Posts from 1 October 2023

Anyone else see "AI" and just switch off? If I'm looking for some new software or a SaaS, or I open an article and it mentions AI, I immediately go back or close the tab. I'm just so fed up of it appearing in *everything*. I get it has a use (I wouldn't even say it's a purpose) but it seems some products have gone hard on it and I'm just bored of hearing about it now.

Does anyone have any resources for managing neurodiverse people at work? I have an autistic+ADHD pal who needs support and adjustments made in how they work (e.g. better ways of tracking hours, trouble with being interrupted during a task, looming existential dread at unplanned meetings and most of all difficulty articulating needs) and it would be great to send them something they can show their manager.

The longer I spend in the software industry the more I think that the primacy of "don't repeat yourself," in all its many forms and scales, is a tragic flaw. I think it is far, far harder than most anyone would like to admit, to write something that is usefully and sustainably reusable over any but the shortest distances in space and time.

In conversation w a friend, she was surprised when I said we won't have electricity after social collapse. She asked "why? What happens to electricity?" I had to then explain that infrastructure needs people to maintain and if things fall apart, nobody will keep the generators going or the wires in check. She seemed surprised by this. Is this why people don't seem worried about what's coming? They have no idea??? I was trying to hide my shock that I had to explain this to someone who isn't a child. I think I take too much for granted and assume too much of people's ability to be logical. Now her obsession with social issues at the expense of #ClimateCrisis makes sense. I was always wondering how someone on the left would not care about collapse. I have tried to explain before that as much as I share her concerns about the many dire issues that do need dealing with, none of it matters if climate change causes collapse. Then we won't have social housing, or equity, or any of the other things she cares about. (she was even part of a group that protested demanding "affordable gas") Her look of shock finally helped me realize that she has absolutely no idea what #ClimateCollapse means. No idea. I've been arguing with her all these years and she's had no idea. I don't even know what to say. There's no way she's the only one. Lots of well intentioned people say "yes climate is important but....". I am here to tell you that none of those other issues will even exist in the face of climate and social collapse. I don't know if the average person can even image the number of deaths that we are facing when the society we built loses electricity.

The days feel like they're zooming by...