Pray to Saint Luigi for guidance

Reading at a 6th grade level is reading for plot. Just like, what happened? Who was there? More advanced things like subtext, metaphor, and unreliable narrators come later.

I found this online the last time this topic came up: https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/english-level-test/reading

Go ahead and read the story, and imagine that a lot of people cannot read and understand it.

There’s also this article about how many kids are taught to read badly: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ (amusingly, also available as a podcast)

What does it mean practically? Bad things. If you haven’t read 1984, give it a go and think about why the authoritarian state benefitted from a diminished language.

The other day I was updating something and a test failed. I looked at it and saw I had written it, and left a comment that said like “{Coworker} says this test case is important”. Welp. He was right. Was a subtle wrong that could’ve gone out to customers, but the wrong stayed just on my local thanks to that test.

I would have questions about how they work with a team and structure.

Are they going to be okay with planning work out two weeks ahead? Sometimes hobbyists do like 80% of a task and then wander off (it’s me with some of my hobbies).

Are they going to be okay following existing code standards? I don’t want to deal with someone coming in and trying to relitigate line lengths or other formatting stuff, or someone who’s going to reject the idea of standards altogether.

Are they going to be okay giving and getting feedback from peers? Sometimes code review can be hard for people. I recently had a whole snafu at work where someone was trying to extend some existing code into something it wasn’t meant to do*, and he got really upset when the PR was rejected.

Do they write tests? Good ones? I feel like a lot of self taught hobbyists don’t. A lot of professionals don’t. I don’t want to deal with someone’s 4000 line endpoint that has no tests but “just works see I manually tested it”

I’ve definitely had some coworkers that in retrospect we should not have hired. But I’ve also had people I was iffy on that turned out great. Hiring is hard.

I… I played a lot of guild wars 2. It’s a good game!

But about 40 games total. I don’t want to be a mono-gamer so that’s nice.

This is a good answer.

At my job, there was a desire to do a big rewrite of the system. It was a disaster. We spent like 8 months on this project where we delivered no value to customers. Then there was essentially a mutiny from the engineering team and we killed it.

We’ve since built on top of the original system and had, in the words of product leadership, “the most productive quarter in the history of the company”.

Now, why was it a disaster? The biggest reason was that people, especially people in leadership positions, did not understand the existing system very well. They would then make decisions based on falsehoods and mythology.

Sometimes it takes just as much effort to be kind as to be cruel.

Like, some video game, public chat, someone says like “these poison monkeys are so fast. They keep killing me”.

Someone replies “skill issue”.

Like ok big lol I understood that reference, but also like… Why? Now the monkey victim feels mocked. Could just as easily said “I hear you bro. Those monkeys are jerks”.

Could also just say nothing.

I feel like sometimes too many people are stuck acting like insecure 14 year olds.

I think some people in niche communities (such as communist groups in this example) actually want the group to stay insular and personal. They like feeling part of a special little group, and if it started letting just anyone in then that would be lost.

I think we should raze the suburbs.

There’s been a couple games I’ve decided to just not buy because the disk space requirement was too high. I don’t think they care much about a single lost sale, unfortunately.

I don’t think I’ve ever desired to have speech as an interface for a device.

Yeah, I could yell at it “Open the browser and go to uhh the order of the stick comic index page” and maybe it would get it right. Or I could just… click on the browser, type oot and pick it from the drop down. Faster, no error, no expensive processing.

I don’t drive (cars are a bad form of transit and I’m lucky enough to not need one) and I’m not hands-full in the kitchen often.

Well yes, but there are degrees. Like there’s an important difference between a room that’s 40f and 130f. If I have to sleep in one I’d rather the former, even if neither are good.

Longer term we need to deal with the structural problems.

I think sometimes people just throw out the accusation of “echo chamber” because their ideas are bad and the community rejects them.

Someone will be like “I don’t think we should have child labor laws but the eChO cHaMbER won’t even consider it”

Sometimes this gets said even when the alleged echo chamber responds with facts and history about why their take is a bad one.

Ultimately, here and in like all other human endeavors, emotions are primary. People feel a thing, and then reach for words to justify it.

Someone’s ideas being rejected by the group? Feels bad. Is it me? Am I wrong? No, that feels worse and the ego won’t accept this. It must be them. But why? Must be an echo chamber. Cool. Now I don’t have to feel bad about myself. I don’t have to change my beliefs. I can just blame them and move on.

So someone saying it’s an echo chamber has only very tenuous relationship to reality.

To your actual point, there’s also the “jaq’ing off” and “for me it’s Tuesday” problems of community management and health. The first being someone asking questions in bad faith. The latter is similar - someone in good faith is asking really basic questions that the community has seen a thousand times before, and people respond with exasperation. From the new person’s perspective the community is unwelcoming. From the community’s view, this is the third guy today that’s stumbled upon the idea that “maybe capitalism is bad” and walking them through that journey is tiresome.

Community is hard.

We shouldn’t have a gop anymore. A lot of Democrats are bad too, but the GOP is just the worst. Not even a stopped clock that’s right sometimes. They’re like a crazy clock that purposely always tells the wrong time.

Guillotines

Ok. I enjoyed the game. When I encountered the big void grabby face guy a second time, I went “oh it’s this motherfucker again!” and then had a fun time fighting him.

I also played a lot of monster hunter where too just fight the same basic monster a lot. The process is typically fun so I don’t mind. Maybe you should avoid monster Hunter.

So, like, you can get as mad about it as you want, I guess, but it’s not in my top list of things I’d change about the game.

I don’t really have a problem with things being re-used, and calling game developers “lazy” is such a tired cliche. Making software is hard.

I don’t remember elden ring having more “build optimization” than “raise health and stamina to the soft cap, and your fighty skills to taste”. That’s generally been the build since demon souls.

Also one game + one expansion + one spin off is milking a cash cow?

Is this a joke? Is this whole thread a joke?

The little old lady next to me says hello and sometimes let’s me know if there’s a package waiting for me.

The people on the other side I don’t know. They don’t seem especially friendly or unfriendly, but I’m happy to live and let live.