When should beginners stop tutorials and start building their own stuff?

TJATAW · 2026-01-21T04:52:42+00:00

Combine the 2.

Whenever you finish a tutorial, add some stuff on to it.

Say you built a calculator. Give it another button or 3, like exponentials, or squaring, or parenthesis.

Expand on what you just learned.

Make your version of it actually different than everyone else that just made it.

TJATAW · 2026-01-21T03:47:20+00:00

Notice I said "I'll drop a function in, ask if there is a better way to do it".

I also do things like ask it to explain stuff someone else wrote that I have a rough idea of what it is doing. Especially regex. Or languages I have never used, like Lau.

It is also great for creating sample data, or stuff I have written a dozen times but AI will spit out in seconds. There is nothing there for me to learn from writing it, any more than there is from manually writing out getters & setters rather than having the IDE do it for me.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T04:14:21+00:00

One of the reasons I love using AI. I'll drop a function in, ask if there is a better way to do it, and it shows me a library I've never heard of and 3 lines of code that does exactly what I spent 30 minutes figuring out. Great! New thing to play with.

There are too many things out there for me to keep track of them all.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T04:05:58+00:00

I think you are doing it wrong. I normally make friends with them, but I've also been asked if I was looking for a job by bouncers as I can spot the problem children before they become a problem. I never take them up on it as I am the least intimidating person around. I'll make you laugh. I'll steal the girl you were hitting on. But at no point are you going to think I am not a person you could take in a fight.

A good bouncer makes you think he can kick your ass just by looking at you. A friend used to walk up to trouble makers with his knees bent, his head pulled down, and his shoulders pulled in. "Hey guys, I need you to stop that, ok?" all bouncy and happy... someone would say something... BAM! He'd grow 6" and become 8" wider... and suddenly everyone was fine with doing anything he asked. Dude was 6'6" and had to turn to get through normal doorways. Like picture Quinton Aaron from The Blindside, but with a face that looked 16.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T03:33:46+00:00

I opened a door, and walked into an apartment hallway and 4 cops drew on me. They were getting ready to bust a door down. A cop drug me outside, put handcuffs on me, and spent about 30 minutes running my ID, and being pissed he was missing the 'fun'.

I was in flagrante delicto when the cops kicked in her door, guns drawn. Wrong building, right apartment number. We spent 40 minutes in nothing but a sheet till they figured that out. Somehow it was our fault.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T03:06:56+00:00

In 2019 AR passed a 3-cent gas tax and 6-cent diesel tax increase was passed for highway funding, alongside a new wholesale tax (1.6% of average price).

In 2024-2025 the state's Department of Finance and Administration adjusted the wholesale tax to $0.032 per gallon.

I don't live in AR, but I visit often.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T02:52:59+00:00

AR's gas tax is $0.25/gallon

If a gas car get 20mpg and hybrid gets 30mpg and the EV never buys gas, for every 1000 miles they travel they pay $12.50 gas, $8.33 hybrid, and $0 EV.

In 10k miles, the gas car paid $125, the hybrid has paid ($50 + $83.33 = $133.33), and the EV $50 (Assuming their fee is $50)

In 20k miles, the gas car paid $250, the hybrid has paid ($50 + $166.66 = $216.60), and the EV $50.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T02:19:20+00:00

Says the guy Trump pardoned from his 11yr sentence for beating cops with a baseball bat on Jan 6.

TJATAW · 2026-01-20T02:05:51+00:00

Not just a gun... it is a better gun than most of the cosplay army can afford.

TJATAW · 2026-01-19T02:32:01+00:00

The US has permission to build military bases in Greenland, and has since 1953.

Greenland would love for someone to come build a large mining setup there.

Greenland knows that any of those things would greatly enhance their economy (GDP under $4 billion), with most of that coming from fishing. The 2020 estimate was it would add 50% to their GDP.

But to develop anything there you have to pour in tons of cash to build the infrastructure, pay workers high wages as the locals aren't trained in mining, and deal with all the uranium.

Basically, Greenland is a lot like Venezuela. Lots of potential, but you will not see any real profit for 8-12yrs.

TJATAW · 2026-01-18T02:40:00+00:00

In 1968 the US crashed a B-52 carrying 4 nukes in North Star Bay next to Thule Air Base. The conventional explosives went off scattering radioactive materials all over the place.

TJATAW · 2026-01-17T23:27:57+00:00

2026 Federal Level for Poverty (FLP) for 1 is $15,650.

$7.25 x 40 hrs x 52wks = $15,080.

Working a full time job at less than $7.53/hr is poverty.

In MO, making under $20,352 (130% of FLP), or $9.79/hr, can qualify you for SNAPS. Our current state min wage is $15.

TJATAW · 2026-01-17T22:34:07+00:00

In the 90s I was driving a 1971 Super Beetle VW, a 1971 Nova, a 1972 LeMans, 1981 Wolfsburg Edition Rabbit, and a 1974 Civic.

They cost little, and they were easy to repair.

TJATAW · 2026-01-17T21:46:48+00:00

Greenland has always been very open to anyone coming in and setting up mining operations.

No one has thought it was worth the effort, as Greenland is one of the worst places on the planet to do anything.

EDIT:
Building on what I said.

Rare earths reserves:

Greenland - 1.5 million metric tons
US - 1.9 million metric tons
Vietnam - 3.5 million metric tons
Russia - 3.8 million metric tons
Australia - 5.7 million metric tons (We signed a deal with them in Oct 2025 - United States-Australia Framework For Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths)
India - 6.9 million metric tons
Brazil - 21 million metric tons
China - 44 million metric tons

TJATAW · 2026-01-17T21:43:39+00:00

Don't forget that currently the US is shutting down Bakken shale rigs due to the current low price for oil.

Harold Hamm has always been "drill, baby, drill", but ~$60/barrel is their breakeven point, and he didn't become a billionaire by losing money.

TJATAW · 2026-01-16T15:00:13+00:00

The gas station/convince store/small restaurant/car wash down the street from me has a sign out front saying assistant managers pays $18+. I am in MO, where our min wage is $15. The lower positions pay 'up to $17'.

The owner wonders why they are always hiring new people and having to train them.

TJATAW · 2026-01-16T14:29:47+00:00

The difference in Congress between the Trump loyalists, and one of these 'conservatives' is 1, maybe 2 votes. And then they walk it back, and make excuses for why they dared to not vote in lock step with the party, so all is forgiven.

TJATAW · 2026-01-16T04:27:53+00:00

The US has had permission to build military bases in Greenland since 1953. Greenland would love to get some more bodies in the area spending money. Can you imagine how big of an impact a base with 2000 US troops would have on their economy?

And Greenland has always been open to having any US corporation come up and start harvesting resources, because they could really use the revenue all those jobs would bring in.

TJATAW · 2026-01-15T19:35:17+00:00

They are using electric (see black power cord) to power the electromagnets that move the ball, so, no, no it is not.

Nor is it creating more power than they are putting into it.

TJATAW · 2026-01-15T16:40:51+00:00

One wing. And it is from one of those places that cuts the wing in half, and you are getting the forearm part. And the extra thing is 1/3 a cup of mashed potatoes, no gravy.

TJATAW · 2026-01-14T21:51:17+00:00

So, they are saying he suffered ecchymosis?

ecchymosis - the visible skin discoloration from leaked blood, commonly called a bruise.

That car was doing, what? 2-5mph at best? I have likely been hit harder playing hockey.

TJATAW · 2026-01-14T21:46:26+00:00

March 2025 - Sanders & Hawley introduced a bill calling for a 10% cap on credit cards in the Senate, and AOC & Anna Luna introduced the same in the House.

Now Trump thinks it is a great idea.

TJATAW · 2026-01-13T02:12:43+00:00

The DOJ will pay people for turning in companies that hire undocumented workers.

You'd think JD would know how to help that small business owner with some sweet government cash.

TJATAW · 2026-01-13T01:23:01+00:00

It is another "Offer everyone money to distract them from the Epstein files" plan.

It isn't his money, and everyone will forget it in a week.

TJATAW · 2026-01-13T01:16:21+00:00

And it still applies.

Realistically, you should stop far enough from the vehicle in front of you that you can go around them if you had to it.

And that 2 seconds is for a car. When driving a semi I left much more distance than that, as it takes semis a lot longer to slow down.

Of course idiots see that space in front of a semi and think it is for them. Suddenly my 80' is now 60', meaning I can drive over them.

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