Also something most folks don't know: about 70% of the firefighters in the US are volunteers. If you're in a big city you'll have 4 paid folks on an engine (maybe 3 and 1 intern) but as soon as you venture out of the city you'll see more engines 100% staffed by volunteers. And if you don't know the difference that's a good thing!

Fire departments run on budgets that would also shock you (how low they are).

Otherwise if they're in a car, they'd have to drive back through traffic to the station, move their gear to the new vehicle, and drive back to the scene. It can cost valuable time. Fire engines carry a surprisingly large amount of tools and equipment for a variety of purposes.

That being said, many larger departments are trying out "cars" (usually an SUV) with two people and a med bag to go to medical calls. While the engine/truck and crew stay at the station. This is fairly expensive with the new vehicle, equipment and extra staffing. However it is being done now with success in urban areas.

As a developer I'm bullish on coding agents and GenAI tools, because they can save you time and can augment your abilities. I've experienced it, and I've seen it enough already. I love them, and want to see them continue to be used.

I'm bearish on the idea that "vibe coding" can produce much of value, and people without any engineering background becoming wildly productive at building great software. I know I'm not alone. If you're a good problem solver who doesn't know how to code, this is your gateway. And you better learn what's happening with the code while you can to avoid creating a huge mess later on.

Developers argue about the quality of "vibe coded" stuff. There are good arguments on both sides. At some point I think we all agree that AI will be able generate high quality software faster than a human, someday. But today is not that day. Many will try to convince you that it is.

Within a few years we'll see massive problems from AI generated code, and it's for one simple reason:

Managers and other Bureaucrats do not care about the quality of the software.

Read it again if you have to. It's an uncomfortable idea, but it's true. They don't care about your flow. They don't care about how much you love to build quality things. They don't care if software is good or bad they care about closing tickets and creating features. Most of them don't care, and have never cared about the "craft".

If you're a master mason crafting amazing brickwork, you're exactly the same as some amateur grabbing some bricks from home depot and slapping a wall together. A wall is a wall. That's how the majority of managers view software development today. By the time that shoddy wall crumbles they'll be at another company anyway so it's someone else's problem.

When I talk about the software industry collapsing now, and in a few years we're mired with garbage software everywhere, this is why. These people in "leadership" are salivating at the idea of finally getting something for nothing. Paying a few interns to "vibe code" piles of software while they high five each other and laugh.

It will crash. The bubble will pop.

Developers: Keep your skills sharp and weather out the storm. In a few years you'll be in high demand once again. When those walls crumble, they will need people who what they're doing to repair it. Ask for fair compensation to do so.

Even if I'm wrong about all of this I'm keeping my skills sharp. You should too.

This isn't meant to be anti-management, but it's based on what I've seen. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

* And to the original point, In my experience the tools interrupt the "flow" but don't necessarily take the joy out of it. I cannot do suggestion/autocomplete because it breaks my flow. I love having a chat window with AI nearby when I get stuck or want to generate some boilerplate.

Now that I'm starting another big Go project I'm going to look at it again.

What I like most about this book is it feels like it's all "real world" stuff. You can tell the author has built a lot with Go and can save you time by telling you were the potholes are. Great stuff!

And I love the design/UI.

Your father's contributions are immeasurable. Just reading the word "QModem" gave me an instant flashback to my youth. QModem was my gateway to the outside world.

I grew up way out in the country. I was the 80s and I was pretty isolated from technology and didn't even know anyone who cared about it at first. I started tinkering with our home PC, and I finally purchased a modem and figured out how to connect to BBSs. This changed my life. I had many sleepless nights as teenager, connecting everywhere I could. QModem was like a fancy car that drove me anywhere I wanted to go.

I became obsessed with learning and tweaking things. AT commands, autoexec.bat, QModem scripting. Whatever I could figure out to get maximum performance and fast download speeds. Because of Qmodem, I could download games, text files, and even talk with other people. This moment in time defined my future. I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life.

I owe thanks to your father and what he built for my wonderful career, and 40 years of enjoying technology. Without something as easy to learn and reliable as QModem, who knows what path my life would have taken.

The whole thing seems silly as I don't see it's costing them money. But it's their product they can do what they want.

The "polish" and working on it is part of craft, it's no different than carving something out of wood and not showing it to anyone. You still had fun creating the product and shaping it how you wanted.

I also run a blog and have since 1997. Didn't start seriously contributing until 2008 or so. It's a labor of love and I do it for many of the reasons stated here. Love to write, love to push myself to make things more "usable" for folks other than me. And it helps me check myself on certain topics (do I understand this enough to teach it to someone else?)

I have been hassled by some younger folks who say "blogging is dead" (can't argue with that) and it's a waste of time because it will never make me viral, rich, or famous (I knew that before I started). But I do it for me, and I still recommend other people do it as well. It's good for the soul.

I was a BB customer and worked for Hollywood Video for quite a while, just as Netflix started taking over. It was sad.

There's a lot to be said about the "old school" way of movie rentals. Looking back and seeing Netflix and the other streaming options sprouting up, and the "cut the cord" movement.. it was neat. Until you look at where we are now. We're now paying and exponential amount of money for the same level of entertainment.

We all got swindled, and it's too late to do anything about it now.

Source: I know of a company that paid for a huge package, and routinely removed bad (true) reviews about said company. They loved it.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38483561

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Especially when you're charging premium prices for a machine that "just works".

Guilty as charged. I stated that because multiple variables are at play. New OS, plus new chipset. I don't know which is the culprit of most of these problems.

Sorry, but your reply is really funny, even if it's a jab at me.

I outlined the reasons for the 4080, full knowing it's drastically less performance than the 4090. I balanced power usage, heat and noise vs how much performance I need.

Doesn't make your comment any less hilarious though.