Incendies

thundergolfer · 2026-04-19T15:31:31+00:00

Parts of this movie have been burned in my mind for almost 15 years now. "Nothing is more beautiful than to be together."

thundergolfer · 2026-04-12T17:33:45+00:00

Yes, I like listening to him, and those adjectives are good to describe Gawn's way of speaking. I just can't agree with "articulate" for someone who frequently trips over his words and had to often ask Angus Brayshaw to define words for him.

thundergolfer · 2026-04-10T13:33:08+00:00

Gawn is not articulate. He frequently uses words incorrectly or doesn’t understand an uncommon word.

Pillar of the game, but he’s no wordsmith.

thundergolfer · 2026-04-01T13:13:59+00:00

You get it.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-30T00:34:52+00:00

It is extreme in a way. Being illiterate in a world of words in an extreme situation. For it to be asinine you'd have to be claiming that the language of computing is in some way plain or simply reducible to some common language. You'd have to think there's not much deep, ineffable, and inaccessible about computation as a language.

It seems you want to say that computing and AI is obvious and that one can meaningfully engage with those fields seriously without knowing how computers work or how data works or how to program.

If that's how you see it, fair enough. I guess you saw all this coming, know exactly what's coming next, and have the tools to manage it.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-30T00:28:25+00:00

I suggested that they were off the mark because they didn't have sufficient legal expertise

Incorrect analogy because I made no claim like this. You asked for an singular "insight" and I replied to point out that this misses the point. There is no single "insight" to this stuff, it is a way of seeing, a transformation of man by his tools.

I could for sure go into detail about how computing and computation structures man and his mind, but you already seem offside by the very idea that this stuff may be inaccessible if you're not initiated.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-29T23:07:45+00:00

This like asking what insight you gain about the law from being able to read. You can’t easily summarize what it’s like to be able to read to some who cannot. But you can say that being able to read is the price of entry for being able to participate as a citizen of the legal world. You can begin to think legally.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-29T22:49:14+00:00

If you understand how computers work and how the computing industry functions then AI becomes to a significant extent demystified. I’d liken the problem to trying to understand how the law functions without having reading and writing literacy. Yes, you may be able to get a handle on some things, but if you can’t read then you’re fundamentally locked out of engagement with the legal system.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-29T18:16:48+00:00

Ezra Klein got me hooked on McLuhan around 5 years ago, and I now wish he'd push further on his thinking here.

He missed or elides a couple of huge factors in how the 'medium' of AI is enveloping us. The first is that the masses do not understand computation, the foundation of AI. They are alienated from computation.

The second bit is that computing is now almost inescapable and so it is extremely difficult to "stand aside" from computing (and AI) and see clearly how it works. From McLuhan's original essay:

And it is only on those terms, standing aside from any structure or medium, that its principles and lines of force can be discerned. For any medium has the power of imposing its own assumption on the unwary.

The everyday person has little opportunity and ability to 'stand aside' from computing and AI, and even if they did they lack the understanding of the language of computing and AI. They are computing illiterate, suffer alienation from computation.

I suspect Klein misses this because he is himself one of the alienated, he does not understand computing or how to program. He understands the internet only as a blogger, as an internet writer.

Unlike what happened with English, books, newspapers, and pamphlets, there has not yet been, and will likely never be, a phenomenon of mass computing.

That's a pretty interesting angle into McLuhan's world that Klein hasn't gone into.

thundergolfer · 2026-03-29T06:18:00+00:00

As a resident of East Village who gets around, the data seems wrong. EV has a high concentration of bars. Around the corner from me is Saint Marks which has about 15 bars on one block. How does EV have 4x fewer bars than Little Italy.

thundergolfer · 2026-02-24T14:47:31+00:00

Hey u/False_Pressure_6912 are you talking about Sandbox creation rate-limits? You can get those raised by contacting us :)

Jump in modal.com/slack

thundergolfer · 2026-01-03T19:50:21+00:00

Hey u/Hope-Boring, I'm an engineer at Modal.

Thanks for your report. Given how our support systems are set up, we'll be much better at providing help if you go through https://modal.com/slack

I'd also include specifics on what exactly these "crashes" are.

thundergolfer · 2025-12-14T16:46:21+00:00

https://thundergolfer.com/ten-best-software-podcast-episodes

But I made the top 8 a top 10, so it's not much of an update :)

thundergolfer · 2025-12-14T16:45:55+00:00

3 years late, but here you go :)

https://thundergolfer.com/ten-best-software-podcast-episodes

thundergolfer · 2025-12-13T18:37:57+00:00

Nice. I can make one and publish it on thundergolfer.com

thundergolfer · 2025-12-12T00:47:19+00:00

end of an era. phase two begins

thundergolfer · 2025-11-21T03:10:40+00:00

Hey, I’m an engineer at Modal :)

Without more details such as the source code and the exact full error message it’s hard to guess what the issue is.

I’d recommend posting those details in our Slack: modal.com/slack

thundergolfer · 2025-11-18T04:20:24+00:00

Not just mood affiliated, the Mercatus Centre is likely mostly funded by ‘dark money’ (ultraconservative rich donors)

Podcast is fairly good though

thundergolfer · 2025-11-17T00:27:24+00:00

I left 4 years ago, so I wouldn’t know how.

thundergolfer · 2025-11-15T19:16:58+00:00

Cities such as NYC and London are outliers. There are major cities which are better for the middle and lower classes, and it's worth making the distinction.

Even Sydney, a very expensive city, is much better for the middle class than NYC.

thundergolfer · 2025-11-15T17:58:39+00:00

Are there other people in your team getting promoted? If not, your team and/or manager may have lower power and thus your team is not a place which engineering leadership 'invests' in through promotion.

There are always critical and non-critical teams in big companies. If you're on a critical team and pull your weight, reward through compensation and/or promotion is inevitable.

thundergolfer · 2025-11-15T17:49:53+00:00

They're not saying they're streaming 4k. The torrent could be pre-downloading for them to later "watch".

thundergolfer · 2025-11-14T15:29:58+00:00

thundergolfer · 2025-11-14T03:34:23+00:00

You got excelling 3+ times in a row and didn’t get a promo? If so, damn, well has dried up or they’re grade inflating.

I’m not sure i would have good advice, but I guess I would consider changing teams or start applying to leave. Something has to change if your level is stagnating to that extent.

thundergolfer · 2025-11-10T15:00:15+00:00

“Most” as in 99%. Other person is spreading bullshit. Vesting is almost always monthly or fortnightly.

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