarily bad or wrong— unless I wish to do my best thinking.

nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
They really mean crap not fake. If you use a nail where a screw is needed, that is crap.
nejsjsjsbsb commented on Why do War Thunder players leak classified information? [video]   youtube.com/watch?v=R7LMA... · Posted by u/zdw
muppetman · 7 months ago
I always knew it as oddsockmachine's law.
nejsjsjsbsb · 7 months ago
Performance art of many HN exchanges on non-startup/cs topics.

u/nejsjsjsbsb

KarmaCake day293January 1, 2025View Original