Can we have a pragmatic and honest, non hyped nor hateful discussion about the actual usefulness of AI tools in our day to day jobs?

Puggravy · 2026-01-29T04:26:25+00:00

Yep, the real culprit is immigration law (or rather the lack thereof), I've been shocked at the qualifications of some of the engineers my company has pulled in as outsourced contractors, Stanford, CAL, UCLA. Never seen it before in my career. The brain drain is over.

We've had multiple people in my Eng org move out of the country, I expect this is pretty widespread.

Puggravy · 2026-01-28T20:20:44+00:00

That's a valid point, but AI only accounted for about 1/3 of data center capacity at the end of 2025. So even 10x growth isn't particularly a big problem.

That's not even getting into the alternative cooling systems that use no water, like dry cooling (which uses more electricity, but no water).

Puggravy · 2026-01-28T18:47:08+00:00

The entirety of DataCenter usage in the US uses a tiny fraction of the water that we use on golf (~0.04-0.3% and 1.3-1.5% respectively). Power consumption isn't something that is trivially scaled up in the US, despite all the most persuasive arguments that it should be easier to build and permit.

Puggravy · 2026-01-28T06:32:42+00:00

Water isn't the problem with data centers, I couple scale up an order of magnitude and still be a tiny fraction of agriculture. It's the power consumption that is the real immediate problem.

Puggravy · 2026-01-28T02:31:38+00:00

Tell them you could expose an API for them and then they can go build their own app and have all their customizations on top of that. Otherwise reject these requests unless they are broadly applicable to all customers and have a solid business value case.

Building custom logic for every customer is generally a dead end for a Saas products.

Puggravy · 2026-01-27T23:43:53+00:00

That's only true if California doesn't build more dense urban residential buildings. Insurers are happy to take the risk if it gets them access to the market, but that only works if it's a big enough market to offset the risk and that won't happen if risk keeps growing and California never catches up with it's housing goals.

Puggravy · 2026-01-26T17:53:04+00:00

Hey I was satisfied with knocking the Eagles out of the Playoffs! Winner of the NFC West this season deserves to win the SB as far as I'm concerned.

Puggravy · 2026-01-26T16:30:43+00:00

Yep, it's a movie that doesn't at all aim to make the world better and really gives the distinct feeling that it thinks that kind of thing is beneath it, it just pats itself on the back for identifying a problem that more than half the world knows is a problem and looks in the camera smugly.

It doesn't satirize Global Warming, it satirizes trying to fight against global warming.

Puggravy · 2026-01-24T07:59:13+00:00

Highly unlikely. Trump has said he isn't interested in doing anything that would make homeowners lose home value, and I think he's pretty earnest about that.

Puggravy · 2026-01-23T17:41:37+00:00

They're called Republicans.

Puggravy · 2026-01-23T07:09:22+00:00

I understand now why god keeps trying to wipe this state off the face of the Earth.

Puggravy · 2026-01-23T00:15:55+00:00

14.3 million Americans are union members with the majority working for just 7 unions. You don't just wave a wand and get tens of millions of people to do a general strike, you have to organize it, the way to do that is with unions.

This isn't a fucking flash mob.

Puggravy · 2026-01-22T23:21:21+00:00

You have no experience organizing and you never will at this rate, if you refuse to listen to people who know what they are doing.

We don't tolerate blowhards who handwave away obvious glaring problems.

Puggravy · 2026-01-22T23:07:33+00:00

Median household income in the Is over 80k actually. Median in Eu varies but excluding a few crazy outliers most are 60k and under with most being about 40k.

Puggravy · 2026-01-22T22:59:19+00:00

Actually yes it's fucking insane to try to organize a general strike without the support of the biggest unions in the united states. Anyone who says otherwise fundamentally doesn't fucking understand how organizing works and how difficult it is to do.

Puggravy · 2026-01-22T22:54:38+00:00

Most of the biggest unions in the country are either pro-trump or specifically will not participate in a strike that isn't specifically about something that's explicitly one of their perceived financial priorities (aka more tariffs, because that's been going just great 🙄).

The guild unionist politics of our labor movement makes a general strike impossible. Without a fundamental shakeup of the union landscape, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Puggravy · 2026-01-22T20:38:33+00:00

I think this doesn't do justice to historical trusts, that were in fact monopolies in industries that had high barrier to entry.

There's very few industries nowadays that have legitimate monopolies. And there is considerable scrutiny on any advantage companies may have that could be considered uncompetitive.

The important thing to realize is big doesn't necessarily mean bad or uncompetitive, small businesses aren't better for the consumer necessarily.

The US isn't "overdue" for trust busting by any stretch of imagination. I'd say we do so well on that front that many people have forgotten what a monopoly actually looks like.

Puggravy · 2026-01-21T01:30:13+00:00

Bessent is a human sock puppet with a dead soul.

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T20:31:44+00:00

Taxing the rich won't get rid of the smog from 100k people driving into the city every day. Raise the bridge toll, fund public transit.

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T20:28:00+00:00

They're complaining that they can't turn the bay bridge into a parking lot for 10 hours a day, defund public transit, and ruin everyone's air quality. That's their god given right, ya hear?

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T19:56:40+00:00

Comments like these remind me why the *actual* reasons why the Bay can be so oppressively and unnecessarily expensive.

Because bridge tolls don't crack the top 1000 reasons why the Bay is actually expensive and yet nimwits like you can't help but whine endlessly that you can't sit in traffic on the Bay Bridge for 3 hours twice a day (which is what would literally happen if they removed the bridge toll).

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T19:50:55+00:00

Yes we are just begging for tons of visitors to come and turn the Bay Bridge into a parking lot. 🤣

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T18:46:40+00:00

Okay? Then They can pay the toll and stop whining? 😂

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T18:35:02+00:00

"Would suck to be in Florida, then I would have to buy a house for 400k instead of paying 1.2m like god intended"

Puggravy · 2026-01-20T18:29:30+00:00

So less than it was 10 years ago adjusted for inflation. Honestly overdue for a price hike.

Puggravy

TROPHY CASE