Readit News"My minimal stack of layers is – problem, software, hardware. People working on the problem (algorithms, UI, whatever) can't do software, not really. People doing software can't do hardware, not really. And people doing hardware can't do software, etc.
The Forth way of focusing on just the problem you need to solve seems to more or less require that the same person or a very tightly united group focus on all three of these things, and pick the right algorithms, the right computer architecture, the right language, the right word size, etc. (...)
So you need at least 3 teams, or people, or hats, that are to an extent ignorant about each other's work. Even if you're doing everything in-house, which, according to Jeff Fox, was essentially a precondition to "doing Forth". So there's another precondtion – having people being able to do what at least 3 people in their respective areas normally do, and concentrating on those 3 things at the same time. Doing the cross-layer global optimization.
It's not how I work."
https://yosefk.com/blog/my-history-with-forth-stack-machines...
Life is one big maze of ugh, and it's designed by people that don't get us. It feels inescapable and arbitrary. The only exit seems to be financial independence.
I often really hate how we're expected to work in this framework.
My hyperfocus is a super-power (https://vo.codes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x034jVB1avs&t=15s, and a bunch of other awesome but non-monetizable projects). Too bad I can't get paid for it.
Over the years I’ve read many things that hinted at it, but this is by far the most relatable thing I’ve ever read.
At basically any point in time I always have something that I’m massively obsessed about (and it’s usually something super weird, non-monetizable like you say). Everything else feels like an ugh field.
> The only exit seems to be financial independence.
This is what got me. It’s a daily thought.
I like the feeling of concatenative languages. I especially seem to like the postfix notation over prefix and largely this creates the paradigm of lisp vs forth at first step - in my opinion.
I’ve recently dug in to Factor and it’s quite an amazing piece of art that is highly usable and up to date despite such a small community. It almost feels like a secret weapon and too good to be true. I’m having a ton of fun hacking on it. It’s like Smalltalk and forth had a baby.
I dream of making an OS with Forth/Factor similar to Plan9 and Oberon.
I get a kick out of Forth being made of words and Genesis from the Bible.
At first was the Word, and the Word was with Forth, and the Word was Forth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(operating_system)
Tidbit if anyone cares: I’ve been obsessing over returning to first principles of computing. I’m bored of the internet and browsers. I want to have fun with software AND hardware and Forth seems like such a perfect language to do exactly that with. Factor is a nice grown up example of that but it’s definitely a few steps removed from portability and self bootstrapping behavior like in CollapseOS.
Retro Forth is extremely impressive: http://forth.works
The “hook” for me was seeing things like ifs and loops being written in Forth itself from simpler primitives. I’ve always been a fan of bootstrapping a general purpose computing environment from a small set of primitives, and Forth lets you do exactly that.
> I’m bored of the internet and browsers. I want to have fun with software AND hardware
I can 100% relate to that feeling. Discovering Forth has been therapeutic for me in a sense. I spend the day dealing with AWS and Java and logs and metrics for large distributed systems, and that brings me zero joy or motivation. I spend my work days looking forward to my time with Forth in the evening.
I think it was CollapseOS that sent me down this rabbit hole :)
After all, the issue is that mathematics is simple. Humans don't like simple things. And when humans think they have found simple things they start wars or some novel iteration of discrimination against others.
It's amazing how true this is. You can see it very clearly in your day-to-day as a software engineer. The vast majority of people you will encounter in your career favor fancy, complicated solutions to problems that could be easily solved with fewer resources. And yet when you float those ideas, you're laughed at.
(Except for the ones foraging a lot of honey)
Not sure how representative they are (in this aspect) of hunter-gatherers these days though.
But how do we feel about people breaking their thoughts up?
Into individually
sent
Messages?
Like this?
One
Right after
The other.
Anyone else find the constant badgering of dings and vibrations when colleagues communicate like this to be a real teeth grinder when you’re zeroed in on work (or trying to take a short pomodoro / coffee break and space out for a bit between tasks)?
My younger co-workers who only seem to have known Slack and the likes find it really annoying.
I moved from Nicaragua to Mexico before Corona, and I'm waiting it out here: I was so surprised by this place (and by Nica before it).
There surely is a lot of asylum woe on the border, but I can't really believe anyone would want to leave here and go there, and nor can any of the other delightful cultured sweet kind and wonderful "bad hombres" who live here.
Can you give examples of what you mean by that? I've been living in the US (Seattle area) for over 7 years and haven't felt that at all.
1. Awareness that alcoholism runs in the family, so better play it safe and not drink
2. Association between alcohol and past trauma e.g. alcoholic abusive parent
3. Past relationship that ended due to ex-partner's alcohol problem
4. Religious conviction