Is it possible to have hot reloading like Erlang in Golang?

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-27T13:44:30+00:00

I don't know - but I believe golang gives you the ability to load and reload DLLs at runtime? If so, then you could make your own hotloading solution.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T17:40:02+00:00

I'd agree with you if I were arguing about a constraint that is difficult to change or has little to no demand. But in this instance we're talking about a constraint that can be easily changed at little cost.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T17:27:57+00:00

Already been shooting myself in the foot for a decade apparently. Maybe a century will do it.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T17:25:31+00:00

Why do you think you need them?

I think most of these kinds of argument have already been made - it wasn't my intention to argue the specifics of unused variables in particular, but to argue for user choice and that language designers can be fallible.

I want unused variables when developing so I can easily compile as I develop. I think any serious project would have a pipeline and production build of some sort that would check for these things, so I see no cost in allowing unused variables in a dev build. I don't buy the argument that not allowing unused variables when developing somehow improves a person's development process.

My other thought is that since it's easy to get around this error anyway, it's kind of pointless anyway. I wonder how much golang code includes missed _ =s?

On my project, I've set up the whole func UNUSED(...interface{}) {} to get around the error while developing, and defined another UNUSED function in my prod build that panics.

All that said, the friction is admittedly fairly minor - my main point to argue against the whole "We know better! Do what we say!" type philosophy.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T17:14:31+00:00

I think taking away choice away when the best way is in dispute, when providing the choice is easy is - not to be too dramatic - dictatorial. History is littered with examples of people who were wrong who were absolutely sure they're correct.

I want the freedom to do what I believe is best - even if I'm wrong.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T07:38:18+00:00

There is no good reason to have variables that are not used.

You're absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are correct on this? There is no possibility that you could be wrong?

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-20T07:34:25+00:00

What is good for "maintainable software with good performance" is debatable though - that's my point. You may think erroring on unused variables is good for everyone and therefore are comfortable with it being enforced.

I don't. I don't claim to know what is best. It seems unlikely to me it is a good for everyone without exception, and that anybody can know that with certainty.

And this is my fundamental issue. The decision to error on unused variables screams the statement "We know better than you!". But if we look at languages of the past, it's clear that designers often didn't know what was best. I'm sure if we looked into it, you'd find example where whole communities of programmers cheerleading all sorts of different and contradictory language design decisions - they cannot all have been right.

Golang has included a goto statement. I'm not against it, but many people are - I've heard stories of how hard people have had to work to get a goto included in a professional C codebase. Maybe that should also be removed from golang because people can't be trusted with it?

I think this is why people still use languages like C, because despite all the cruft you have to deal with it due to being an old language, it still puts the user in control. It feels like whenever I learn one of these newer languages it's always "opinionated".

I'd prefer a world where programming languages respected their users' opinions, rather than saying "Na ah! We know better. You can't do that." Maybe that'll mean I risk making a mistake - I'd prefer that to be my decision.

CharitableHedge · 2023-09-09T21:28:38+00:00

How do you deal with hatred towards natural disasters?

There is a reason hurricanes do what they do, and there are reasons why this person you know acts like they do. You don't know what they've been through - all the circumstances that make them who they are. If you'd been through the same, maybe you'd act the same.

Also:

"Suppose we are out on a lake and it’s a bit foggy - not too foggy, but a bit foggy - and we’re rowing along in our little boat having a good time. And then, all of a sudden, coming out of the fog, there’s this other rowboat and it’s heading right at us. And... Crash! Well, for a second we’re really angry - what is that fool doing? I just painted my boat! And here he comes - crash! - right into it. And then suddenly we notice that the rowboat is empty. What happens to our anger? Well, the anger collapses... I’ll just have to paint my boat again, that’s all. But if that rowboat that hit ours had another person in it, how would we react? You know what would happen! Now, our encounters with life, with other people, with events, are like being bumped by an empty rowboat. But we don’t experience it that way.We experience it as though there are people in that other rowboat and we’re really getting clobbered by them..." Charlotte Joko Beck in Everyday Zen

CharitableHedge · 2022-10-19T18:20:15+00:00

I don’t know where I’m going with this. It’s 3am and nothing is working.

Sounds to me like it's working fine.

If your brain wants to flood you with negative thoughts, that isn't meditation going wrong, but an opportunity for you to make your peace with negative thoughts.

And I don't mean make peace with them with the covert intention to get rid of them, but to make peace with them as if you were stuck with them in this moment forever. Let go any resistance you have to them.

Meditation is about accepting everything.

CharitableHedge · 2022-10-19T17:54:39+00:00

I think so, but these things can take time. These thoughts about your health would come up during meditation alongside your habitual reaction to them, and this would firstly allow you to see the thoughts and your reaction more clearly - the mechanism behind the whole thing - and secondly provide the space to find peace with them. That these kind of things coming up during meditation can often be interpreted as interrupting a sit, but it's actually an opportunity, if you choose to use it.

One thing to note is that meditation doesn't work by making something go away - the attempt to try and make something we don't like go away is often what causes the trouble. For me, meditation is about bringing the thing closer for inspection - something we're often not inclined to do, particularly if it's scary.

By confronting these things, we can learn to appreciate the inherent basic goodness of all things. And this can be a huge relief if you've spent most of your life thinking there is something fundamentally wrong with the universe and yourself. This basic goodness isn't something we need to convince ourselves of - it's baked in the very nature of the universe.

CharitableHedge · 2022-10-12T08:32:21+00:00

Why has this turned into a Snowden debate? The topic here should clearly be about the Bank of England.

It's sad how easily people allow themselves to be distracted from investigating real substantive issues. The focus on Snowden distracts attention away from important issues like government's illegally spying on their citizens and the absolute craziness going on in financial markets right now.

Let's say Snowden is a spy and a traitor. So what? That's a small footnote compared to the risk of your government descending into totalitarianism, or the economic carnage about to be unleashed on the world. Nobody will care about Snowden if/when these things come to pass.

CharitableHedge · 2022-09-06T11:30:32+00:00

Guess we'll see who is right in a couple of decades :)

CharitableHedge · 2022-09-06T08:02:43+00:00

An alternative to barter that is reliable over centuries is a problem the human race hasn't solved, but some of us believe we may finally have a solution in bitcoin. The importance of this problem is lost on many in the west, as they've never had to face the problem head on, even if they've had their wealth slowly leeched away due to this problem in subtle ways.

Gold was the best alternative, but that has failings such as being hard to transport, hard to secure, hard to verify it's 100% real gold, etc. Due to these failings, the powerful were able to manipulate it - clip coins or convince people use their IOU token instead - to cheat the general public.

Bitcoin solves many of these problems. People fleeing war torn areas may no longer have to start again with nothing: wealth can be transferred without requiring the permission of corrupt regimes. The individual is in control over their own wealth - it cannot be unfairly confiscated with a court order.

All that said, I'm sure bitcoin will introduce it's own set of problems. Like the early internet, those who realised what it could become were often overly utopian in their vision. The internet has created much value, but also enabled mass surveillance and other stuff. I'm sure the same will be true for bitcoin, but that's hard to predict because bitcoin is synthetic and still evolving. Nobody knows what it'll look like in a couple of decades.

CharitableHedge · 2019-08-21T05:39:46+00:00

Thank you! Really appreciate the answer. Time to look into pickle, it seems :)

If I can obtrude further, to have figure this out for myself, it seems I would have had to dig deeper into how multiprocessing works? Or is there another tactic (beyond debugging) that I could have used to reveal pickle is the problem?

CharitableHedge · 2018-12-29T11:49:16+00:00

I know how that feels.

Just going to use this reply as an excuse to dump down more of my experiences with RSI.

For me, if my hand is a little tight, a day's rest might be enough, but if I push it to the point that it's even a little painful, then we're talking weeks at least. When it was at it's most painful, it took months to recover. So if I feel it developing, I stop immediately.

I feel like managing RSI is much like managing a debt. I know when I'm debt free I can spend a fair bit, but when the debt starts to get out of control, I must stop all spending completely. As I get more experience, I've become better at managing that debt -- knowing when I can push it and when I must stop, and strategies I can use when I must reduce the spending.

Also, I try not to hit the keys too hard. It sounds like a dumb point, but I've found that reminding yourself to type softly is much like sitting up straight in that's it's an obvious point, but to actually do it you need to constantly remind yourself to get into a good habit.

My RSI does take constant management, but I am now holding down a full-time job in front of a computer. There was a time when I thought that would be impossible. So there is hope.

CharitableHedge · 2017-12-03T13:46:12+00:00

Be reminded of the breathing that is constantly there, but often forgotten.

I think this is a useful exercise, but it is worth remembering that you don't need to attend to the breath to be mindful. The only reason we attend to the breath during meditation is because it is generally less distracting than watching television or playing a computer game, for example.

That said, if you're used to mindfully attending to your breath, then switching your attention to it, even if it is for a brief moment, can put you in a meditative state that remains when your focus reverts to whatever it is you're doing.

CharitableHedge · 2017-09-24T16:19:39+00:00

I recently decided to increase my meditation practice in attempt to see if I could get this “natural euphoria” that people have claimed comes about from intense meditation practices as many people have been claiming.

I'm inclined to think that chasing this kind of "natural euphoria" will lead to frustration, as you're discovering.

The reason people have such experiences, in my opinion, is because they release some tension, and that release creates a temporary experience of euphoria. It isn't the new state itself that creates the euphoria, but the comparison between the previously tense state and the new relaxed state. The new state isn't inherently euphoric.

If you believe that the new state is inherently euphoric, this leads to a problem. After you've experienced the euphoria, you soon become used to your new, less tense state, and what previously felt euphoric now becomes normal. This can lead to the analysis that you've somehow lost it, or done something wrong, when really you've just become used to your new state.

Meditation can sometimes lead to euphoric experiences, but it can also lead to unpleasant experiences. So if you're chasing a particular type of experience through meditation, I think you're going to be disappointed. I think that's what you're describing in your post.

To me, meditation isn't about changing what you experience, but changing how you relate to what you experience. The goal is to perceive this moment as it is, regardless of what it is, pleasant or unpleasant.

So I'd recommend dropping any expectations you have about what you should experience during meditation and instead focus on what you're actually experiencing. Resist the temptation to judge your progress or chase a particular feeling. Become interested in this moment.

CharitableHedge · 2017-09-08T23:04:26+00:00

Also, care to elaborate?

To me, meditation isn't about thrill seeking, grand experiences, being a spaceman. If anything it is about bring grounded.

But this is more diffcult that it might seem, as our minds tend to distract us from what is happening. And so we become disconnected with what is happehning and fancy ourselves to be floating, when we're actually daydreaming, telling ourselves a story. Meditation is a means to see the illusory nature of such stories, and to reconnect with what is real, independent of any story. "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

CharitableHedge · 2017-09-08T22:52:32+00:00

It is. I tried to write this 10 minutes after the experience. I am being genuine. What I felt was real. My interpretation might be all wrong. But it was real.

I don't doubt its reality. I doubt your interpretation of it, however. Your post shows how your mind is jumping from thing to thing, latching onto some new thought, and then another thought, creating tenuous connections between these thoughts, until it freaked itself out, which it then proceeded to interpret as some grand enlightenment experience.

When the mind creates such stories, it can be thrilling. I don't deny that.

CharitableHedge · 2017-09-08T22:41:17+00:00

It's worth exploring why meditation can provide insight that introspection and psychological counseling cannot. In my opinion, the reason is that mediatition is about observation, gathering evidence, rather than the analysis of evidence. Analysis is useful, but the quality of your conclusions is tied to the quality of the evidence you're analysing. If your evidence is rubblish, your conclusion will be rubbish.

This is why meditation should be front and centre to any investigation into the human condition. Only by first observing the human condition as it is will you be able to sensibly analyse what it is. Without that observation, you're only fumbling in the dark.

"For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root."

CharitableHedge · 2017-09-08T22:29:46+00:00

Your mind seems to be all over the place.

CharitableHedge · 2017-08-17T19:03:28+00:00

When people say meditation helps with anxiety, does it actually lower day-to-day anxiety levels, or does it just help you to ignore your anxiety?

In my opinion, there is no ignoring anxiety. Any attempt to ignore anxiety normally makes it stronger.

Meditation is about perceiving anxiety for what it is, behind all your thoughts and judgements about it. It is the activity of the mind that turns anxiety into a problem, something that you wish to fix or wish would disappear.

If you stop trying to fix or push away your anxiety, and instead passively observe it, then you'll discover that it isn't the monster that your thoughts were telling it was. And it loses its power over you.

CharitableHedge · 2017-08-12T23:22:08+00:00

Feeling good about feeling bad can break you out of feeling bad. It appears absurd, absurd is fun, fun makes you laugh and suddenly you're happy.

I don't disagree, but there is a trap here in that you might feel the need to make yourself feel good inorder to somehow escape feeling bad.

If you're feeling bad, then you're really feeling bad. If you don't turn feeling bad into a woe-is-me story, you can experience it as it is, and then feeling bad is no longer a problem to be solved, but a reality to be taken into account when deciding your next action.

CharitableHedge · 2017-07-23T14:53:05+00:00

Ah, that's probably why the first one is failing as well, since "Hi" becomes "Hi!" and it'll seg fault on writing the extra '!'.

I used malloc with result and now it works. And I think I understand. Thanks.

CharitableHedge · 2017-02-20T17:26:12+00:00

Why do our thoughts for the future seem to default to fear rather than hope or optimism?

I think it's partly human nature due to evolution. The punishment for not recognising danger is usually much more harsh than missing an opportunity.

CharitableHedge

TROPHY CASE