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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Is it possible to be a productive programmer with slow typing speed? Yes. I have met some.

    But…can fast typing speed be an advantage for most people? Yes!

    Like you said, once you come up with an idea it can be a huge advantage to be able to type out that idea quickly to try it out before your mind wanders.

    But also, I use typing for so many others things: writing Slack messages and emails. Writing responses to bug tickets. Writing new tickets. Documentation. Search queries.

    The faster I type, the faster I can do those things. Also, the more I’m incentivized to do it. It’s no big deal to file a big report for something I discovered along the way because I can type it up in 30 seconds. Someone else who’s slow at typing might not bother because it’d take too long.







  • I don’t think we know that yet, and I think the discovery will be interesting.

    How many reports were there? Were they credible? What other sources of truth did Google consult in deciding to ignore those reports?

    Google gets lots of reports and needs to filter out spam, and especially malicious reports like trying to mark a competitor’s business as closed, or trying to get less traffic in your neighborhood for selfish reasons. It wouldn’t be reasonable for Google to accept every user suggestion either.

    So if Google reached out to the town and the town said the bridge is fine, then it’s not Google’s fault. If they ignored multiple credible complaints because the area was too rural to care about, that might be negligent.





  • I think the reality is that there are lots of different levels of tests, we just don’t have names for all of them.

    Even unit tests have levels. You have unit tests for a single function or method in isolation, then you have unit tests for a whole class that might set up quite a bit more mocks and test the class’s contract with the rest of the system.

    Then there are tests for a whole module, that might test multiple classes working together, while mocking out the rest of the system.

    A step up from that might be unit tests that use fakes instead of mocks. You might have a fake in-memory database, for example. That enables you to test a class or module at a higher level and ensure it can solve more complex problems and leave the database in the state you expect it in the end.

    A step up from that might be integration tests between modules, but all things you control.

    Up from that might be integration tests or end-to-end tests that include third-party components like databases, libraries, etc. or tests that bring up a real GUI on the desktop - but where you still try to eliminate variables that are out of your control like sending requests to the external network, testing top-level window focus, etc.

    Then at the opposite extreme you have end-to-end tests that really do interact with components you don’t have 100% control over. That might mean calling a third-party API, so the test fails if the third-party has downtime. It might mean opening a GUI on the desktop and automating it with the mouse, which might fail if the desktop OS pops up a dialog over top of your app. Those last types of tests can still be very important and useful, but they’re never going to be 100% reliable.

    I think the solution is to have a smaller number of those tests with external dependencies, don’t block the build on them, and look at statistics. Sound an alarm when a test fails multiple times in a row, but not for every failure.

    Most of the other types of tests can be written in a way to drive flakiness down to almost zero. It’s not easy, but it can be doable. It requires a heavy investment in test infrastructure.


  • Wasn’t she an unknown, while they were all famous stars, though?

    The same happens today.

    “The cast of Moana earned a total of $56 million. Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced the title character, made $200,000. Dwayne Johnson, who voiced Maui, earned $21 million. Temuera Morrison, who voiced Moana’s father, earned $2 million.”

    I’m not excusing any of the ways they abused Garland. But it made her a star and she earned far more in future roles, just like Cravalho now commands a much higher salary.



  • Here’s the difference.

    The Democrats are diverse. You’ve got some true believers who want universal basic income and free medicare for all. You’ve got right-leaning centrists who want lower taxes and less regulation, but they’re not as socially conservative as Republicans. You’ve got some who vote their conscience, and others who are corrupt. It’s difficult to get them all to agree, but when they find common ground, their ideas are generally pretty popular with the people (Obamacare, the Infrastructure deal, etc.).

    The Republicans have no platform. They have no plan. They have no consistent views. They have no desire to govern constructively whatsoever. The very few things they can agree on and get done, like conservative judges and banning abortion, are extremely unpopular and set the country back.

    You really think there’s no difference between the two parties? The difference has never been larger, ever.


  • Actually I’m going to disagree strongly with that statement.

    Small business are far, far worse at abusing workers. If a small business fires you, you’ve got absolutely no recourse. They can lay you off with no severance and then hire someone new a day layer, and who’s going to do anything about it? They don’t have that many employees so there’s no pattern and no class-action, and you can’t afford to hire a lawyer to spend years fighting them in court.

    In comparison, when you work at a big company, they have rules and an HR department to make sure they’re going everything legally. Your boss wants to fire you? First your boss has to give you a negative performance review detailing exactly what you’re doing wrong. Then they have to give you an opportunity to correct it. Only then can they fire you. At an absolute minimum, it gives you a chance to start looking for a new job. Often it gives you a chance to transfer within the company, if you were otherwise a well-liked and valuable employee.

    If a large company wants to let you go, they’re going to give you severance pay and extended benefits.

    Of course you hear about the occasional incident where Elon Musk fires someone on the spot or a Disney employee gets reprimanded for something silly. But those incidents are extremely rare, and most of the time they end up settling behind the scenes for a nice severance.

    Now, I know, I know. The HR department is there to protect the company, not you. But that’s exactly why the HR department ensures employees are treated well, even when they’re fired - because they don’t want a lawsuit later.