Thats what "autoresearch" does, init?

Same. Luckily I enjoy the process of refactoring and deleting code is nearly arousing, so I get the initial dopamine rush of wow this works, followed by the dopamine rush of "wow now this is cleaner and works so much better". Keeps me in touch with the codebase too.

Pruning code is to software engineers what cancelling plans is to introverts :)

I think I need to work up a Claude skill named marie-kondo, so that when it breathlessly presents its triumphant solution, I can go “yes, but does it spark joy?” And have it go into an aggressive refactor loop with me.

Sounded like fun so had Claude do one up here: https://github.com/fragmede/marie-kondo-ai-skill

Hypothetical future callers, "for extensibility" abstractions, single-use helpers, ceremonial try/except blocks, and options dicts with one key all get culled.

—

But this is never the problem. Claude WILL NOT abstract and WILL NOT use your abstractions. It finds them all “ceremonial” and the idea that you could add something that might seem indirect that actually dramatically reduces the problem space is almost impossible to convey.

You can watch this in action for any API whose design you’re familiar with in a domain you understand well. If you attempt to design the same API with Claude, your will invariably get a mess of flat, insane types and no reuse. I’m talking an array of tuples of maps of set to map type insanity.

What has been helping is a mandatory pass of “Claudisms”, but even then it can only find the problem and never the solution.

It is so frustrating.

I question any dev who doesn't get aroused by deleting code.

I just removed an entire graphql endpoint - 500 lines of front and back-end code. I may need to be hosed down.

`$JOB` recently introduced the `#red-diffs` Slack channel. I just submitted ` +4 / -28,742`. Pretty proud.

It's so beautiful.

Get a room!

Of course, if we could just persecute minorities again, that would reduce the theft.

Please know that I'm being sarcastic.

Same. I even convinced my mom to buy me a transfer cable so I could distribute my programs to my classmates. I was the "plug" for a brief time. Probably my closest taste of being "popular". It was nice.

I ended up building my own by "repurposing" and old printer parallel cable that my dad wasn't using. He wasn't thrilled about that, but seemed a little bit proud at what I did with it.

I eventually made enough money from "donations" from people to buy a proper cable, which did improve my DX quite a bit. The hacked up parallel cable wasn't the most reliable...

Programming mine in high school is how I ended up coding for the first time and led to my current career. Honestly a pretty good investment (from my parents) I'd say.

Same.

I bounced off a python 2 tutorial and a C tutorial, but some random nobody's TI-BASIC tutorial that started really damn easy is how I became a Computer Scientist.

I eventually figured out python too!

I made my own game and got a little notoriety around the school for it.

Same for me, it was also my first time ever seeing code, and I still remember it well. While getting ready for swim practice in a locker room, my friend challenged me to beat his score on a button mashing game he programmed earlier that day in school on his TI-84. My 12 year old self was in awe of his BASIC skills.

It wasn't the first time I programmed but it was first time I encountered problem solving with code.

I'm not one those (very admirable) people who build just to build, who make their own version of frogger or something. I need a problem to solve.

But making a program that would take the parameters of a physics problem and spit out all the other quantities or that formatted output the way my stats teacher wanted it was a huge timesaver and that motivated me.

same. My first real exposure to coding was hacking Drug Wars on my brothers old ti-89 in math class.

This new one has python, imagine

Too many people think being good at designing a UI primarily means knowing where to put something on a page.

Honestly, if we could even get that level of thought, it would be an improvement.

Probably a smart move. Writing and mailing a letter takes a lot more time and effort than a phone call or comment online. If a person took the time to write a letter, they're probably worth taking the time to respond to.

I wonder if this is a technique used by certain leaders of authoritarian regimes to take out people in power they they deem threats. Everyone in the party routinely breaks laws, knowingly or otherwise. The person in charge can decide they don't like someone and start an investigation, knowing they'll eventually find something illegal. Then they can delegitimize and remove them under the guise of "corruption".

Absolutely. It's often more calculated than that though. The only way (by design) to succeed in the regime is through corruption - you're giving the leader the rope to hang you with if you ever fall out of favor.

Very much so: “everyone does it” means that the leader can destroy anyone who doesn’t toe the line while seeming to be following a reasonable law.

And only a few steps further and the leader rarely needs to employ the service of obedient judges, but opponents "just" fall out of windows.

Exactly. See also underposted speed limits, for example. It's not about being able to stop everybody, it's about being able to stop anybody.

I found a similar blog post like this years ago at the start of my career and started keeping a Rhodia Webnotebook A5. I've got over a dozen now from all my years of work. Nice for nostalgia

Very interesting. Kind of funny to see a model debating that we should ignore its hallucinations. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

Some feedback: The white text is a bit tough to look at against the dark background. Darkgrey was a lot easier on the eyes for me.

Appreciate the feedback, updated :)