kraig911

Google has to get it's shit together. All the stats and charts doesn't mean squat because when I try it now on a provider all I get is trash :(. Makes me question these metrics entirely and really makes me question the authority that google used to perceivably have.

As an engineer I'm afraid in the age of AI all the easy ideas have been found / lots of companies are working on. It's the hard ones we all know that seem to be intangible. I am still struggling to make things on the side and not feel the weight of my inner thoughts self doubting essentially on "is this juice worth the squeeze if anyone can do it?" but I keep doing it out of the supposed fun I get out of making something. Novel ideas do seem hard to come by though.

Everyone I talk to about Deepseek has a bad taste it feels like for CHinese models? I have a Kimi sub and use deepseek a lot at home. I've hit my limit on K3 many a time for Deepseek to come in and finish a job. So far no complaints. I feel it makes a lot of round trips by design but over all a good option. It's hard to compete though with an open sub out on codex/claude and just do everything in that subscription. Deepseek for me is when I run out of my subs. It's usually always coming behind a great session and fixing things so I don't give it a chance to try something novel on it's own.

Roblox copy/equivalent incoming I'm sure and that'll get kid's heads turning.

Yeah I tried Khanmigo with my daughters and it just didn't stick. Tried making my own that just would piece meal out the answer and strive to gamify it with kudos.

I feel weird now to think it but some problems are people just trying to shoe horn AI into something and hope it works out. My kids just didn't want to use their brain once something just spat out the answers. Even if it output all the work they'd just keep pressing for the answer and go next. It really showed up in test scores where it wasn't working when their homework was usually A- in algebra. What has helped me when using AI is it gives me a place much faster to be able to start. I can easily take a pic or draw on a tablet and get it classified in a way so I can start helping her. Now the issue is meeting her in the middle she prefers apps and tech not face to face help.

So I made our own thing where it only doles out clues and I get a report back that summarizes the session and how the AI thinks it went. I then take it and give her a reward if she does it week to week. Still though this is a perplexing problem. Feel free to check out what I made (trying to monetize something anything nowadays seems shilling) Cluestep.com

My wife thinks it could make money but there's a ton of competition out there. Would love your input.

These poor people marginalized by politics trying to find a better life. I just don't understand how people can be so far removed from this problem and not feel a profound sense discontent with the world that we enabled this to happen. What's worse is the children affected by this too. It's hard to believe the world can have billionaires and yet also people dying from lack of food, medicine and shelter. There is enough to go around we simply don't want to change. Worser still those that work for these systems are often protected, heralded and celebrated even.

A car should always be a major consideration for someone's needs. Especially if you have a family with young children or are disabled. Discounting cars as useless because mass transit exists is a terrible idea.

You're on to something

Yeah I have 4 kids. I'm come to the realization all brains are different. My daughter struggles with anxiety and feeling terrible if she doesn't immediately 'get it' especially in a social setting. She does great with online tools where she can feel like no one is judging her.

My son doesn't get upset at all with me he'd just play his mom to get the help to the right answer and didn't have the 'want' to understand a problem he just wanted to move along.

I have another daughter who is autistic. I'm still trying everything I can possibly do to get her past reading at a 2nd grade level. That's another problem I'm trying/struggling to solve.

For me it's just making stuff for my family and kids and seeing if it sticks. LLM's have given me a way to easily get something off the ground whereas it used to be a few months now is a few evenings.

I've made a wealth of cute things for me and my kids to do (shameless self promotion) https://drawesome.art - multiple people drawing/painting/coloring on the same canvas my kids love this. The architecture took forever for me to get write. Basically server side authoritative state of pixels and blending between two points. How to realistically manage and store it. https://www.catchmemeow.com - random where's waldo-esque game where you find a cat or dog wearing a silly hat I made this for my daughter and me to help the shelter she wants to volunteer at. https://www.cluestep.com - this one is weird I've actually tried to productize it but i made this because I had the HARDEST time helping my oldest with her calculus/algebra II homework. Basically I constantly made her cry. I just wish I could make it not look so "Made with AI"

I think LLM's analogy are prefab with nailguns did for carpentry. It's very complicated to prompt it (at least for me) to try and make it do something novel and net new. It always falls back on node/typescript/fastAPI/python. It's not terrible at using more obscure languages but I have the hardest time describing what I want or thinking without starting something more by hand and then letting it take the wheel and seeing where it drives me.

I should mention too at work I'm practically forced, measured even on the amount of AI I use. The expectation feels like use AI for any and everything. So i'm more worried one day I'll be laid off once I'm found to hit the 'enter' key much anymore. Anyways for me I'd say embrace it, use it and you'll find your output is much higher with the caveat that when a bug occurs it's incredibly hard sometimes to fix if it's with LLM generated code.

I agree with you all the way. I tried to edit my submission to take off the rapscallion link as that’s totally not ready. Originally wanted a dumb dnd map maker that I attached ai too. Even it tho how could it stand on its own with Roblox there’s no way. Drawesome art was is my passion but I wonder if fun website games / experiences aren’t the right thing. I spent ages doing a server side authoritative paint experience. I guess it’s too niche. The only other one I put a lot of effort in was cluekangaroo but that’s also super competitive. You’re right tho bugs are costly.

Rapscallion? Yeah it’s kind of crap for sure. its generally kind of a dnd map maker. The slop though care to be specific?

A side effect of perceived LLM Generated code is now easier to just make it write native I guess.

This. I also think there'll be more local AI models to fill gaps and people see how we've become needlessly dependent and we start using AI responsibly.

try being diabetic ugh. I am constantly grinding against made up barriers. 150$ in strips and about 500-700$ for insulin. Meanwhile I meet a friend and he's just buying the base insulin from walmart for about 50$ a vial.

this right here I think we all need to think on what is happening right now. Dead internet theory might be plausible. What goal would an AI writing crap responses on reddit/hacker news/what not have to even need to comment?

I want one for all my kids. I love it. I just wish it had more ram. Personally though this direction is good. I wish now apple would add some sort of AI to it's icloud offering that these computers could use that wasn't necessarily 'local'

what model were you using?

I think that's a different thing. Yes it's a possibility. I'm just saying a site where say there's a group of engineers/scientist that are just there to listen and praise. No judging No competition just a place to keep kids interested and not dither away their creativity watching other kids play roblox on youtube.

Engineering in general to me just means 'designed' by specification per an area study. Whether software or hardware/industrial application. I know UK is all about titles though as if they're 'worth' something. A lot of stuff we use in modern day was made by someone who claimed to be an engineer but was really a hobbyist on to something.

That said in the US there are some specifications of a license engineer that you have to earn. Electrical/Petroleum/Nuclear/Structural etc those areas do have licensing associated that is different state by state. The main issue with software engineering is it forgoes that completely there just wasn't time to make a process about it. It was/is always about time to market.

As someone who also loves to paint esp portraits I was wondering in your opinion what looks like a good portrait? Because every time I go out on a limb and do what I think is neat the subject/audience seems less than interested. It's like people like a good photo.

I so much wish we could all get together as engineers and make a site where kids can write to and send videos etc on and we just praise them and tell them their ideas are good as a community.

I think there's more than that. When your parents think the earth is flat it's hard to learn science. George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" we're finally seeing the ramifications across our country. When you can never fail you can never learn.

It's simply hard to plan. Before kids I'd typically meet up with friend around 8 or so maybe 9. Now bedtime rules my evenings. When my kids are asleep I'm exhausted. Most of my friends evenings are just starting at that time! (lol) and I completely understand. The other thing is I can't go out and get drunk or party because being hung over with a 3 year old pissing the bed after they crawl in to sleep/cuddle with you - nothing better/worse.

It's simply hard to relate. I have some very good friends who we've stayed in touch. I'm forever grateful for them. But when you're out and about and you meet a random person and try to strike up a friendship say at a conference. The second I mention I'm a dad I feel I'm relegated to the back of the bus.

Now to me I think is a point in time earlier than now. I'm thinking somewhere when people didn't need to get out and do stuff with another. I think when I was a kid it was normal to have grandparents, and church settings, and just after school programs at the Y or kids in general would find each other in the neighborhood and play. I don't see much of that the same in the 'now'

I feel kids need that sense of community and social setting. I know it's hard to get a handle on when there's nothing I went through that with my other two during covid. The difference is night and day with dealing with anxiety in social settings.

I wish I could accord private nanny. Do you know of good resources to find this? Esp in the USA I'm in texas.

Only two are in daycare. LOL I wish it was for all 4. My autistic girls insurance cost I hit the OOP max in 2 months but still.

It's just hard now. Before I had kids I had a network of friends and had a great social life. Now it's just me and my wife. If I want more friends I'll have to have more kids I guess? I have 4 now. One (my first) is severely autistic.

Financially the cost? I pay about 6,000 a month in daycare. 2k a month in healthcare expenses.

Then community wise. Every time I've gone to take them to the movies, or to a restaurant or hell now even the grocery store I always get shafted. Everything is so overstimulated and kids get in the way to strangers trying to ignore reality with their phones. So when one of my kids throws a tantrum everyone's looks and disdain doesn't help. It's a part of growing up that I think most young adults don't realize.

Then for your career it's the most destablizing thing there is. Everyone around me who doesn't have kids the sky is the limit. Midnight PR's and no problem handling oncall. I missed a pagerduty alert when I was careflly bottle feeding my 8 month old who caught pertussis from some idiot who thought they were above that. I had no choice in getting out of pagerduty because 'it's only fair'

Don't get me start on dog/cat people who equate their struggles to mine... or people who have no idea how hard life is already for a kid who is disabled.

Having a family sucks hard sometimes. But I wouldn't change my past for the world. They are my everything. The advantages of having kids are lost on most but I'll let others provide input if they feel like it.