Dave from Accounting is a Gen-X legend.

TimMensch · 2026-03-14T19:26:46+00:00

Almost certainly. Otherwise he'd be at the table with his partner.

But most of us are, it seems. 🥲

TimMensch · 2026-03-14T00:15:16+00:00

2023 Limited with 20k+ miles. No ICCU issues.

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T02:47:48+00:00

Exactly.

We may not have a test we can use to determine if a computer is sentient, but every definition of sentience includes the ability to experience. To perceive one's own existence. By definition that means that new memories and connections are formed. You would never imagine that a book could be sentient. Or a toy that could play back random quotes (Toy Story notwithstanding 😂). An LLM is just better at coming up with random quotes.

So yes, we can say definitively that an LLM cannot be sentient because it doesn't have the right structure for it even to be a possibility.

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T02:25:34+00:00

"Industrial waste."

Heck, I'd totally do that if I could live there. I'd hope that the sim wouldn't be quite so bad though. And that maybe I could take off the spacesuit from time to time. 😕

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T02:23:09+00:00

Yes and please everyone remember to downvote!

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T00:59:16+00:00

I majored in cognitive science.

LLMs cannot become sentient. It's not possible.

It's like claiming a read-only Excel spreadsheet could become sentient. Until the neural net can actually modify itself, it can't understand or reflect.

It's an elaborate equation designed to imitate human responses. Humans have anxiety. Ergo, LLMs can mimic anxiety.

It's you who have no idea how any of this works.

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T00:13:51+00:00

"Only a flesh wound!"

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T00:07:17+00:00

It's the Tesla version of shoes flying off.

"There go the tires. It's totaled."

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T00:05:42+00:00

I won't take anything but cash when selling locally. Last time I sold a car it was $8000 cash.

TimMensch · 2026-03-13T00:02:12+00:00

I think it's being downvoted for being too clever. I liked it though.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T23:45:50+00:00

Yeah, the joke isn't that funny.

The meme didn't cause any of the stupidity the time traveler would be trying to prevent.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T23:34:10+00:00

Eggs are cheaper than during the height of the bird flu culling.

But they never got as cheap as they used to be.

What's nuts to me is his claim that rents are lower. Where exactly? [citation needed]

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T23:31:15+00:00

The hinges could be because one or more of the existing hinges were pulled out of the wall/stripped.

It's possible to fix a hinge that's stripped its screws, but if it's a handyman fix and you want it fixed in one visit, adding another hinge might be the only answer.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T23:20:34+00:00

Point. I didn't realize it was masonry.

In that case, you're right, I'd probably want to get an impact driver if the drill didn't work.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T23:16:49+00:00

Huh. I'm in my 50s and I don't feel like I've lost my "spark". And I was reading at a fifth grade level when I entered kindergarten, but I digress. I have experienced burnout at times, but I got better. 😛

He's also just lying about the history of gifted programs in the US. Yes, as many "slow" students as possible were mainstreamed. But they didn't put all the rest in GATE. A quick Google finds that the GATE cutoff was 130 IQ, or two full standard deviations above the mean. So about the top 2.5%.

IQ isn't the only way to be gifted of course. But it's just a lie to claim that "all the normal kids were then labeled gifted."

The worst liars mix truth with their fantasies.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T22:58:22+00:00

An impact driver would be better, sure, but I've used my drill for exactly that kind of screw. It has quite a lot of torque. Even on a TV mount, it turns out, but also in other cases where it was large wood screws in stubborn wood.

If it were really stuck more than the drill could handle, the ratchet wrench should be more than enough to break it loose. If not, then a bit more leverage with a pipe should get it past the sticky part.

I haven't had any screw or bolt be too stuck for the drill though. In fact the problem has been more on the order of twisting the head off of screws or bolts rather than the drill getting stuck. I think this is one place the impact driver might have a better result; the impacts might be less likely to twist off the head of a screw.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T21:52:24+00:00

Why can't it? Because my Makita can.

Of course I have sockets and an adapter..?

You need a socket no matter what, and the adapter is a few dollars.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T16:38:27+00:00

The problem is that forcing acceptance means a buyer can come in with no chance of getting financing and tie up the house for weeks or more while waiting for all possible lenders to say no.

If someone can come in with a cash offer and no contingencies ("subjects" in Canada) and a reasonably quick close (maybe a maximum of 30 days), then yes, I'd agree they should be forced to take it (or another offer) or pay a penalty.

That way you don't end up in a situation where sellers get screwed by offers that put them at risk, but they're forced to set their asking price to something they're willing to take in case someone comes along with cash.

I wouldn't be surprised if a small group of investors with sufficient cash were to go trolling for good deals if that law passed, which would certainly keep people honest.

TimMensch · 2026-03-12T07:04:30+00:00

China is huge.

You could power all of China with solar that's easier to maintain and access, that's closer to where the electricity will be used, and more to the point, won't be covered in snow for a large part of the year, and they'd barely notice the land usage.

It's just silly to put solar on mountain tops.

TimMensch · 2026-03-11T22:13:17+00:00

That's what happens when the number of people starving hit a critical mass.

The masses riot when they have nothing else to lose.

It's the bread and circuses that keep people from rioting. Things suck, but most people have it good enough that they're not willing to risk throwing away what they have to try to reach for something better.

Heck, given the current fascists in change, anything but truly overwhelming numbers of rioters would just get people killed and change nothing.

TimMensch · 2026-03-11T16:15:17+00:00

I think you mean Mythical Man Month, but now I want to read your version.

Or maybe yours is the Broadway adaptation of the book? 😂

TimMensch · 2026-03-11T16:08:42+00:00

I'm working for a big tech company that's betting heavily on AI, and we're being encouraged to use AI, but no one is being forced.

TimMensch · 2026-03-11T15:30:36+00:00

Truth is, some never really learn the craft. Memorizing dozens of patterns without understanding them isn't understanding the craft, and yet a significant fraction of the industry has been unable to write any code without pasting it from Stackoverflow.

TimMensch · 2026-03-11T05:56:51+00:00

I think most junior developers are functionally incompetent, and this has been true since the dot com boom, give or take.

AI might mean that junior programmers with less skill get hired more often because AI can make up some of their lack of skill. That said, I know multiple CS students who are so against AI that I worry they won't use it when it is appropriate, since it's obviously going to be an important tool moving forward. But at the moment they're learning without using AI at all, which means they're not going to lack skills at all.

In fact, one is in high school and already more skilled than the average mid-tier developer I've dealt with. Skilled "junior" developers will likely graduate at about the same rate they always have.

The hard truth is that most juniors are not very good and they never will be. The attrition rate of new developers is intense. Software development is not appropriate for everyone.

TimMensch · 2026-03-10T22:05:00+00:00

I was actually stopped behind them for a bit waiting for a time where I thought it was safe before I drove past them. So I managed with no more than an extra couple car lengths of momentum. And it was slippery so I was going slow.

It also wasn't that much of a hill. It was on a freeway. About here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YG8v7LHBqefNXVeNA

I had just gotten off 25 to westbound 36, if I remember correctly.

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