It’s extra frustrating because I created cosmetic filters for uBlock Origin that allow me to access individual Reddit posts (so I can still read Reddit posts that I find through a search engine) but not any of the feeds so that I can’t waste time scrolling. I can’t use those on the app.

Everything else can be looked up on Google

I think that there actually is value to rote and memorization. Adding more knowledge to your head expands the possibilities for what thoughts you’re able to have in a way that outsourcing to Google never could. My best example is GPS navigation vs mental mapping. A while ago, I stopped using GPS during my drives, instead spending some time to look over the map and memorize the directions before I set out. Since I started doing this, I have a much clearer mental map of the places I drive through. I can use my mental map to plan efficient outings, since I have a good idea of what places are close together and when/how to take alternate routes to avoid traffic.

The other problem with leaving things to Google is that it makes you less self-reliant and diminishes your ability to unplug from the internet and think and act in the real world. Sure you can use Google Translate, but actually learning a foreign language allows you to participate in conversations, appreciate jokes, and see the world through the lens of the relationships baked into another language (e.g. you see sparks and fireworks as “fire-flowers” because you know the words hibana and hanabi).

Also, analogies and examples form an important underpinning for critical thinking. And the best way to seed a student’s mind with examples is to make them read a lot.

Logarithmic scales are notorious for hiding spikes.

I use Minimalist Phone Launcher with network access disabled. I know there are libre alternatives out there, but I didn’t like them as much, and I desperately needed a digital detox.

Aegis works perfectly. My university used Duo and then Okta, and both worked. I was unable to get Authy to work, though.

She independently discovered it haha. I sit her down on the couch next to me while I’m working, and she constantly flops over. It drives me nuts! I would let her just do her thing, but she’s got pretty bad reflux and even just a minute or two of tummy time within like 2 hours of having a bottle will make her ralph.

The other day, I had to get up for a minute or two, and I left her on the couch. My better judgment kicked in and I pushed an ottoman next to the couch to block the space she usually tries to launch into. This is what I came back to see:

That’s the main reason I jumped on them. I’ve seen an increasing trend of people selling old computers with the RAM and HDDs taken out

My wife taught my son English uppercase letters, so I’ve been teaching him Greek lowercases. I can’t help but feel proud every time he says “pi”

In the past, I’ve used Adguard Home, and I liked it. When I tried to my Adguard server as the DNS for my router, though, my WFH corporate VPN wouldn’t connect, so there’s that. Granted, I was using it to remove ads, but people seem to like it for parental controls too.

I saw a deal for a pair of mini PCs with decent specs on eBay right after I got my annual bonus, so I jumped on it because I want to do the same thing for my kids. May be jumping the gun a bit…my son just learned the alphabet (uppercase only) and my daughter just learned how to flop off the couch head-first.

I self-host Gitea! Not your server, not your data.

Before Windows 11, I told people to switch to Linux because open source software is better for the soul. Now, I tell people because the user experience is just better. I used XP/Vista/7 throughout my childhood, and modern Linux desktop environments really do feel closer to that experience than Windows 11. I use Win11 for work, and I can confidently say that it has the worst settings menu I’ve ever used.

If you know the basics of using a desktop computer, most things won’t feel that weird or foreign to you. The hardest part will probably be learning Linux-compatible alternatives for apps that only work on Windows. What kind of programs do you typically use on your Windows system?

Instead of burning the ISO to the flash drive, I recommend burning Ventoy to your flashdrive. Then you can drag and drop ISOs for every distro you want to try without having to burn them every time.

I know AI is an emotionally charged topic, but I think your frustration is misdirected. I find that the best way to learn tech stuff is with hand-on experience, and to that end, it works pretty well to try something, ask why it didn’t work like I expected it to, and get instantaneous feedback. Or to start with a working example and pick it apart so I can learn the syntax. I’m not saying it’s a replacement for reading official documentation or figuring things out for yourself, but it makes it a lot easier to get started.

Fundamentally, I’m a humanist. I believe that we should use technology in a way that augments our brain instead of circumventing it. I don’t let AI write code for me, but I don’t really see the harm in having it present information in a digestible format.

I’ve always been bored by lectures and tutorials because they’re not good at meeting me at my level of experience. I don’t think anyone would argue that having a tutor/mentor who gives you individual attention and meets you where you at will help you climb the learning curve way faster. And when you’re in a situation where you don’t have a human mentor, AI can be pretty useful.

I worked at an organization where there were no senior software people and my supervisor told me you “hey, you created this dashboard – now deploy it”. My only relevant experience was having hosted a Minecraft server on Windows 10. After a few months of iterating with ChatGPT, I knew the basics of how to use containerization and deploy an app on a RHEL server. 3 years later, I’m doing it at a tech consulting firm, and I’m the guy everyone goes to for help writing containerfiles and compose files. They promoted me from data scientist (I have an MS in data science) to solutions architect, all because I used AI to learn the basics of Linux devops, and then got a shit ton of practice by self-hosting.

My best friend used to go by @comet on Discord. He’s the one who made my friend group’s server, and he’s essentially the only reason I ever got it in the first place (now, he’s one of the first to join my Matrix instance). The fact that this project is named Commet is NOT good for my “main character syndrome”!

I initially subscribed to ChatGPT because I got a job as the only devops guy at an organization, when I had very limited devops experience, and ChatGPT essentially served as my mentor. I justified keeping it for a long time because it helped my productivity; bugs that I had no idea where to start with could be worked through given a few hours (or days) of back-and-forth.

As I climbed the learning curve, ChatGPT became proportionally less helpful, but I kept it because it’s kind of useful for rubber ducky debugging. I did find Copilot to be pretty handy for writing docstrings (especially for keeping consistent formatting conventions), but the actual code completions were more annoying than anything.

When all was said and done, I cancelled my ChatGPT and Copilot subscriptions because I’m taking on a mortgage tomorrow and I literally just can’t afford them. I have Ollama running on my homelab server, but I only have enough vRAM for a 7B-param model, and it kind of sucks ass, but whatever. At the end of the day, I like using my brain.

UPDATE (because I just thought of it after posting): I do think that “AI-as-a-mentor” is a good use-case of AI. It really helped me cut my teeth on the basics of Linux. I often find that it’s easier to learn when you have a working example of code or config that you can dissect than to bash your head against the wall just trying to figure out how to get something to run at all in the first place.

For my birthday challenge this year, I’m learning how to read and write Devanagari as a surprise to my Indian grandparents. I asked my local qwen model to generate some worksheets for me to practice with, and it totally flopped. It gave away all the answers. I do think ChatGPT would have done better, but maybe I could have gotten sufficient results with a better GPU.