I didn't write a blog post.
I thought that since caddy is already managing dns records anyway to pass DNS-01 ACME validations and update HTTPS records, wouldn't it be nice if I could just have it manage all of them and keep my desired DNS state checked into git?
This is exactly the duct tape scenario. There are a bunch of systems that bound the problem: Caddy's app lifecycle, the Caddyfile configuration system, libdns interfaces, DNS semantics, the Go language. Sure, there are a lot of little decisions that need to be made that fall into the "taste" category (no promises), and the sync engine itself is a new brand component, but by and large once the idea was formulated the problem domain is narrow enough for an LLM to stitch the systems together.
It was done in about two days of personal time. I read through all the code and rewrote a good portion of it manually. I probably could have written it from scratch myself with two weeks of full time effort (honestly I would have stumbled a bit on DNS recordset semantics which I was not very familiar). Instead it cost me $100. (I will reconsider my LLM usage patterns for the next project...)
Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive?
This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this
I wonder if these people are just avoiding thinking about the tough things in their lives.
I wonder if these people are just scared of being human, so reaching for any distraction they can get.
I've tried to stop taking my phone with me when I go to the bathroom. When I shower. When I go to bed. Because I think we all have these same addictions. There's things that suck in life. But maybe if we put our phones down we can work together to solve these things.
- Written on godelski's iPhone while pooping
Children are financially dependent on the parents to provide for them. There's not really much way around that. It makes sense that if you can do more things within the time that is left that people will try to figure out how to cram those things in. What we would have resigned to give up in the past now seems possible to attain with enough AI credits and tools.
a) listen to a useless podcast of two people blathering on about nothing.
b) come up with an idea, and have a coding agent start implementing it; maybe go back and forth on how to improve it.
seems like b is a better use of time.
or c) just stare into the void and let your thoughts consume you; this is my favorite, I don't like listening to stuff when I drive.
Surprisingly difficult to do. The assumption is that there are some things we do in our life that act as a blank space that must be filled with something. Productivity, or deep thought, or whatever. People go through life always doing something so there's never a "wasted" moment, but I'd argue thats a recipe for burnout and unhappiness.
There's a buddhist concept of suchness, seeing things exactly as they are in the present without judging them or trying to change them. Doing anything else but "just driving" is trying to live somewhere other than where you actually are. Where ever you are, and whatever you are doing right now is what life is, your life isn't somewhere else in the future, and you don't need to escape from a mundane task and rush somewhere else to experience life. All of it is life, even the boring parts.
No. I need to create. That energizes me, and I have far too little time for it.
But I don't regret it. Those years are the foundation of the career I have in my 30's.
Back in those days, when I wasn't at a computer, I was listening to non-fiction audiobooks on business and software. I don't know how I had such motivation bvack then, but I'm glad I capitalized on it while I had it.
In other words, to people reading questioning if they're working too much: it's okay to work hard as long as you're doing it for the right reasons. (I'll purposely leave "right reasons" undefined, that's on you to evaluate)
I'm just generally not a fan of people putting other people down for wanting to be productive. It's okay to work hard, and it's okay if your identity is your work at least for a short time in your life.
But also it can be alienating and dismissive. I have the habit of working every single day. Weekends, holidays, on vacation. Over the years more than one roommate and family member would eventually call me on it. I felt judged. I took it harder than they intended.
I think to them it was a sacrifice. My work ethic was a cost. I could have been out with friends, on the beach takin in the sun. But instead I felt it necessary to toil away toward some Capitalistic superficial goal.
But it's not a toiling cost to me. It's a healthy habit in the way that a morning workout is a healthy habit. It's lucky that enjoying one's work can also "pay off" in the traditional sense. I think that's the key: only you know why you're working. If it's toil toward some Capitalistic superficial goal, just make sure you're aware of your tradeoff.
If it's your morning coffee, I see you buddy! Enjoy your day.
I'm glad this worked out for you
As a small counter anecdote I guess, I was this person in my 20s too. I arranged my whole life around work, constantly trying to get that next rung. Then I burned out, quit my job, moved to a new city and was unemployed for a year. My career has been pretty decent since then, but it almost had nothing to do with the hard work in my 20s. It's just that where I was working before didn't reward the hard work and where I am now rewards the work I do even though I don't work nearly as hard as I used to
Anyways. All I'm really saying is if you're going to work yourself to the bone trying to get ahead, make sure to take a breath once in a while and look around. Check in with yourself to ensure that the hard work is actually paying off, building the life you want. Otherwise it's just trading your youth and getting nothing in return
I personally feel that working reasonable hours even when junior is just as productive for learning, etc. The only thing I learned from being a workaholic is, to not be a workaholic.
I received some advice to simply add 15 minute of additional "work" a week, and not any more until I could handle it to my baseline... and then be sure to add 15 minutes of "balance" a week as well. Where my work days would go long, I found I was able to tie in habits to go for a walk, eat, etc. This did let me stretch quite far for a longer time, and burn out was a much lower risk.
How efficiently or effectively I learned those lessons could be debatable, but putting in sheer hours on learning and learning to apply things has compounded in some areas very strongly.
At the same time it must be acknowledged that doing this in a way that is not balanced can naturally lead to under development in other areas and it's worth trying to stay mindful of.
Hard work isn't a bad thing, it's the gap of not learning, not improving, not reflecting. There's no shortcut to putting in the work or learning the learnings.
I have a weekly commitment that leaves me driving home (~40min) at 9pm, and I usually eat dinner (just a sandwich) while I drive. That also has the advantage of making it so that I'm not eating an hour before bed.
If I know that I need to call someone, I'll usually try to schedule that call while I'm driving. I used to take meetings while driving as well, though I stopped because it was perceived poorly by others.
What's sort of sad is that I can take public transit to all of my regular commitments, and that lets me keep doing something (reading, working, whatever). The schedules are poor, though, and they blow my commute times completely out of the water. For example, I've got a 5-7pm commitment that is a 15-minute drive one way, but if I wanted to go by bus, I'd have to leave at 3:30pm (latest it comes before I need to be there), and get back on it at 8pm (the earliest it comes after I'm done).
The lack of self awareness here is astounding. You’re in control of a two ton bullet, please concentrate on the road. Killing somebody because you’re not paying full attention is not a good look.
I would contend that listening to a podcast or being on a handsfree phone call would be on par with the Claw Phone.
It can, but I've heard quite plausible claims in the past [1] that you shouldn't let it - because that's one of the things that kills motorcyclists. Your autopilot brain is looking out for other cars quite effectively - but a motorcycle isn't a car, and can slip through un-noticed if you're mind is engaged elsewhere.
[1] Citation needed, but lacking I'm afraid!
Very well could be a productivity habit bordering on obsession too.
I like posts about, because of AI, I built this cool idea I was thinking about. (or not even saying AI, just show us the cool things you made, that are hopefully not just "a tool written by ai to do ai")
But I have yet to see any results? Where is the useful stuff?
I've been able to build things that I otherwise would not have been able to build, in the free time that I have: - a VST audio plugin
- a wedding website with RSVP functionality
- a relaxing game for my wife
At work, I've been able to build much more than I would have been capable of in the past. I'm a backend eng, and it allows me to build much much nicer frontends than I've ever been able to do in the past.
And before you tell me that the code is crap - it doesn't matter! It may or may not be good code, but it works and serves it's purpose very well. Anyways, I'm I'm not launching a rocket, or putting software into cars.
That's why it's so hard to converse with the AI proponents. They don't want to talk about what they've built and why it's awesome (at least for them). They just want you to take it at face value.
If you're sharing something, just give enough details so that others can contrast to their own experience and learn something from it.
My metric is: how much code that I create today do I depend on in 3 months (incl learnings and one off data pulls etc.) and its waaay less than what I generate. A lot of it is frankly noise.
This was the exact opposite.
Anyways I think what you've demonstrated that it's actually a really bad time to be a "Duct Tape Engineer" because anyone with a bit of knowhow can coax the AI to build them some pile of loose data pipes and leaky abstractions that appears useful. The market for this sort of software builder is about to get very crowded