Notes and quick thoughts on articles as I read them.
These are not summaries
or reviews.
I strive to only take notes on new ideas,
connections,
or things that make me feel something.
In other words,
things that are applicable to my life.
If my notes strike you,
you should probably read the article.
You'd probably take different notes.
The most important question is
what can I do with my time that is important?
What are you willing to tolerate that others aren't?
Passion always begins with play
The more something scares you,
the more likely you should be doing it.
It tends to be a signal that it's something you want,
but are afraid to pursue because you're afraid to fail.
Who cares if your obituary says a bunch of stuff that impresses random people?
If you don't know what your values are,
you'll just take on the values and priorities of other people.
I largely think this is true.
Probably a bad metaphor,
but everyone has a meaning void that needs to be filled.
Either you can fill it,
or someone else will.
We have a need to attach meaning to everything that happens.
So we are inventing all sorts of meaning.
Meaning is an arbitrary mental construct,
but it's also nature's tool for motivation.
Meaning does not exist outside ourselves.
We need to cultivate it.
It requires action.
The meaning of life is to create meaning.
Solve problems. Help others.
Goals are good for building motivation,
but unless there's a strong why behind them,
they end up being arbitrary and empty.
Collaboration with AI is happening too late.
Someone plans a bunch of shit with AI,
throws a bunch of agents to write the code,
and then spits that code out there for a human to review.
Which is fucking nuts.
The collaboration should happen during the planning phases.
Once that's agreed upon,
the agents can write the code relatively quickly,
ideally in small enough chunks for humans familiar with the agreed upon plan to review.
This seems to make sense to me,
or at least it's better than the current state.
She also makes the assertion that quality will be the distinguishing factor of software moving forward.
In other words,
craftsmanship.
Presumably not in the code itself though.
Deciding the right thing to build,
a sane architecture,
how people will use it.
This has always been true,
but I think engineers will need to adapt to think at a higher level.
I also think quality software
will still require that every line of code be reviewed by a knowledgable human.
If only to provide a natural bottleneck to ensure that humans can still understand it
and to prevent the rapid proliferation of paper cuts.
Related
You need to love your own work before you can expect anyone else to.
People show up for you.
I desperately want to believe this.
Learn to let go when you want control the most.
It's a waste of energy.
With the most important things in life,
the more you try,
the less you get.
Don't use AI to do the work.
Ask it to make you better at the things you don't want to do.
Successful and happy people showed up and said yes before they were ready.
They just did things to create natural momentum in their lives.
People who suffer most from professional decline are those who are the most accomplished.
Those who don't accomplish as much suffer less.
Which of these is preferrable?
I guess it depends what you're accomplishing.
The decline is inevitable.
It's part of life.
When you deny it,
you're denying yourself part of life.
There are many success curves.
You don't need to stay on the same one.
Hop between them when convenient.
Synthesizing,
teaching,
explaining,
mentoring.
These are things you can get better at as you get older.
Read more books!
Especially when you're young.
You retain what you do.
Accomplish and serve others.
Those are the characteristics of work that bring enduring joy.
If you live for external achievement,
deepest parts of you go unexplored and unstructured.
What if looking inward makes you so much better to others?
What is your core sin?
The thing that makes you feel ashamed.
You need to understand your weaknesses
and confront them regularly.
We need redemptive assitance from others.
Love decenters the self.
It puts you in a state of need that makes it delightful to serve it.
Don't ask what you want from life.
Ask what life wants from you.
Suffering introduces you to yourself.
It reminds you that you are not the person you thought you were.
We're all stumbling,
and there's joy in mutual stumbling.
Just focus on being better than you used to be.