patrickmay

6 ms·

1.
by patrickmay 10d ago
If you're going to put that level of effort in, just write the thing yourself. It will be a comparable level of effort and you'll learn something doing it. Your readers will also appreciate hearing your real voice.
2.
by patrickmay 10d ago
Nice list. I'd add: Have an audience in mind, even if it's future you, and write directly to them.
3.
by patrickmay 10d ago
Upvoted for optimism. Plus, I think I agree with you most days of the week. Some time must, of course, be set aside for existential despair.
4.
by patrickmay 10d ago
"Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." -- Guindon
5.
by patrickmay 10d ago
> A confession: with particularly egregious pieces, I have fantasized about sentencing the author to read them aloud, certain that they themselves will be unable to endure the slop that they are foisting upon the rest of us. I would subs
6.
by patrickmay 10d ago
You don't remember?
7.
by patrickmay 11d ago
Requiring a warrant would be better than the status quo, but the very existence of the data is too high a risk, in my opinion.
8.
by patrickmay 11d ago
There is a massive difference between a human making observations and 120,000 cameras (at last count) coordinated through a single company's computer systems. This surveillance state enablement is as anti-American as it gets.
9.
by patrickmay 17d ago
This is why you write the PRD if you don't have a competent Product Manager to do so. Get sign off before implementation.
10.
by patrickmay 17d ago
Great content, horrible presentation. This would be much more useful as a document, not a deck.
11.
by patrickmay 25d ago
Maybe you need to train your dog better.
12.
by patrickmay 25d ago
Agreed. Whenever I hear about LLMs automating "boilerplate" I ask "Why didn't you abstract that away before LLMs existed?"
13.
by patrickmay 26d ago
> We also don't know how to use flint and steel to start fires any more. Tell me you weren't a Boy Scout without telling me you weren't a Boy Scout.
14.
by patrickmay 27d ago
> You need context to really understand a book or a work of art. You want to know what kind of environment produced it, what it's talking to. But when you're in school, there isn't time for that. You aren't going to k
15.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
There are dozens of us!
16.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is." -- Richard Guindon LLMs can't replace the thinking. Unfortunately, they can produce output that masks a lack of thinking.
17.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
This isn't capitalism, it's pure corruption.
18.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
> Just the date fields is a hilarious example of why I'm skeptical. Python (babel.date) and Javascript (the browser's locale) both have locale-aware date rendering. Using a library for country-based date and time parsing would
19.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
Flock cameras are typically mounted on aluminum alloy poles. Easier to cut than steel.
20.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
> how do we have law enforcement without hiring a literal army of police officers? Just like we did way back in 2023 before the massive nationwide rollout of Flock cameras. A surveillance state is the antithesis of what the U.S. founders
21.
by patrickmay 1mo ago
"Writing is nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is." -- Richard Guindon
22.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
I sincerely hope that Microsoft responds with "If the Indian government wants to block content hosted on U.S. servers, they are more than welcome to set up their own Great Firewall."
23.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
Scrolled for this answer.
24.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
> Economically if you are vastly outcompeted by other programmers on productivity That doesn't seem to be the case, at least currently. The credible numbers from from companies that are using LLMs extensively are in the 15-30% prod
25.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
A "passing glance" is nowhere near good enough. Just as software developers must be held accountable for every line of code they check in, product managers must be held accountable for every word in their PRDs. LLMs can speed up
26.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
Because increasing prices by that percentage is too hard?
27.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
It would become AutoCAD. That is pretty awesome.
28.
by patrickmay 2mo ago
I like your metaphor but I'd argue that trusting programmers with power is the Light Side. Relevant PG: https://paulgraham.com/langdes.html
29.
by patrickmay 3mo ago
"The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians." -- George Orwell
30.
by patrickmay 3mo ago
I find the Nolan Chart ( https://www.theadvocates.org/political-type-comparison/ ) to be a better version of the 2D compass. You're absolutely right that more dimensions would be better, but finding the right ortho

More ›