first-must-burn's recent activity
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Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
first-must-burn Link ParentThat's a real bummer. I hope you have a lovey reunion when she gets a break.That's a real bummer. I hope you have a lovey reunion when she gets a break.
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
first-must-burn Link ParentThis is so hard, especially if you have formed attachments and genuinely care for them. My therapist always says, "If you don't care for yourself first, you won't have the resources available to...For my friends, I liked being the "mom" at first, because I do genuinely like helping and comforting people, but after years of giving emotional energy and not getting it back, I'm just exhausted.
This is so hard, especially if you have formed attachments and genuinely care for them. My therapist always says, "If you don't care for yourself first, you won't have the resources available to care for others." Sometimes this is framed as "you can't pour from an empty cup." I find this difficult to do in practice because there's always someone that needs help with something. But I have gotten better at finding a balance where I can take time for myself and feel refreshed by it rather than guilty.
I wonder if you could have a partner, family member, or trusted friend "be your manager" with respect to your friend groups and help you evaluate which things to get involved in.
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
first-must-burn Link ParentI know the other thread points to the idea that you will fall into this role anywhere you go, but I wanted to offer a different perspective. I do think once you've become the key player, you can't...I know the other thread points to the idea that you will fall into this role anywhere you go, but I wanted to offer a different perspective. I do think once you've become the key player, you can't undo that at the same company, but I think that by understanding that dynamic and being intentional, you might control how it happens at a new place.
I was the glue/competent go-to at my last job, and it really did stress me out, especially when people were going in direction for "business reasons" that didn't make sense to me.
I switched to a new role at a different company that's in a similar place in terms of startup lifecycle, similar kind of product, but a different market. I'm among the most senior people on the team, but as I "get my sea legs" with the new product/team/market, I'm mindful of the ways that I take responsibility. I'm trying to keep at least some of my responsibilities in the "teach a person to fish" category, and making sure that other people are involved in my work so that I don't become a tower of knowledge. It's still fairly early, but so far, it seems to be working.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
first-must-burn Link ParentYes, this is what I need. I don't have a good bedtime routine or very good sleep discipline, and my life/schedule/family obligations are very chaotic, so I haven't managed to fins time to tackle...Yes, this is what I need. I don't have a good bedtime routine or very good sleep discipline, and my life/schedule/family obligations are very chaotic, so I haven't managed to fins time to tackle this (and to many other things).
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
first-must-burn Link ParentHuh, I thought we read Exhalation for book club, maybe that was earlier. Since I went back to work my reading (even listening) has been so sporadic that I can't really keep up with book club. It...Huh, I thought we read Exhalation for book club, maybe that was earlier. Since I went back to work my reading (even listening) has been so sporadic that I can't really keep up with book club. It makes me sad, because I really enjoyed the discussion.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
first-must-burn Link ParentThanks for the recommendations! I really enjoyed Blindsight, but it's one of those books I need to read more than once to fully grok. I will check out the rest after I finish TINAD.Thanks for the recommendations! I really enjoyed Blindsight, but it's one of those books I need to read more than once to fully grok. I will check out the rest after I finish TINAD.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
first-must-burn (edited )LinkI finished Ted Chiang's short story collection Story of your Life and Others. It was fantastic. After reading (and enjoying) his other collection, Exhalation, I think he might be one of my...I finished Ted Chiang's short story collection Story of your Life and Others. It was fantastic. After reading (and enjoying) his other collection, Exhalation, I think he might be one of my favorite modern short fiction writers. I grew up reading the short fiction of Asimov and Clarke, and there haven't been many that I've enjoyed as much.
Now I'm listening to There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm. It has a feel similar to Charlie Stross' Laundry Files books. It also has vibes of the FBC in the game Control. So far it's really good!
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Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2026 on the internet in ~talk
first-must-burn LinkSimone Giertz talking about renaming her company -
Comment on TV series suggestions in ~tv
first-must-burn LinkTwo shows from the feel good / lots of heart category: Geek Girl - awkward girl finding herself, and beautifully done Bunheads - the same producer as The Gilmore Girls. It has that same snappy dry...Two shows from the feel good / lots of heart category:
- Geek Girl - awkward girl finding herself, and beautifully done
- Bunheads - the same producer as The Gilmore Girls. It has that same snappy dry wit
These are both shows in the "wish there were more seasons" category. Which reminds me, if you've never gotten around to it, you owe it to yourself to watch Firefly.
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Comment on Can we talk about rice cookers? in ~food
first-must-burn LinkMy wife, who lived for ten years in Taiwan, said, "Go to an Asian grocery store and buy the one they have. Because if it didn't work, they wouldn't sell it." The one we have, bought under this...My wife, who lived for ten years in Taiwan, said, "Go to an Asian grocery store and buy the one they have. Because if it didn't work, they wouldn't sell it." The one we have, bought under this criteria, works great.
My only other caution is that ours has a three cup minimum, so keep that in mind based on your planned usage.
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
first-must-burn Link ParentYou're my favorite :)You're my favorite :)
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
first-must-burn Link ParentMy favorite take on this -
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
first-must-burn LinkPing @jmpavlec Followup to my previous post, the ML-based bracket I made for march madness is 44th out of 51 in my office league and faring poorly overall. Basically, the only live lines are the...Ping @jmpavlec
Followup to my previous post, the ML-based bracket I made for march madness is 44th out of 51 in my office league and faring poorly overall. Basically, the only live lines are the one seeds, which are the least interesting from an ML insight point of view.
I realized that the model that I built was just validating features against wins and losses, not validating the model for its strength of picking a bracket. So that would probably be my first improvement. There's a ton of individual player data, so i think it would be interesting to do a richer model that factored in player performance across a season, and perhaps used player strengths to predict game outcomes. I could even imagine mining news stories to train on injury data to see the impact it has over time. But I probably won't, just because in the end I'll have spent all this time on something that I barely ever pay attention to.
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Comment on Interesting material types for fantasy resources/macguffins other than crystals or metals? in ~creative
first-must-burn LinkReal science answer: aerogels - super light low density solids One of the best SF writers for scientifically realistic applications of technology to future (especially space / terraforming) is Kim...Real science answer:
aerogels - super light low density solidsOne of the best SF writers for scientifically realistic applications of technology to future (especially space / terraforming) is Kim Stanley Robinson.
Fake (for now) science answer:
Nanotechnology - self-assembling, self-replicating molecule-scale machines - you could use them for morphing weapons, self-repairing armor, even force fields, but those are the "boring" answers. Probably more interesting to think about the offensive and defensive applications of them invading a body / fighting off invaders. If you imagine them doing things like rewriting DNA, altering physiology, maybe even affecting mental processes, then they start to become more like spells.
Raven, a character in Snow Crash, does some interesting things with plain old glass.
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Comment on Interesting material types for fantasy resources/macguffins other than crystals or metals? in ~creative
first-must-burn Link ParentThere is a living (not quite sure sentient) sourdough in A Wizard's Guide to Defensive BakingThere is a living (not quite sure sentient) sourdough in A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
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Comment on What’s something you’re putting up with? in ~talk
first-must-burn Link ParentHave you considered using Gemini for this task? If you give it access to the sales data it is pretty good at it. Especially if you ask it to give you specifics, like which row the answer came...It comes up with insane CTAs and mentions leads that my store doesn't own or are from years ago. And it only gives customers names. Not emails, not links, no easy way to find them. So I have to go hunting leads by name. Usually busy work.
Have you considered using Gemini for this task? If you give it access to the sales data it is pretty good at it. Especially if you ask it to give you specifics, like which row the answer came from, it should be easy for you to verify.
These LLMs enable a lot of lazy behavior, no doubt. But then do have some valid uses so you should at least reap those benefits along with all the bullshit.
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Comment on Thinking of getting Proton and using it as my day-to-day email, but I have concerns in ~tech
first-must-burn LinkPlug for mxroute. It's reliable and relatively inexpensive if you want to host a few accounts on a lot of different domains. Whatever service you choose, while you're going through the trouble to...Plug for mxroute. It's reliable and relatively inexpensive if you want to host a few accounts on a lot of different domains.
Whatever service you choose, while you're going through the trouble to change your email address, you should register a domain and set it up with the new service before you make the switch. This way, you will not be tied to a service provider in the future. You just set the accounts up on the new service, change the mx records to point month to the new server, wait about 3 days for dns propagation, migrate the old mail to the new server, and shut down / cancel the old service. Externally there's no change. People still email you at the same address.
Relevant to your discussion of using + addresses with @creesch, an even better solution (which mxroute supports) is to set up subdomain with a catch-all rule that forwards all mail into a single mailbox. Then you use the source as the part before the @. Example:
- You register example.com and set up joe@example.com as the address you use for corresponding with other humans.
- You make a second account called ads@example.com, then you configure MX records for the subdomain ads.example.com.
- You configure a catch all rule with the mail provider to route all mail addressed to (anything)@ads.example.com into the ads@example.com.
- You turn off all spam filtering (client and server side) for the ads@example.com account.
- When you sign up for amazon, use amazon@ads.example.com. Hilton is hilton@ads.example.com. Need a second one? Do workhilton@ or hilton2@.
- Everything will show up in your ads@ account, separate from your real correspondence.
Because your spam filters are off, you won't lost important notification emails. If you get phished or start getting spam, its easy to tell what address was leaked. For example, I got bank password resets sent to zappos@ads.example.com, so I knew they were not legit. I canceled my zappos account, signed up again with zappos2@ads.example.com, then I go into the mail config and set zappos@ to
:blackhole:. You can do this with any address where unsubscribing doesn't work as well.You almost never need to reply to the commercial emails, just click links or copy codes. A few times, I have set up aliases so I could send mail from one of the @ads.example.com addresses, but this is rare, probably 3 times in 25 years of using this method.
This is superior to the +name method because it doesn't leak your real address, and you can easily block individual aliases. There are devices that provide this, but unless them use your own domain and have a way to export all the message mappings, you can't easily migrate off of it. Thus method works by default as soon as you configure it on a new provider, and all you need to migrate (if you want) are your black lists from the old server.
Also, there are almost no spammers guessing addresses on second level domains. For example, I'll get someguy@example.com spam where people are just testing to see what addresses are active. I finally had to turn off my catch-all on my top level domain because of it. But I never see someguy@ads.example.com spam because there's simply too many second level domains.
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Comment on Job hunting absolutely sucks right now in ~life
first-must-burn (edited )Link Parent(Speaking about the US) The thing is, we don't really have free markets in the economic sense. There are too many barriers to entry, too much consolidation of market power. In a free market, if a...(Speaking about the US)
The thing is, we don't really have free markets in the economic sense. There are too many barriers to entry, too much consolidation of market power. In a free market, if a company starts enshittifying their product, or they start adding features people don't really want, another company would come and start making the product without those and people would choose it because it's better aligned with their needs and wants.
The reality is that patent portfolios and big legal war chests let a large company litigate a new competitor out of existence as soon as they become a threat. Or they just acquire them and then shut them down, whichever is cheaper.
I think the real problem is that we have accepted as a society that the end result of a corporation should be to make money for its shareholders, and that's what matters more than the product that they make. With that goal in mind, the enshittification process is actually rational.
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Comment on Job hunting absolutely sucks right now in ~life
first-must-burn Link ParentI am not sure if you meant part time dev work, but I tried for a year and wasn't able to find anything part time that paid anything close to market rates. Talking to recruiters about it was like...I am not sure if you meant part time dev work, but I tried for a year and wasn't able to find anything part time that paid anything close to market rates. Talking to recruiters about it was like speaking to them in Martian.
My theory is that most places (especially startups) want people working more than 40 hour weeks as a matter of course, so any conversation that limits hours (or pays by the hour) is off the table.
I have not tried it (yet), but I think the best way to get part time dev work is to work somewhere full time until you're established, then ask to switch to part time. If someone offered me 3/4 salary for a 30 hour work week, I'd take it in a heartbeat.
You should be able install Cline and configure your copilot account as the back end model. When we had copilot at our last job, the admins were able to turn on access to Claude Sonnet as well. I really like Cline as a development tool.
To speak more to your original post, you might try an agent prompt like, "Use git to find the uncommitted changes / changes on this branch vs main and review those changes." You can be more specific about the files that get reviewed and the nature of the review (algorithm complexity, etc.).
Though to get it to interact reliably with git, I had to make a .clinerules file with an entry like "When you run a git command, run it with `git --no-pager command` so you get the full output."