Reposts from 3 January 2024

If I installed new server software that served websites 500% faster but also crashed sometimes, your first question would be "how frequent are the crashes?" and if I shrugged you'd back away slowly and start looking for my replacement. But with LLMs & hallucinations that's just normal operating conditions and you're a luddite if you ask too much about it.

git blame, but it tells you who reviewed the code instead

I just learned the phrase "circus factor" ("If you or someone on your team ran away to join the circus, how stressful would it be for the rest of the team?") and I like it much better than the widely-used phrase "bus factor". https://mercedesbernard.com/speaking/minimize-circus-factor/

new rule: if your company puts a LLM bot on the front lines of your customer support effort, your company should be legally bound to adhere to whatever the LLM bot states on your behalf. oh, you put a lying machine at the front door and it's telling people your product does things it doesn't actually do? and now you're stuck making your product do these things? maybe you'll think twice about deploying lying machines...

@jwz@mastodon.social @anildash@me.dm http is stored in the balls