Julian Standring

All thoughts and opinions are my own, retweets are not. @GDSTeam Alumni. Pronouns are he/him/his

[Julian Standring @JulianStandring]

@TheFork_uk Does this new brand give people back their deposits on restaurant bookings?

[Julian Standring @JulianStandring]

@allenholub A good way of thinking about it, many "juniors" can be more effective but often it's just to do with the pay scale and understanding more than just the programming side of it.

[vicki @vboykis]

The single most important thing I have learned about software development over my career is that if you do not aggressively fight complexity, it will eat you alive.

[Julian Standring @JulianStandring]

@rhowe212 That'd cover the first 30 mins of coffee expenses then. Lol

[Buitengebieden @buitengebieden]

Meanwhile at Microsoft headquarters.. 😅

[Marko Denic @denicmarko]

The first rule of programming!

If it works, don't touch it!

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

This girl captured the COOLEST video of the meteor that fell in Portugal ☄️

[Natalka @NatalkaKyiv]

‼️ THIS!

The methods used by Russian propaganda described by a Russian journalist:

“I studied at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. We had a military department. In an atmosphere of secrecy, we were taught special combat propaganda - the art of sowing discord in the ranks of the enemy with the help of disinformation and manipulation of consciousness.

Let me tell you, it’s a scary business. I'm not kidding.

Combat, or “black,” propaganda allows any distortion of real facts to solve propaganda problems. This is an effective weapon used for the sole purpose of knocking out the enemy’s brains.

The "rotten herring" method. The "inverted pyramid" method. The "big lie" method. The “40 to 60” principle. The "absolutely obvious" method.
You also know all these methods and techniques. You just don't realize it. As intended.

We were taught to use special propaganda techniques against soldiers of the enemy army. Today they are used against the civilian population of our own country.

For two years now, reading Russian newspapers or watching television shows, I have noted with interest that people coordinating the distribution and interpretation of news in Russia clearly learned from the same textbook as I have, from the same cheerful colonel or his colleagues.

For example, the “rotten herring” method. It works like this. A false accusation is chosen. It is important that it is as dirty and scandalous as possible. For example, petty theft, child molestation, or murder, preferably out of greed work well.

The purpose of the “rotten herring” is not to prove the accusation. It’s to cause a wide, public discussion... How it’s unjust and unfair.

The human psyche is arranged in such a way that, as soon as the accusation becomes the subject of public discussion, its “supporters” and “opponents”, “experts”, rabid “prosecutors” and ardent “defenders” of the accused inevitably arise.

But regardless of their views, all participants in the discussion again and again pronounce the name of the accused in connection with a dirty and scandalous accusation, thus rubbing more and more “rotten herring” into his “clothes”, until finally the “smell” begins to follow him everywhere. The question “killed-stole-seduced or not” becomes the main one when his name is mentioned.

Or, for example, the “40 to 60” method invented by Goebbels. It consists in creating media that give 60 percent of their information in the interests of the enemy. On the other hand, having earned his trust in this way, the remaining 40 percent are used for extremely effective, thanks to this trust, disinformation.

During World War II, there was a radio station that the anti-fascist world listened to. It was thought to be British. Only after the war did it turn out that it was actually Goebbels’ radio station, which worked on the “40 to 60” principle he developed.

The “big lie” method is very effective It is a bit like the “rotten herring” method, but actually works differently. Its essence is to offer the audience such a universal and terrible lie with the highest degree of confidence that it is almost impossible to believe that it's possible to lie about such a thing.

The trick here is that a properly composed and well-invented ‘big lie’ causes such a deep emotional trauma in the listener or viewer that it then determines his views for a long time, contrary to any arguments of logic and reason.

False descriptions of cruel abuse of children or women work particularly well.

Let’s say that the message about a crucified child due to the deep emotional trauma it causes will determine the views of the person who received this information for a long time, no matter how much someone tries to convince him later, using logical arguments.

But our cheerful colonel especially revered the method of “absolute evidence”, which delivers, although not fast, but reliable results.”

Continued below 🔽

[Jessie Frazelle @jessfraz]

The best engineers I’ve ever worked with create art with code. They can abstract complex code into simplistic frameworks allowing anyone to read and understand and contribute more on top. AI will replace the mediocre engineers but it will never replace the artists.

[Julian Standring @JulianStandring]

@QuinnyPig Clear skies downtime.

[Julian Standring @JulianStandring]

@torproject Does a repost now put me on a list somewhere?

[The Tor Project @torproject]

There is an urgent need for a global stance against the use of technology for oppression. Our latest blog post delves into the impact of Israeli surveillance technologies in Palestine and how localized instances of its use contribute to widespread acceptance and global adoption of such oppressive practices. 🔗📰https://t.co/tZPxXmuapB

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Are you actually sitting there telling me that, in 2024, a significant open source project is using fucking Autotools instead of something like Cmake?

See, this is why I retired early from software engineering.

Because for every new job I took, the same conversation would occur in slow motion over the course of a year or three.

Foobar, Inc: Welcome aboard, Devon. We were really impressed by all the awesome super-smart stuff on your resume!

Devon: Thanks, let's have a look at this codebase.

{Sound of Devon throwing up a little in his mouth.}

Devon: Pieces of this code appear to have been thrown together by howler monkeys over the course of a seven-day cocaine binge.

Foobar, Inc: Oh, that would be Fred. Yeah, he's self-taught, and his code's a little unorthodox, but —

Devon: He has clearly never taken a single computer science class in his life, and his code is a crime against god, art, and nature.

Foobar, Inc: But he's just so fast. He got our whole version 1.0 written over just seven days!

Devon: I totally believe that, and it's the reason why we need to —

Foobar, Inc: Yeah, we wish more programmers were fast like him. Nowdays, everyone seems to take forever to do anything. Including Fred, for some reason. Weird.

Devon: Have you ever heard of something called "technical debt"?

When you write hasty code, you introduce bugs and accidental complexity. It's like borrowing time from future you. You have to pay it back, with interest.

Foobar, Inc: What an interesting concept. You are clearly very smart.

But we don't have time for you to be an abstract philosopher king, pontificating about theoretical concepts which obviously have no bearing on the real world.

We have new features to write. That seems to happen so slowly nowdays for some unknown reason.

Devon: It's because you are drowning in technical debt.

Foobar, Inc: What an interesting abstract philosophical concept that has no bearing on our reality. You are clearly a really smart guy.

But we can't test your theory, because the CEO expects 5,763 new features in next month's release, to fulfill promises he made to Important Partner Business, without consulting us at all.

Devon: This tech debt needs to be paid down sometime. You can't just put it off. If you do, the interest will inflict itself on the timetable for every new feature you write.

Has someone tried explaining the concept of tech debt to the CEO?

Foobar, Inc: We can't do that. He's a boomer. Also, he has the power of a god, and the emotional stability of a single mother with a crack habit and an Onlyfans account.

We find it easier to smile and present him with rosy scenarios, and then lay off a few scapegoats when we don't meet goals.

If only we could understand why everything takes so long these days. Software engineers must be lazy. Not like Fred. Let's put Fred in charge of the whole department. Maybe he can shake things up.

Devon: Hey, I spent a week re-architecting the BazTranslator component. It runs sixty-three times faster, and you can include new conversions by inheriting from this base class and overriding just these two virtual functions.

Foobar, Inc: How DARE you, sir? You were supposed to be writing new features! This is why progress is so slow. You spent a whole week without adding any new functionality! Don't you understand we are in crisis, here?

Devon: You are always in crisis. Have you tried reading this book of essays by Fredrick Brooks?

Foobar, Inc: Get that thing out of my face.

Why are you being so difficult? You should watch out. You're acquiring a reputation for being difficult to manage. You should tremble in fear now.

Devon: I could have a new job with one phone call. I am trying to help you, you silly people.

Foobar, Inc: Then stop being an abstract philosopher king and write features as fast as you can! Like Fred! Why can't you be more like Fred?

Devon: Fred made a whole set of structs containing raw untyped pointers so he could reinvent polymorphism in C, because he "doesn't like C++".

Foobar, Inc: Yes, isn't he clever? We love Fred!

Devon: And segfaults, apparently.

{Sound of major project hitting an iceberg, burning down, falling over, and then sinking into the swamp.}

Foobar, Inc: Another project failed. Clearly, it's your fault, wasting time with all your weird philosophy and refactoring code. We're going to lay you off.

Devon: I am actually relieved.

Appros of nothing, does your family carry a lot of credit card debit?

Foobar, Inc middle manager: Of course not! That stuff will kill you!

Why do you ask?

Devon: No reason.

{Sound of Devon retiring from a high-paying engineering career and writing a science fiction novel in his bedroom for nine months.}

[Alex Elliott @alexpotato]

Making things happen at your organization.

Even if you are on the bottom.

A thread.

[Ole Lehmann @itsolelehmann]

I just went down a rabbit hole of a concept I literally can't stop thinking about...

Parkinson's Law:

[Jessie Frazelle @jessfraz]

The best systems are the ones you build that do a specific thing and once you are done building it you never have to touch it again because it’s just working silently in the background

[Carlos E. Perez @IntuitMachine]

I suspect many AI projects will end up in ruin because its developers are just muddling around getting their dopamine hits from the deluge of micro-events about AI. They focus only on the trees but can't see the forest!

[Yishan @yishan]

Google’s Gemini issue is not really about woke/DEI, and everyone who is obsessing over it has failed to notice the much, MUCH bigger problem that it represents.

(1/n)

[BCC @britishchambers]

🗣️@marthalanefox: "In this digital age, and on the cusp of a green industrial revolution, we must shift the balance. It's time to give our local economies, their businesses and communities the best possible chance to thrive in the 21st Century." 👇

https://t.co/5xZ5N4HAC9