RobertJohnson's recent activity
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Comment on New worlds, and what was your "Future Shock" moment? in ~life
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Comment on What's something that you missed out on? in ~talk
RobertJohnson Link ParentFriend, I am sure you still have a lot of potential. Just do your best. All of us walk a different path and the things we experience, for better or worse, make us who we are.I think I had a lot of potential and talent
Friend, I am sure you still have a lot of potential. Just do your best.
But it’s hard not to think if I had a more mainline childhood and adolescent experience things would be different.
All of us walk a different path and the things we experience, for better or worse, make us who we are.
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Comment on What's something that you missed out on? in ~talk
RobertJohnson Link ParentSimilar story here. My parents pulled me out of school entirely because they thought the world was going to end any day. Decades later and the world is still here. I used to feel like I missed...Similar story here. My parents pulled me out of school entirely because they thought the world was going to end any day. Decades later and the world is still here.
I used to feel like I missed something too. When I was younger, I always felt like an alien because I was raised in relative isolation from "normal people". That haunted me for a little while. Thankfully, I found a lot of good people who accepted me for my quirks and oddities.
Hope the same has happened for you and you can break free of any religious trauma you experienced.
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Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance
RobertJohnson Link ParentI mean, at the end of the day life isn't all about money. I am sure you can find a nice balance. Also, my condolences for your loss.I mean, at the end of the day life isn't all about money. I am sure you can find a nice balance.
Also, my condolences for your loss.
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Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance
RobertJohnson LinkTBH, your best option is to continue living as you are and not touch it for awhile to let it compound more. That said, none of us can really help you without exact numbers regarding your spend....TBH, your best option is to continue living as you are and not touch it for awhile to let it compound more.
That said, none of us can really help you without exact numbers regarding your spend. You need to plug your exact numbers into a FIRE calculator and if you are going to try living off of this/withdrawing from it, check out the 4% rule. I sort of doubt 500k is enough for you to live off of in perpetuity but you might be able to continue living how you are now with it as a supplement. Sort of a Coast Fire. If you can afford to not touch it though, I would not.
I would also check out what the asset allocation is. If you're gonna try to live off of this, you probably need some of it in a stable source like bonds.
This is just my opinion, check out the fire community and the bogle head community. Learn some about investing and retirement. Broad index funds and all that.
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Comment on Can a country get too rich? Norway shows the potential pitfalls of uncommon prosperity. in ~finance
RobertJohnson LinkIs this article an ad for moving to Norway?Is this article an ad for moving to Norway?
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Comment on Against the state – a primer on terrorism, insurgency and protest in ~humanities.history
RobertJohnson (edited )LinkThank you for sharing. I found this deeply interesting. The described framework is both useful and correct, by my estimation. I must say, I find the article to be rather optimistic given our...Thank you for sharing. I found this deeply interesting. The described framework is both useful and correct, by my estimation.
I must say, I find the article to be rather optimistic given our current situation. Multiple people have been murdered and the regime is still functioning, still in power, and continues to attack states like Minnesota. Meanwhile, from my perspective, much of the protest seems ineffective. In my local area, there are groups that protest every week. Yet despite me being aligned with their position, I would never attend these. Their protests fail to affect anything at all, let alone things like will. If anything, these protests burn through the will of the protestor by highlighting their apparent futility.
It seems to me that many modern protestors are limited to holding up a sign and getting brunch afterwards. Part of the issue being that it is not obvious what actions should be taken to effectively influence the levers of power. The civil rights movement had specific goals to desegregate certain restaurants, businesses, and public transportation. What are the clear goals of the current movement? What exactly is this movement? The article seems to indicate that the current movement is anti ICE, but ICE is just one manifestation of the growing authoritarian state. Even if ICE were abolished tomorrow, there would still be databases tracking American citizens, run by private corporations. There would still be AI systems identifying protestors. Public institutions have already been eroded and continue to be dismantled.
If we don't see progress soon, I fear the odds will only worsen for modern protestors. If technological and economic power continues to concentrate in the hands of a few, no amount of non violent protest will be able to save us.
I am trying to figure out how to get involved in my local community, but as I stated, I am not inspired by any of my local groups. So I feel quite powerless at the moment, a feeling I suspect many share. Our only hope might be a strong rebuke of the current administration in the midterms, with results that aren't tampered with. However, that relies on the assumption that Democrats will actually do something meaningful. In my opinion, it's far more likely that the oppression of the public will continue, with a new figurehead at the helm.
I would love to hear others thoughts, or a rebuke of my pessimism. Again, thanks for sharing this article. I am glad to see discussion on this topic.
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Comment on Any software engineers considering a career switch due to AI? in ~comp
RobertJohnson LinkThis topic has been discussed some before. In fact, here is my comment on that thread. I have been thinking a lot about this recently. For context, A.I. is basically my life and has been for a...- Exemplary
This topic has been discussed some before. In fact, here is my comment on that thread.
I have been thinking a lot about this recently.
For context, A.I. is basically my life and has been for a long time. I have spent over a decade dedicated to the subjects of machine learning, statistics, and neural networks. I watched the development of ELMo, GPT-2, and BERT in real time. I have implemented agents made in langgraph and other frameworks. To be clear, there are many who have studied the subject longer and who know more than me, but I just want to highlight how much the topic of A.I. has been a direct and personal interest of mine.
It is very hard to decipher whats true regarding A.I. because of all the money and feelings involved. There are a lot of people whose livelihoods are dedicated to convincing folks like you and me that these tools are legit. That LLMS and agents are revolutionary, life changing, corporate buzzwords. I recently lost a lot of passion for the field due to the wave of generative A.I. in the corporate world. There are also a lot of people who refuse to use anything A.I. related and want to convince you that it is the spawn of Satan. Both could be correct.
I'm gonna give you my straight opinion. In my experience, the recent waves of models are legit. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Open Code are all insanely capable. The coding world has shifted immensely because of this. To not use A.I. tooling is going to limit you. If you have a morale conundrums, then you might consider using some of the open source models in combination with a tool like open code. I believe this combo should utilize your computers GPU which may help alleviate concerns related to privacy, energy consumption (to some extent) and the funding of big tech while still offering you a powerful tool.
On the positive side, the technology is certainly interesting and has the potential to speed up a lot of coding aspects if implemented into your workflow correctly. Anecdotally, these models have helped me in my personal projects. Take that for what it's worth. They also might be used to cure diseases or make other rapid advancements in medicine and science.
Regardless, this stuff isn't going anywhere. Ultimately, to reject A.I. entirely will likely be a very challenging thing in the same way that it is hard to avoid the internet and cellphones. At the individual level, we can do our best to try and work within the confines of our situations by utilizing open source tech and local tools or at the very least, voting with our wallet to fund the decent A.I. use cases and companies.
Of course, you and I have the right to decide if we want to continue in the field given the direction it is heading. Whether the field will still want us in X amount of years is anyone's guess. There is certainly a reality where CS jobs become more valuable because they need to clean up poor A.I. implementations. By the same token, there is a reality where white collar work continues to be decimated and wealth continues its rapid movement to the rich. The reality of the situation is that the world is changing very quickly. All we can do is run with it, or run from it.
Here is a paywalled article about the subject that has a lot of good discussion.
Hope this helps. Best of luck out there!
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Comment on Any software engineers considering a career switch due to AI? in ~comp
RobertJohnson Link ParentI have to agree with you to an extent. I've recently started incorporating agentic coding workflows into my projects, and it's been a positive experience. It has helped me tremendously with my...I have to agree with you to an extent. I've recently started incorporating agentic coding workflows into my projects, and it's been a positive experience. It has helped me tremendously with my personal project and significantly accelerated my development time. I'm now optimistic about finishing a longterm project that simply wasn't feasible before, given my day to day life.
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Comment on US Democrats successfully strip all anti-trans riders from final appropriations bills in ~lgbt
RobertJohnson Link ParentI didn't even realize what group this was. Apologies for the overly political discussion. Thanks for pointing that out.and I don't want to talk too much politics on this particular subtildes because it's an upsetting time for many right now
I didn't even realize what group this was. Apologies for the overly political discussion. Thanks for pointing that out.
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Comment on US Democrats successfully strip all anti-trans riders from final appropriations bills in ~lgbt
RobertJohnson Link ParentI feel like I am taking crazy pills here. What exactly did they achieve? It seems like the conservatives slipped some super insane shit in so that democrats would accept the slightly less insane...I feel like I am taking crazy pills here. What exactly did they achieve? It seems like the conservatives slipped some super insane shit in so that democrats would accept the slightly less insane shit. Why are we celebrating the democrats being horrible negotiators? Why shouldn't they shut the government down entirely? If they did not pass any funding, these policies wouldn't have passed anyways.
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Comment on US Democrats successfully strip all anti-trans riders from final appropriations bills in ~lgbt
RobertJohnson Link ParentYeah, they helped fund ICE. Great job, Democrats.Yeah, they helped fund ICE. Great job, Democrats.
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Comment on US Democrats successfully strip all anti-trans riders from final appropriations bills in ~lgbt
RobertJohnson LinkI am hesitant to make this comment but hopefully you folks will give me the benefit of the doubt. How exactly is this a win? There were no trans protections passed here, no laws overturned. No...I am hesitant to make this comment but hopefully you folks will give me the benefit of the doubt.
How exactly is this a win? There were no trans protections passed here, no laws overturned. No previsions to prevent executive orders from passing these policies. I am happy to see that transgender people are not being targeted in this situation, but why should dems support government funding at all? Anything but the complete defunding of ICE and this garbage government is a complete failure by democratic leadership. Why are people celebrating this cowardice? Democrats shouldn't fund this shit.
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Comment on Feeling weird about my career with respect to AI in ~life
RobertJohnson (edited )LinkHi OP, I'm in the same boat. With similar years of experience, but working in data science and machine learning. I can relate to your feelings. Fair warning: this is a rather grim AI doom post....Hi OP,
I'm in the same boat. With similar years of experience, but working in data science and machine learning. I can relate to your feelings.
Fair warning: this is a rather grim AI doom post. Please do not read this if you're looking for comfort.
The release of ChatGPT was one of the worst days of my life. Since then, I've been unable to escape the AI fever that's gripped my job and my life. AI is now firmly part of the public zeitgeist, and I get no respite from it. I never imagined I'd have to explain image/video generation models to my parents, but here we are. I now deeply hate this field.
I have no idea what my role is now. In the past, my job involved creating and training machine learning models for various business predictions. That's no longer the case. No one seems interested in those solutions anymore, even if they're the right approach. Now, my job primarily involves implementing agentic or LLM based solutions. But isn't that what every software engineer does now? Isn't every random corpo an expert in AI now? Or at least, that's what they want people to believe. So, where does that leave me? The skill set that once made me somewhat unique is now the bare minimum for developers. Not to mention that tools like automated PR reviews are being used to monitor developers which just makes me feel icky.
To be honest, I've accepted that I'm a dead man walking. I don't think my current job will exist in the near future. It certainly won't exist in its previous form or in a form that I find enjoyable/rewarding. I'm trying to transition into governance, machine learning operations, and automated testing suites for generative AI solutions. You know, stuff related to building the guard rails around these AI systems. I have no idea if this will work out, but I'm hoping for the best. If that fails, I might consider becoming an electrician or something similar. I really don't know. I've thought a lot about dropping out of my grad degree and using the time to pursue an entirely different field. The constant uncertainty and pressure are taking a toll on my mental health, to say the least. It's exhausting to constantly adapt and wonder if my skills will remain relevant. The fear of obsolescence follows me like a shadow.
Regardless, I'm trying my best to outrun this mess. I'm saving money like crazy. I'm investing as much as possible and trying to pay off my living expenses in case my career disappears tomorrow. I have a large emergency fund. My advice to you would be to do the same, since these are the only things you can control. Personally, I'm actively exploring backup careers. There aren't many great prospects at the moment, but I'm hoping to figure out a plan soon.
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. AI will undoubtedly improve over time, and the question is how quickly? I am not sure that even matters considering the current models are more than enough to disrupt large portions of society. The software field and the world at large have changed forever. There is no going back.
This is really just my take on the professional world. Even if we find a new field, AI will continue to permeate every aspect of modern life. Unless something is done quickly (and I doubt it), AI will be used as a tool by the upper class to oppress, control, and monitor the lower class, facilitating a further transfer of wealth in that regard. Let's just hope that it is also used to find new cures for diseases and other altruistic purposes. I guess we just destined to live in virtual insanity.
Best of luck, OP. I pray that we can look at this post in the future and laugh at my paranoia.
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Comment on What are your favorite low cost main dishes/meals? in ~food
RobertJohnson (edited )LinkSlow cooked Shoyu Chicken Take 2-4 lbs chicken, throw it in slow cooker. Make Sauce 1 cup soy sauce 1/4th cup sugar 1/4th cup brown sugar 2 cloves garlic Minced ginger, at least 1tsp but I do more...Slow cooked Shoyu Chicken
- Take 2-4 lbs chicken, throw it in slow cooker.
Make Sauce
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1/4th cup sugar
- 1/4th cup brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic
- Minced ginger, at least 1tsp but I do more
- Star of anise
- 1/2 cup water
Stir it up. Add sauce to slow cooker. Cook 5ish hrs on low. Your time might vary. I don't think it matters that much tbh. I usually set it and eat it when I feel like it.
Thicken sauce
Mix 2 tbsp cornstarch, 2 tbsp water.
Take 1/2 cup of sauce out, add corn starch mixture, stir, put it back in the slow cooker. Let cook for ~30 minutes longer.Make rice on the side using a rice cooker. Optionally steam some broccoli if you want a green. Throw it all in a bowl. Dead easy and delicious.
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Comment on How are you different than you were ten years ago? in ~talk
RobertJohnson Link ParentPerhaps people are not bad, but easily persuaded into being bad then, eh?Perhaps people are not bad, but easily persuaded into being bad then, eh?
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Comment on How are you different than you were ten years ago? in ~talk
RobertJohnson Link ParentI feel the same way except even less optimistic than you. It's nice to know that others share these feelings. It really hurts to have your faith in humanity ripped away from you and once its gone,...I was also a lot more optimistic about humanity back then too, but the pandemic and the overall attitude of the political regression in the time period forced a big shift in my perspective. I still feel that there is a lots of good in people, but I'm less optimistic that some people can change.
I feel the same way except even less optimistic than you. It's nice to know that others share these feelings. It really hurts to have your faith in humanity ripped away from you and once its gone, I don't think that it comes back.
Plus - I'm doing my dream job now that I was wanting to do ten years ago!
Thank you for sharing some positivity. Very happy for you.
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Comment on How are you different than you were ten years ago? in ~talk
RobertJohnson (edited )LinkTen years ago my life was worse in virtually every way. I was broke, depressed, underweight, and on the verge of homelessness. I had just ran away from my home to escape an abusive situation....Ten years ago my life was worse in virtually every way. I was broke, depressed, underweight, and on the verge of homelessness. I had just ran away from my home to escape an abusive situation. Things have improved a lot since then but in a weird way, I had more hope back then. I guess when you're at the bottom, it feels like you can only go up and when you're at the top, it feels like you can only go down. Since I've seen the bottom, I know all to well how painful life can be. On the other hand, having experienced the "good" life, I find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant as I expected.
My issue with hope is bigger than my individual situation though. I used to believe that most people were good. I thought that the world was destined to improve. I assumed that society would be more educated than ever and thus, we would grow and advance.
I don't believe any of this anymore.
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Comment on What do you need to vent about? in ~talk
RobertJohnson LinkAbout a year or so ago I took a massive gamble with my career and started doing something that is fairly risky. I would prefer to keep it vague, but I basically straight up gambled and I am...About a year or so ago I took a massive gamble with my career and started doing something that is fairly risky. I would prefer to keep it vague, but I basically straight up gambled and I am continuing to gamble every day. The risk is not incredibly high, but the work I am doing now, I could lose at any time. I am essentially pre-fired and I know that.
The money from this decision has been great. It is potentially setting my family and I up for a great future. There is just one problem, I'm incredibly overwhelmed and I don't know how long I can keep doing this. It's really taking a toll on my mental health. I'm big time burnt out but I can't walk away from the money. Even worse though, it is not clear to me that walking away from this is the solution. I know that if I traded what I'm doing now for something easier, I would still feel burnt out. I would still feel depressed. I would still feel frustrated with the world. I would be all of these things but I'd also be worse off financially. I guess I'd rather suffer in the short term to be financially stable and potentially retire earlier. I just don't see any escape from this feeling. I really don't think that changing what I do would make me feel any better. This position is only temporary and I will likely never find something like this again. I should be grateful for this opportunity, and I am, but I also feel like shit every day.
Short of me winning the lottery, I don't think there is any escape for me from these feelings. Even then, I am not so certain. I am reminded of a quote by Schopenhauer which I feel describes life accurately.
In a world where all is unstable, and nought can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope—in such a world, happiness in inconceivable. How can it dwell where, as Plato says, continual Becoming and never Being is the sole form of existence? In the first place, a man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with masts and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.
Great article. I think I must have one of these everyday.
To be specific though, I remember about 7 years ago when GPT 2 came out and my co worker was telling me how impressive it was. How the folks at openai were doing amazing work. We started to use GPT 2 for various natural language tasks and it worked so incredibly well. I was floored at the time. It felt as if a whole new field opened up to me. All of the sudden, I was having visions of specializing in natural language processing. I was quite excited to be part of the field of AI. What amazing strides we were making.
About a year later gpt 3 came out and I was double floored. Started applying it to more problems and saw great success. Some years go by, a paper comes out called "Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback." I had read about some of the work google was doing related to this, and knew it was impressive. When I read this paper though, I was completely shook. The architecture was frankly genius and clearly had room to grow.
Well later that year, chatGPT came out. I don't think I'll ever forget this day. I talked with my coworker about it, we tested it, and I told him I felt that the world would not be the same from that day forward. I called up my software developer friends and told them about it too. We passed in a project that we remembered struggling with in college. Of course, in seconds it produced several hundreds of lines of Java that seemed to accomplish the goal. Candidly, we didn't review it line by line but it seemed reasonable. We were all stunned. I think many of us went through spells of depression afterwards. I know that I did.
I went back to my coworker later, asked him if he thought our jobs were at risk. He told me he thought that it would take time for this stuff to be truly integrated into society. Not long after that we started experimenting making and using agents. Next thing I knew, codex and claude code existed. I was at a different job at this point and a senior dev of mine had been given access to claude code. Described it as "insanely powerful". Now this guy wasn't impressed by anything, so I knew something was up. I got access to claude code not long after, and was left speechless. All the concerns I had for my job were amplified by 100 at this point.
Now here we are. In a world where my grandma who didn't even go to high school, interacts with AI everyday. The field of NLP that I thought I was going to specialize in and build my career on is essentially decimated or at least, completely changed from what it was. I still have my job, I still have concerns for my job. My career is now radically different and I spend many days wondering what I'm doing. All the excitement I once had for the field has mostly been replaced for concern for the ramifications of this technology upon society. I used to feel good about what I do, but now I sort of feel that I am enabling evil tech bros to do evil things. Every day I wake up and wonder how it all got to this. I don't even know why I wonder that question because I watched it happen in real time. I know how we got here. I just can't believe it happened in my time. Everything that I dreamed about when I first started studying neural networks, my wildest fantasies, have come to pass and then some.
What happens from here? Based on what I've seen thus far, I know one thing and that is that I know absolutely nothing. All the studying that I did, all the models that I trained, all the research that I labored over, none of it prepared me for understanding the reality. The dog has truly caught the car. Hopefully all of this leads to something positive, like the eradication of diseases and the automation of unfulfilling work, freeing up people to live their lives in a better way. That is certainly a possibility. Judging by how things are going though, I have doubts.