Matthew Vacula

A friendly, music loving web developer. Always looking to learn. Wears glasses but still squinty.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

Very brief introduction to myself via my first medium post.
#webdeveloper #blogging #javascript

“*Hello World*” https://t.co/ct9vjnTkNI

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@ThePrimeagen I don't really understand how an llm would write this code better than some other language that has way more training data to provide it.

This really only makes sense to me if somehow you both created the language and the llm was the fine tuned to use this language

[staysaasy @staysaasy]

The vibes in NJ feel pretty great right now. The convergence in outcomes is the best I've ever seen.

Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - guys who own paving companies, guys who own marinas, ShopRite deli managers, Wawa shift leads, and a guy named Sal - have quietly become millionaires and nobody knows because they still drive a Silverado from 2008. Back of the envelope Taylor ham estimation.

Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job their whole life and easily get there. My cousin works at PSE&G. He has a boat.
Better yet, hiring is in full swing. Many tradesmen feel like their life's skill is more useful than ever. The day to day role of most jobs has stayed exactly the same for 40 years.

As a result,

1) Everyone's settled into a tried and true set of career paths: take over my uncle's HVAC, get my CDL, get into landscaping, marry into a pizza place. People are switching diners less and less. You can't betray your home diner.

2) There's a deep contentment about work (and its future). Why chase "tech" when you can own three rentals in Hoboken and complain about your tenants at a barbecue. Will my job exist in a few years? This is Jersey. The job is paving things. You hear the "I'm never leaving" conversation a lot, especially from people who tried Brooklyn for a year. They come back saying the energy was off. The energy was fine. They missed their mom.

3) The mid to late middle managers feel energized. Many have families and plenty of energy to open a pizzeria with their cousin Anthony. Not that Anthony. The other one. They don't particularly have any AI skills and they don't need any. Middle management is alive and well at PSE&G and you get a pension. My uncle retired at 58. He's been on a boat since 2019.

4) The rich aren't particularly humble either.
They're at the shore house. They've been at the shore house since 1987. Some have gone from <$150k to >$5M slowly, through a paving company, or by buying a duplex in Jersey City in 2003 and just kinda holding it. For some, they escape to LBI to live life, which means sitting on a deck. For others, they buy a boat just cuz, use it four times, and describe it as the best decision they ever made at every party for the rest of their life. I asked a contractor friend why he didn't retire. He said "and do what, Donna does NOT want me home all day."

I understand many reading this scoff at the simple pleasures of the Garden State. They live in places where the bagels are bad and they've made peace with it.

But the truth is, you can surf Belmar in the morning, skate the Asbury bowls in the afternoon, hike the Delaware Water Gap, and camp the Pine Barrens by nightfall. You can drive an hour and be anywhere. You can see Bruce at the Stone Pony for what feels like the 400th time and cry about it. The slice somehow tastes better than every slice in every other state. It's the water. It's always the water.

Unlike many other places, knowing a guy, having a guy, and being a guy is tightly correlated with outcomes in NJ. Need a permit? Tony's brother. Need a kidney? Probably still Tony's brother. Call him.
Ironically, a frequent side effect of this clarity is to spin up the very pork roll egg and cheese making everyone happy in hopes that you too can SPK your way to economic enlightenment. Salt pepper ketchup. Hard roll. Don't ask for it on a bagel. That's how civilizations fall.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

the dance clubs are becoming data centers

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@ShishirShelke1 Honestly, it would probably be the last media subscription I got rid of.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@GregsTheBull Didn't stop you from yelling about trans people yesterday.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@GregsTheBull Is that not a costume of him riding on Trump's back?

[henry @henrysglassart]

Don’t let the internet radicalize you.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

This is not an established fact. We do not need a civil war. We do need to come together. We should not be killing each other.

[Amiri King @AmiriKing]

We cannot coexist.
This is an established fact.

We either need a national divorce or a civil war. These are the only solutions.

I welcome the latter.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

This is not what we need.

We need to wake up.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

THIS IS WAR.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@GregsTheBull We agree on a ton of things - and disagree as well. That obviously hasn't affected our relationship. This needs to not devolve into an actual war. All the energy being spread right now is perpetuating the spiral.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@GregsTheBull Dude we're being played to hate each other.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

People advocating for civil war &amp; seeding this energy can get fucked. I don't want to see my neighbors fight each other.

We need to wake up.

[Andrew Tate @Cobratate]

Civil war.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

@GregsTheBull And you're smart enough to realize that liberals aren't literally demons.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

It's heartbreaking to watch us continue to tear each other apart.

I'm praying somehow we can collectively figure out a way to put our mental energy towards unity.

Every tragedy is fueling the fire.

The 'war' and division is clearly being manufactured.

We're falling for it.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

America is brain-draining itself.
This guy is a computer vision PhD student.

Some founders in our portfolio are nervous about their immigrant hires in the US on visas.

[Liv Boeree @Liv_Boeree]

Yes. This graphic is rapidly becoming the most misused and misunderstood image in all of modern history. Despite what its spreaders claim, it doesn’t show that liberals care *less* about those close to them than animals strangers etc. It simply shows that they tend to *also* care about further away things AS WELL - if you read the original study, you’ll see the (admittedly idiotic) color grading was meant to show only the distribution of EDGES of the two groups’ moral circles, NOT the distribution of their FOCUS.

And frankly, anyone with an iota of reason could figure that out if they actually sat down and thought about it… there’s basically no one on earth who truly cares about a total stranger or rock or insect etc MORE than their friends, which is what this chart would imply if interpreted this way. Not even crazy ass wokies have such an inverted moral circle, coz they too care about their “tribe” (ie whatever intersectional micro culture they champion) above others, much like everyone else does. It’s classic culture wars propaganda, but this time, it’s right wing brains who turn to mush upon seeing it, because confirmation bias.
Catnip for conservatives.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

I don't mean to brag but code that I write runs on the first try way more frequently than anything I've done with a.i.

[Matthew Vacula @mdvacula]

Trying to build things with copilot/ cursor is exhausting - trying to debug this shit is mind numbing.