Fullstack Farmer

Parents were botanists. I became a programmer.

Life brought me back to the land. Turns out I needed both.

I like touching grass - I'm a gardener. :)

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

Never frustrated? Never learning.

I'd like to take a minute to point out a failure of mine. After almost 20 years of enterprise software development I'm working to expand my skills into fabrication.

I wanted to make a bunch of indexing locations to help with seating dimensional lumber on my milling machine. I got it wrong... More than once. First time I decided to flip over the spoil board and try again. Burying my mistakes. This time; that luxury is already spent.

CNC, 3D Printing, small electronics and construction.

None of them come naturally to me the way that software development does. Perhaps it's my aphantasia but I can think for hours about how to lay things out but when it comes down to it; numbers just come out wrong sometimes.

What's a guy to do? Give up because of mistakes?

Gosh no. My mind is drawn back to university when I was studying 2nd year neuroscience as an interest course trying to figure out how learning actually works.

I oversimplify here; but doing things that push you up against the boundary of getting frustrated is the best way to learn.

So what if I'm deeply seated on the left side of the Dunning-Kruger curve for this new skillset?

It's better than getting complacent and being a stagnant expert.

Tell me; what do you do to get out of your comfort zone and get into the learning seat? What's your frontier of learning?

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@haydendevs I found one of my dad's in a box in the workshop.

No I'm not giving it back to him; don't be silly.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@LukewSavage You're right, Canada has too much business. Let's drive it away.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@haydendevs Yeah I definitely start my day with at least a chapter of the Bible before I jump into this global hivemind.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@GithubProjects Sorry dawg, fully hated since Microsoft bought you out and used you to train AI off private repos.

Some people are addicted to the ease; but you don't have the love you think you do.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

#notai

That is all.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@DanAdvantage Rewinding to start position?

I thought it was a celebration dance.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@BillyM2k ... Jeeze, actually I was going to argue but... Yeah, that's valid.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

In my morning Bible reading I just finished Jeremiah. My mind is drawn back to Exodus and the complaints about Manna.

It's easy to say you would accept the blessing of food quietly.

It's harder to accept the blessing today.

Sure grocery stores are expensive. But God provides.

Roasted Dandelion Root coffee with my lunch.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

What's the best way to pull dandelions?

(Psst; don't worry tech bros -- this one's secretly an allegory for you)

Most people see a dandelion grab its leaves and pull. However that's what we've done since time immemorial and wouldn't you believe; dandelions have figured it out.

The plant is particularly pernicious because it treats the leaves as relatively disposable. It just grows back.

The next group is smarter - they dig around and loosen the soil before they pull. Getting most of the roots and often having nothing grow back.

However -- the piece that's missing for these is recognition of dandelions as an indicator species. In an open field dandelions grow where it's too dark, compact or low nutrient for grass. The easiest and best solution is actually to dig a hole a couple inches around the dandelion, turn the whole clump of dirt upside down, grab the root from the bottom and shake it out from the thatch. The dandelion slips easily through the thatch, the soil is loosened and the overturned thatch decomposes and provides nutrients. Sunlight is still a potential issue but it doesn't fit the allegory.

"Okay but... I live in Circuit City on Concrete Blvd. Why do I care?"

Good question. It's an allegory for fighting bugs in your code. Pulling dandelions is resolving tickets.

They said, "the button doesn't work for me."

Test show it works so you add a toast showing what happened? Pulling leaves.
Checking the frontend code and discovering that it doesn't load the click listener in a corner case? Pulling roots.
Meeting the stakeholder and finding out that they actually meant was that the button should be a switch because they don't like the text changing to "off" when they press it? That's solving for the environment a problem lives in.

Code is cheap these days, look to solve the specification not just the surface effects.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@mela_1111 In your honor I'll have a roasted dandelion root coffee with my lunch. :)

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@mela_1111 It's a good point to mention. My allegory does assume that dandelions are something to be removed.

They might not taste great but they're fantastic antioxidants and have good stores of vitamin a and c.

I've got a basically infinite supply of yuck carrots 😂

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@mela_1111 @FoodProfessor Nice! Thanks for the share :)

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@HumansNoContext "Context? No humans."

Or "AI generated slop."

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@ShaunRickard67 @TD_Canada Your customers will need to book 2 weeks in advance because the bank can't give out that much money at once. 😂

Your customer can always pay in bitcoin though. :p

Good job @TD_Canada and @cibc for making the crypto argument stronger than ever.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@ShaunRickard67 @TD_Canada Valid first question for any time you're talking to a TD rep.

"Do you have authority to do anything other than what's been done?"

Then the ever present follow-up, "then are you going to pay me for the time you're wasting?"

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@parthingle_x I've got a plasma cutter, a set of stepper motors and a few threaded rods from Home Depot and a pile of wood...

Is it a bad idea to make a plasma cutter table and gantry out of wood?

... Yeah, actually probably... Otherwise I'd anyway have done it.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@parthingle_x I've heard the siren call of diy.

$6000 retail?

You do mean $300 and a pile of scrap parts right?

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@_Stocko_ We ride at dawn.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@rybinfx Oh I'm not suggesting you change it.

More power to you if this is your vibe.

I added some trill codes to a LLM chat tool I had built with different pitch combos and lengths having different meaning. Kinda like Star Trek computers.

Just because I hate it doesn't make it bad.

[Fullstack Farmer @FullstackFellow]

@rybinfx Watching it makes me feel like I'm having some kind of seizure.