zoward

It means that if I pick up a random USB cable and plug it into a USB port I have no idea how well it will work or even if it will work at all. It's like the U in USB stands for Unpredictable.

When I was 19, I met Marvin Minsky at a local convention. I was a CS major, and he assured me I'd be out of a job in 10 years. I'm in my late 50's now, having spent the last 35 years programming, and am now leisurely planning my retirement. I like John's turn of phrase, "AI-guided programming". But that's already a thing.

A lot of Lenovo laptops have one USB-C port which doubles as the power cable. I'm typing on a Thinkpad right now with that very configuration. My daughter's Chrmoebook is the same way. She bent the USB-C port on it and now it won't charge. I'm being really, really careful with my Thinkpad.

An even more general problem is that we as humans use pattern-matching as a cerebral tool to navigate our environment, and sometimes the patterns aren't what they appear to be. The Norway problem is the programming equivalent of an optical illusion.