michaelfeathers

7 ms·

1.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
There's something with the same shape as Jevon's paradox - the Peltzman effect. The safer you make something the more risks people will take. Applied to AI I think it would be something like - ease of development increases the com
2.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
Thanks. After I wrote it a friend said "I think you just gave people permission to do things that they would've felt bad about otherwise." I think he was right, in a way. On the other hand, not everything is obvious to everyo
3.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
The developers of JMock, the original library for Java.
4.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
This is called point-free style in Haskell. Sometimes it is called a fluent-interface in other languages.
5.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
That doesn't sound like the sort of problem you'd use it for. I think it would be used for the ~10% of code you have in some applications that are part of the critical core. UI, not so much.
6.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
I think we are going to end up with common design/code specification language that we use for prompting and testing. There's always going to be a need to convey the exact semantics of what we want. If not, for AI then for the huma
7.
by michaelfeathers 1y ago
The trajectory of AI is: emulating humans. We've never been able to align humans completely, so it would be surprising if we could align AI.
8.
by michaelfeathers 2y ago
Chat in English? Sure. But there is a better way. Make it a game to see how little you can specify to get what you want. I used this single line to generate a 5 line Java unit test a while back. test: grip o -> assert state.grip o LLMs h
9.
by michaelfeathers 2y ago
I think it makes sense to see friction as disincentive, the opposite of incentive.
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by michaelfeathers 2y ago
This is a good talk about the problem: https://youtu.be/hGXhFa3gzBs?si=15IJsTQLsyDvBFnr Key takeaway, LLMs are abysmal at planning and reasoning. You can give them the rules of planning task and ask them for a result but, i
11.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
I always have trouble with takes like this because they are context-free. There are a wide variety of project types and development scenarios. My nuanced take is that typing is an economic choice. If the cost of failure (MTTR and criticalit
12.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
Obligatory reference to the Law of Leaky Abstractions: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/11/11/the-law-of-leaky-a... Layers work to the degree that they are trivial, but we really only need them when they a
13.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
I think it goes deeper. When people become very skilled at programming they have the urge to scratch their own itch, either writing tools to solve software development problems or creating something with a technology that they want to use.
14.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
To me, the most amazing thing is that he says that it is a problem that would take the average programmer a week back then, but today it could probably be coded in 5 minutes in AWK or Perl.
15.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
I think people aren't getting yet is that this generalizable beyond software. We can do this with LLM and anything that can be designed. https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/prompt-hoisting-for-gp...
16.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
I'm wondering whether there is any reason why condensers can't be used for all program optimization. It seems like the definition would allow that: > The primary means for shifting computation is the condenser. A condenser is a
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by michaelfeathers 3y ago
I've always thought of this as being like proof by induction: start with the basis case.
18.
Patterns of Systems Renewal – making systems workable over time(globant.com)
4 points by michaelfeathers 3y ago|1 comments
19.
Generate from Constraints: Using Prompt-Hoisting for GPT-Based Code Generation(michaelfeathers.silvrback.com)
2 points by michaelfeathers 3y ago|0 comments
20.
by michaelfeathers 3y ago
If they can be generated from the source they probably shouldn't be in the source. Maybe it should be an IDE plugin that displays comments for code as you hover over it.
21.
(Possible) AI Impacts on Development Practice(michaelfeathers.silvrback.com)
1 points by michaelfeathers 3y ago|0 comments
22.
ChatGPT: Using the Right Tool for the Right Job(stayrelevant.globant.com)
14 points by michaelfeathers 4y ago|5 comments
23.
Managing technical debt for competitive advantage(stayrelevant.globant.com)
40 points by michaelfeathers 4y ago|9 comments
24.
by michaelfeathers 4y ago
Microservices might be a hack to gain modularity when nothing else works. https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/microservices-and-the-...
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Active Knowledge in Software Development(stayrelevant.globant.com)
40 points by michaelfeathers 4y ago|7 comments
26.
by michaelfeathers 4y ago
Often this dynamic is called path-dependence too.
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by michaelfeathers 4y ago
> Actually I'd go further and say that this idea creates a lot of problems. For example, if I goof password storage and expose our users' personal information, what were you supposed to do to prevent this? Hire better. Pithy re
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by michaelfeathers 4y ago
It may not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunk_(mereology)
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by michaelfeathers 4y ago
They are aggregation points for responsibility. Without those aggregation points, responsibility can be too diffuse for effective policy setting, etc.
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by michaelfeathers 4y ago
That's fair. I was just using trees as an example. Tree-like might be a better characterization. Point is: there's a reason why fully connected structures aren't very common, and why systems tend to form hubs.

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