astronaut_sloth

@astronaut_sloth@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘An Overwhelmingly Negative And Demoralizing Force’: What It’s Like Working For A Company That’s Forcing AI On Its Developers - Aftermath⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I see both points. You’re totally right that for a company, it’s just the result that matters. However, to Bradley’s, since he’s specifically talking about art direction, the journey is important in so much as getting a passable result. I’ve only dabbled with 2D and 3D art, but converting to 3D requires an understanding of the geometries of things and how they look from different angles. Some things look cool from one angle and really bad from another. Doing the real work allows you to figure that out and abandon a design before too much work is put in or modify it so it works better.

  When it comes to software, though, I’m kinda on the fence. I like to use AI for small bits of code and knocking out boilerplate so that I can focus on making the “real” part of the code good. I hope the real, creative, and hard parts of a project aren’t being LLM’d away, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a mandate from some MBA.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It do be like that⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been doing some thinking about this recently, and I think it comes from two places. One is the easily spotted malice toward workers and stepping on them (à la Elon). The other for managers and the like who are not straight up sociopaths is that a lot of these people have no meaning in their lives and have never really done anything they really believe in (or bleed for that matter). So, they try to derive meaning from their relatively boring, unimportant job, and try to get others into it like they are. They’re starved for camaraderie by the very job they’ve invested their entire lives in. It’s sad really.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gmail alternative: good idea to use personal domain+hosting?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Rolling your own email is a pain. That said, I use a VPS and host my own server with domain name and site for $5/month. Setting it up was a pain, but once you get all the records right so you’re not considered spam, it works really well. That said, I haven’t done anything with webmail; I strictly use IMAP and SMTP.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Harvard Scientists Uncover How Gut Bacteria Fuel Inflammation and Depression⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I was reading something similar a few months ago about how the American obesity epidemic came out of nowhere and exploded in the 20th and 21st centuries, and places with the highest antibiotic use also has a correlated obesity rate.

  I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of our modern chronic issues that seemed to come from nowhere (not that they didn’t exist before but just became much more prevalent) will be traced in some way back to effects from messing with the human microbiome.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Stars of Star Trek: Section 31 Know Why You're Nervous About the Movie⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what Section 31 is supposed to be. Sloan wasn’t a good guy. 31 actively tried to commit genocide.

  The idea behind them is that arguments of ends justifying the means and “getting dirty” to preserve higher ideals is morally, philosophically, and practically bankrupt. The Federation didn’t need 31 to win the war, and in fact, their methods would have made it much worse. Section 31 as a plot device exists to show us that there will always be those looking to use higher ideals to support terrible actions, and we must be constantly vigilant against them.

  It truly pains me how that message has been twisted, and people think Section 31 are not only good guys but also cool.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Living in a walkable city is nice.

  This is so true! I was telling my family about that a few years ago when I was living in a semi-walkable place, and then they started grilling me about how long it takes me to do things. I had to concede that it does take longer to walk in some cases than drive, BUT the travel to and from is actually nice, and I look forward to the walk as time for looking around and enjoying my time. They didn’t understand, but they also will get in their car to drive a mile, so…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Baidu CEO warns AI is just an inevitable bubble — 99% of AI companies are at risk of failing when the bubble bursts⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes! “AI” defined as only LLMs and the party trick applications is a bubble. AI in general has been around for decades and will only continue to grow.