My reflection on the Richard Sutton interview with Dwarkesh Patel was that it was interesting how much the two participants talk past each other, and fail to find common ground. Particularly that they couldn’t agree on the power of reinforcement learning, when … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
As we learn to operate these new generative predictive transformers, those of us in the world of software need to work out what we’re doing it for. The way in which we use them, the results we get—and the direction the tools develop—changes dramatically depending on this worldview.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
As the shift in content of this blog has made abundantly clear, for the last five years I’ve been doing a PhD. I’ve also been working full-time, so that research and study has basically taken up all of my spare time. I would wake up early, sit at my computer until it was time to start work, then change computer, then at the end of the work day switch back to the university-issued computer. I knew this was having an adverse impact on my health. Particularly, I could feel that I had far les...| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
Important: while I’m only talking about the Foundation books in vague details here, I will end up summarising a number of key points through the whole series. If you haven’t read them, and intend to, I recommend not reading this post, yet.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In my time in special-interest forums, I’ve come to learn that a “fan” of something is someone who doesn’t like it very much. This seems to crop up frequently in relation to long-running science fiction entertainment franchises, leading me to the theory that a “fan” is someone who enjoyed a kid’s show as a kid and is angry at the creators because they don’t enjoy a kid’s show as an adult.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
While I have access to streaming services that offer most of the music that the labels the services deal with still publish, I also have a significant collection of music on physical media, and do most of my listening to prerecorded music by playing entire albums, in order, from a physical format. I recently shared a not-entirely-serious overview of the nostalgia for physical prerecorded audio formats with some friends, and here’s the annotated version. In what follows, the formats are pres...| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
Knowledge management—not just in software engineering and not just digital knowledge management—has long had to account for tacit knowledge: the things that people know, but never say.| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In the last episode—Is software engineering a thing?—I (apparently controversially) suggested that software is the reification of thought, and that software engineering is thus the art of reifying thought, and that thus there can’t be any single one-size-fits-all software engineering … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
In the title I’m kindof punning on the word “a” (it’s my blog, and I get to do what I want). Is there a single thing, software engineering, that all people making software should (or could, or would find to be beneficial) do?| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers
Although I didn’t make any resolutions this new year, it’s still a time for change. That’s because I finally submit my D.Phil. thesis (if I’m on time, that will be before January 18th), so I’ve already been putting things in … Continue reading →| Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programmers