gerikson

joined 2 years ago
[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 1 month ago

Remember FizzBuzz? That was originally a simple filter exercise some person recruiting programmers came up with to weed out everyone with multi-year CS degrees but zero actual programming experience.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 9 points 1 month ago

The argument would be stronger (not strong, but stronger) if he could point to an existing numbering system that is little-endian and somehow show it's better

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

The guy who thinks it's important to communicate clearly (https://awful.systems/comment/7904956) wants to flip the number order around

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KXr8ys8PYppKXgGWj/english-writes-numbers-backwards

I'll consider that when the Yanks abandon middle-endian date formatting.

Edit it's now tagged as "Humor" on LW. Cowards. Own your cranks.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So here's a poster on LessWrong, ostensibly the space to discuss how to prevent people from dying of stuff like disease and starvation, "running the numbers" on a Lancet analysis of the USAID shutdown and, having not been able to replicate its claims of millions of dead thereof, basically concludes it's not so bad?

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qgSEbLfZpH2Yvrdzm/i-tried-reproducing-that-lancet-study-about-usaid-cuts-so

No mention of the performative cruelty of the shutdown, the paltry sums involved compared to other gov expenditures, nor the blow it deals to American soft power. But hey, building Patriot missiles and then not sending them to Ukraine is probably net positive for human suffering, just run the numbers the right way!

Edit ah it's the dude who tried to prove that most Catholic cardinals are gay because heredity, I think I highlighted that post previously here. Definitely a high-sneer vein to mine.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 1 month ago

No replies and somehow that screen name just screams "troll" to me.

Not that I really care, git can go DIAF as far as I'm concerned.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

janitorai - which seems to be a hosting site for creepy AI chats - is blocking all UK visitors due to the OSA

https://blog.janitorai.com/posts/3/

I'm torn here, the OSA seems to me to be massive overreach but perhaps shielding limeys from AI is wroth it

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Guys, how about we made the coming computer god a fan of Robert Nozick, what could go wrong?

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/us8ss79mWCgTcSKoK/a-night-watchman-asi-as-a-first-step-toward-a-great-future

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 2 months ago

Vegemite?

I'll get my coat.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

Here's an example of normal people using Bayes correctly (rationally assigning probabilities and acting on them) while rats Just Don't Get Why Normies Don't Freak Out:

For quite a while, I've been quite confused why (sweet nonexistent God, whyyyyy) so many people intuitively believe that any risk of a genocide of some ethnicity is unacceptable while being… at best lukewarm against the idea of humanity going extinct.

(Dude then goes on to try to game-theorize this, I didn't bother to poke holes in it)

The thing is, genocides have happened, and people around the world are perfectly happy to advocate for it in diverse situations. Probability wise, the risk of genocide somewhere is very close to 1, while the risk of "omnicide" is much closer to zero. If you want to advocate for eliminating something, working to eliminating the risk of genocide is much more rational than working to eliminate the risk of everyone dying.

At least on commenter gets it:

Most people distinguish between intentional acts and shit that happens.

(source)

Edit never read the comments (again). The commenter referenced above obviously didn't feel like a pithy one liner adhered to the LW ethos, and instead added an addendum wondering why people were more upset about police brutality killing people than traffic fatalities. Nice "save", dipshit.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 13 points 2 months ago

yeah but have you considered how much it's worth that gramma can vibecode a todo app in seconds now???

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Haven't really kept up with the pseudo-news of VC funded companies acquiring each other, but it seems Windsurf (previously been courted by OpenAI) is now gonna be purchased by the bros behind Devin.

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