sparksbet's recent activity
-
Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (February 2026) in ~health.mental
-
Comment on List animals until failure in ~games
sparksbet Link Parentweird, it definitely accepted that for me... maybe I included a space?weird, it definitely accepted that for me... maybe I included a space?
-
Comment on The film students who can no longer sit through films in ~movies
sparksbet Link ParentI remember once my mom brought up some old quack who was anti-ADHD and insisted that if your kid could sit through a movie, they didn't have ADHD. Just your classic refusal to understand that ADHD...I remember once my mom brought up some old quack who was anti-ADHD and insisted that if your kid could sit through a movie, they didn't have ADHD. Just your classic refusal to understand that ADHD is an issue with regulating your attention and not constant distractibility.
Anyway I also have ADHD and have always gotten very absorbed in movies, even when I was a child. I can sit around on my phone while a movie's playing and only half pay attention, sure, but that's usually a conscious choice and not because I just can't pay attention or anything like that. A movie has to be pretty bad to have me check-out mid-film if I came prepared to watch it, and even then that is also generally a conscious choice on my part, not some sort of fictitious inability to focus on things due to social media.
-
Comment on How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI'm reading through it so far to get my thoughts on it. I do think that the authors are being forthright researchers throughout, and I'm less likely to dismiss their results as being entirely...I'm reading through it so far to get my thoughts on it. I do think that the authors are being forthright researchers throughout, and I'm less likely to dismiss their results as being entirely propaganda because, honestly, the quantitative results don't even show statistically significant improvement in the time it took to complete the task for those in the AI condition!
This is in part due to the sample size and distribution -- their results pretty clearly show that those in the AI condition had better task completion time only among the less experienced programmers (1-3 years of experience), and that there wasn't any difference. The small number of inexperienced programmers in their sample is a big part of why the improved task completion time for the AI condition didn't reach statistical significance. Since a larger gap between the AI and no-AI groups in task completion time is what I would have expected going into a study like this, I think a study that was more deliberately designed to make their AI products look good would have had a larger number of inexperienced programmers in the sample.
I really liked the part where they discussed their pilot studies -- though it's a little depressing that they had so many troubles with noncompliance (those in the no-AI group using AI anyway) and understanding of basic Python syntax. But I think it was smart to have these pilots beforehand to eliminate issues like this (and I wish I knew with platforms they used so I could speculate more about why one of them had such high rates of noncompliance).
I think some people might rush to criticize the qualitative assessment of participants' use of AI, but I think they did a good job establishing their typology and they were diligent about reporting how the higher-scoring typologies tended to also take more time than the lower-scoring ones. Even in the section where they attribute much of the lack of improvement in task completion time to the time spent interacting with the AI, they don't shy away from the idea that the time spent on this part of the task is actually a big contributor to learning, and that understanding and time-saving are at odds when using AI here:
A more significant difference in completion
time due to shorter interactions with AI assistance would likely translate to an even larger negative impact on skill formation.They also even investigated differences based on copy-pasting vs manually typing, which indicated a lot of the time improvement was simply from not needing to type it out yourself:
e. Participants in the AI group who directly
pasted (n = 9) AI code finished the tasks the fastest while participants who manually copied (n = 9) AI generated code or used a hybrid of both methods (n = 4) finished the task at a speed similar to the control condition (No AI).There was a smaller group of participants in the AI condition who mostly wrote their own code without copying or pasting the generated code (n = 4); these participants were relatively fast and demonstrated high proficiency by only asking AI assistant clarification questions. These results demonstrate that only a subset of AI-assisted interactions yielded productivity improvements.
My biggest complaint with the qualitative side is that they don't go into how it interacts with programming experience. I highly suspect that the programmers who are exclusively using AI for conceptual help and then write their own code are likely to be more experienced, for instance. This could account for their being faster than even the copy-pasters despite writing their own code. Regardless of whether that's true, I think discussing the relationship between experience and the way that AI is used would be super interesting to delve into and I'm kinda disappointed they didn't do that in the paper.
Ultimately I think that their methodology was sound, though, and I think the way they frame their results averts a lot of my concerns about the research being fluff propaganda, as it even warns about the potential future negative effects of AI coding assistants on our body of skilled programmers:
Together, our results suggest that the aggressive incorporation of AI into the workplace can have negative impacts on the professional development workers if they do not remain cognitatively engaged. Given time constraints and organizational pressures, junior developers or other professionals may rely on AI to complete tasks as fast as possible at the cost of real skill development. Furthermore, we found that the biggest difference in test scores is between the debugging questions. This suggests that as companies transition to more AI code writing with human supervision, humans may not possess the necessary skills to validate and debug AI-written code if their skill formation was inhibited by using AI in the first place.
-
Comment on How Norway accomplished a near-total electric vehicle transition β almost 100 percent of new cars registered in November were electric in ~transport
sparksbet Link ParentI can also say from my own time in Norway that there are EV charging stations pretty widely available in parking lots/garages for shopping centers and the like. We weren't even using an EV and I...I can also say from my own time in Norway that there are EV charging stations pretty widely available in parking lots/garages for shopping centers and the like. We weren't even using an EV and I noticed them regularly, so there's probably even more available if you're actually looking.
-
Comment on Patterns of worldwide religious affiliation, participation, and belief in ~humanities
sparksbet Link ParentWell, are they correlated or not? If they are, perhaps it would be controversial to just say that without backing it up but there can be a dialogue about why those things are correlated. But if...Would it be controversial to correlate religious identification with tolerance?
Well, are they correlated or not? If they are, perhaps it would be controversial to just say that without backing it up but there can be a dialogue about why those things are correlated. But if they aren't actually shown to be correlated by any actual data (and I don't get the sense they are from this data -- certainly it doesn't seem to hold when one compares Europe and North America, and I think the data from Asia directly contradicts it even without the "trust in neighbors of different religion" section having data on the Middle East), I think it would just be saying something deliberately inflammatory.
-
Comment on 'Right-to-compute' laws may be coming to your state this year in ~comp
sparksbet Link ParentSeveral state senates already existed before even the establishment of the US as an entity, as well, so it wasn't even necessarily copying the federal government in that way.Several state senates already existed before even the establishment of the US as an entity, as well, so it wasn't even necessarily copying the federal government in that way.
-
Comment on 'Right-to-compute' laws may be coming to your state this year in ~comp
sparksbet Link ParentOh wow do they really only have two representatives? Damn. Of course, Montana also has a state House of Representatives as well lolOh wow do they really only have two representatives? Damn.
Of course, Montana also has a state House of Representatives as well lol
-
Comment on You are being misled about renewable energy technology in ~enviro
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentIt absolutely is overstating it, though, and the margin will certainly increase as things that are able to be electrified very easily (like buses and trains, where the technology already clearly...It absolutely is overstating it, though, and the margin will certainly increase as things that are able to be electrified very easily (like buses and trains, where the technology already clearly exists and works well) are electrified. There will be increasing economic pressure to do this as petroleum becomes more expensive as we run out of it anyway.
And, given that petroleum is a finite resource, it is actually still extremely beneficial to switch to renewables for the huge number of things that are able to be electrified even while acknowledging that there are some domains where electrification isn't currently practical or possible, because using petroleum exclusively for things where electrification isn't possible gives us longer before we run out to develop solutions and alternatives for these use cases.
-
Comment on List animals until failure in ~games
sparksbet Link Parentwell how come I didn't get them in my emoji summary then! I named at least three snake species and at least three lizard species.well how come I didn't get them in my emoji summary then! I named at least three snake species and at least three lizard species.
-
Comment on 'Right-to-compute' laws may be coming to your state this year in ~comp
sparksbet Link Parent"State senator" unambiguously refers to a senator for the state legislature, and outside of as a term of address maybe, using just "senator" for a state senator would be seen as being deliberately...Why on earth do they use the same term??
"State senator" unambiguously refers to a senator for the state legislature, and outside of as a term of address maybe, using just "senator" for a state senator would be seen as being deliberately misleading if not lying. As a result it's not so hard to tell them apart in the prose of news articles once you know state legislatures are a thing. A news article would refer to this guy as "a Montana state senator" and use "a Montana senator" for one of the two representatives Montana has in the US Senate.
Of course the top-level comment isn't a news article and was using it as a term of address, so not much help there.
-
Comment on List animals until failure in ~games
sparksbet Link159 on my first try! Pretty solid attempt imo πΈππππ¦π¦πͺ²πππͺ²πͺ²ππ£πͺ²πͺ²ππππ¦ππͺ±π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦ποΈπππ¬π ππππππππ¦ππ·π·π·π·πͺ°ππ·ππ¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦ββ¬π¦ββ¬π¦ π¦π¦π¦π¦ββ¬π¦ππ’π’π¦πͺ²π’π£π¦ππ¦π¦π³π³π¦π¦¦π¦¦π¦¦πΌπ»π»ββοΈπ»π»π¦π¦¬ππππ¦£π¦π¦π»π¦§π¦π§ππ΄π¦π₯π¦πππππ¦ spoilered commentary on mine A...159 on my first try! Pretty solid attempt imo
πΈππππ¦π¦πͺ²πππͺ²πͺ²ππ£πͺ²πͺ²ππππ¦ππͺ±π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦ποΈπππ¬π ππππππππ¦ππ·π·π·π·πͺ°ππ·ππ¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦π¦ββ¬π¦ββ¬π¦ π¦π¦π¦π¦ββ¬π¦ππ’π’π¦πͺ²π’π£π¦ππ¦π¦π³π³π«π¦π¦¦π¦¦π¦¦πΌπ»π»ββοΈπ»π»π¦π¦¬ππππ¦£π¦π¦π»π¦§π¦π§ππ΄π¦π₯πͺΏπ¦πππππ¦
spoilered commentary on mine
A recent carpet beetle infestation led to me just appending various common foods to the word beetle, which was surprisingly solid as a strat. I feel like I should've remembered more spiders, but it also was not generous when it came to their common names. Also it's a shame I wasn't more of a dinosaur kid because I was very pleased with myself for realizing those counted. Playing animal crossing also earned me a fair few fish and I probably could've gotten a higher number if I'd stuck with that thread and not gotten distracted. Also wow is there really absolutely no lizard or snake emoji? that's a shame.
-
Comment on A brief history of men's underwear in ~life.style
sparksbet Link ParentI personally really prefer longer legs on my underwear, actually -- I usually wear full-on boxers these days, after all -- but with boxer briefs the legs are usually short enough to roll up the...I personally really prefer longer legs on my underwear, actually -- I usually wear full-on boxers these days, after all -- but with boxer briefs the legs are usually short enough to roll up the inside ones and snap a pad with wings on if absolutely necessary . It's far from ideal but if you don't have any better underwear options, it works. I never really figured out a way to make a pad work with normal boxers though.
-
Comment on A brief history of men's underwear in ~life.style
sparksbet Link ParentI am similarly quite curvy (and have had a lot of annoyances shopping for men's jeans due to this), but I don't personally have much trouble with boxer briefs on that front because of the elastic...I am similarly quite curvy (and have had a lot of annoyances shopping for men's jeans due to this), but I don't personally have much trouble with boxer briefs on that front because of the elastic and otherwise stretchy fabric. I err on the side of larger sizes and it always seems to work fine -- the elastic on the pairs I own isn't so weak that I've ever had a problem there. I also don't wear my boxer briefs super high, so my hip measurement tends to be the only relevant one. But I've also never bought women's underwear that specified anything more detailed than a single S/M/L size, much less separate indicators for hips and waist, so maybe we're in different realms when it comes to underwear shopping!
-
Comment on A brief history of men's underwear in ~life.style
sparksbet Link Parenthonestly I say go for the switch to boxer briefs. They really were just a straight-up upgrade over women's underwear for me in all matters except wearing a pad (and even that, I've been able to...honestly I say go for the switch to boxer briefs. They really were just a straight-up upgrade over women's underwear for me in all matters except wearing a pad (and even that, I've been able to finagle in the past, just less easily). I haven't compared boxer briefs for men and boyshorts for women directly though, so I can't speak to how big a difference any differences between them makes.
-
Comment on A brief history of men's underwear in ~life.style
sparksbet Link Parentooh saving this link for when I have money and am more interested in packing. As far as boxers go, when not trying to pack or needing to wear a pad, I just have a bunch from uniqlo.ooh saving this link for when I have money and am more interested in packing. As far as boxers go, when not trying to pack or needing to wear a pad, I just have a bunch from uniqlo.
-
Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
sparksbet Link Parentyeah I think there's definitely a difference between the two uses and I'm not saying anything about the specific incident in the linked article, more just speaking that the comparison in general...yeah I think there's definitely a difference between the two uses and I'm not saying anything about the specific incident in the linked article, more just speaking that the comparison in general is bad since the original post is mostly about law enforcement at least threatening to use that more dangerous setting.
-
Comment on Police threatened to use LRAD devices ("sound cannons") in Minneapolis. There is misinformation online on how to protect yourself. in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentIt seems pretty heartless to compare being forcibly injured by something designed to hurt you and give you hearing loss to consensually participating in a fun activity that has risks of hearing...Seems people are more likely to have hearing damage from attending a concert than this use of an LRAD.
It seems pretty heartless to compare being forcibly injured by something designed to hurt you and give you hearing loss to consensually participating in a fun activity that has risks of hearing loss if you don't take precautions.
-
Comment on A brief history of men's underwear in ~life.style
sparksbet Link ParentI prefer regular boxers tbh, but I don't have the relevant "equipment" down there, so it doesn't have anything to do with that part of it (and I usually have plenty of room in the groin on my...I prefer regular boxers tbh, but I don't have the relevant "equipment" down there, so it doesn't have anything to do with that part of it (and I usually have plenty of room in the groin on my pants as a result, so there's no real difference visible to the outside world when I'm wearing pants). The type of fabric they're made of tends to be comfier imo (at least among the pairs I own). I also like the way they feel around where my legs meet my pelvis, insofar as they don't touch there at all. I've never worn men's briefs, but women's underwear had the problem of being too tight on the legholes, which was extremely uncomfortable. Boxer briefs don't generally do the same thing unless you're getting ones that are way too small, but they still tend to bunch up around that area a little, and not having any material there is comfier. But the difference isn't stark enough that I threw out my boxer briefs after switching to boxers, so I still wear both.
It is also nice to be able to answer the door when the amazon guy rings the bell without putting on pants. The level of acceptability in doing that, especially when most people read me as a woman, is wildly different between wearing boxers vs boxer briefs. This doesn't really factor into my decision, but it is a bonus.
My mother recently noticed that they're selling boxer briefs in the women's section at Kohl's now. Not full-on boxers afaik, though.
-
Comment on What healthy habit has made a difference for you? in ~health
sparksbet Link ParentHonestly I think "really low" for me is "not in bed at 14:00" at this point...Honestly I think "really low" for me is "not in bed at 14:00" at this point...
I feel like you're both taking extreme positions. My ADHD and Autism do both objectively have symptoms that make me worse at doing some things, not just due to being different from those around me, but in objective ways that cause me to require more support than other people. A big part of why I take ADHD medication is to counteract the symptoms that make it harder to live an independent adult life. And that's as someone with pretty low support needs as far as autism goes -- I think it's pretty insulting to those with higher support needs to insist that the only problem they have is other people's reactions in social interactions when that's simply not true. Social interactions aren't even the only thing affected by autism, even among those who would've gotten an Asperger's diagnosis back when that was a thing.
That said, I don't think I'd describe either as a curse, either. I don't think I'd get rid of either if given the opportunity, and the connections I have with other neurodivergent people are really rich and valuable to me. And some of the problems are socially conditioned and would be significantly less of a thing if society were designed in ways that better accommodated certain differences. I sympathize with other people who are suffering enough from their symptoms to consider it a curse, but my own perspective on it is a lot more nuanced and complex I think. ADHD and Autism are too much a part of who I am and how I think for me to see them as some separate thing that I'm suffering from rather than a component piece of me, if that makes sense.
I also don't think either is giving me some secret skills that neurotypicals don't have, though. All humans are pattern-recognition machines, for instance, it's something we're very good at as a species, and I'm not convinced of the evidence that neurodivergent people are better at it.