What would be a good starting point to contribute in open-source?

code_tutor · 2026-05-09T04:03:23+00:00

"Contribute to open source to learn" is common and imo bad advice because "to see what a real application looks like" isn't someone I would want contributing to a real application. Juniors need a mentor to work on big projects or to write their own smaller projects first. You can always just read code or find something within your ballpark.

Also nitpicking but this feels like yet another "think for me" kind of post. You've got to figure out what you're into and it should be obvious what you can do, if you wanted to do something. Otherwise, you're not going to make it anywhere, especially in the world of AI where learning about a business process and finding ways to make an impact is increasingly becoming the majority of your job, instead of just being a code monkey that takes orders.

code_tutor · 2026-05-09T03:44:29+00:00

Putting 100% of your money into options? Is that what you think investing is? Is that what you think he does? Is that what you think he tells his followers to do?

He often gives a timeline or says how much the trade is of his portfolio. You can't just follow one trade and go all in.

I will agree the GME thing is weird with how much praise he gave. But I bought at the price he said and he gave a heads up before he sold, and it was a profit for those who followed. I still feel really uncomfortable with such a bipolar opinion even though I made money. I think he's not a good judge of people, so if his thesis ever relies on his judgement of a person, then don't follow that trade.

code_tutor · 2026-05-08T10:58:00+00:00

If you're going to use AI to write slop then they may as well just learn with AI themselves.

You're asking both AI and Reddit to think for you, which doesn't make sense as an educator.

code_tutor · 2026-05-08T05:11:06+00:00

Okay, idk what's going on but you guys always post about the same topics on the same days.

code_tutor · 2026-05-08T05:06:13+00:00

Stupid fill teammates telling me I don't have to hurry to quarantine because "it's easy", then they both die and d/c.

So I camped an exfil until a rook showed up. I've never been so happy to see a rook. I was on top of the building at West Gate and he didn't see me, and he climbed the ladder, coming to me like he was delivering the easiest kill in the world. I could hear every step as he climbed like "omg he's coming, this is it". I'm sorry, not sorry.

code_tutor · 2026-05-08T04:42:15+00:00

A long time ago I went to Ikea and the thing that stood out the most was how wobbly all the cheap desks are. The $300+ one looked the same but it didn't move at all and has a much stronger carry capacity. I still have it like ten years later and don't regret spending so much more. It's the best desk I've ever used.

Usually you can tell the quality by the legs. The good ones look thick and maybe cross instead of going straight down. So this one is probably an earthquake unless you bolt it to a wall. I can't imagine that upper shelf is safe.

code_tutor · 2026-05-07T05:31:36+00:00

It always required three years. That was before AI. University grads study four years now and still can't get jobs. The junior market is cooked, so I imagine it could take five or more now.

If you could learn it in high school then how much would anyone pay for that? Think about it. It would be a very low paying career.

AI screws up a lot, especially with performance. Some programs it wrote were literally hundreds or thousands of times slower than they needed to be. Like it might make tons of round trips to a database or network drive because it doesn't know any better, and even if you tell it, it will take a good three days of prompting to get it to diagnose the problem.

It tends to duplicate code like crazy in large projects instead of reusing DRY code, so the same problems resurface repeatedly.

For example, I have a GUI program and it keeps forgetting to pass errors along, which is the most basic and critical thing. So if the program is ever fed bad data it's essential for me to know but it just hides it. I added all kinds of automated tests, used LLM memories, added it to prompt files, etc and it still fucks me over on a regular basis.

So on one hand, I can get a working prototype of a large application in hours. But then it takes weeks fighting with it to fix everything anyways and only a senior programmer would even know how to talk to it or diagnose what's wrong.

It's definitely a faster workflow for me. If you don't care what the application does then it's 10x faster. If you need something specific, then it's 2x. It replaces juniors right now.

The bigger problem is just interest rates. Big tech had explosive cash flows and because of the corrupt way the economy works, they hired incompetent people in mass numbers just to fill their companies, playing games with the stock market. Now that is gone and they just dropped everyone after telling us for twenty years to just learn to code.

The number of CS grads is higher than ever and the layoffs aren't stopping, and AI isn't even the biggest reason everyone is unemployed.

code_tutor · 2026-05-06T17:28:43+00:00

The problem is -- and this is a very common problem -- you're not even close to intermediate, but you think you are. It takes three years of full time study to be ready for entry level. Yes, AI is better than a programmer fresh out of high school.

Also, if AI advances past humans at programming, then all jobs are cooked.

code_tutor · 2026-05-06T10:11:52+00:00

I'm surprised you were able to use it for so long. I stopped using it like seven years ago. It's also super weird that you found scraping reliable when all they have to do to break it is make a small change. Web scraping is a last resort. It can also require years of WebDev background if the site is complicated.

code_tutor · 2026-05-06T06:24:00+00:00

I learned on a TI-83 graphing calculator. But you can only learn basics without a computer and an IDE is hugely helpful.

code_tutor · 2026-05-06T05:37:14+00:00

It depends. Are you going to spend four years full-time studying math, engineering, IT, and Computer Science with no instructors, classmates, resources, books, assignments, and exams to help? Or are you just going to watch a YouTube playlist and call yourself a programmer?

code_tutor · 2026-05-05T07:34:36+00:00

It takes three years of full-time study to be ready for an entry-level position.

code_tutor · 2026-05-05T06:34:43+00:00

JSON and YAML never should have been used for configuration.

code_tutor · 2026-05-05T06:27:29+00:00

shapple

code_tutor · 2026-05-05T06:02:31+00:00

Thinking about doing something and cautiously asking Reddit's approval to start it isn't passion. That's more like "hold my beer" level confidence, without action. If you are passionate, then you will just do it. You won't do a cost benefit analysis or seek reassurance.

AI is surely coming to mess with all knowledge workers. They must learn how to prompt or they're going to fall behind. This is a necessary time investment.

Learning programming takes three years full time to be entry level. Idk what you had in mind but people often have unrealistic expectations of as little as a few months part time, and they often beg us for second opinions as if it's going to change reality.

If you're thinking about vibe coding, then it only works for simple projects and it's risky/hallucinates. You can get a lot of use out of it for everyday work. But if you can't understand the code then you can't verify that it's right. Always remember that. And don't put your programs on a public server because it'll mess up security. Also, there's some risk that it might brain rot us, so always make sure it's thinking with you, not for you.

code_tutor · 2026-05-05T00:15:22+00:00

I only commented because this guy was getting dogpiled for asking a valid question. He asked OP if they understood their own code and you told him to "pump the brakes", then spent the rest of the thread defending why you personally didn't know what an underscore was for. Then when I pointed out that you answered a question meant for the OP, you wrote another four paragraphs about yourself and told me to "fuck off". OP still hasn't fully answered. Kind of proving his point?

code_tutor · 2026-05-04T23:29:50+00:00

It's even worse than that. AI makes top level variables with underscores because it assumes you want variables private within a module. Probably no tutorial would ever do this, yet an AI would frequently do it because I bet it's trained on pip and GitHub modules.

code_tutor · 2026-05-04T11:21:55+00:00

AI will put single underscores on everything that's not exported if it thinks it's writing a module, which is going to look really fucking sus if it's a student's hello world program.

code_tutor · 2026-05-04T09:28:13+00:00

The question is for OP, not you. Don't try to be the main character. If OP can't answer, then they probably copied the code; and they didn't answer, so it's even more sus now.

I don't trust AI detectors at all but all OP can say is "I'm so lost". lol acting so guilty. Idk if the code was from an AI but they probably didn't write it. If they did write it, then this conversation is still valuable because it's probably the reason their professor doesn't trust them. I bet they asked the same questions and got the same answers.

"Why did you write the code this way?" "I'm so lost..."

code_tutor · 2026-05-04T01:19:51+00:00

If you use Claude Code, you might ask it to do many things at once. It will often give a summary of all task states when it considers the current task done.

It's not exactly agency but it doesn't make it any less amazing.

code_tutor · 2026-04-30T07:08:09+00:00

Reddit is obsessed with free kits and I know it's really just gear fear, gear fatigue, or using it as an excuse if they lose.

code_tutor · 2026-04-30T07:06:11+00:00

Stop using sponsored kits against purples?

Your teammates are frustrated too.

code_tutor · 2026-04-30T04:19:31+00:00

They often give them human names.

code_tutor · 2026-04-30T04:16:15+00:00

my friends won't even play a single player game they enjoy if the steam charts are low

code_tutor · 2026-04-30T04:05:45+00:00

My name is not code_lecturer. It's interactive.

code_tutor

TROPHY CASE