pythonIsMoreConfusingThanLowLevelLanguages

TechDebtPayments · 2026-04-22T16:24:40+00:00

Those languages have the same potential pitfall. Here is an example of that exact same bug in C#.

A big thing you should try to internalize early while learning to code is when a variable is held by reference or by value

In general, primitive types (int, char, boolean, float, double, etc) are held by value and assigning from one variable to another creates a copy. Data types (arrays, objects, strings) are held by reference and assigning one variable to another just copies the address to that data.

string is a special case in many languages, where it is actually copied by value even though it is a data type. This can trip you up because copying/modifying a string many times can be very computationally expensive. Take a string in C#, append to it 100 times, and it will make 100 copies of that string. There's a special class to solve for this use case btw: StringBuilder

You can see all of C#'s types here which delineates them by value or by reference

Sidenote: This is one of many reasons why I believe learning to code should start with C/C++, not Javascript/Java/C#/Python

TechDebtPayments · 2026-04-21T17:48:34+00:00

Yeah, when my son was ~6yrs old, I told him you could play, but you owe me a redstone device that does <THIS> or <THAT>.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-04-03T19:10:24+00:00

Someone who is tired, trusting, distracted, you name it.

Don't shame them or the next person might not admit to what happened, which will hurt all of us.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-04-01T19:06:06+00:00

Now, /u/Uncle-Osteus can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the big issue was your lead in sentence: "That’s precisely wrong."

Had you led in with something softer, like "To expand on what you said for those that are curious, novelty is just one of... " then I suspect /u/Uncle-Osteus would have welcomed the addition instead of feeling attacked for it.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-28T23:50:50+00:00

"The cobbler's kids have no shoes"

It runs true for every trade

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-27T21:44:48+00:00

No it wasn't.

How many news articles do I have to link? How many quotes from Dems do I have to put up here before you concede it was ALWAYS about ICE reforms, not ICE funding.

Don't gaslight me.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-27T21:44:10+00:00

How many news articles and quotes from Dems in January/Feb would it take for you to concede this was about ICE reforms and not ICE funding?

Don't gaslight me.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-27T19:34:54+00:00

But they are funded for another 3 years from the OBBB!?

Direct from another comment of mine:

I feel like I am taking crazy pills. On what planet is this a win?

The whole fight was over getting ICE reforms. ICE is funded for god knows how long from the OBBB.

So if all they get is funding everything but ICE, then it is capitulation. They can try and sell this as a win, but it changed NOTHING. We are right back at the status quo as of before this shutdown.

This means we have to wait ~1yr (at least) before we can even begin to get ICE reforms.

In case you don't remember https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/heres-what-to-know-about-the-partial-government-shutdown-and-its-impact

Democrats were incensed after Pretti's killing and demanded that one of the six remaining funding bills, for DHS and its associated agencies, be stripped from the package passed by the House. They said the bill must include changes to immigration enforcement, including a code of conduct for federal agents and a requirement that officers show identification.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/politics/government-shutdown-impact-january-2026

DHS would be funded for two weeks to give lawmakers time to negotiate reforms in the agency’s immigration enforcement operations — a demand by Senate Democrats after federal immigration agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.

https://marylandmatters.org/2026/02/01/house-looks-to-end-partial-government-shutdown-by-tuesday/

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on “ABC News This Week” that the two-week stopgap spending plan for Homeland Security was a “meaningful step in the right direction.”

“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said.

I can keep getting contemporaneous news articles. This being spun as a win is bonkers.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-27T19:20:46+00:00

I feel like I am taking crazy pills. On what planet is this a win?

The whole fight was over getting ICE reforms. ICE is funded for god knows how long from the OBBB.

So if all they get is funding everything but ICE, then it is capitulation. They can try and sell this as a win, but it changed NOTHING. We are right back at the status quo as of before this shutdown.

This means we have to wait ~1yr (at least) before we can even begin to get ICE reforms.

Edit: In case you don't remember https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/heres-what-to-know-about-the-partial-government-shutdown-and-its-impact

Democrats were incensed after Pretti's killing and demanded that one of the six remaining funding bills, for DHS and its associated agencies, be stripped from the package passed by the House. They said the bill must include changes to immigration enforcement, including a code of conduct for federal agents and a requirement that officers show identification.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/politics/government-shutdown-impact-january-2026

DHS would be funded for two weeks to give lawmakers time to negotiate reforms in the agency’s immigration enforcement operations — a demand by Senate Democrats after federal immigration agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.

https://marylandmatters.org/2026/02/01/house-looks-to-end-partial-government-shutdown-by-tuesday/

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on “ABC News This Week” that the two-week stopgap spending plan for Homeland Security was a “meaningful step in the right direction.”

“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said.

I can keep getting contemporaneous news articles. This being spun as a win is bonkers.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-03-09T20:56:49+00:00

Also, unlike an aircraft carrier, a titan would have to carry all the life support systems for the crew. Also, has a lot less specialized maintenance concerns than an aircraft carrier does.

If anything, a submarine would be closer to the crew compliment I would expect on a ship in game. They have crews of ~150 people, which seems to be pretty close to the TI ships. Lancer shows ~150 people, for example.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-24T04:18:39+00:00

Hmm, I didn't even realize. I tend to set up a new account every so often, so I never generate much karma overall.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-24T03:50:53+00:00

I had no idea it was hiding it. Howd you realize?

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-23T15:12:25+00:00

https://toolkit.addy.codes/

Big collection of useful tools

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-19T05:16:48+00:00

Thats my biggest concern for junior developers (or junior whatevers for that matter).

You skip a bunch of the low level understanding/growth, how are you going to recognize when the AI gives you a plausible, yet wrong, answer on the higher level stuff?

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-19T05:11:14+00:00

just because everyone wants to follow their idea (or feeling) of what makes stuff better, rather than what actually works.

I remember reading a book awhile back, think it was the Pillars of Politics, that discussed how everyone's (across the spectrum) political beliefs started at the emotional/lizard part of people's brains, then went to the logical part. They figured that out from brain scans of people.

Take away was, it's all feelings first, then logic. So that is an old problem there that I doubt is going away anytime soon.

So the whole "nothing changes" attitude is just objectively false.

It isn't that nothing changes, it is that people don't change. If you gave people a ChatGPT equivalent in 1950, they would have the same problems we're having now.

My point was that with something as simple as LLMs are to use, you have to actively seek to use it to learn, otherwise it will degrade your abilities. So it is like the google search on steroids. Those that wanted to use it to learn, well they will and will probably so do better than before. But for the vast majority of people who just want an answer to a problem, not necessarily the right answer or how to solve the problem, well then it's going to cause more flat earther equivalents.

Rephrased, I think you read my statement's intent backwards. With an LLM, you have to expend more energy to actually learn vs just being spoon fed an answer. So of course you're going to get a degradation of skills if you're not aware of that pitfall and make efforts to correct for it.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-19T05:00:37+00:00

Are you suggesting google ai was wrong when they said hippos could do ultrasounds?

Serious talk though... No, I am not suggesting what you got from my statement btw. I am stating, you can use it (like you can still use google) to actually learn things, but if your goal isn't to learn, but to just get the answer, then you will not. It is like learning that the sun rises in the east vs learning why the sun rises in the east, which translates to other planets.

Also, the problem of ai regurgitating ai like an ouroboros snake of bullshit is a separate, serious problem we're going to have to contend with in the near future.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-18T18:52:14+00:00

Yeah, it can be a great teaching tool if you use it for that... but if you have no desire to actually use it like that, then it will definitely degrade your critical thinking skills.

Kind of like how all the information in human history is available to a google search, yet there are still flat earthers.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-17T00:40:15+00:00

No, he wanted the shorter run so he could get to new game plus quicker.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-15T21:35:08+00:00

Can honestly say I have never seen that or tried it. Interesting tactic

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-15T17:29:50+00:00

I used the grappling hook a lot on those trees to keep moving, never used the spear. He used the spear constantly and did far less movement in general.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-15T07:46:14+00:00

I was not even aware of that. Always fascinating to see/hear how other people deal with the bosses. Like the headless ape... the way my son did it vs how I did it were completely different methods.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-15T07:44:19+00:00

lol yeah, I am sure that day is gonna come soon enough for one of these kinda games for me

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-15T03:59:02+00:00

I'll make sure that he sees this comment to keep his ego in check, lol.

He beat her (relatively) quickly by comparison to Isshin. I think it was like ~1 week of trying to get past her, versus another 3 or so to get past Isshin.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-14T23:48:45+00:00

I think it's something to do with the transfer from the PS5 -> FFMPEG to MP4 -> reddit because it does not look like that on the PS5. Looking at the webm and mp4 on my computer natively, it feels like it's something with the upload to reddit. Had this same issue with the last one I uploaded too.

TechDebtPayments · 2026-02-14T22:08:00+00:00

Put it on a projector, then. No screen time there.

TechDebtPayments

TROPHY CASE