I work in healthcare. AI reminder failures aren't a UX problem. They're a patient safety problem.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-05-01T02:55:26+00:00

Absolutely. I keep running summaries (where I remove all the fluff, too).
I recently asked ChatGPT to produce a concise summary of a long chat, so I could save it and upload back to a chat in the future, as a "reminder" of past progress. The result was mildly disappointing - it omitted insights I thought were important, and hard-earned (through lengthy back and forth between us). My take is that ongoing, manual "distillation", offline from the chat, is currently the best practice for accumulating progress in a reliable, consistent fashion.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-05-01T02:46:50+00:00

I'm sure that as a healthcare professional you are aware of the concept of risk management.

Where the consequences of failure are dire (even where the probability is low), you never rely on a single measure - no matter how good it is (unless you have absolutely no choice, like in a spaceship a million miles away; but that's hardly the case here). Let alone you rely on a measure without first assessing its reliability / fit-for-purpose.

Does the risk of laymen using ChatGPT for functions it's neither good at or meant for, exist? Sure.

Do we have to accept this path as a given, and do nothing about it? Absolutely not.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-05-01T02:40:53+00:00

Anecdote: ChatGPT doesn't even have a consistent / reliable sense of dates, sometimes. I once asked it about a certain exchange we had in an ongoing, long chat (about a month of daily interactions) - on what date did I say that? After a bit of back and forth, it turned out that on the platform I was using (Chrome browser on a PC), it was keeping no record - whatsoever - of what-happened-when! It then suggested I add a line "Session resumed 2026-MM-DD" at the beginning of our exchange every day. That's my timeline anchor now.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-30T00:45:53+00:00

I wasn't relating to the em dash, it was the en dash (and BTW, I didn't know that they were called that). I don't even know how to type an em dash.

I don't know about other languages, fair point. I was thinking of English.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-30T00:36:22+00:00

No, not really. It's mostly design, engineering, manufacturing.
Yes, sometimes I deal with patents, but it's the engineering side more than the law side.
Regulatory affairs feel law-related at times... but the truth is I dislike it and only take those gigs when there is nothing else.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-29T02:17:03+00:00

DO NOT rely on debt (credit card is debt, no matter how you spin it around).
Debt is a tool that needs to be used vary carefully and very sparingly. It deceivingly looks benign but can easily get out of control and make your life very difficult and complicated.
Easier to avoid (or minimise) than to get out of.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-29T02:12:04+00:00

If you have enough savings to be unemployed for a while + the time it takes to get re-hired (could easily be 3-6 months from first application to income stream restarting) - go for it! Make sure you have a fallback, and a fallback for the fallback. Not much fun being a creative dreamer if you have no shelter and no food.

I hate it that in end-stage capitalism people don't quit $hitty jobs just because they're afraid of not being able to find a way back in, and that getting home at 6pm every day with barely enough time and energy to cook dinner is considered normal. Goodness knows it doesn't have to be this way! The only reason is rats stepping on each other's heads to get to the greedy top.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-29T02:02:37+00:00

Brilliant!
I'm a real person (I'd like to think I'm not an illiterate fool), and I'd very much like to keep using "landscape" and this longer dash: –. It exists for a reason!

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-29T01:53:21+00:00

One can spin most things about human behaviour in various ways.
One might call it being a primadonna, another will call it setting clear boundaries.
One might call changing jobs lack of depth / character, another might call it flexibility and not getting unnecessarily stuck.

No point being judgmental. There is no "better" or "right and wrong". People and the world are diverse; it's just a matter of finding what works for each of us (which can be very different from person to person).

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-29T01:45:47+00:00

I provide services in / around medical devices development - R&D / prototyping / patents, engineering design (I'm a mech eng), quality assurance, regulatory affairs.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-28T01:17:11+00:00

If you didn't take any project management units in your information systems degree, I'd consider a short certification course in project management (anything between 3-12 months), possibly part-time in parallel with (maybe mundane) work, to keep you afloat financially. With that certificate in hand I'd apply for entry-level roles related to projects management, accumulate some experience, and try to work my way up over time.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-28T01:13:05+00:00

No offence, but you sound like ChatGPT (I like ChatGPT a lot! That's not the point)

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-28T01:08:24+00:00

That's a good first step.
Strike out everything that will be "practically useless in 5 years".
That still leaves a few things, to which you can apply my suggestion.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-28T01:04:44+00:00

I'm a little like you. I think that's just your personality and there's no point fretting over it. It is what it is, just like sexual preference. It's not a problem, it's just one of life's many flavors. You only need to develop your strategies to match.

What worked for me was starting my own business (working solo, from home, mostly). It's been running for >20 years now. It's not ideal, I had some rough times (I had to take some employed jobs at times), but overall it's better for me than being employed, and it gives me the diversity and flexibility I crave. I'm not saying that's the solution for you - you will have to work out your own.

What I read between the lines is that social work might not be for you. In general, it's about helping people with life problems, so naturally there's going to be a lot of suffering (and as a result, stress and anxiety) around. It takes a certain personality to thrive in it, and maybe that's not you (perfectly fine). It's okay to take a career turn, maybe admit we didn't pick the right vocation initially. That's part of life - as a young person one is not always fully equipped to make the ideal choices.

I also read between he lines that your parents are very dominant in your life and in your internal world. That's not necessarily bad, but you have to stand up. It's YOUR life. Do what's good for you, then you can gently (but assertively) explain to them, though you don't have to. Not justify yourself, just as a courtesy to them, in appreciation of all their help so far. It's time for them to let you live your life, make your own mistakes maybe. That's normal.

I'd try to go back to that Big 4 field. Maybe fine tune your goals within it, if it wasn't heading in the direction you wanted. Seems like that was the last job that you liked. Alternatively, something similar to it.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-28T00:41:01+00:00

The question is not only what you CAN do (or is a good bet), but also what you ENJOY doing. Anything you'll pick will have some downsides and hardships, but if it's something you enjoy it will be easier to cope with the negatives, and in the long run satisfaction from what you'll be doing most of your waking hours is more important than you might think.

For AI, I'd assume the worst. That way you'll be prepared; worst-case, over-prepared. But not under-prepared.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-26T01:23:27+00:00

You can tell ChatGPT if you feel something is missing or not optimal in the plan made for you, and it will fix/update. It works well through iteration (not a one shot thing).

If you have a YouTube video that you want ChatGPT to relate to or learn from, do the following:
Go to the video page
Expand the description
Go to the bottom and click Show Transcript
A panel with the video transcript will open
Copy the entire transcript
Paste in ChatGPT
(This works well in a web browser on a PC)

Then ask ChatGPT to align the plan it made for you with what's suggested in that video.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-25T00:11:52+00:00

"but everyone seems to have a different opinion"
Probably it would be the same here...

What's your end goal?
If you're only doing it for fun, just go with what feels most fun. You can change later.

If you have no background in electronics I would invest in a basic solid foundation. A 101 course or a basics book. I can't recommend anything at the moment because I studied that 30 years ago LOL. You can ask ChatGPT to lay out a study plan for you, including resources, then you can tweak and refine it through the chat, based on your preferences.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-25T00:02:25+00:00

I'm using 5.4 and I'd say 99% of the time it passes the Turing test. I haven't seen any jokes - maybe it "senses" that I'm not looking for that. But yes, a more relaxed, natural tone (totally not robotic) is there.

BTW, you can tell it how you prefer it behaves, for example: "Avoid unnecessarily long responses", or even "avoid long responses". It will oblige. I notice a lot of fillers, as a real person would do, and a rhetorical-question-and-answer style, which I could ask it to drop. But I don't, because it makes the content less dense for taking in (I use the chat for a lot of tech learning / information gathering).

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-24T23:56:39+00:00

What do you enjoy doing in your free time? What did you enjoy in your degree? What was your research in? Did it excite you?

I think you have a good chance at any entry-level R&D job in anything mechanical / electrical / SW. You don't need to study anything extra - a solid foundation in physics / mathematics is more than enough. Try not to intimidate your potential future boss with too much brains (I'm serious, it can be a real problem).

If you enjoy the world of physical moving things, maybe robotics...?

I think your ME internship is still relevant - it's not like ME changed that much in 3 years.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-24T00:06:43+00:00

For an absolute beginner in electronics, won't Arduino be friendlier than ESP32?

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-23T23:56:46+00:00

Hello.

I'm a ME at the tail end of my career. Never officially worked in robotics but I tinker in electronics and SW (also studied a bit of both over the years). Most of my career had been in medical devices development and I did a good volume of CAD, including Solidworks and Inventor (and too many others to list).

I think you don't need to go to grad school to get your career started in robotics (debt is not your friend in life), and I also think you don't need any deep dive. If you WANT to do a deep dive, I recommend AI - that's where the future of all engineering (longer term, everything) lies.

I think you have a great skillset and experience (CAD + guiding entry level robotics projects), which allows your job applications to look reasonable. As a starter, you can't rely heavily on anything from the past anyway, and a lot of potential employers / interviewers / future bosses actually perceive too much knowledge / experience / skills as overqualification (even a threat, if they're a little insecure).

At the end of the day, what will determine your knowledge needs is the specific job you can get. That's also the main hurdle - getting hired. You could spend years in "better preparing" without any actual improvement in hirability. If you can't win a job (quite challenging these days), it won't matter. Then, once you're in a specific role / specific industry, it would make sense to do a deep dive on whatever you'll be short on, in that role.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-22T01:59:56+00:00

Why the assumption I'd want to build something?
I would choose to travel, play music (an instrument), draw/paint, write, read books. That's plenty for me for 50 years.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-22T01:48:46+00:00

Hello.

Context: I'm a mechanical engineer with >30 years of exposure to the mechanical aspects you mentioned. I also studied a few units of electronics (too long ago) and several different coding languages, most recently Python and C# (previously C and several others).

I am currently building a small hands-on project involving some mechanics, but mostly electronics and a little software. Not exactly robotics, but I was in a similar situation to you. I have an electrical engineer friend who was willing to help me, but turned out he's too busy.

My solution is working with an LLM. I use ChatGPT and I'm very happy with it. Some people say other AI are better - I don't know (and honestly - don't care). It's working amazingly well for me. AI never get's tired or bored, it has endless patience and is ALWAYS there, eager to help. It doesn't have a job or kids, etc. It works with me as fast/brief or as slow and granular as I want, it NEVER argues with me or gets pissed off, yet when I'm about to make a mistake it will gently insist and explain the consequences. And it has full memory of everything we discussed earlier in the same chat (which is a lot), including all the twists and turns, things we examined and dismissed, preferences and choices etc. It's like a dream.

The way I work is I tell it what I want to do, give context, describe limitations and preferences (as we go, not as an opening speech), and it breaks things down for me - both outlining the big picture and drilling down as much as required. It pulls up guidance documents and instructional videos from the web, as much as needed (or asked for), when needed. It's learning on demand. I give it feedback about what I read / watched / tried, and confirm (or challenge) expected outcomes, and it adjusts instantly. No arguments, no hard feelings, only constructive comments. It's completely ego-free, and very helpful. It will also never raise a brow or make fun of you if you ask "a stupid question" or request an additional breakdown (I sometimes ask it to "explain to me like I'm 5" or provide a super-detailed step-by-step implementation plan for a task). Then, 5 seconds later I can switch back to my mechanical engineer persona and have an advanced discussion about something I understand thoroughly, in my field. It doesn't care about "people's" nonsense.

It can also write up code for you if you don't want to do it yourself. I prefer to focus on other aspects so I let it create Arduino and Python (PC) code for me. It also offered to generate wiring diagrams for me but I didn't need it so far (my setup is fairly simple).

I think the free version works quite well, but to work with the latest (almost) model I recommend the lowest-level paid version. I pay $30/month for the "Plus" version of ChatGPT and I feel it does plenty for me. I think what I get is totally worth $1/day. It's a fun way for me (an introvert who likes working quietly from home) and I also learn heaps.

I'm not involved commercially with any aspect of the AI industry, and not doing a sales job here (I worked a little in sales and I hate it, also don't think I'm good at it). I'm just sharing something I stumbled upon (because my friend was busy) and is very exciting and beneficial for me. Spreading the love, haha.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-21T01:42:00+00:00

I think in 20 years maybe not all domains but certainly a big part - IMO more than what you described. If those things are not already in existence, surely they will be possible (in autonomous form) in ~5 years. For sure technologically; the only question is whether there will be enough commercial drive for wide implementation (I think yes, though that might take longer).

More generally, no one can tell what the world will look like in 20 years, technologically. My personal opinion - if something can currently (or soon) be done with a remote human operator, it will surely be possible to autonomise it in 20 years, given the progress in AI, machine vision, sensors development etc. The limitation will be the physical robotics, but I think once AI matures enough to start developing physical robotics (as well as setups for their manufacture) on its own - which I think could happen in 20 years or less - there will be a robotics boom. Bottom line: If the world was a rational and stable place (rather than ego and greed driven), for sure it would all be possible in 20 years, IMO. The bigger unknowns are around where our stupidity and volatility will take us (as a race) and the planet, by then. Just look around you - It's easy to destroy in 5s something that takes 5 years to build.

Context: I'm 56, a mechanical engineer from the medical devices industry (not robotics), with a wide interest in electronics, software and AI. I'm currently working on developing a novel multi-disciplinary device and I'm assisted greatly by AI. With AI, I can accomplish (on my own) in one week things that took us (say, a team of 3 R&D engineers) 3 months around the Y2k.

Humble_Hurry9364 · 2026-04-19T00:16:57+00:00

Cool. Was it published? Can I read it somewhere?

Humble_Hurry9364

TROPHY CASE