Programming insights to Storytelling, it's all here.
When I reviewed this PR, I had tears in my eyes. We had done it. We had finally created the perfect API. To top it off, the senior developer who worked on it had written documentation to match. No stones were left unturned. I had the code open on one window and the doc on the other. The moment I felt hesitation in the code, the documentation reassured me.
My bank card never arrived. I called the bank and, after being redirected through several departments, was assured that it had been mailed. Then we argued a bit about what "7 to 10 business days" meant, we were already on day 14. We ended the call by agreeing to disagree.
This is a blog where I talk mostly about programming in the workplace. These past few years the subject has often been AI, because it affects everything. From the hiring process to the very code we type. AI might just replace me mid-sentence... So when a subject that affects us all dominates the world, I want to give you my perspective. I may not be your source of political perspective, but here goes.
If you only listen to spokespersons for AI companies, you'll have a skewed view of how AI is actually being integrated into the workplace. You probably don't need to convince a developer to include it in their workflow, but you also can't dictate how they do so. Whenever I sit next to another developer during pair programming, I can't help but feel frustrated by their setup. But I don't complain, because they'd be just as annoyed with mine. The beauty of dev work is that all that matters is the output.
In the very last scene of The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne calls the CIA from what they presume is a public phone. Landy, who answers the call, instructs her team to trace it. Bourne says he wants to come in and asks for someone specific to meet with him. Landy stalls for time while her team tries to triangulate his exact location, so she asks how she can find the person he's referring to. That's when Bourne drops his famous line: "It's easy. She's standing right next to you." revealing that he's right in their vicinity. He hangs up seconds before the team could have located him.
In chapter 11 of Catch-22, two captains create a complex set of rules to ensure security in the military. Among them are some absurd requirements just to get food in the mess hall.
On the first day of my college CS class, the professor walked in holding a Texas Instruments calculator above his head like Steve Jobs unveiling the first iPhone. The students sighed. They had expected computer science to involve little math. The professor told us he had helped build that calculator in the eighties, then spent a few minutes talking about his career and the process behind it.
When the news broke that Meta's smart glasses were feeding data directly into their Facebook servers, I wondered what all the fuss was about. Who thought AI glasses used to secretly record people would be private? Then again, I've grown cynical over the years.
Technology has advanced to a point I could only have dreamed of as a child. Have you seen the graphics in video games lately? Zero to 60 miles per hour in under two seconds? Communicating with anyone around the world at the touch of a button? It's incredible, to say the least. But every time I grab the TV remote and decline the terms of service, my family watches in confusion. I don't usually have the words to explain my paranoia to them, but let me try.
That's the answer I would always get from the lead developer on my team, many years ago. I wanted clear, concise answers from someone with experience, yet he never said "Yes" or "No." It was always "It depends."
