This is fun!

The following isn’t a knock on anyone doing cool stuff like this: I’ve avoided any sort of tinkering and automation of my gardening because I find gardening to be a slower-moving, meditative escape from technology. My brain shifts into a different mode (almost a flow state?) when I’m out working in the soil and tending to my plants.

Have had success at work, real value, real results.

Example: extracting a bunch of data from a tool we’re required to use at my company for getting a bunch of performance metrics. The data is useful but the interface is awful and it’s impossible to pull out trends and spot the real information I need from it. So, I threw Claude at it after months of dreaming of being able to better use the data. It generated for me in a few minutes all the data I could hope for in a CSV I was able to load into another tool that gave me deep insights almost immediately and allowed me to go make some different decisions I otherwise wouldn’t have.

What I did:

1. I have created and curated a set of sub-agents and commands/workflows for building things for me.

2. I used my build command, which details a workflow for refining, planning, implementing, code reviewing, testing, then conducting a final “product review” to determine if original requirements were met.

3. I then review the code myself before running it.

The code was solid (I’m also a very strong engineer and have tailored my agents and workflows to generate code I’d be comfortable with).

Another example: one of my teams went on a journey to convert one of our internal legacy frontend applications to a newer shared component library and eliminate old cruft that we inherited when we inherited the codebase.

The team was able to get this massive UI rewrite done in under two weeks, the updated code was better than the original code (it was all React to React, TypeScript to TypeScript), and we eliminated (literally) hundreds of thousands of lines of old hand-written over-abstracted code. Bundle sizes dramatically down, higher performance, more modern UX, and the thing is in production and working. Real value: faster product iteration in this now far smaller and easier-to-work-with codebase, far less technical debt, and faster builds, etc.

The team only used GitHub Copilot for this and it required a bunch of iteration and starting over with different instructions, but they got there and still managed to save a ridiculous amount of time; hand-writing the UI migration would have been one of those multi-month projects that went over schedule (I’ve seen and lived that movie many times before).

I’m still very skeptical of all the hype but I’ve seen very real, very valuable results out of this stuff.

edit: formatting

How subtle are the flavors? Unsubtle enough that an oblivious taster might ask, "Does this bread taste like grapes to anyone else here?" Or does one need guidance to search for the flavor?

Some of my most productive use of software (in both personal and professional settings) have been with TUIs.

Even with all the hype around AI right now (and we’re working with that, too), we can’t not have more traditional UIs to keep a human in the loop when it matters the most and as a fallback for when AI misses the mark - but that doesn’t have to mean it’s all click heavy.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45771012

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

This gives me vibes of a weird company takeover, a la the kinds of things that happened in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: government-driven benefits to large corporations and investors with friends in the right places, government involvement, forced licensure of a core aspect of the product (Rearden Metal?).

I’d like to learn more about: what are some other similar instances of such a thing?

Will check out the repo linked at the end of your message.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45245327

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

I’m opposed to these mega corps and looking (hoping) for some silver lining here that gives me some hope. Sibling comments have educated on that front.

I realize it’s impossible to predict what comes next, but I’m curious about analogs to this merger and what one could reasonably expect to happen over the next many years.

My philosophy is showing in that I don’t see these deals as good for competition or the market in general, so I’m (perhaps hopelessly) looking for the silver lining here.

  $ asciinema rec test.cast
  
  $ cat test.cast | svg-term --out=test.svg

edit: formatting

Dragging the letters to the word spots was the first thing I did to start visualizing, which was busy work I found no value in doing.

Otherwise, interesting and challenging!

Would love to hear other stories of businesses doing similar activities during sane weekday hours.

Once I scrolled down a bit, I was able to scroll normally afterwards.

On the content: I enjoyed your article! B&H being closed for Sabbath saved me from almost blowing $10k on camera gear a few years ago... everything in my cart, but couldn't check out. I wouldn't say I churned, but I also didn't come back to purchase because I had pre-buyers remorse.

As others in the comments have noted, though - I still come back and shop at B&H for other things, even though I've run into their closures. I actually like the humanity of it. For all the always-on-ness of the internet and websites... there's something innately "human" about something being closed, like B&H's site, that isn't upsetting to me.

How has Sweden treated you and your family, and how do you feel about the general economic outlook for yourself and your children?

Are expats accepted there? What kind of challenges could I expect if Sweden were a consideration?

edit: small tweak

California is so prohibitively expensive that they'll be forever renters, unable to save, unless they get an extremely high-paying job that allows that serious privilege and opportunity. That's not guaranteed, at all.

The state I'm in now is comparatively far less inexpensive than my home state, but it's getting more and more expensive and, even here, I worry about my kids being able to truly get on their feet and being able to make a life of their own. It's scary to see what the generations currently coming up are facing, no matter the location in the country - and to see the economy being hit hard with a sledgehammer right now makes it even scarier.

If I pulled the trigger, it would be to a similar CoL location, but that still gets to their point: if many people do the same, prices go up. Housing availability goes down. And all the knock-on effects that could result in "gentrification."

How do I balance that (and all sorts of other things) with my desire to keep my family safe and give my children a chance at a solid future, though? I'm not sure, which is why I feel so much consternation and a need to gather more information to inform how I'll decide to act in the future.

It's not just my partner, but also my kids I'm concerned about. The idea of moving my whole family to another country feels overwhelming, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it means my children can have a chance at a good life, versus what I'm starting to fear they'll experience here.

I appreciate the reminder of patience.