The devil is in the details. Crappy != good.

I shipped a videogame a while ago. Didn't sell that much but was praised by some big magazines

(Imagine, it was a time when video game mags were a thing)

After coding 100,000 lines of code I can safely say that good video games are by far some of the most complex software projects in the world.

I read shitcom lol

Not at all. I research its limitations very often.

I tried it for coding but I wasn't convinced. It's good when I am not an expert in the programming language but far from better than me in my expertise (frontend).

Simple example, I asked it how many calories in a 5kg whole watermelon.

It will say a 100g portion has 30 calories. So it's a simple 50x30=1500 calories, it says.

Well what about the rind? I asked.

Then it realizes its mistake and does the correct math, but any nutritionist with a PhD level education wouldn't make that mistake. In fact most people who can still think for themselves wouldn't either. I love how people say it's because I am not prompting it right.

Sam Altman couldn't be more wrong about GPT5 being a PhD level expert on ANY given field.

Same mistakes happen in my field.

That people are becoming dumber and lazier by the minute.

Both qualities are universally known to make your life worse.

You see, when I learned most of my coding, my mentors specifically asked NOT to use autofill or intellisense.

Why?

By typing it, you learn it. You see your mistakes after compiling doesn't work.

I use intellisense now of course, but only after I honed my skill.

And sometimes I still skip it and program raw, just for the sake of keeping my brain working. Just like I still do pullups or go for long walks even when a machine called a car can take me further.

You don't learn car mechanics or woodwork by watching. I watched my dad do it for decades and I can't fix a damn broken light switch. At most I can change a tired because he forced me to learn when I wanted to drive his car.

You learn by doing and failing, and people are in for a surprise when they realize doing is hard.

This was my prediction when I worked my fiat contracts and kept programming by hand while others vibed. I was certain that as projects grew, these people would have no clue.

Fast forward to today, and people who vibe now realize the complexity is completely out of their league.

I've seen one too many peers become dumb. Takes them one hour of back and forth LLMing to solve something it takes me 15-30 minutes to code or design.

This is how I keep my edge and stay as a top 1% talent.

Most kids and even toddlers nowadays don't. It's terrible what screens are doing to them.

Same with adults.

Actually I would say those who know the most about it, and by that I mean programmers, are not very optimistic.

There was a popular case of suicide by a known developer in the cryptography and security field.

I do OMAD. Here's what I do when traveling, for example in Spain.

Bought bread, jamón serrano, cheese, a few cherry tomatoes, plain yoghurt, nectarines and dry nuts at the supermarket.

Ate a gourmet meal that would cost $100+ in a restaurant for about $30 in the park and I had so much jamón I wanted to throw up.

Congrats bruh!

Look at your kids in the eye, often, no phone in hand, and realize how creative, powerful, amazing, creatures they are. People say AI this AI that but have they ever seen a child engage with the world? This is a sight like no other. Non-parents will never understand (and that's absolutely fine btw)

Children are more present than buddhist monks who practice being present for 50 years.

My observations led me to end up homeschooling my two kids. They are the happiest kids in the world.

Books are good but follow your and their instincts, provided you have good instincts ;)

Edit: as others mentioned, when they are babies just hang on tight. The craziness ends at some point.

Travel

(Family of 4, so...)

Go to a Michael Jackson concert.

RIP MJ

OMADer here and also did multi dat fasts

I'm a dad of two in my 40s and I'm more energetic and more fit than most of my younger bachelor friends. I never thought I'd have abs (I only do bodyweight stuff and not very intense)

Fasting and quitting shitty carbs changed my life.

If you were top 1% programmers in the world (I consider myself to be so, in my area, Frontend. My salary also told me so) you would be surprised how often this happens too in my field at the cutting edge.

I often had to correct my colleagues when AI made an error.

It's not bad. I know juniors are sh*tting their pants. But reaaally complex stuff, naaw man

My dad crossed the whole mountain range of the country in a month's time, carrying heavy artillery while in the army. I believe it was 35kg.

I know this to be true because I met hikers who took this trek. They can still hike with heavy backpacks despite their age.

Fellow OMADer here. Did it for abt 8 months and now do mostly 18-30 hours fasts

Lost about 18kg and now I can mostly see my abs.

Also love naps and cold showers

Keep it up!

My son loves rock climbing. Like he's absolutely hooked and I love it too. He's 6

100%

Because dance and many physical activities are so (duh) physical, the process of making friends is accelerated tenfold. I'm in a country where I don't speak the language well but I'm making friends in a couple months that feel like it's been 6 or 8 months.

In the case of female friends, dance helps a lot. Maybe 80% friends are female. In the case of men, sports. In that case 80% men.

I like to have both types of friends. My wife agrees it's very healthy for my life.

Go to dance classes Or join a sports club

I've met more than a thousand people in dance.

Yes, our directions were based on NSEW coordinates

Example:

From the southeast corner of the church, go north 200 meters then west 50 meters

Hundreds of cues.

My mom always knows north. The church pointed it, a park, a landmark, buildings, etc.

In her brain she has thousands of reference points. And with every turn, the brain kind of knows.

I have a friend like that too, and when he uses the GPS he is god like.

If you read the book Be Careful There Are Snakes, the Amazonian Piranha were very skillful at knowing directioms based on the direction of the river.

Also there is a thing called the sun, very useful.

this is exactly how I felt using LLMs. Everyone and their mom hates doing code review. Everyone who loves coding ... well loves coding.

I'm kind of bummed completely by what's going on now. But what to do.