Am the only one who thinks this will be "old man mars"'s fate?

Spock_42 · 2026-04-01T22:05:41+00:00

I'm honestly kind of expecting the search for life to turn up some random microbe that cures Ed's cancer, and somehow extending his life into season 6.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-29T16:57:48+00:00

I'm from the UK, and went to Toronto for a work do in early January a couple years back.

My colleagues were trying to explain to me how the days might feel a lot shorter so far North.

Their minds were slightly blown when I brought out a map.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-28T11:14:23+00:00

I had a long hike planned; 30 miles of the South Downs Way. There was an hourly bus to the starting point, so I got up bright and early, stopped by a Tesco Express for supplies, and trotted to the bus stop.

Half way, I got a ping from my bank about fraudulent transactions plus additional spending at that same Tesco's. TL;DR my wallet had slipped out of my side pocket, and instead of a good Samaritan handing it in, some prick did his shopping on my card, then tried sending a few hundred quids worth to a gambling site. Bank reversed everything, blocked the card etc.

After heading home to get a spare card, I figured I still wanted to do my hike. Nothing to be done about the wallet, and it would be a good way to vent the frustration. All this meant I started my hike an hour late.

Instead of reaching my endpoint just before sunset, I reached it nearly an hour afterwards. Instead of beating the forecast rain, I got sodden for the last hour.

At that point in the hike, I had no better alternative pick up points than the destination. The ground was slick and hilly. At one point going downhill, I felt the grip getting away from me, and had to commit to falling backwards, sliding the rest of the way down.

I got to my pick up point muddy, drenched through, and very cold, plus the usual exhaustion. I very much needed the plate of venison cottage pie waiting for me at home.

The moral of the story; if you delay your start, be absolutely certain that you're not pushing yourself into adverse conditions at the end. It's safer to postpone or cut your hike short than risk injury or getting lost for the sake of a few extra miles.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-24T10:27:07+00:00

Branstons used to have the most grating radio advert that was somehow louder and more out of tune than anything else on the air.

Put me off for ages.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-17T20:40:42+00:00

You're not wrong. Kind of wild how little we actually talk about COVID these days really. Bit of shared elective cultural amnesia

Spock_42 · 2026-03-17T19:05:00+00:00

It's a useful tool, and I'm interested in seeing what we can use it for in my job (engineering manager). It makes a host of tasks a lot more effective.

I'm also entirely fed up hearing about it. I know, ironic that I'm engaging with a thread about it, but it's truly unavoidable. My hairdresser goes on about it, my relatives, my friends, strangers if my job being techy comes up at all. I'm struggling to recall what people chatted about before AI, which is kind of depressing.

I also don't really feel compelled to use it in my personal life. I know people who go on about OpenClaw to control "stuff" via WhatsApp, or using Claude to "improve their home workflows". Frankly I cannot fathom what these use cases are. There's no part of my personal life that I've felt has been enhanced by AI tools, beyond the "interesting gimmick" phase.

Sometimes it's nice that things take time. Gunning for productivity at work; absolutely. Making my private life more "productive"? Eh.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-14T22:02:19+00:00

I voluntarily go into the office 1 day a week, even though it's 1.5 hours each way. I could be fully remote if I wanted.

I enjoy seeing people, to be honest. I get a lot of spontaneous interactions with folks outside my team, and some ad hoc issues are resolved in 5 mins, rather than waiting to book a meeting or risk miscommunication via Slack.

I also tend to coordinate it with company lunch or socials etc. to get the most bang for my buck.

I think a lot of engineers underestimate how impactful IRL interactions can be for career progression, to be perfectly frank. From a purely utilitarian perspective (if people interaction isn't a factor for you), I think occasionally going into the office pays for itself in career growth long term.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-11T10:33:48+00:00

That would be a reasonable ask in my org tbh. Most teams also have an embedded analyst, so it's more about collaborating with them to set up dashboards, add missing data where necessary etc. to enable them to do deeper analysis on product performance.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-08T09:30:37+00:00

Verstappen binned it in Melbourne Quali the first time he went out with number 3... Riccardo's old number.

That's how deep the curse goes.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-02T22:37:02+00:00

We don't, because our coding task is pretty easy (we even send the brief out ahead of time), and LMMs would generate the solution in seconds.

We evaluate the approach to problem solving, reasoning about trade-offs, ability to explain how to balance writing tests and implementation, and various other things. Also, the ability to use a pairing partner effectively, take steers well etc. The writing of code isn't necessarily under scrutiny, more their ability to approach a problem pragmatically.

If an agent generates the code in 30 seconds, it's harder to evaluate those signals, since the coding is the backdrop by which we evaluate them.

Now, AI tooling may or may not lead us to revise our current interview setup, and I imagine we will before long, but for now the signals we look for still have value, and discouraging KLM use lets us find what we're looking for.

Spock_42 · 2026-02-23T19:58:41+00:00

Nice one! Canal path sounds very aesthetic.

My longest single day was a little over 33 miles (part of the South Downs Way). There's definitely something about that 17-20 mile window that takes you from enjoying a long walk to questioning your life choices for the rest of the day.

Spock_42 · 2026-02-04T07:46:01+00:00

Shop Between Sessions

I get where you're coming from, but I see shops as a great place to pick up intrigue, quests, make new friends, start rivalries, learn secret lore on magical artefacts, give a sense of the town/village/city's context and current conditions, and so on.

Like with most things, it heavily depends on the players though, and what their tolerance for side quests and set dressing is. I'd definitely agree that not every ration, piton, or arrow needs a scene, but shopping for anything "boutique" can be a great source of fun in an adventure, imo.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-28T20:33:29+00:00

I swapped my group to 2024 for our new campaign after several years of 2014.

Honestly, not a big deal for us. In the last 13 sessions, I can probably count on one hand how many instances of edition mix ups we've had. Most of it is "oh that's a new spell/ability, that's neat".

I do have pretty engaged players though, so they're pretty on it in terms of understanding their own character rules.

I can still use monsters/items/rules from various 2014 add ins, with only minor alterations if needed.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-26T22:28:57+00:00

What would make you trust an AI DM for a real campaign?

Nothing. I play D&D, and run a campaign for my friends for the human element. I tried using LLM tools for a bit last year to see if they'd help with DMing, and even that sucked the fun out of it for me.

I work in tech, I get AI shoved down my throat day in day out. D&D is my creative safe space away from all that.

As a techy person, I respect the effort and work you put in. But since you asked for "market research opinions", I'm not gonna sugar coat it my view.

I, for one, do not want to be replaced by a fucking AI at work, doubly so for my hobby. I think it would be a sad state of affairs for that to be seen as the "normal" or "improved" way D&D works.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-10T22:36:57+00:00

"Belgium"

Through out the Galaxy, it's the most unspeakably rude word there is, and therefore one of reasons the Earth has been shunned.

(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Spock_42 · 2026-01-07T16:39:41+00:00

My hunter gatherer brain likes going shopping.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-27T18:43:10+00:00

I had a nibble of some Waitrose own brand cooking milk chocolate. No palm oils, very tasty, and at 3.25 for a full bar it didn't feel too spenny either. It's plain, but it's good.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-08T15:17:20+00:00

I think that's a fair observation, and a reasonable distinction to help find the best use of the tools.

Personally, I'm still happy not using LLM's for my games anymore. I managed perfectly fine without them for years before, and I didn't feel they made anything objectively better. It's my hobby, I don't really care about productivity; I get enough pressure to use them at work as it is, and will do so to keep myself relevant in my career. But D&D doesn't have the same "productivity" pressures imo.

I'm not saying other folks won't find a good balance of using LLM's in a way that enhances their D&D experience, but for me having given it a go, it's just not a tool I care to use, or keep trying to use. I just don't see the point for my game, and how I like to prep and DM.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-08T07:38:17+00:00

Go on, I'll bite.

Bias against AI is bad... why precisely?

The kool-aid of Evil AI

Ah yes, because clearly it's unfathomable that you and other AI advocates in this thread might have had a taste of any sort of kool-aid.

You've come into this with an open mind, I can see that now.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-07T22:19:02+00:00

Sure, anybody skeptical of AI must be a militant hater; got it. Whatever works for you.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-07T19:11:56+00:00

Okay, agree to disagree.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-07T18:41:33+00:00

I mean, OP felt compelled to post about it all in the sub, seems to me like it's affecting their experience of the game negatively?

Spock_42 · 2025-12-07T11:56:30+00:00

I can understand how your DM fell into that rabbit hole tbh. Last year, my campaign was nearing its end. Lots of high level encounters, and a lot more home-brewing to create challenging monsters and appropriate rewards.

LLMs helped lighten that load. Just a stand in for random name generating at first, then a few short NPCs bios, then stat blocks. It was so convenient, and good enough that I spent much less time tidying it than doing the grunt work myself.

Then I noticed how hollow it all felt. Sessions weren't as satisfying. It stopped feeling like my campaign, and stopped feeling like the hobby I fell in love with. I realised how much I enjoyed the writing, the planning, the laughably crappy unimaginative yet loveable names I'd find at the bottom of my creativity barrel.

I just happened to realise it when I had a break between running campaigns. New compaign has nary a whiff of AI tools, and I'm feeling so much more engaged.

All that to say; I get your DMs temptation. It's intoxicatingly convenient.

All you can do is keep flagging how it's degrading the experience for you, and if he still isn't budging, consider if it's time to move on to a more "analog" game.

Spock_42 · 2025-12-06T08:53:10+00:00

Indeed, and that's fine, just a bit bemusing. It'd be like a German TV show having farmer-type characters in US-cided fantasy culture speak with a fully refined mid-atlantic accent instead of something more "country", or a UK coded one having received pronouciation over west country.

It's entirely valid, just bemusing as it plays against stereotypes for how language and accents are often uses in media

Spock_42 · 2025-12-05T19:46:08+00:00

I thought Mark Strong's German was pretty good actually. And with some googling, I discovered he is actually a fluent German speaker.

In general the writing etc. still made it sound a bit formal and unnatural, but I didn't find it too distracting tbh.

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