Notes
Thoughts on AI to help with little bits of code
I know AI in coding is a touchy subject, but I’ve been learning a lot using Claude to help do things I otherwise had no idea how to do. I still have to know what I’m trying to realistically accomplish and what code I need to change, and how to shoehorn it into the rest of the code it without breaking everything.
It's ok to disagree
I was talking to a coworker about his experience buying a car recently. Every time the salesman would suggest something, he’d push back like “eh I don’t like that color” or “yeah I don’t really like that brand.” Then the salesman would cave and agree like “oh yeah; that’s an ugly color. I hate Chevys too.”
He got annoyed and bought a car somewhere else. Don’t be a sycophant. It’s okay to have your own opinions, even if you’re a car salesman.
A hate hate relationship
I’m lucky in the relationship department. We rarely ever fight and when we do, we might avoid each other for the rest of the day or maybe a couple days if it’s a particularly bad argument but we always approach it in a diplomatic way once we’ve both gathered our bearings. We work through it and come out of the other side understanding each other a little better than before when it’s all said and done.
Digital clutter
A messy home can really bring my mood down. I always feel a lot better when the floors are vacuumed and mopped and there isn’t a bunch of junk all over the table.
I feel the same way about my digital life. It almost gives me a stroke when I see someone with five or six home screens packed edge to edge with apps. Especially junk apps they installed to use one time and just left them there like some kind of barbarian.
COVID made me rethink my career
I’m just getting over a bad case of COVID, so that means back to work. It’s pretty sad to admit, but even with how shitty I’ve felt for the last 10 days, it was nice forgetting about the daily grind. I slept as much as I could every day, I caught up on a lot of good television and I finally got to spend some much needed quality time with my partner.
No sick days
I’m on day four of COVID. Started feeling a little weird at work Friday and I woke up Saturday feeling like I got thrown down a flight of stairs. I told my boss I should be good just taking the weekend off and I’ll be back Monday.
Yeah, that didn’t take. I woke up feeling even worse Monday. I was so hoarse I could barely talk. Whatever I did manage to get out sounded like Darth Vader on his death bed.
Overthinking: a self-inflicted scam
I’m bad about overthinking. Like obnoxiously bad.
I can never leave well enough alone because I start thinking about what I should have done or how I can do the same thing, only better.
Then a few days later I’ve forgotten all about whatever it was and I’m already overthinking the next thing.
It’s a self inflicted scam. We’re constantly learning new things and getting better at the things we already know through repetition. So I end up in a perpetual battle against myself that I can’t win. I guess I can’t really lose, either.
Don't meet your heroes: Mr. Beast edition
I keep getting sucked into watching the Mr. Beast drama that’s been going on for the last few weeks. Ava Tyson was called out for sending inappropriate Discord messages to minors and since then more and more former employees are coming out and revealing all sorts of greasy stuff about what goes on behind the scenes over there.
I don’t even watch their videos but it’s been so interesting to see it unfold because it’s the most beloved and successful YouTube channel to ever exist. I feel like it’s one of those “don’t meet your heroes” scenarios. If you look into the personal lives of celebrities, you might find a lot of sketchy or downright repulsive behavior.
People who don't tip
I don’t get the anti-tipping culture on Reddit. There’s a whole community of people who never leave tips, pretending to protest in favor of the tipped employee because their wages should be higher? “Hey I don’t think you make enough money so I’m punishing you for your boss making you rely on tips to survive”
I used AI to generate a robots.txt that blocks AI
I’m so fucking lazy. I’ve never really messed with robots.txt. I’m kinda new to personal blogging; back in the 2000s I had a tech blog but I wanted everything to index my site. I even submitted my link to a bunch of off brand search engines to get my name out there.
But now there’s AI bots scraping websites like iFixit literally a million times a day.
On anxiety
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get on the right medications to bring my anxiety levels from a blood curdling scream to a dull whimper. I think I’ve got it mostly squared away at this point in my life.
The circular thinking and stressing over things I shouldn’t care about are pretty much gone, but then there’s the issue of actual anxiety. The kind you’re supposed to feel when something’s wrong - like when you’re in physical danger or when you fuck something up so bad you know the only option is to stand up and face the music.
I’ve spent so much of my life trying to numb this stuff that it’s kind of a shocker when there’s actually something to stress about. I hate it so much my first instinct is always to do whatever I can to shut it down. That usually means drinking too much and breathing in more nicotine than oxygen for a night or two. I gotta work on that.
It’s bittersweet though. The sweet part is that I realize why I have anxiety and I’ve finally come to terms with it, and I’ve been prescribed the right medications to keep it in check. The bitter part is realizing anxiety and fear are normal, essential parts of being alive. You wouldn’t really be living if you didn’t feel that way sometimes.
Trading Material You for Apple's walled garden
I was a loyal Android fanboy since my very first smartphone: the LG Optimus running Android 2.2 Froyo
Before that, I was obsessed with everything Google was doing. I was naive enough to think they actually lived by the “don’t be evil” mantra. Search was still good and Google+ was a cool nerdy alternative to Facebook. They were making Linux mainstream with their highly customizable open source iPhone alternative and I was there for it.
Apocalypse Now(ish)
Sometimes I wonder if anyone else shares the same views on “the end” as I do. I’m not trying to be edgy and I’m not a doomer or an accelerationist but with all the crazy shit going on in the world, it’s easy to imagine a doomsday scenario where we don’t have to pay bills or go to work anymore. There’s probably radioactive fallout and immense suffering involved, but you gotta weigh the positives and negatives, ya know?
Web 2.0 tricked us
I’m a little too young to have really appreciated the pre-Web 2.0 internet. Me and my cousin had our own Tripod sites when we were kids but we really didn’t know what we were doing.
Then we got a little older and MySpace came out. It was like having your own little stripped down website but some guy named Tom hosted all of your data. You could customize some things with html but it was more locked down than actually hosting something on your own.