CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@raganwald I think it's very important for us to take lessons from the manufacturing industry here. In the US at least, it's incredibly difficult to make anything domestically. Complicating things further, a Smarter Every Day video from several months ago found that, not only have we lost the ability to make things, we've lost the ability to make the things that make things. In his case, he found that finding folks who knew how to make the molds and metal stamping components was difficult to impossible to find domestically.

And we're gladly walking into the same trap with knowledge work. It isn't enough that we're outsourcing software development itself. We're outsourcing the ability to make new software engineers. (And, being an Ops person, I'd argue that we're doing that with all knowledge-based roles in general.)

@HopelessDemigod I voted under the assumption that you were meaning "the country that is the furthest from the exact center of the Earth", which I took to explain the interesting wording of the poll.

DrMrsSys is out at a concert with a friend, so it's me, myself, and I for dinner and evening plans. Maybe start Season 2 of The Pitt?

@t54r4n1 I hate this place sometimes.

Why does it always feel like only the Bad Guys are ever hiring?

@HopelessDemigod As a fellow serial procrastinator, it's a case of "I can't reasonably let the grass get any longer for fear of social consequences (read: side-eye from the neighbors), and it's going to be raining the next few days, so this is the only time I really have to do it in."

@inthehands I think this is incredibly relevant. I think it's capitalism's attempt to turn software development into what it produces elsewhere. Cheap, disposable, quickly and easily replaced. It doesn't care about quality almost by definition - if you build a product that lasts for years, you'll limit your sales opportunities. In my opinion, LLMs are capitailists' latest attempt to turn software development and products into something that's cheap, disposable, and almost non-durable and resilient by design.

@corgibros Happy birthday, Floof! I hope the treats are extra delightful today!

@t54r4n1 Did you also catch the streetcar museum as well? One can also go there and be totally normal about trams. https://www.doorsopenminneapolis.org/venues-2026/minnesota-streetcar-museum-george-isaacs-carbarn

@inthehands Is there a preferred voting strategy that helps you folks plan better? I basically voted for every talk that met or surpassed a standard of "Huh, that's neat, I'd see that if there was nothing better at that time."

I wound up with 40 total votes, which in hindsight is a bit high for 8 session blocks. I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of whether I fall in the "useful data" or the "just clicked on everything" bucket?