slade's recent activity
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Comment on What are your favorite simple pleasures? in ~talk
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Comment on AI makes an appearance at my union meeting in ~tech
slade LinkI have AI fatigue but also use it constantly. I use it to work (software) because it shines there and makes me a lot faster. I use it personally to help me think of ideas, which I always feel a...I have AI fatigue but also use it constantly. I use it to work (software) because it shines there and makes me a lot faster. I use it personally to help me think of ideas, which I always feel a little guilty about.
My job definitely had the big push for AI adoption, but we're small enough that it was mostly just urging everyone to do it. Nothing specific. We're a startup, so it's practically due diligence to squeeze every new idea for value.
I'm definitely scared of losing my job to AI.
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Comment on New York school phone ban has made lunch loud again in ~tech
slade Link ParentOh yeah, me too. It keeps me up at night. Right now he values my opinions a lot, but someday he'll care more about his peers and they're overwhelmingly buried in phones. It makes me really sad but...Oh yeah, me too. It keeps me up at night. Right now he values my opinions a lot, but someday he'll care more about his peers and they're overwhelmingly buried in phones. It makes me really sad but I hope I can convince him that sitting around on your phone is boring. Or that quality time with people means putting away your phone unless you have something specific to do.
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Comment on New York school phone ban has made lunch loud again in ~tech
slade Link ParentAnecdotally, I don't use by phone much around my kids. I believe very strongly in modeling behavior. My five year old doesn't care much about devices. He has open access to a tablet that he barely...Anecdotally, I don't use by phone much around my kids. I believe very strongly in modeling behavior. My five year old doesn't care much about devices. He has open access to a tablet that he barely touches.
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Comment on The emerging evidence on AI tutoring in ~tech
slade LinkThis doesn't surprise me and I'm excited to read more about this. Education is one place where I think AI has the potential to be revolutionary, and to bring higher quality education to groups...This doesn't surprise me and I'm excited to read more about this. Education is one place where I think AI has the potential to be revolutionary, and to bring higher quality education to groups that historically have the least access to it. Of course it can also be done very wrong, but I'm optimistic.
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Comment on What are your favorite simple pleasures? in ~talk
slade (edited )LinkTea that has hot the perfect level of heat, just shy of tolerable, and you can just feel it crawling down your esophagus. Hitting a warm bed on a chilly night. Getting your blanket and pillow...Tea that has hot the perfect level of heat, just shy of tolerable, and you can just feel it crawling down your esophagus.
Hitting a warm bed on a chilly night. Getting your blanket and pillow situation just right. Waking up and realizing you don't have to get out of bed. A really good stretch after a reallu restful sleep.
Not everyone's cup of tea, but I also enjoy a perfectly timed joint - like after a day of working hard outside, then enjoying a joint at sunset.
Any situation where I'm more or less impossible to interrupt. Shower, bathroom, everyone has gone in a road trip and there's no physical way for them to interrupt me earlier than the next hour.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
slade Link ParentThat's a major piece of it, yes. The other things is that between my blocks of free time I can do a little thinking that translates to a lot of direction for the AI. So ten minutes of code review,...That's a major piece of it, yes. The other things is that between my blocks of free time I can do a little thinking that translates to a lot of direction for the AI. So ten minutes of code review, ten more of instruction, and the resulting AI work is something that previously would've taken me several unbroken hours.
The other piece is that it does a lot of the rote work. Once I know how I want to build something, the rest is just typing and organizing code. When AI does that for me, I don't need as much context even when I am working actively. I get into the weeds as I review some modules, then I get out and don't have to stay in it too much.
It's like my context has become smaller for the same complexity of work, and much of that context is kept in AI as conversation history or planning documents.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
slade LinkAs a software engineer, being able to apply my knowledge for hobby purposes without much time to dedicate to it has been nice. I have kids and no free time, so previously I would think "This would...As a software engineer, being able to apply my knowledge for hobby purposes without much time to dedicate to it has been nice. I have kids and no free time, so previously I would think "This would be a neat idea for an app, but I don't have the time to build it, so..." Now I can actually build a prototype with really good bones in a few hours.
What's more, they don't have to be consecutive hours - I can work mostly in my head, thinking about the system design. The rest I can do with AI assistance with just minutes here and there: working my notes into a plan, having AI execute the plan, reviewing the work, these are all major units of work but only require a minute of my time here and there.
Previously these thoughts made it to the end of the head-planning phase, maybe into a notes document, then buried in day to day life. So it's been nice to be able to quickly realize things.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
slade Link ParentI relate to this. I just went through it yesterday. It wasn't on purpose, but kind of evolved and became funny enough to make me laugh. It was about a UX designer who keeps ending up in jobs where...I relate to this. I just went through it yesterday. It wasn't on purpose, but kind of evolved and became funny enough to make me laugh. It was about a UX designer who keeps ending up in jobs where he has to do UX and gut fish on a factory line. Like he'll turn it down for a better offer, but then the better offer turns into the same thing. Anyhow, it ended with a fight club between departments and the AI did a really hilarious job of applying professional characteristics to an increasingly absurd plot. I never told the AI it was satire, but somewhere along the way it seemed to get it and stopped responding with realistic "Alex should talk to his supervisor about being uncomfortable gutting fish." It had some awesome unintentional one liners.
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Comment on Study suggests that the Universe's expansion 'is now slowing, not speeding up' in ~space
slade Link ParentI personally wouldn't trust any AI summary of something like this. I'd want to hear from someone who understands the data and what it means.I personally wouldn't trust any AI summary of something like this. I'd want to hear from someone who understands the data and what it means.
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Comment on Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show in ~tech
slade Link ParentIt does, doesn't it? I think about it a lot. The Internet is full of ads and scams that we all learn to ignore. And they only exist because some small percent of people will make up for it by...It does, doesn't it? I think about it a lot. The Internet is full of ads and scams that we all learn to ignore. And they only exist because some small percent of people will make up for it by spending enough to make it worthwhile for them to always do this. Have millions of people watch millions of hours of ads so that a small percentage of them will respond to those ads. For the rest, just waste and noise and waste and noise.
The internet has amazing things buried under so much waste and noise.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
slade Link ParentThat just means you have to be a more specific kind of masochist to enjoy hate-reading a full novel.That just means you have to be a more specific kind of masochist to enjoy hate-reading a full novel.
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Comment on Anthropic to bring its AI to hundreds of teachers in Iceland with pilot scheme – aim of helping them with lesson planning, classroom materials, and administrative work in ~tech
slade LinkI'm a big believer in the potential of AI to revolutionize education for the good of mankind, making it available to am much broader spectrum of students and backgrounds. I'm also a big believer...I'm a big believer in the potential of AI to revolutionize education for the good of mankind, making it available to am much broader spectrum of students and backgrounds. I'm also a big believer in the likelihood of tech to act in short-term interests, rush to market, make clumsy mistakes, and artificially limit the good at that it can be packaged in a way that makes some people obscenely rich.
From the article:
It will give hundreds of teachers in Iceland access to Claude with the aim of helping them with lesson planning, classroom materials, and administrative work.
Reiterating @dsh's question, how are they using it? I almost get the impression that this is really just giving them access to Claude, not special tools built using Claude. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have complex opinions about AI as a whole, but can't think of a more noble application than education if it's done right.
What I didn't see in the article, but am curious about, is if educator will get guidance on how to effectively use Claude in a curriculum. I find one big danger with AI is that you can get really good results or really poor results depending on how you drive it.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
slade Link ParentOkay, this got a big laugh out of me. I'm so sorry it happened like that. Did you end up getting over it end enjoying the book in hindsight, or is it forever the book that predicted your death by...Okay, this got a big laugh out of me. I'm so sorry it happened like that. Did you end up getting over it end enjoying the book in hindsight, or is it forever the book that predicted your death by UTI? Hopefully you're doing better these days.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
slade Link ParentI can extra relate to this. While not the book that inspired me to start this thread, I read another one recently that wasn't a hate read but I still felt very much like you. SpoilersI read House...I can extra relate to this. While not the book that inspired me to start this thread, I read another one recently that wasn't a hate read but I still felt very much like you.
Spoilers
I read House of Leaves. If you haven't (and don't plan to), the book is a multi-layered narrative. The inner story is about a photographer and his family who find an infinitely large, ever-resizing labyrinth in their home. The next layer is a video documentary made about the experience. The next layer is an book written about the that does on many meandering diatribes about only slightly related things. The next layer is the neighbor of the person who wrote the book, who collected his notes posthumously and compiled them for publishing. And then the final layer is the actual book I was reading about all of it.Every layer of the book, down to how the pages were formatted (with occasionally non-linear layouts), heavily referenced the Labyrinth (capital 'L') from mythology. I realized somewhat early in that the book itself was meant to be a labyrinth, complete with long-meandering dead ends and back-treading. It was clever for sure, but once I got past the cleverness I found myself asking the same question as you. It was like, okay, I figured out the thing -- I'm in a labyrinth when I read the book -- but should I finish?
In my case I did finish, and it might've been almost a hate read. I did enjoy it but only because once I understood what I was reading, I lowered my expectations for the type of story it was (not that it was a bad story by any means, but did not go deeper where I wanted it to go deeper, and frequently went deep where I didn't want it to).
The book frequently made me wonder if I wasn't smart enough for it, while at other times I was sure that the perplexed feeling I had was intended. I mention in another reply here that I'm an insecure reader, so I'm constantly trying to decide if I can learn something new from something, or if it's simply not for me. I am glad I finished House of Leaves, but would've enjoyed a book about just the inner layer (the family in the labyrinth house) or just the outer layer (the unreliable narrator with a backstory that moved me to tears several times, which is the only book to have done so).
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
slade Link ParentThat's an interesting case. I think I'd also be compelled to finished something that was really specific to my area and all wrong. Like the morbid curiosity of watching a universally panned movie.That's an interesting case. I think I'd also be compelled to finished something that was really specific to my area and all wrong. Like the morbid curiosity of watching a universally panned movie.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
slade (edited )Link ParentThat's kind of what my perspective is. I don't really "hate" the book, but I'm not enjoying it and am reasonably sure I won't. But I didn't enjoy The Good Earth when I had to read it in school, or...The only exception to that is if, despite not necessarily being an enjoyable process getting through it, I know that finishing it will ultimately be an enriching/worthwhile/fulfilling/enlightening experience.
That's kind of what my perspective is. I don't really "hate" the book, but I'm not enjoying it and am reasonably sure I won't. But I didn't enjoy The Good Earth when I had to read it in school, or right after I was done, but decades later it's stuck with me more than most books I read growing up. I'm glad I was forced to finish it.
My first novel I ever read when I was young, The Legend of Huma, took me three tries to finish. I knew I should enjoy it because it had a dragon on the cover, but the writing was completely new to me and it took me several unenjoyable attempts before it clicked. I remember that what clicked, specifically, was not obsessing over understanding every sentence but just moving through the story. I was a little inexperienced for what I was reading and just needed to get past that before the book came alive and I started reading Dragonlance novels back to back.
A more recent example was We Have Always Lived in the Castle, from a tildes recommendation thread I started a while back. I didn't enjoy it at all in the beginning, and there wasn't really a moment I can point to when I did, but by the end I liked it a lot. I don't think that'll be the case with the book I'm on now, but who knows.
I agree with you about walking away at the right time, but I'm both an inexperienced and insecure reader. I've not exposed myself or challenged myself with many genres beyond formulaic high fantasy with happy endings. So at this point in my journey I'm trying to challenge myself to read things I would've given up on before. If I truly truly hate it, I'd put it down, but in this case "hate-reading" is just a play on it's vulgar cousin. I don't really hate it. It's more like reading with a grudge.
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Hate-reading?
I've been working through my read list and for a while everything was either phenomenal or good enough to entertain. Then this one. My goodness. I don't like the author. I don't like the narrator....
I've been working through my read list and for a while everything was either phenomenal or good enough to entertain.
Then this one. My goodness. I don't like the author. I don't like the narrator. I don't like the other of two characters in the story (so far). I'm piqued by the central mystery, but I can just tell that this is one of those stories where the mystery is going to remain an abstract MacGuffin around which the characters and their flaws are explored. I can't imagine any of this will turn around, but I'm on chapter 3 and about a third of the way through.
So now I'm faced with the choice to finish or abandon. I've been trying to finish it because a friend of mine mentioned having a personal policy of finishing every book she starts, and I am inspired by that. But so far it's just lead to reader's block.
I'm going to get through it, because I'm stubborn, but I don't think I'll enjoy it. Has anyone else ever hate-read a story? What was it? I'm happy to share the one that spawned this thread but only if people want to hear about a book that I've judged in the first third.
(this is all light-hearted, I wouldn't read it if I really hated it that much)
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Comment on Picador unveils China Miéville’s new novel, twenty years in the making, to be released September 2026 in ~books
slade LinkI recently posted here asking for suggestions for surreal books, and China Mieville came up a bunch. I have several of his books on my shelf but haven't dove into any of them. I'll have to...I recently posted here asking for suggestions for surreal books, and China Mieville came up a bunch. I have several of his books on my shelf but haven't dove into any of them. I'll have to prioritize him next (currently stalled on a book that I really don't like but am trying to endure) so I know how excited to be about this. But I'm excited at the prospect of being excited.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
slade Link ParentWhat a rabbit hole. I looked up gong fu tea in Wikipedia and learned a lot of new things. I've never once tried less than boiling water because I always thought you needed that for good tea. As I...What a rabbit hole. I looked up gong fu tea in Wikipedia and learned a lot of new things. I've never once tried less than boiling water because I always thought you needed that for good tea. As I mentioned, I get good results "if I get it just right" but I think the super hot temp is probably making my margin for error razor thin.
I have an under sink hot water unit and I usually move that water to the stove to get it all the way up to billing. If I can get better tea without the teapot step, my life will be changed forever for the better.
I'm adding this to my list. I grew a sunflower with my son this year and our favorite part of each morning was watching the bees busy buzzing all over it.