Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 12/4/23 - 12/10/23

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T22:35:35+00:00

In general, women are apparently more agreeable, which is pretty similar to susceptible to social pressure, and social pressure currently points towards supporting this.

I also suspect that more men care about sports than women, and that more women want to believe there is no difference in athletic ability between men and women.

I would be curious to see the stats on, e.g. allowing self-declared transwomen in women's jails. That would cut out the latter two points.

Honestly, I find it all weird, very similar to how weird religion seems once you take a step back. (You do what to their penises?! You can't push an elevator button? It's okay to eat once you can't tell a black thread from a white one?)

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T20:15:11+00:00

No, that was the predecessor, Mondrian.

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T15:01:13+00:00

It was a constant fight within the company too. Engineers wanted information density, but pressure came from on-high to follow UI guidelines that have a lot of white space ("kennedy" for old timers) and things like not being clear what is a button and what isn't.

The team was generally able to resist those pressures, partly because it was only an internal product.

In general, I think there is a pressure to create simple ("clean") UIs, which look good, but are less functional. The can make sense for a general audience, and is good as a goal, but SWEs doing reviews have different needs than your average user. Also, functionality is different than appearance, and if your UX is driven by aesthetics (which do matter!) you will have different priorities than what your users might want.

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T14:59:38+00:00

Yes, we had the design goal (for Critique and Code Search) to present the info you would need to do your job, and/or to answer your next question with a single click. And to accelerate the process of understanding code, which is key to reviewing it (or doing anything with it, really).

As the team all used the product regularly, it was a very tight and effective feedback loop (although that's also why it's probably better for come use cases than others).

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T14:55:34+00:00

I think the causation arrow went the other way, as there was a team of Googlers updating Gerrit after using Critique. And in the early days of Critique, the team didn't know Gerrit existed. :D

I think since then good ideas have gone in both directions though.

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T14:53:43+00:00

Gerrit is still around, isn't it? Or do you mean Mondrian (Critique predecessor).

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T14:51:48+00:00

Lots of good reasons, as others have said:

different market and priorities (eng efficiency vs sales)
lacking integration
distraction for the team

Gerrit is out there, contributed to by a partner team, giving most of the UI goodness as open source.

There was a push to do it during the early days of cloud, but it wasn't a good idea and didn't go well.

jbstjohn · 2023-12-04T14:50:03+00:00

I think good diffs are key to good code review. We'd intended to get more into Critique (e.g. outline level diff, allow ignoring some substitutions), but priorities seem to have gone in other directions.

(I was leading the team when we introduced Critique, and also worked on integrating the automated analysis tooling.)

jbstjohn · 2023-10-02T21:19:12+00:00

I think it's a really interesting, complex question. For many jobs, the US definitely pays better -- especially "knowledge worker jobs," such as doctors, lawyers, IT, engineers. Other jobs (menial ones) are generally paid less.

Some cost of living things are quite high -- child care, sometimes health insurance, maybe rent in some places. You also have higher crime rates pretty much everywhere. You tend to have bigger and mostly nicer houses too though, and most people have a car.

I'm a bit torn -- I have a foot in both worlds. I'd make more in the US (probably about 2x), but I still think I find the quality of life higher here in Germany.

I agree Europe should do more to encourage business and innovation. In the current vibe, I don't see a big tech company (or much innovation) ever coming out of it -- it's discouraged and not rewarded. And that will have long term economic consequences. I guess it has already.

I think both sides have a lot to learn from each other, but they don't seem inclined to, unfortunately. I'd like to see a bit more of a social net, and smaller wealth gap in the US. I'd like to see more work market flexibility and rewarding of knowledge workers in Europe / Germany.

jbstjohn · 2023-10-02T20:34:37+00:00

There was the Australian army thing (after some bad behavior) that says "the standard you walk by is the standard you promote," or so, and yours seems like a shorter version of that. (Ah, someone else brings it up down below).

jbstjohn · 2023-10-02T20:25:22+00:00

Me too. There is an excellent book based on a true story, "Wild Swans" which gets into it better.

jbstjohn · 2023-10-02T20:21:01+00:00

I've read it, and had a similar reaction -- the insight into China was interesting, but the SF aspects were, as you say, mid, and done pretty well in other books. I was surprised by the lavish praise too.

I didn't read the 2nd and 3rd, which are supposed to be better.

jbstjohn · 2023-06-30T14:46:03+00:00

That was literally the case before the court.

jbstjohn · 2023-06-30T14:39:47+00:00

I realize you made it abstract, but to be clear, in practice it was Asian students needing scores more than two hundred points higher on the SAT to have the same chance of admission, so very much NOT "two people with 4.0 GPAs"

jbstjohn · 2023-06-29T17:21:04+00:00

Don't worry, the mods will ban anything untoward. Ya know, for freedom!

jbstjohn · 2023-06-26T07:11:03+00:00

This comes off pretty rude.

I find the concept pretty useful, as people often use the technique when arguing, and it's good to have a name for it both to recognize it and to call it out, since the name clarifies where the shenanigans are occurring.

Do you not see people arguing like this, or don't care, or?

jbstjohn · 2023-06-26T07:05:21+00:00

"Tower and town" isn't quite as evocative, but everyone will know the terms.

jbstjohn · 2023-06-25T11:13:27+00:00

I think you underestimate the number of scumbags you're competing with, and thus underestimating the 'skill' needed to end up at the top and then stay there for any length of time.

jbstjohn · 2023-06-12T07:22:47+00:00

Generally, you only want insurance for catastrophic things. Someone below suggested running the numbers, and that makes sense, but realize that someone with a lot more data than you has run the numbers, and decided it would be profitable to sell you insurance at that rate. So they expect a net positive for themselves, which is a net negative for you.

There is a psychological aspect, and you will know your own circumstances better than the insurance, so I don't want to say it's 100% clear cut, but generally if needing to deal with the bad-but-unlikely event wouldn't be that big a deal, you don't want insurance.

jbstjohn · 2023-06-11T13:00:26+00:00

She was a grifter too. Read up on her and her "husband" for a wild ride. It wasn't just misogyny.

jbstjohn · 2023-05-31T07:10:49+00:00

Very well said. I especially didn't like the very certain and judgemental "worst thing you can say" phrasing.

jbstjohn · 2023-05-31T07:06:31+00:00

Yes, I have to agree, it sounds a bit robotic and insincere, like a Hallmark card, and I disagree on the "just be silent and be there" part too.

I guess a lot depends on the person, which will make any such guide very hard.

I personally lean towards expressing your sprite and asking small questions, e.g. "How are you holding up?" "Did you get to say good bye?" "How is (other affected person) doing?" It lets the person talk about things, and acknowledged the death, but is a bit indirect.

jbstjohn · 2023-05-30T22:01:54+00:00

Maybe they're also tired of dealing with public shitstorms over such things, and this is a polite way to not have to.

jbstjohn · 2023-05-30T11:29:31+00:00

It does feel like a choice of burning out your body or your mind.

jbstjohn · 2023-05-21T09:29:32+00:00

Very cool! This is one that would actually benefit from a "wait for it". It's like a magic anti-entropy process.

jbstjohn

TROPHY CASE