raze2012's recent activity
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Comment on OpenAI and Anthropic endorse call for US government to "pace" AI progress in ~comp
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Comment on What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentWithout proper regulation around this stuff, there no other way to operate sanely. Unless you are fine spending yours (or someone else's) full-time efforts fighting bots. Prediction markets are...Without proper regulation around this stuff, there no other way to operate sanely. Unless you are fine spending yours (or someone else's) full-time efforts fighting bots.
Prediction markets are 100% gooig to come under fire in the coming few years, so I guess in this specific instance that will bring relief here.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI've found that the stress from not having a job left me unable to enjoy hobbies as well. So even if I agreed that a boring, unfurfilling job was optimal, the fear and increasingly long job search...because if your workplace changes or you lose your job, it hits you in the wallet rather than also taking your soul down with it too.
I've found that the stress from not having a job left me unable to enjoy hobbies as well. So even if I agreed that a boring, unfurfilling job was optimal, the fear and increasingly long job search distracts from hobbies or anything else.
I don't think that's a way to live. Just shuffling from job to job, hoping this one will fund my hobbies life for 1 year or 2 before I spend another 6-12 months shuffling through the lifeless job search. Even if it's for a boring job, labor laws are important.
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Comment on Why anime is on the rise even though the industry is so poor in ~anime
raze2012 Link ParentYes, because Japanese animators are grossly underpaid, and labor is the most expensive part of any given work. Seems like a self-furfilling prophecy here, no? Even those crappy shelf filler...I don't like that the industry tend to eat young people's dreams....but yeah, anime is so much cheaper to produce than Blockbusters or even straight to Netflix streaming movies with stars.
Yes, because Japanese animators are grossly underpaid, and labor is the most expensive part of any given work. Seems like a self-furfilling prophecy here, no?
Even those crappy shelf filler knockoff DvD's probably had a few million go into it. Your average anime (at least, with 2019 numbers) had maybe 300-400k USD per episode, a half or even third of a western animated episode.
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Comment on Why anime is on the rise even though the industry is so poor in ~anime
raze2012 Link ParentPretty sure there is active wage suppression going on in the industry, too. This isn't all just raw capitalism (it rarely is). This was propelled by culture for decades, but this recent generation...Animators being paid poorly is a matter of supply and demand in that particular labor market.
Pretty sure there is active wage suppression going on in the industry, too. This isn't all just raw capitalism (it rarely is).
This was propelled by culture for decades, but this recent generation is finally reaching end's wits and are slowly pushing back. Seemingly inevitable for an upcoming generation that saw an entire generation stagnate to nothingness. Why keep participating in a system that doesn't advance you, and now doesn't even give you room to one day start a family?
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Comment on Keep Android Open in ~tech
raze2012 LinkI do wonder how this is going to go about in court. Google lost a case against Epic for much tamer restrictions on 3rd party installations being too convulted and anti-competitive. And this seems...I do wonder how this is going to go about in court. Google lost a case against Epic for much tamer restrictions on 3rd party installations being too convulted and anti-competitive. And this seems to be quadrupling down on the idea in comparison.
Or at least, I'd wonder in saner times. I guess every company sees the huge lack of regulatory bodies and are rushing whatever insanity they can whike the hole is open.
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Comment on From millionaires to Muslims, small subgroups of the population seem much larger to many Americans in ~society
raze2012 Link ParentI don't think most people understand how large the US is. And you'd think that'd be the one thing Americans would understand. 330m people. A population even being 1% would mean that the represent...I don't think most people understand how large the US is. And you'd think that'd be the one thing Americans would understand.
330m people. A population even being 1% would mean that the represent over 3 million people. Humans are truly bad at understanding scales past the low thousands.
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Comment on US schools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shooters in ~society
raze2012 Link ParentThe US has had a pretty bad record on that historically. Taking bets tbat the first noted usage will be in a red state against a student protest.but let's say they're true to their word
The US has had a pretty bad record on that historically. Taking bets tbat the first noted usage will be in a red state against a student protest.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link Parent"How people live life through human history" for my people was mostly (and still is, in some parts of the world), in chains with whips behind them. So forgive my indignity for refusing to lie down...Its how people have lived life throughout human history.
"How people live life through human history" for my people was mostly (and still is, in some parts of the world), in chains with whips behind them. So forgive my indignity for refusing to lie down and accept the statue quo for what it is. Doing so would be a slap in the face to centuries of work my forefathers did to get me to a point where I can sit in comfort at my computer, learn to read, cast a vote without questioning my literacy, and even one day consider owning property (an aspect so recent in my history that my gradfather couldn't do it until his late 30's)
You can find it silly and you're free to. My grandfather gave me stories of how he was laughed at too while facing injustices. I choose to keep fighting. Just because I live off the mountains of progress doesn't mean there is not more progress to be done.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI know not to take companies at their word, but: I don't think 2020-2022 created an environment where half of them can say in plain english that they plan to hire zero entry-level employees in...I suspect the job industry has far more to do with over hiring during COVID, Trumps changes to R&D tax credits, interest rates being at essentially zero then raising, a poor economy, and offshoring.
I know not to take companies at their word, but: I don't think 2020-2022 created an environment where half of them can say in plain english that they plan to hire zero entry-level employees in 2027. Interest rates and "corrections" cannot explain that kind of mentality.
We're also in a very weird situation of economic slowdowns, and companies still needing to re-hire employees they laid off under that smokescreen of AI. So the job market is indeed bad, but it also isn't even working. We're in an oddly sticky economy right now;' if you have a job, you're not easy to fire, but there's also very little hiring if you're out of a job.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentTo quote the article (which ultiamtely agrees with you): And I think we can both agree with that. It speeds up the current status quo, and the current status quo hasn't cared about quality for at...I'm personally not convinced the abysmal state of software is due to AI.
To quote the article (which ultiamtely agrees with you):
The whole system is broken; AI alone didn’t break it, but it is widening the cracks.
And I think we can both agree with that. It speeds up the current status quo, and the current status quo hasn't cared about quality for at least 6 years (arguably up to 10 years). Nothing happening here (outside of maybe AI psychosis ) is novel, it's just more widespread and easier to fall into now, with guardrails that should have existed not being there or being actively torn down.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentSure, I agree. Gamers are fickle but ultimately they follow the rule of cool. You do something good enough and they'll overlook war crimes. Get on their bad side and you made enemies for life most...If you manage to make a good game, most people don’t care about what you used or how you did it. Thus why I said the hate for AI tools, imo, is conditional.
Sure, I agree. Gamers are fickle but ultimately they follow the rule of cool. You do something good enough and they'll overlook war crimes. Get on their bad side and you made enemies for life most times.
I mostly wanted to emphasize that the quality bar for "look good" is higher than ever now. Hitting that while still bsing AI assisted runs into the problems I highlighted above. \
To be clear, when I said that I was talking about using LLMs (text generation - i.e. coding and general descriptions). I have yet to see a game getting backlash for using LLMs.
It can happen. I don't know any large scale examples, but I just saw a recent example with an indie dev. They kept the ChatGPT prompt in their other languages on the Steam page and that got them some very avoidable flak.
That's the kind of missing care that makes people so volatile towards this stuff. I don't even disagree with using LLM's for that kind of translation, but it runs into all the same issues as machine translation or even a very bad faith human localizer; you don't know the end result and the end result is so obvious to your audience. Easily suggesting a low quality cash grab.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentYMMV per field. My experience in games; coding is rarely the bottleneck, asset creation is. If you ever tried gen AI'ing any 3D models, you'd know immediately why this is a fruitless effort in...I can say that this is simply not true. Me and many of my colleages use AI in a very thorough way and it still saves time.
YMMV per field. My experience in games; coding is rarely the bottleneck, asset creation is.
If you ever tried gen AI'ing any 3D models, you'd know immediately why this is a fruitless effort in terms of the 3 budgets. At best you might get some static environmental props and you lean on Unreal Engine to LOD it for you. You're not getting anything out of it that needs to be textured with anything more than the basics, skinned, nor animated. And even if you do keep it to static meshes, you have one of the easiest ways to be discovered of using gen AI.
Gen AI'ing sprites/character textures? Very easy to discover. Maybe you make a good static sprite, but it completely and utterly falls apart making a spite-sheet. Peak (or I guess "subterranean") uncanny valley.
I'm not saying you can't vibecode a full game; there's plenty of means to make simpler games without any direct coding these days. But code doesn't make 99.99% of indie games out there. I'd be surprised if anyone single-handedly made a competent game with current tech that wasn't immediately outed as Gen AI slop.
On the cost front, remember that good developers are quite expensive, so even a few hundred dollars a month is worth it with a productivity boost.
And soon (if not now) this will be thousands in token consumption. We missed the subscription train.
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Comment on Maine Democratic delegates choose Troy Jackson as new nominee to face US Sen. Susan Collins in ~society
raze2012 Link Parentlittle surprised, but I suppose being given a week to change candidates against a very competitive race did not give them time to ramp up their establishment machine. They just went with what they...little surprised, but I suppose being given a week to change candidates against a very competitive race did not give them time to ramp up their establishment machine. They just went with what they could get.
They probably are gambling on Main being "purple" to keep Troy from going "too far" should he win. Susan Collins lives on an edge, and I don't think Troy winning would push that needle much further. But I hope to be pleasantly wrong.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link Parent"Hope" is definitely not how I put it when I browse my LinkedIn feed these past few weeks :(. We were already used to layoff cycles and it's gone maximum overdrive these past few years. But yes,...There's some hope to be had in the fact that the games industry seems better in this regard.
"Hope" is definitely not how I put it when I browse my LinkedIn feed these past few weeks :(. We were already used to layoff cycles and it's gone maximum overdrive these past few years.
But yes, attitude-wise I agree. The environment is awesome and encouraging for those who want to genuinely make art and not just push out slop. At least on the PC/console dev side. The gaming audience is very fickle, but them being loud against obvious slop is at least trying to at worst make devs work harder to hide the gen AI (thus, more or less cancelling out any savings made) and at best keeping some otherwise tempted devs honest.
I resonated a lot with the author's end points as a philosophy:
- Things that are worth doing are worth doing well.
- Things that are done well require time and effort.
- You make meaning through the doing.
- Ideas are common; effort is not.
- There are no shortcuts.
Maybe I'll take a shortcut here and there (seeing the jank needed to pull off some crazy tech feats on your favorite game is always a fun read/watch), but overall: effort is living in my eyes. And I want to live and hopefully create a legacy in my craft.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentGiven my effective 130k pay cut the over the last few years, I sure wish I could have only dropped 70k. I'd need to abandon some luxuries, but I'd be more than comfortable surviving by myself. But...A part of me wishes I had taken it just to be shielded from current tech nonsense, but I’m not in a place right now where I can take that big of a pay cut.
Given my effective 130k pay cut the over the last few years, I sure wish I could have only dropped 70k. I'd need to abandon some luxuries, but I'd be more than comfortable surviving by myself.
But I'm a single 30YO male. I'm sure there are area and family considerations so I'm not casting judgement. I'm just venting at the current state of the world right now.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThere are probably some good ones, but they sure aren't hiring. The ones who claim to be sure are yelling at the rooftops that the author's experience will not change there.Maybe look around first?
There are probably some good ones, but they sure aren't hiring. The ones who claim to be sure are yelling at the rooftops that the author's experience will not change there.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI'm too busy finding a job, sadly. I want to create more. But I'm also pretty much in the red financially and pretty much surviving through parental support at this point. Best I can do at this...- Exemplary
I hear the sentiment echoed here constantly among friends and I always say well we're all freaking engineers, why not get together and create something?
I'm too busy finding a job, sadly. I want to create more. But I'm also pretty much in the red financially and pretty much surviving through parental support at this point.
Best I can do at this point is try to silently rebel against as much of this big tech as possible.
- More de-googlefying this year with not paying for drive storage and preparing a new email domain. I think I'm down to search (which I have a post job plan for), maps, and Youtube.
- I'm as detached from Microsoft as I can be without leaving Windows 11 as a whole (which I'd love to do, but I do need it professionally, sadly).
- Amazon Prime is cancelled and I try to leave Amazon as a whole as a last resort after getting out around town first.
- All my streaming services are canceled (and my NAS is getting some very nifty usage).
- With the new reddit policies, I'm off all major social media aside from Discord (which I cancelled Nitro for).
I'm ready for the next things in all of these (except Youtube, probably the one true monopoly on the Internet).
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThe engineer tech needs, but not the one it deserves. but yeah, I want to eventually (as in: probably 5+ years out) try to at least take more matters into my own hands and have my own inconme...The engineer tech needs, but not the one it deserves.
but yeah, I want to eventually (as in: probably 5+ years out) try to at least take more matters into my own hands and have my own inconme source. I won't claim to fix the system (I'll perform civic duties for larger groups with that goal), but I can at least (professionally) stay in my corner and work on my own bespoke projects. My craft isn't something controlled by corporate interests.
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThe author seems to make a similar conclusion: emphasis mine. It's a similar conclusion I came to where AI is merely a catalyst for what was already happening. I'm sure your workflow would fix...What you describe in your article is a complete and total failure of technical leadership.
The author seems to make a similar conclusion:
I don’t blame people for opting to use tools that promise quick, convenient solutions to problems. We all operate under capitalism. Many of us have bullshit jobs where the goal is not, in fact, to make something good, or even to learn, but to simply make money to pay rent and medical expenses. To hopefully find a little joy on the side. The whole system is broken; AI alone didn’t break it, but it is widening the cracks.
emphasis mine. It's a similar conclusion I came to where AI is merely a catalyst for what was already happening. I'm sure your workflow would fix half the issues brought up in this article.
You can blame the leadership for not holding it accountable, but at the end of the day: if you see a fissure widening and only speeding up, it's natural to want to get away from that. You don't have the means as one person to fix it.
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The lampshade is "equal opportunity", knowing that opportunity itself intrinsically uneven. When you feel you gained a good lead, it's a better (and arguably unethical move) move to slow everyone down than to try and maintain a breakneck pace. This is how tech's operated for a good 20 years now.