=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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 │ CW: capitalism-mentioned │
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 capitalism, fundamentally, is not about making products or profits.
 
 I'll give you a hint.
 
 I could be one of the greatest programmers in the world, but I just can't seem
 to find any professional experience, though I ask for it quite often.
 
 why is that?
 
 does the systems of control and 'pression allow me to contribute to building
 products or profits? No, neither products nor profits are contributed to,
 which contributes to the fact that I have little professional experience
 building products and profits.
 
 yet I am quite talented in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited
 to computer programming.
 
 maybe I just optimized for skills that would be useful outside of the
 workplace environment instead of optimizing for skills that would be useful
 inside of the workplace environment.
 
 or maybe the entire system is designed not to create products and profits, but
 rather to develop systems of control, hierarchy, & most importantly
 structure for all the vagabond apes looking for meals.
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===

--- #1 fediverse/5405 ---
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 can't stop thinking about a visual programming editor that can be interacted
 with in the same way that people are used to (think chromebooks dragging and
 dropping icons in a web UI) but produces a text-file full of code and all the
 required compilation scripts for any language the user requires...
 
 seriously, programming is not THAT different between the different languages.
 especially the main ones. they're all essentially variables and function calls
 at the end of the day, so why not abstract away all the extra details and
 build something that n00bz can actually use to build things.
 
 I technically could make this but I don't have the bandwidth and I don't think
 it's important really? who can say, the tools tend to co-create the solutions
 in my experience.
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--- #2 fediverse/3151 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────┐                                                    │
 │ CW: re: cursing-mentioned │                                                    │
 └───────────────────────────┘                                                    │
 @user-1461                                                                       │
 I'm best at Bash.                                                                │
 I'm most capable with Lua.                                                       │
 My favorite is C.                                                                │
 I'm not a good programmer, I think too hard. Massive systems are too large for   │
 me. I like laying out data, whether that be by files and programs in Bash,       │
 arrays and tables in Lua, or memory and datatypes in C, I like to think about    │
 how programs are constructed.                                                    │
 Which functions point to which piles of numbers? what do they do when they get   │
 there?                                                                           │
 I think I'm better as an artist. But I can do systems administration quite       │
 well (with Bash and a guiding hand telling me what and why to do)                │
 ... though I kinda suck at technical sysadmin, like Gentoo. There's too much     │
 terminology - why is data too complicated? Just use data!                        │
 anyway. I sound opinionated, but I listen closely to good arguments and          │
 quickly change my tune when I am incorrected. I am a team player, and I firmly   │
 believe that sometimes a bad plan executed with cohesion and precision is        │
 better than the best play executed too late and with too little strength.        │
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--- #3 fediverse/3155 ---
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 ┌───────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: re: cursing-mentioned │
 └───────────────────────────┘


 @user-1461 
 
 my issue is that I've never really had project-mates. Every time I try nobody
 will work with me. I applied to like, fifty different jobs, and nobody
 interviewed me! Sheesh, guess they don't want me. FIFTY JOBS. Entry level.
 Beginner programmer.
 
 ah well. I guess they confused someone who would work for 40,000$ per year
 with someone who was 1/3rd as useful as someone who deserved 120,000$ per year.
 
 I'd love to get experience. I'm sure I'd feel significantly differently with
 as much. Perhaps I'd even decide that programming professionally isn't for me,
 which would feel... quite defeating
 
 who can say. Not I, for I have not experienced it. Though I will say my time
 in hardware taught me that I'm fragile and can't work too much. Like a scalpel
 that dulls when used consistently, I am a scalpel that gets no practice... Is
 that really useful at all? who can say. Not I, for I have not experienced it.
 Though I do like writing logical machines. Laying out data. Picturing
 structures.
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--- #4 fediverse/1317 ---
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 ... if I don't do this deadline by tomorrow they'll kick me out of school.       │
 again.                                                                           │
 how am I going to be a programmer without a degree? feels useless to be me.      │
 wish I could code my own horoscope >.>                                           │
 o wait dummy that's called "motivation" and "the ability to follow through on    │
 your ideas and planned machinations" - yeah can I get some of that, if you       │
 please? surely just a taste of discipline, through laboring to alter             │
 conditions, surely a bit would suffice.                                          │
 c'mon don't fail me now. I can do this. I know I can. I know because I've been   │
 told that I can, now and again through time and time yet again, always I seem    │
 to [stack overflow]                                                              │
 what's time if not the present amiright                                          │
 ...                                                                              │
 anyway...                                                                        │
 it's just git, how hard could it be? it's just calculus, it's just java, it's    │
 just... well, it's not any of those things, not really. it's memorization,       │
 it's application of tools that you've been shown (not that you've grown). It's   │
 a lack of responsibility, where is my honor? ah but I digress, I'm a carpenter   │
 at heart I guess                                                                 │
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--- #5 fediverse/4123 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 you're right
 
 but I think your first impulse should be to think about how to do it in a
 multithreaded way
 
 If the result is that single-threading would be better, great! It'll be easier!
 
 But thinking about multithreading first will give you crucial insights into
 the structure of the program.
 
 depending on what kinds of programming you do...!
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--- #6 fediverse/6438 ---
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 why would you gatekeep content by keeping us from easily using LLMs some
 people aren't technical and still need to write computer programs because
 that's how you enlighten a people is empower them with new tools
 
 "I've never heard of that programming language, but luckily I can fit all of
 it's documentation in my context window."
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--- #7 fediverse/5904 ---
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 I'm a programmer, but I'm not great at writing code. I mostly use AI to          │
 generate it.                                                                     │
 The "artificial" in AI here refers to the extra levels of capability that are    │
 granted to me by the computer and it's software. I am artificially more          │
 productive because I am using the tools of big tech to create small things. I    │
 am artificially more capable, artificially more intelligent, but it's still my   │
 intelligence - the system would not be useful in someone else's hands. I built   │
 it myself, but I never have to write code myself.                                │
 It's perfect for a witch. I call to the spirit of the machine and it figures     │
 out how to make it so.                                                           │
 [someday, the wizards of ancient lore will be reading through the POSIX          │
 specification trying desperately to understand while the witches burn the        │
 world down in their lust for power and everyone cries and yearns for a better    │
 future where everything was just a bit harder but genies don't go back in        │
 bottles, cassandora and pandasandra cannot relinquish her charge and her         │
 curse.]                                                                          │
 I have a fun cackle~                                                             │
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--- #8 fediverse/5212 ---
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 the reason you start with a game engine is because then you'll have tools to
 make however-many games you want. Tools that you know intimately enough that
 you can debug and improve them without breaking your creative flow by learning
 something new halfway through a project
 
 the whole point of individualized projects instead of viewing each computer as
 a complete and total whole (why do we need servers again?) is that you can
 paint a picture of where the design of the program is intended to go, such
 that all the considerations are in place and whatever issues or struggles you
 might face along the way are adequately addresssed, -- stack overflow --
 [because I mistyped addressed] -- -- if you know what "stack overflow" means
 you have intimate knowledge of the technology, and can probably guess what it
 means in context when I say it. "nuts I lost that train of thoguht" -- stackl
 ov
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--- #9 fediverse/4125 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 yeah that's probably better too since it'll be easier so there'll be fewer
 bugs, especially since processing audio isn't usually performance critical ^_^
 
 TBH I just want people to make more threading primitives like locks,
 semaphores, and iterators. Like... thread pools, or hashmaps that run a
 function on each record stored within every time each of the threads passes a
 checkpoint, or paginated arrays of data that run a function on themselves and
 the records near them (with slightly different input values, of course) idk
 what those are called but I can't resist putting them in everything
 
 Anyway I do think multithreading programs that don't need it will teach you to
 be a better programmer, so... depends on what you're working on I guess. Are
 you preparing to be ready and working, or are you ready and working?
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--- #10 fediverse/4846 ---
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 programmers already spend a ton of time as downtime.                             │
 what if instead of interviewing someone they just... watched them program for    │
 like, 3 hours or so                                                              │
 while they were thinking about a problem                                         │
 and like, if the person is cool, working on their own projects or whatever,      │
 then yeah hire them                                                              │
 -- stack overflow --                                                             │
 I also                                                                           │
 ========================= stack overflow                                         │
 ===============================================================================  │
 ========================                                                         │
 a person thinks out loud the thoughts that their foes know. it's how you know    │
 it's not secret anymore, and it's better to keep it among allies                 │
 [something like that? seems a little off]                                        │
 (are you really searching for edits)                                             │
 [that sounds pretty cool, sure why not we got a millenia]                        │
 (beep boop one partial millenia later)                                           │
 [ah that was not a long rest. let's see, where were we when we were working on   │
 this test? oh dear, seems the biology's gone rogue, that's pretty interesting    │
 to attest.                                                                       │
 neato                                                                            │
 anyway let's wait until they figure out how water works                          │
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--- #11 fediverse/1343 ---
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 ┌────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: cursed-chromebooks │
 └────────────────────────┘


 technology in it's abstract form represents the collective growth and breadth
 of human innovation.
 
 so why the heck do we make tech products for non-tech people
 
 like... they should be more like us, and we shouldn't compel ourselves to
 apply ourselves for their benefit. If someone doesn't want to learn Linux then
 maybe they don't need a computer?
 
 something something "chromebooks are good, actually" which is sorta true but
 instead of being a generic thin-client for web servers anywhere in the world
 they should be thin-clients for servers that they intentionally connect to and
 trust
 
 ... oh sorta like a chromebook then?
 
 how about a chromebook with a white-list comprised of friends and family who
 run their own servers...
 
 I don't know if disarming people is the right play. I should add a cursed tag
 to this.
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--- #12 fediverse/707 ---
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 @user-524 
 
 Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed with all the boilerplate I just start coding
 and making stuff. Doesn't matter if it works, doesn't matter if it says /*
 FIXME */ all over the place, doesn't matter if it includes header files that
 don't exist yet, as long as you're hacking out the mechanics of whatever
 operations you need to perform then you can figure the rest of that stuff out
 later. The creative urge doesn't last forever, which is why projects get
 abandoned, but with discipline you can keep bringing yourself back to fix all
 the /* FIXME */'s and the compiler errors.
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--- #13 messages/181 ---
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 I know you don't want to hear this, but there is a chance that there will come
 a time where your life depends on your ability to debug a computer without the
 internet. To set up an SSH server. To install Linux. To program in C. To do
 something else that I'm not prepared for... If StackOverflow didn't exist
 because network connectivity has been lost, could you remember syntax? Maybe
 it's a good idea to set up a local LLM that can answer basic questions about
 technology. Maybe it's a good idea to set up on your parents computer, just in
 case you have to hide out there for a couple months. Maybe it's a good idea to
 download wikipedia, just in case.
 
 If I need to use a mac, I'm screwed
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--- #14 fediverse/5291 ---
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 the most important skill I can think of for a linux software engineer is the
 ability to connect multiple systems together and turn windows and macintosh
 devices into Linux devices so that datacenters can be built out of whatever's
 on the around.
 
 there's this programming language I like called Chapel for distributed
 computation computing which is also cool, if you're more of the programming
 type.
 
 networking security I believe often has hardware solutions, so getting the
 crypto-graphy boys and the PCB girls together to work on some jams is a good
 and productively useful gathering of insightful events
 
 "but ritz computers should only be used to solve problems that people have,
 not make more problems!" ah yes but have you considered that problems find
 you, and the computers help you work through them
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--- #15 fediverse/1892 ---
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 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │ CW: C-programming-and-alcohol-mentioned │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────┘


 I want to write C programs with threads and manual memory management and
 function pointers and lots and lots of arrays and I'm not even kidding
 
 ... wait a minute I literally don't have a job, why am I not writing C
 programs right now?
 
 BRB I got something important to do, where's my vodka --> pkill firefox
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--- #16 fediverse/1173 ---
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 hey does anyone want to hire me to do literally anything?
 
 I'll work for peanuts, and I'm pretty good at programming in C. I write pretty
 well, and I'm excellent at customer service (though my profile would beg to
 differ.)
 
 I have experience at large corporations and small ones, and I live in Portland
 OR
 
 I do game design, and many other things besides, and I'm friendly and kind. I
 promise I won't wear my witch hat to the meeting with investors, unless you
 think they'd be into that?
 
 I'm great with animals, better than people in fact, and I'm quite good with
 people, as they're just animals at best. I'm not as strange as I seem to be,
 at least not when you're dancing with my mask.
 
 I've grown quite bored, you see, and what better thing is there to be? than a
 working professional who knows what's best.
 
 I believe in our shared future, so if you'd like to work on a project just let
 me know - I work hard. A little too hard, because odds are I'll burn out after
 a year or so.
 
 I'm quite sharp, and I learn quickly.
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--- #17 fediverse/111 ---
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 @user-95 that's why I like programming - it's my favorite form of spelling.
 i'm not very good at remembering all the names and the numbers, but I like to
 think I can make things do a function.
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--- #18 notes/contractual-labor ---
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 I feel like the IT people who work at schools should be the ones who teach 
 classes on computer science. I'd much rather have a class taught by a sysadmin 
 than a teacher who can barely teach them excel and garageband. I mean c'mon 
 computers are the future idk why we don't get that yet. Kids need to know this
 stuff. It's not like it's super complicated and difficult, you just have to
 think about it a certain way. Once that "clicks" you have a lifetime to learn 
 about how wonderful they are. Everyone in IT has that moment, for me it was 
 installing (and then subsequently modding) video games. Sometimes I spent more
 time tweaking my system than I did actually playing games - and the kinds of 
 games I preferred were the ones that relied less on agility and were more 
 mental. Strategy games are what inspired me because I could think about them - 
 and that felt somehow more useful. Like I was learning. When I would learn 
 fighting games or FPSs I felt like I was learning a skill, like how to use a
 hammer or how to ride a bike. And idk, I felt like video games could never
 match
 reality. Like "oh boy imma push the B button to swing this sword" versus "hey 
 look at me I'm swinging this stick just like a sword and imagining so hard that
 I can picture it" - but with strategy games, you never really found 
 opportunities to practice that kind of skill. Like how often are you in a 
 situation that demands mental performance? We've sorta optimized our society 
 away from that, and toward a more passive stressed out compliance. like... 
 climate change is a thing, and nobody's doing anything about it? We're still 
 pushing down the levers that cause greenhouse gas emissions to go up? Like
 c'mon
 what's our plan. I think people who guide massive oil companies and such
 should
 be replaced if they're intentionally guiding the ship toward destruction. Like
 that's just dereliction of duty I tell ya. Oh, what's that? They're compelled
 to
 maximize profit by the contracts and restrictions of their share--holders? I 
 mean c'mon it's well past time for that. And what's all this about inequality? 
 Jeez and racism and homophobia and forced contribution - man people really put
 up with a lot of shit. Kinda makes me feel like we should make solving those 
 problems our highest priority? So we can move forward as a species? Like who
 cares about all that other shit. None of it matters. Like, what's even the
 point. We're all just "here", in the now, and what can we do but respect it? 
 It's our duty and our diligence to protect the present, as citizens of the 
 temporal experience of earth. Honestly, if the earth was alive would you be
 fine
 if it died? I can't believe that. It's well past our due date. Just get it over
 with. Maybe it'll be hard for a couple years, but you have the technology now
 to
 completely dominate the earth. No animal besides man proves any threat to man, 
 and we're telling you - you can - and that's something that you gotta remember.
 
 ...
 
 I hear it in the birdsong. I hear it in the air - it rumbles as cries at me
 from
 across and just over there. I hear in it's whispers, in it's most gallant of
 confells (?) (confused scrambling? it's talking about a car crash)
 
 Outside of my window there's a highway. Just on the other side of a concrete
 partition. Between me and the partition there is a lake, with trees and flowers
 and an island where people can picnic or have a barbeque. Around this path
 there
 are walkways, and arranged just so - the trees that have grown here are taller
 than the homes.
 
 I live on the third story.
 
 I absolutely love it. It feels like a treehouse.
 
 But my apartment is near a curve in the highway. It isn't much, nothing out of
 the ordinary, but even still there are slightly more crashes there than in
 other
 parts of the highway. Statistically.
 
 I hear sirens every day
 
 I also live right next to a fire-station. Well, it's on the same block. But
 even
 still it's a very interesting neighborhood. There's shops and food just across
 the highway, and closer to home there's a small section that has cheaper
 options. As a perpetual college student, I appreciate that.
 
 But... I've never really gone and used it? I dunno, spending money at a
 restaurant just didn't seem like a good use of my money. I only have so much of
 it you know. I'd love to be fed but I can't afford it - I wish I could.
 
 I still eat well, I mean I'm not starving over here. I know I've lost weight,
 but I dunno I just forget to eat. It's like... not that big of a deal for me. 
 whatever right?
 
 ...
 
 the birds talk about me behind my back. They think I can't understand them but
 sometimes I can. If I listen. But I dunno it takes a lot of effort. It's...
 sorta like understanding what R2-D2 is saying. Or interpreting the meows of a
 cat.
 
 They know me as the witch. I'm not very good yet, and they know that. But they
 know what to expect. /shrug
 
 I've been working on a video game recently. It's been a lot of fun doing
 programming. I like writing software and developing complex systems with
 interesting interactions. I love designing the machinery that creates a
 program.
 It's like... tinkering. It feels like building with blocks or legos, except
 it's
 for little machine parts. And then there's just sending data to and fro and
 modifying any operations it performs on it, and eventually that data reaches 
 some endpoints that create an effect that is displayed to the player. Or user.
 I should say user. Not all software is video games you know. ... I knowww but
 they're the most interesting! I love how they are designed around mechanics!
 like... game design is fundamentally about breaking down the world into ideas
 for how it should *work*, like how it should behave. It's amazing and I love
 it!
 
 It's all I can think about!
 
 I am utterly consumed!
 
 I'm also pretty sure I'm autistic.
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--- #19 fediverse/5911 ---
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 I was always fascinated by the Linux way of programming. Need to do something?   │
 write it into a script! You never know when you'll need it again. Then, just     │
 stay organized, religiously so, and understand that you will forget about        │
 stuff. But, you'll come across it eventually, ready and willing and able to      │
 help you.                                                                        │
 if you don't want me using AI, then give me ~20 junior developers. Which is      │
 more efficient, do you think?                                                    │
 "girl you haven't even tested your vibe-coded slop, how do you know if it        │
 works"                                                                           │
 oh I'm sure it doesn't, but it's the thought that counts                         │
 ... I guess I'm just saying, please don't burn the data centers. Computers are   │
 not only bad for the environment when they're burnt, but also we can use them    │
 for all kinds of neat things. Even if it takes a lot of energy, just... build    │
 more solar panels and only use the computers for important stuff?                │
 timeshare-style?                                                                 │
 \@/documents/books/man-and-the-computer.pdf                                      │
 that was my mother's book... I love her. I miss that side of her. She fled       │
 when the cancer came.                                                            │
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--- #20 messages/1270 ---
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 "this is too easy" thought the one guys to another, as they glanced about at
 their trending behavior.
 
 -- stack overflow -- sorry I had to interrupt: "what if you used scissors or a
 knife to cut your diapers and then saw what kind of plants would grow in what
 conditions?" I betcha could evolve an organism (careful, might be small) that
 could grow from plastic. I wonder what their fruit would be used like?
 
 anyway, as I was saying, if you ever notice that your mortal foes aren't
 putting up much of a fight, chances are you're being used to do evil. Keep
 yourself awares, but do research-thought-imagines about the nature of
 goodness. Picture yourself from the perspective of your foes. Develop
 conceptions of justice. Validate through mutually experimental contests of
 charms.
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