oerdier (u/oerdier) - Readit News

oerdier commented on Redox OS has adopted a Certificate of Origin policy and a strict no-LLM policy gitlab.redox-os.org/redox... · Posted by u/pjmlp

dakolli · 6 days ago

If you rely on llms, you're simply not going to make it. The person who showed their work on the math test is 9/10 times is doing better in life than the person that only knew how to use a calculator. Now how do we think things are going to turn out for the person that doesn't even think they need to learn how to use a calculator.

Just like when people started losing their ability to navigate without a GPS/Maps app, you will lose your ability to write solid code, solve problems, hell maybe even read well.

I want my brain to be strong in old age, and I actually love to write code unlike 99% in software apparently (like why did you people even start doing this career.. makes no sense to me).

I'm going to keep writing the code myself! Stop paying Billionaires for their thinking machines, its not going to work out well for you.

oerdier · 6 days ago

One doesn't exclude the other. I still program myself; I actually have more time to do so because the LLM I pay some billionaire for is taking care of the mundane stuff. Before I had to do the mundane stuff myself. What I pay the billionaire is a laughable fraction compared to the time and energy I now have extra to spend on meaningful innovation.

oerdier commented on Daily Driving GrapheneOS blog.matthewbrunelle.com/... · Posted by u/zdw

n8cpdx · 13 days ago

You can pay with credit card as a convenience + fraud protection mechanism without ever paying interest by just paying your bill off every month.

When chip and pin was first rolled out, Europeans were shocked by the low security of swipe cards in the US. The reason that wasn’t an issue for Americans was (and still is) that credit cards have excellent fraud protections.

If someone steals my credit card, it is the bank’s problem, not mine.

The risk of paying by debit card on a regular basis is unfathomable to me, even with fancy tech to try to make it secure.

oerdier · 13 days ago

I wasn't suggesting individuals shouldn't be able to pay with credit. I have a credit card myself, which I use when I can't pay with debit. I was suggesting that for a population as a whole, having paying with credit being so commonplace leads to crippling debt issues, which as far as I can believe "the reports", is an issue in the US.

Your comment on the risk of paying with debit cards surprised me. I've never considered it a risk at all. It made me realize that perhaps here (in the Netherlands) we have consumer protection systems in place, in addition to the payment systems, that prevent any issues.

oerdier commented on Daily Driving GrapheneOS blog.matthewbrunelle.com/... · Posted by u/zdw

unethical_ban · 13 days ago

Is this a European thing? Why not use a credit card?

oerdier · 13 days ago

I think it's healthy for a population to not have as part of day-to-day life to pay with credit, effectively paying with money you might not actually have, going into debt. How many US citizens are crippled by credit card debt, and the interest on it?

oerdier commented on Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander masteringemacs.org/articl... · Posted by u/TheFreim

oerdier · 6 months ago

After getting shoulder bursitis two years ago--although the direct cause was sports, not desk habits--I dove into the world of split ergo keyboards. I did get one (a Kyria v3) and learned to type on it at an acceptable speed--although still significantly slower than my speed on a regular keyboard.

Wanting to optimize my layout, I did research into my typing behavior and logged my keystrokes (and storing these logs as securely as I would a password). Analysis did give me notable insights (e.g. by far my most used keys are arrow keys, for selecting text), but my main conclusion was that even during a regular full day of programming preferring my keyboard over my mouse (tiling window manager, hotkeys, browser extension to virtually click on elements using keys), I don't actually type that much, and if I do, it is in bursts, never more than 20 seconds or so.

Although I find typing on a split fun and comfortable, I went back to a regular keyboard because the hit in productivity is not worth it for me. The experiment did teach me how to improve my ergonomics. I optimized my desk height and bought a very flat and less wide keyboard, with the completely unused numpad section chopped off ("TKL") so if I do grab my mouse there is less travel.

oerdier commented on The Wind, a Pole, and the Dragon entropicthoughts.com/the-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

oerdier · 6 months ago

This kind of translation problem is the focal point of Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5 episode 2, "Darmok" (1991).

I watched it for the first time after somebody referenced it, as I did just now, as an example of this kind of problem. Despite my knowing the point of the plot beforehand, I found the episode was still interesting.

I wish I could mention this episode here for language enthusiasts to enjoy without revealing the main plot point (that idioms in languages are hard to translate). Shaka, when the walls fell. But I think the very act of mentioning it in a thread on this topic does so unavoidably. Temba, at rest.

oerdier commented on AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard' theregister.com/2025/08/2... · Posted by u/JustExAWS

cambaceres · 7 months ago

> “I think the skills that should be emphasized are how do you think for yourself? How do you develop critical reasoning for solving problems? How do you develop creativity? How do you develop a learning mindset that you're going to go learn to do the next thing?”

In the Swedish schoolsystem, the idea for the past 20 years has been exactly this, that is to try to teach critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving etc rather than hard facts. The results has been...not great. We discovered that reasoning and critical thinking is impossible without a foundational knowledge about what to be critical about. I think the same can be said about software development.

oerdier · 7 months ago

Check out E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s work, e.g.'Why Knowledge Matters'.

oerdier commented on How University Students Use Claude anthropic.com/news/anthro... · Posted by u/pseudolus

stevenhuang · a year ago

I think you'd find many would disagree with each of those claims.

oerdier · a year ago

I hope they'll apply the critical thinking rule of thumb to check for themselves what modern research has to say on this!

Edit: And how can you critically assess if that research is any good? To do it well you need... domain knowledge.

oerdier commented on How University Students Use Claude anthropic.com/news/anthro... · Posted by u/pseudolus

moltar · a year ago

I think it’s finally time to just stop the homework.

All school work must be done within the walls of the school.

What are we teaching our children? It’s ok to do more work at home?

There are countries that have no homework and they do just fine.

oerdier · a year ago

There are such legal, cultural and economic differences between countries that no homework might work in one country but not at all in another.

oerdier commented on How University Students Use Claude anthropic.com/news/anthro... · Posted by u/pseudolus

9rx · a year ago

Back in my day they worried about kids not being able to solve problems without a calculator, because you won't always have a calculator in your pocket.

...But then.

oerdier · a year ago

Not being able to solve basic math problems in your mind (without a calculator) is still a problem. "Because you won't always have a calculator with you" just was the wrong argument.

You'll acquire advanced knowledge and skills much, much faster (and sometimes only) if you have the base knowledge and skills readily available in your mind. If you're learning about linear algebra but you have to type in every simple multiplication of numbers into a calculator...

oerdier commented on How University Students Use Claude anthropic.com/news/anthro... · Posted by u/pseudolus

chrisvalleybay · a year ago

I believe we need to practice critical thinking through actual effort. Doing arithmetic by hand and working through problems ourselves builds intuition in ways that shortcuts can't. I'm grateful I grew up without LLMs, as the struggle to organize and express my thoughts on paper developed mental muscles I still rely on today. Some perspiration is necessary for genuine learning—the difficulty is actually part of the value.

oerdier · a year ago

Critical thinking is not a generic/standalone skill that you can practise targetedly. As in, critical thinking doesn't translate across knowledge domains. To think critically you need extensive knowledge of the domain in question; that's one reason why memorizing facts will always remain necessary, despite search engines and LLMs.

At best what you can learn specifically regarding critical thinking are some rules of thumb such as "compare at least three sources" and "ask yourself who benefits".