Replying to
@MidniteMikeWrites@zirk.us
@MidniteMikeWrites@zirk.us Good point! Have you come across a good list of the more precise terms and how to know which one applies?
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Alex Bird
@alexanderbird@mstdn.ca
Learning to build useful, valuable software as part of a team.
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RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116811128152569506
Some great alternative terms and phrases to communicate about "AI" without adopting all the misleading marketing terms:
"artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation"
"prompt → text input"
"answer → output"
"chatbot / conversational agent → conversation simulator"
"who’s right? → is the machine output correct?"
(& more in the article)
Quoting
Are you annoyed with the anthropomorphizing language being used in the "AI" discourse, but not sure how to talk about this stuff without it? Nanna Inie and I have got you covered:
https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/how-to-talk-about-ai-without-adding-to-the/
Open quoted post
Replying to
@alexanderbird@mstdn.ca
You know when you go into a store ready to spend $100 to solve a problem and someone working there tells you about a life hack and a $2 product that solves the problem better?
I want to build software like that.
I haven't seen any reasonable progress on automating empathy. That seems like a good skill to differentiate on.
Building the right product
Making sure it actually solves a problem people care about
Building the highest impact features first
This is empathy work (although on LinkedIn you can call it product and project management).
Replying to
@alexanderbird@mstdn.ca
A related peril is the stage where we have built enough that we have collected a set of regrets about the technology choices we made. Now we know how we could have done it differently. If we're not careful, we'll start rewriting the software before we've delivered it. Even if we give in to the urge and start swapping out components, we're likely to collect new regrets and form new ideas for improvement. I've heard of projects wallowing for years in rewrites and optimizations, never quite releasing.
I think it's a superpower to use the proven-but-worse tool you have in the face of exciting tool improvement ideas. Can you think of a tool improvement and not act on it? Can you deliver in the face of viable improvement ideas?
For me, the most perilous stage of software development is when we're close enough to the goal that folks' internal sense of completeness gives them the dopamine hit from being "done", but we haven't delivered yet. We get an influx of new ideas for what to do next, suggestions for internal systems to replace, ideas for how to optimize the system -- but we haven't delivered yet!
Ideally, our internal sense of completion would not come until the code is delivered to customers and proven to work.... but I've found that in practice, we often "feel done" when it's not quite done. This is a perilous stage where we're apt to distract ourselves.
Replying to
@alexanderbird@mstdn.ca
We don't know what to build unless we empathize with the people using the software. We feel what they feel, influenced by a lifetime of art we have experienced, and make a decision about what would be best for the person using the software we're writing.
Technology development work is about understanding, caring about, and improving the experience of others.
Your statistics engine doesn't care about me so it can't make good choices about what software to make me.
It's fitting that the software industry, which famously undervalues the relational work, empathy, and compassion that is actually an integral part of software development, would become convinced that a statistical engine could be a viable substitute for a human software developer.
Replying to
@mipsytipsy@hachyderm.io
@mipsytipsy@hachyderm.io Thank you!!
Really minor, but instead of a goodreads link for "More Everything Forever", you linked to a Google Search for "more everything forever goodreads"... which, to be fair, did bring me directly to the goodreads link, but I imagine it was not an intentional indirection 😂
Replying to
@alexanderbird@mstdn.ca
"programming properly should be regarded as ... forming or achieving a certain kind of insight ... into the matters at hand"
"This suggestion is in contrast to what appears to be the more common notion, that programming is ... a production of a program and certain other texts"
💯
The work is to produce the insights; the text we generate is not the work, it is the record of the work.
"Using Naur's ideas, the designer's job is not to pass along 'the design' but to pass along 'the theories' driving the design. The latter goal is more useful and more appropriate. It also highlights that knowledge of the theory is tacit in the owning, and so passing along the theory requires passing along both explicit and tacit knowledge"
from https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.pdf
💯
I think this is a nuanced, software-specific way to say "don't assign people tasks, instead explain the goals and share what you know so they can make good choices on their own instead of (poorly) executing on your private choices"
The weirdest thing just happened. I updated the Ente Photos desktop app (it prompted me to update), and then it showed me a dialog with the list of changes in the update. And many of the changes seemed valuable to me! One of them was genuinely exciting!
I can't remember the last time "a new version is available" led to anything positive. Refreshing.
RE: @cocoaphony@mastodon.social
"And we made it be ok by being bored and fixing stuff"
This! This is such a good description of something I've felt for a while but not been able to articulate. One important software development skill is to be able to focus on boring repetition. Sure, sometimes we automate. But sometimes the details are nuanced enough that every case is different, but similar enough that it's boring. And that's the job. Pay attention to all the details, continue caring about them after you've seen 100 similar but not identical cases, and keep going.
Replying to
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
@sundogplanets Thank you for doing this work!! It's so hard to create articulate, logical responses to infuriating nonsense. I really appreciate you powering through! Keep the rants coming if they help you! There are supportive strangers on the internet cheering you on 🥳 😡
Replying to
@qcoding@iosdev.space
@qcoding@iosdev.space Yes! So helpful!
I like to use the variant "intend to" instead of "going to" to make it more comfortable to disagree with me -- "I intend to do this thing, any objections or comments before I start?"
Or sometimes I put a time limit for comments: "I will do this thing at 11:30am unless I hear otherwise -- any objections?" and then at 11:30 "I haven't heard any objections, so I'm doing the thing now"
Replying to
@praxeology@post.lurk.org
@praxeology@post.lurk.org Yes!! I tried this out in a conversation with a coworker; it went well.
Me: "One sec, I'm just going to disable interruptions"
Them: "pardon me?"
Me: "You know, the number badges on the app icons? Interruptions. Some people call them notifications."
We had a good laugh. I think I may make this a permanent change to my vocabulary 😅.