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This article - be warned - has a very non-specific delivery which, in my own personal way seeks to archive my response to some issues, in a permanent manner.
In other words, have my feelings on certain aspects archived and accessible. But as I write the delivery takes better form, and it occurs to me I want in this moment
to reach out to the current community. For in this Gaming & Tech Community I have great regard for the folk I've encountered!
The question: Why do I want nothing to do with the Software Development Industry?
I have unhesitatingly renounced my career as a software developer.
This gesture, has many indications attached, most of which are felt inconclusively by me, and maybe the audience too.
It is a gesture of giving up before succeeding... Or worse, someone incapable of success and simply making vitriolic or cynical excuse.
The gesture could be the swift, impatient movement of someone who's unable to concentrate for long hours, or make the docile sacrifice civilization demands of him, where I'm
urged to interface with a computer screen for long, unsociable hours... ALL so I can develop some product that the end-user will appreciate.
But this product, is only experienced on the most remote and abstract layer of existence, by the time I feel I'm operating on a level I have no assurance thereof.
All these nagging doubts occur to my mind during my delivery and I'm unsure of my conclusions.
SO WITH that said I urge the audience be merciless OR helpful. constructive or destructive, in your retort..
But do not come forth and plead the inability to grasp the coherency of my word, for that is a card so oft played by those who are desperate to suppress or deride someone they find distasteful.
I deliver now THESE questions to the audience here:
1. The majority of software developers and computer technicians have nothing to say on the issue of CryptoCurrency. How is it that people are prepared to confer value on something that is nothing more than unnecessary, wasted CPU time?
2. The tech world says we are now at the apex of our civilization. How come when we purchase a smartphone or hand-held device, that it's riddled with inconsistencies, technical anomalies and overall inadequacy, where within we are urged subsequently to purchase a newer, better version of the same product? A product which shatters upon the first accidental
fall, and is not even a noticeable upgrade from before.
3. Conversely.. How come when you buy an entry level phone, it is never satisfactory in speed, durability and overall capacity. A smartphone made by humanity today is usually lacking in many aspects, and it leaves the end-user feeling unfulfilled.
These phones are never responsive and have a latency of a few seconds where upon the user strikes a key.
4. Why after more than 20 years of industry is the environment still riddled with fear and paranoia, and the population is at risk of sabotage and online crime. How come the issue of criminals & internet abuse, has dissolved into a sensation, and something solved financially.
5. How come the tech industry has nothing to say upon the pointless, stupid notion of inventing self-driving cars? Has it not occurred to them the road is a terrestrial surface, not a railway track? Why can't they see the manpower & resource invested, is incommensurate with the outcome?
6. Finally... - and this be an issue worthy of expansion - How is it that my contemporaries in the computer industry have no insight into what society via the internet have reduced the
music industry to? How is it that these people, who consider themselves the forefront of intellectual inquiry retire home and listen to a SlimShady song, containing lyrics of murder and lurid abuse, and still have recourse to libertine protest unto crime and domestic violence?
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That concludes my dithyrambic delivery. Thank you much for your time... I invite all shades and flavours of retort...
For I personally believe that there is something tantamount to the UPL which will unavoidably unfold, and a future not dissimilar to that conveyed in the Terran History.
But I believe the journey there is not glorious, and is riddled with frustration and a toxicity that cannot be remedied by progressive idealists.. or 21st century science / consumerism.
Observe the watchword of Tri-Optimum, the company in System Shock 2. Military - Science - Consumerism. I am not proud of the states of those things in this current age..
So be it!!
  
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"The tech world says we are now at the apex of our civilization. How come when we purchase a smartphone or hand-held device, that it's riddled with inconsistencies, technical anomalies and overall inadequacy, where within we are urged subsequently to purchase a newer, better version of the same product? A product which shatters upon the first accidental
fall, and is not even a noticeable upgrade from before."
I just skimmed it, but that bit struck me.
I find it strange that as a developer you see phones as "not a noticeable upgrade from before".
Sure the changes are not as noticeable a when they first came out - but the phones are still improving significantly and getting faster at insane rate. Actually I wish app developers would do more to take advantage of the hardware that is there.
For context I am an iPhone user - it might be different for other phones.
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Excellent rhetorical questions struck here.
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@MrShankly
Ok.. so the scenario goes like so: You buy a phone, like an affordable Alcatel model that you need for daily use,
and along with a few glaring problems like it crashing or stalling when you gotta multi-task. You get the feeling of general
delay.
You get the feeling of somewhat unfulfillment, but due to competitive market, and how the industry works, you can accept that the funds you parted with bought only a mediocre dose of performance.
But then you turn on the radio, and you hear the Democratic Alliance, a liberal-orientated radio station here in The Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) region.. give their morning delivery of "all the bad & good happening in the country, and we hope the good outweighs the bad" .. then .. "stay tuned for the first leading expert on ergonomics"
So they talk about corruption then branch off suddenly in a sugar-coated blissfully unaware tone about a topic, related to the luxury of technology.. as if that is a suitable dampener for actual real-life problems. As if progress and technology is going to save the day.
Then you look at your inadequate phone (feeling disillusioned)
and you realize the thing is only made so due to the contrived limitations of capitalism.
and the phone is probably flooded with adverts, redundant background process.. and likely diverting power to gather data analytics from the user.
You also.. as an aspiring technician realize that it is not beyond our current capacity to simplify phones,
reduce the number of processes running and make it responsive and efficient in simple tasks, like
phone calls and Wattsup.
You realize that these people who comport themselves with such elevated dignity have not grasped the imbalance
in technology.. and worse is that they are promoting and nourishing other depraved things which go beyond the scope of current discussion.
They talk about sustainability but it is not sustainable to have the industry going on like this.
Have you not seen how now, Frameworks have come into use? WHY MUST I learn Php laravel, and all these client-side environments??
Someone who uses frameworks is little more than a developer wearing a chef's hat following recipes on YouTube!
These pseudo-clever intellectual progressive types.. they think the industry is sustainable, that everyone has free-enterprise and must be super creative and innovative.. They don't realize that these services and utilities.. FaceBook, YouTube,
Uber.. WattsApp. are not inventions. They are discoveries.
They've existed in idea and would unavoidably take shape once the infrastructure formed.
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But..
(continuation)
I am zooming in too much on one single aspect.
As if suddenly cellphone started functioning excellently.. and some philanthropic company made something nice for the people., that that would cure my disposition.
I feel in my heart, that my reasons transcend beyond the actual topic and unavoidably revert to some political or sociological question.. In that sense it seems misleading to put forth the topic here and then piggyback cliche issue into the fray..
It sounds like a bleeding complaint camouflaged as a conspiracy theory or so 'bout capitalism. I guard my self from conspiracy theories by reminding my self.. usually conspiracy theories, they're invented when unable to simply accept incompetence.
But the computer world & industry has become a sensation. The entire population is being urged to get involved.. and people are forgetting about other types of folk, the guitarist, the farmer, the security guard, the policeman & plumber..
All those folks who are the real enablers of civilization.
and my reference to the UPL ( United Power League ) was based on the fact that I believe the modern world..
save for a few dissident empires who have successfully protected themselves, will eventually unite under a global system.
Not necessarily in a desperate manner due to civil unrest or destabilization..
but maybe out of some agreed unity..
BUT the worst thing is if this rampant sensational consumerism.. ( and I am a fan of consumerism mind you )
will steer the world to some crisis..
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I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society.
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On October 20 2019 16:46 jameswatts wrote:
@MrShankly
Ok.. so the scenario goes like so: You buy a phone, like an affordable Alcatel model that you need for daily use,
and along with a few glaring problems like it crashing or stalling when you gotta multi-task. You get the feeling of general
delay.
You get the feeling of somewhat unfulfillment, but due to competitive market, and how the industry works, you can accept that the funds you parted with bought only a mediocre dose of performance.
But then you turn on the radio, and you hear the Democratic Alliance, a liberal-orientated radio station here in The Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) region.. give their morning delivery of "all the bad & good happening in the country, and we hope the good outweighs the bad" .. then .. "stay tuned for the first leading expert on ergonomics"
So they talk about corruption then branch off suddenly in a sugar-coated blissfully unaware tone about a topic, related to the luxury of technology.. as if that is a suitable dampener for actual real-life problems. As if progress and technology is going to save the day.
Then you look at your inadequate phone (feeling disillusioned)
and you realize the thing is only made so due to the contrived limitations of capitalism.
and the phone is probably flooded with adverts, redundant background process.. and likely diverting power to gather data analytics from the user.
You also.. as an aspiring technician realize that it is not beyond our current capacity to simplify phones,
reduce the number of processes running and make it responsive and efficient in simple tasks, like
phone calls and Wattsup.
You realize that these people who comport themselves with such elevated dignity have not grasped the imbalance
in technology.. and worse is that they are promoting and nourishing other depraved things which go beyond the scope of current discussion.
They talk about sustainability but it is not sustainable to have the industry going on like this.
Have you not seen how now, Frameworks have come into use? WHY MUST I learn Php laravel, and all these client-side environments??
Someone who uses frameworks is little more than a developer wearing a chef's hat following recipes on YouTube!
These pseudo-clever intellectual progressive types.. they think the industry is sustainable, that everyone has free-enterprise and must be super creative and innovative.. They don't realize that these services and utilities.. FaceBook, YouTube,
Uber.. WattsApp. are not inventions. They are discoveries.
They've existed in idea and would unavoidably take shape once the infrastructure formedc
Quite hard to filter out your random rambling but:
-Clearly you bought a phone that is extremely underpowered for what it is trying to do. Which you admit.
"It is not beyond our current capacity to simplify phones,
reduce the number of processes running and make it responsive and efficient in simple tasks, like
phone calls and Wattsup."
^^^
Even that comes with a cost. The operating system will likely be tuned for giving a usable/good experience for medium spec devices and above. Customising it for low cost devices also has a cost.
Have you not seen how now, Frameworks have come into use? WHY MUST I learn Php laravel, and all these client-side environments??
Someone who uses frameworks is little more than a developer wearing a chef's hat following recipes on YouTube!
I don't get your point here? You are against frameworks? If there was not a need for these frameworks they probably wouldn't exist, and they wouldn't be popular.
Part of your job as a developer is to choose the right tools for the job. If you are freelancing and churning out lower quality apps/sites you probably want to use some heavyweight frameworks that do a lot of the work for you.
If you are building something more high quality you may choose to drop down a few levels (or all the levels) for a more native and better performing experience.
The reason for these heavy weight frameworks is to save time and reduce the cost of development (and the ones that are good and popular do succeed at this).
I mean you pretty much HAVE to use frameworks/libraries at some point otherwise you would get nowhere.
Someone who uses frameworks is little more than a developer wearing a chef's hat following recipes on YouTube!
Bit of an extreme over exaggeration
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On October 20 2019 22:47 MrShankly wrote:I mean you pretty much HAVE to use frameworks/libraries at some point otherwise you would get nowhere. Show nested quote +
Someone who uses frameworks is little more than a developer wearing a chef's hat following recipes on YouTube!
Bit of an extreme over exaggeration
real men start by making their own compiler and then building up from that point.
On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society.
I view software development as a craft as well. Allan Cooper convinced me of that years ago.
https://www.amazon.ca/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp/0672326140
Most of what Cooper presents in this book is still true today.
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Northern Ireland23287 Posts
On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society.
I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system.
One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable.
Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars.
It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars.
Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me.
For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model.
Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’
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On October 21 2019 02:46 Wombat_NI wrote:Show nested quote +On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society. I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system. One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable. Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars. It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars. Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me. For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model. Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’
It seems to me like one of main issues that self-driving cars would nearly solve is not congestion (although that's definitely a big deal) but rather >1 million deaths/year and many more injuries. Self-driving cars could reduce that by >95%, if not more. There's nothing else that can accomplish that. Considering that self-driving cards would fairly easily nearly solve those two issues, it's insane to me that anyone would call it a waste of resources. It would undoubtedly save millions of lives with widespread deployment.
As for crypto, I absolutely understand the guy's view, most of the applications we've been told about are complete bullshit. It's just a decentralized censorship resistant database. The main application is as a digital transferable asset that can't be censored, that's all. The ICO industry from last year really went insane with their claims that they would revolutionize everything from patient file management to air traffic control and other far fetched madness that would very obviously be better done using conventional centralized systems and databases. There's nothing of interest there. Most of the interesting functionalities already exist in a handful of different coins. There's no need for more devs in that industry, all it needs is a handful of genius cryptographers. If the future is such that we'll transition to some sort of blockchain-based currency, be it bitcoin or something else, the push for that will happen in the political arena before devs are actually needed for anything other than cheap scams.
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"I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable."
@LightTemplar
I know.. and I'm aware of that extra layer of obscurity that is added and I'm semi-sorry.. and that was an excellent dismissal you delivered there.
While we're on the topic, some guy on the EU or US battle.net Starcraft II forums had the nerve to try diagnose me of NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder.. based on the manner of my delivery.
Anyway.. yes thank you my surrounding friends for the uplifting insight and all..
I was terrified that I'd encounter a bunch of unbending progressive types that shot me down.
As I write, my heart softens to the things I was talking about. For example I imagine a scene, where someone
perhaps can activate a clumsy but functional auto-pilot mode on their car, to like finish off a a journey while they deal with spilt coffee.
As I share this issue, it becomes clear that my disposition, or grudge, goes beyond programming.
I have a problem with the state of music, and I feel.. I feel that a modern tradition that took for in the 90s -and then the turn of the 21st Century - is being eroded away. It's being diluted with poison and ill-substance.
I am comparing the indifferent, collective unity that is forced upon us by windows 10 to compel the user to.. get online,
get on the cloud.. to the cosy welcoming domestic hearth of windows 95 and 98.
And recall.. when you purchased a game, the amount of lore that was contained in the palpable mannuals, of Diablo 1 & 2..
Starcraft 1.
Even remember opening the the archives of mech warrior 2 31st century combat.
And Nine Inch Nails being inscribed a box of nail-gun ammo in Quake, since Trent Reznor did the soundtrack.
..
When you walked into a fast-food venue, 15+ years ago.. there'd be an Off Spring song playing on the telescreen.
Something relatable by the young adult and the haphazard skating kid.
But now it is an onslaught of intoxication, luxury and aggressive thug-life, of which the listener seems deprived of the language to debunk or distance themselves from.
AND the worst (in my country at any rate) is the state of the libertine media, who comport their self with this sense of entitled luxury.. who speak of progress and equality..
and who never miss an advantage to deride the president, and president Trump for that matter.
It is not that I am defending a party.. it is their manner of insulting a president and reducing them to some silly caricature.. while I believe it is irresponsible.
I am not upset from a stance or viewpoint that can be established as a position.
I am attacking the function, and the quality of things.
JUST as much as this rant isn't the result of buying a mediocre cellphone!!
That revelation came to in my assertion that humanity is NOT in a state of technological advancement.
I was handling the phone, and regardless of its class and cost.. measuring it up against a universal benchmark,
if you will of quality.
But you know, probably even Cloud Strife had problems with his Panasonic cellphone before
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Northern Ireland23287 Posts
On October 21 2019 08:48 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On October 21 2019 02:46 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society. I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system. One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable. Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars. It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars. Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me. For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model. Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’ It seems to me like one of main issues that self-driving cars would nearly solve is not congestion (although that's definitely a big deal) but rather >1 million deaths/year and many more injuries. Self-driving cars could reduce that by >95%, if not more. There's nothing else that can accomplish that. Considering that self-driving cards would fairly easily nearly solve those two issues, it's insane to me that anyone would call it a waste of resources. It would undoubtedly save millions of lives with widespread deployment. As for crypto, I absolutely understand the guy's view, most of the applications we've been told about are complete bullshit. It's just a decentralized censorship resistant database. The main application is as a digital transferable asset that can't be censored, that's all. The ICO industry from last year really went insane with their claims that they would revolutionize everything from patient file management to air traffic control and other far fetched madness that would very obviously be better done using conventional centralized systems and databases. There's nothing of interest there. Most of the interesting functionalities already exist in a handful of different coins. There's no need for more devs in that industry, all it needs is a handful of genius cryptographers. If the future is such that we'll transition to some sort of blockchain-based currency, be it bitcoin or something else, the push for that will happen in the political arena before devs are actually needed for anything other than cheap scams.
Cold, efficient fleets of cars moving like shoals as fish, with one mind! *Cackles*... Oh and em yes, the saved lives too.
Yeah definitely, agree there. I can’t see it happening anytime some, largely because you’d need standard banks to adopt it in some form and push it and I don’t particularly see any reason they would want to at the time being.
Still it would be nifty if there was a mechanism to monetise content via small microtransactions in the digital space, but alas. Charge small amounts per word read or whatever, would incentivise some good long-form content especially in the written form.
I’d like to support such efforts but I can’t financial justify monthly subscriptions to things I read every so often, and I bloody hate advertisements.
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What I got from this is that he doesn't like his new smartphone. My 2 year old cheap smartphone works perfectly fine.
The rest of the stuff is just riddled with unfounded assumptions. What is the nature of a medium of exchange? Who says we are at the apex of civilisation, when the pace of technological advancement is ever increasing? Why wouldn't financial crime be a matter of finance and crime? The criminals get a say. You call self driving cars stupid without say why. Number 6 is just a random mishmash. People have a lot to say about culture and the internet. You just have your ears and eyes closed. I guess you don't like rap. That's ok, I don't like rap either. Also please stop using a thesaurus. Half the words are awkward because they don't juxtapose themselves well into context. A miasma of disjointed concepts wrapped around a poorly concealed veneer of prose.
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Northern Ireland23287 Posts
On October 21 2019 15:32 jameswatts wrote:
"I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable."
@LightTemplar
I know.. and I'm aware of that extra layer of obscurity that is added and I'm semi-sorry.. and that was an excellent dismissal you delivered there.
While we're on the topic, some guy on the EU or US battle.net Starcraft II forums had the nerve to try diagnose me of NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder.. based on the manner of my delivery.
Anyway.. yes thank you my surrounding friends for the uplifting insight and all..
I was terrified that I'd encounter a bunch of unbending progressive types that shot me down.
As I write, my heart softens to the things I was talking about. For example I imagine a scene, where someone
perhaps can activate a clumsy but functional auto-pilot mode on their car, to like finish off a a journey while they deal with spilt coffee.
As I share this issue, it becomes clear that my disposition, or grudge, goes beyond programming.
God that annoys me to no end, people need to stop reading Wikipedia articles and trying to diagnose people with psychological ailments, either in person or in the even sillier form of the internet.
Having Bipolar disorder myself, having lived in hospital with schizophrenics and knowing a person with a diagnosis of NPD, many good friends with Aspergers, I really, really wish people would stop doing this, or at least if they decide to give an opinion, maybe listen to my better informed one as to why they’re ultimately wrong.
As someone who is looking to get into software development I enjoyed some of your blog, although really I take it as venting out a lot of stuff that’s tangentially related to it.
I’m finding it difficult to motivate myself to take the plunge because so much of the jobs around me are bullshit jobs revolving around marketing, or other things I see as the worst applications of interesting technology.
I imagine there’s a certain disillusionment of people of a certain age around this. Young enough to remember the nascent internet, be a young person at that time and the possibilities it seemed to offer, versus some of the realities it’s brought us.
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On October 21 2019 18:35 Wombat_NI wrote:Show nested quote +On October 21 2019 08:48 Djzapz wrote:On October 21 2019 02:46 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society. I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system. One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable. Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars. It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars. Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me. For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model. Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’ It seems to me like one of main issues that self-driving cars would nearly solve is not congestion (although that's definitely a big deal) but rather >1 million deaths/year and many more injuries. Self-driving cars could reduce that by >95%, if not more. There's nothing else that can accomplish that. Considering that self-driving cards would fairly easily nearly solve those two issues, it's insane to me that anyone would call it a waste of resources. It would undoubtedly save millions of lives with widespread deployment. As for crypto, I absolutely understand the guy's view, most of the applications we've been told about are complete bullshit. It's just a decentralized censorship resistant database. The main application is as a digital transferable asset that can't be censored, that's all. The ICO industry from last year really went insane with their claims that they would revolutionize everything from patient file management to air traffic control and other far fetched madness that would very obviously be better done using conventional centralized systems and databases. There's nothing of interest there. Most of the interesting functionalities already exist in a handful of different coins. There's no need for more devs in that industry, all it needs is a handful of genius cryptographers. If the future is such that we'll transition to some sort of blockchain-based currency, be it bitcoin or something else, the push for that will happen in the political arena before devs are actually needed for anything other than cheap scams. Cold, efficient fleets of cars moving like shoals as fish, with one mind! *Cackles*... Oh and em yes, the saved lives too. Yeah definitely, agree there. I can’t see it happening anytime some, largely because you’d need standard banks to adopt it in some form and push it and I don’t particularly see any reason they would want to at the time being. Still it would be nifty if there was a mechanism to monetise content via small microtransactions in the digital space, but alas. Charge small amounts per word read or whatever, would incentivise some good long-form content especially in the written form. I’d like to support such efforts but I can’t financial justify monthly subscriptions to things I read every so often, and I bloody hate advertisements.
A huge advantage of crypto is that you eliminate the need for a middleman like banks to make international transactions so I don't necessarily think that you need banks to adopt it, as it's antithetical to their entire business scheme - they're essentially a middleman taking a cut. I'm not much of a libertarian myself but I understand the appeal of being able to transact without a 3-5% fee looming over my head for domestic transactions, without a 5-20% fee for international transactions. Plus you get some level of privacy.
I don't see monetization and microtransactions as a useful use case for cryptocurrencies except for the fees thing, it's something that can easily be done centrally but I think people would be inherently uncomfortable with being charged by the word/second/page for consuming content. It reminds me of when people were on a 56k internet connection and they were metered. Bleh.
For all that, many of the proponents of cryptocurrencies are complete nutcases who severely underestimate the value of the security afforded to us with credit cards. Chargebacks are awesome.
Also happy birthday :D
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Northern Ireland23287 Posts
On October 21 2019 22:39 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On October 21 2019 18:35 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 21 2019 08:48 Djzapz wrote:On October 21 2019 02:46 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society. I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system. One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable. Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars. It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars. Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me. For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model. Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’ It seems to me like one of main issues that self-driving cars would nearly solve is not congestion (although that's definitely a big deal) but rather >1 million deaths/year and many more injuries. Self-driving cars could reduce that by >95%, if not more. There's nothing else that can accomplish that. Considering that self-driving cards would fairly easily nearly solve those two issues, it's insane to me that anyone would call it a waste of resources. It would undoubtedly save millions of lives with widespread deployment. As for crypto, I absolutely understand the guy's view, most of the applications we've been told about are complete bullshit. It's just a decentralized censorship resistant database. The main application is as a digital transferable asset that can't be censored, that's all. The ICO industry from last year really went insane with their claims that they would revolutionize everything from patient file management to air traffic control and other far fetched madness that would very obviously be better done using conventional centralized systems and databases. There's nothing of interest there. Most of the interesting functionalities already exist in a handful of different coins. There's no need for more devs in that industry, all it needs is a handful of genius cryptographers. If the future is such that we'll transition to some sort of blockchain-based currency, be it bitcoin or something else, the push for that will happen in the political arena before devs are actually needed for anything other than cheap scams. Cold, efficient fleets of cars moving like shoals as fish, with one mind! *Cackles*... Oh and em yes, the saved lives too. Yeah definitely, agree there. I can’t see it happening anytime some, largely because you’d need standard banks to adopt it in some form and push it and I don’t particularly see any reason they would want to at the time being. Still it would be nifty if there was a mechanism to monetise content via small microtransactions in the digital space, but alas. Charge small amounts per word read or whatever, would incentivise some good long-form content especially in the written form. I’d like to support such efforts but I can’t financial justify monthly subscriptions to things I read every so often, and I bloody hate advertisements. A huge advantage of crypto is that you eliminate the need for a middleman like banks to make international transactions so I don't necessarily think that you need banks to adopt it, as it's antithetical to their entire business scheme - they're essentially a middleman taking a cut. I'm not much of a libertarian myself but I understand the appeal of being able to transact without a 3-5% fee looming over my head for domestic transactions, without a 5-20% fee for international transactions. Plus you get some level of privacy. I don't see monetization and microtransactions as a useful use case for cryptocurrencies except for the fees thing, it's something that can easily be done centrally but I think people would be inherently uncomfortable with being charged by the word/second/page for consuming content. It reminds me of when people were on a 56k internet connection and they were metered. Bleh. For all that, many of the proponents of cryptocurrencies are complete nutcases who severely underestimate the value of the security afforded to us with credit cards. Chargebacks are awesome. Also happy birthday :D
Merci man, if I don’t post on TL again I’ve massively overdone it at the bar later, just a heads-up!
I’m not sure people would be uncomfortable with a ‘pay what you actually use’ model for certain things. Written content especially, it’s the area of most interest to me because of the difficult media has had in monetising it properly in the digital age.
Having recently bemoaned the terminal decline of Sports Illustrated and what their plan appears to be just brought the issue to mind. Those kind of long-form, incredibly well-written and properly researched pieces, often about things you’ve never even heard of never mind previously being interested in.
Good journalism costs money to make, if it doesn’t pay then click bait reigns supreme in an ad-centric model. Unlike film or music, there’s a much bigger feedback between the news sphere and wider society in general.
Indeed, hence why I don’t think it’s likely. You sort of need a bank-backed form of crypto to force the consumer confidence and widespread adoption that you’d need to facilitate the potential of things like I touched on. But they’re not going to do that because it’s antithetical to their business interests.
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On October 21 2019 22:39 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On October 21 2019 18:35 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 21 2019 08:48 Djzapz wrote:On October 21 2019 02:46 Wombat_NI wrote:On October 20 2019 19:26 LightTemplar wrote:
I feel like maybe you could ditch some of the fanciful language and make your points more approachable.
I do agree though that I'm dismayed at the lack of awareness the general software development field has
in a lot of the issues it causes. Crypto currency and self driving cars completely baffle me, they seem like an incredible waste of resources.
I also agree that the bloat attached to a lot of software is incredibly frustrating to deal with. However I think its unfair to blame that solely on corporate greed. Both producer and consumer have put unrealistic expectations on they systems. There is an element of consumers wanting things free or cheaper than cost that conspires to create these freemium or data collecting models of business.
All this said I don't really see this as having much to do with the field of software development. It is a craft in and of itself that does not nessecarily have to be part of a corporate system. It feels you have conflated the act of programming with many of the results of a consumerist society. I would echo this basically entirely. OP it seems your issue is how software development connects to a wider system, and your disillusionment from that wider system. One which I do largely share personally so find it pretty understandable. Self-driving cars I feel have potential, but they’re a potential solution to problems that could be dealt with via over means. There are huge congestion problems in giant urban conurbations, but rather than implement better public transport or indeed redirect industries to other areas, the ‘solution’ is self-driving cars. It would be a real quality of life improvement if people weren’t commuting an hour+ both ways to their job every single day, but decentralising industry or vastly improving public infrastructure no, people still want their cars. Crypto has interesting applications in basically every way I’ve looked into, outside of the one most people gravitate to, which is a bullshit get-rich-quick investment. I grew extremely disinterested with the crypto folks when this became clear to me. For example the ability to enable genuine microtransactions by virtue of being able to subdivide crypto currencies down and down has a lot of interesting potential as a way to charge for digital content without an advertising model. Of course such things don’t interest all these genius crypto ‘entrepreneurs’ It seems to me like one of main issues that self-driving cars would nearly solve is not congestion (although that's definitely a big deal) but rather >1 million deaths/year and many more injuries. Self-driving cars could reduce that by >95%, if not more. There's nothing else that can accomplish that. Considering that self-driving cards would fairly easily nearly solve those two issues, it's insane to me that anyone would call it a waste of resources. It would undoubtedly save millions of lives with widespread deployment. As for crypto, I absolutely understand the guy's view, most of the applications we've been told about are complete bullshit. It's just a decentralized censorship resistant database. The main application is as a digital transferable asset that can't be censored, that's all. The ICO industry from last year really went insane with their claims that they would revolutionize everything from patient file management to air traffic control and other far fetched madness that would very obviously be better done using conventional centralized systems and databases. There's nothing of interest there. Most of the interesting functionalities already exist in a handful of different coins. There's no need for more devs in that industry, all it needs is a handful of genius cryptographers. If the future is such that we'll transition to some sort of blockchain-based currency, be it bitcoin or something else, the push for that will happen in the political arena before devs are actually needed for anything other than cheap scams. Cold, efficient fleets of cars moving like shoals as fish, with one mind! *Cackles*... Oh and em yes, the saved lives too. Yeah definitely, agree there. I can’t see it happening anytime some, largely because you’d need standard banks to adopt it in some form and push it and I don’t particularly see any reason they would want to at the time being. Still it would be nifty if there was a mechanism to monetise content via small microtransactions in the digital space, but alas. Charge small amounts per word read or whatever, would incentivise some good long-form content especially in the written form. I’d like to support such efforts but I can’t financial justify monthly subscriptions to things I read every so often, and I bloody hate advertisements. A huge advantage of crypto is that you eliminate the need for a middleman like banks to make international transactions so I don't necessarily think that you need banks to adopt it, as it's antithetical to their entire business scheme - they're essentially a middleman taking a cut. I'm not much of a libertarian myself but I understand the appeal of being able to transact without a 3-5% fee looming over my head for domestic transactions, without a 5-20% fee for international transactions. Plus you get some level of privacy. I don't see monetization and microtransactions as a useful use case for cryptocurrencies except for the fees thing, it's something that can easily be done centrally but I think people would be inherently uncomfortable with being charged by the word/second/page for consuming content. It reminds me of when people were on a 56k internet connection and they were metered. Bleh. For all that, many of the proponents of cryptocurrencies are complete nutcases who severely underestimate the value of the security afforded to us with credit cards. Chargebacks are awesome. Also happy birthday :D Fintech is currently investing heavily into crypto technology. You might see commerical banks offering that kind of service in a year or two.
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"...Also please stop using a thesaurus..."
@dangermousecatdog
There in this time in my life is no need to add more obscurity.. I didn't spend time piecing my delivery together
searching for words..
And more.. I no longer practise my Philosophy Of Insobriety..
at times there was a certain pleasure found in launching forward into the audience, and being incoherent.
You'll find some of the most destructive.. or simply inert friendships are found when to bros really dig practising being incoherent to each other..
A miasma of disjointed concepts wrapped around a poorly concealed veneer of prose.
#dangermousecatdog
They are disjunctive..disjointed in some way, definitely..
veneer : Coating consisting of a thin layer of superior wood glued to a base of inferior wood
An ornamental coating to a building
prose : Ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
Yes.. a very disjunctive post from me, and thinly disguised.
BUT in this case.. I hoped from output from the audience, after I'd given my input.
You say it was badly disguised? I don't think so. I think I managed to in a curiously civilized way tame my feelings and contain them in this delivery.
SELF DRIVING CARS
I feel that self-driving cars are hopeless notion and only applicable if you're living in world like Syndicate PLUS..
where the roads are like semi-train tracks.
It's a terrestrial surface.. not aquatic or air-born...
And more.. when you're driving and you feel the need to press the hooter.. or on the other hand get hooted at.
You feel something, which a computer chip can't simulate!
[ ADDITION : you telling me they gonna have digital cues that listen out, an event listener that will account for the self-driving car getting hooted at? ]
concerning issue 6.. I feel something there, and the feelings thereof I haven't resolved.. obviously there are some issues there we gotta resolve
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Bisutopia19139 Posts
Change your focus. The simulation world requires a bug free environment and high efficiency in order to make something in the real world worth doing in the digital world. Simulation development forces the developer to understand many advanced sciences beyond coding in order to excel. Change what you develop and it will bring happiness to you.
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I don't understand what any of your points have to do with working as a programmer. You're pointing out a few projects you're not interested in like there exist no projects you are interested in.
The things that come to my mind when it comes to the difficulties of software development and why a person might burn out on it do not appear in any of the items on your list.
In any case, software is our generation's answer to the problem every generation faces, which is how to handle a population of increasing size at exponentially greater efficiency. Eventually humanity won't be able to answer that problem, but if no one was programming we'd be in a lot of trouble right now.
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EPT
