I appreciate you keeping content flowing in this community! That said, this study is from 2012, so the conclusions may be somewhat out of date.

I realize that I was complaining without offering anything useful. Here is a more recent article that addresses a similar topic:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11656626/?hl=en-US

That most people are much dumber than they initially appear to be. "Average intelligence" isn't enough to form a basic understanding of the world.

Where are you? My experience has been that most developers are obsessed with programming and politically liberal. I'm in the midwest, though, so maybe things are not so rosy on the west coast. It could also just be one person's experience, but I have worked at a lot of different places in the last 35 years.

I definitely disagree. I just took my son to a protest last weekend. He is 12. I thought it was important for him to understand civic responsibility.

I have met one trans developer in the last 35 plus years, and I have worked at a lot of different places. I am based in the Midwestern US.

Is this more a European thing?

I was wondering what on earth the programmer socks memes were about. I guess there must be enough people somewhere to make this meme-worthy.

This thread is calling out a legitimate problem, but things aren't that bad.

Last year the market grew by 9%. This year it is projected to shrink by 11%. That's huge, but not 80-90%.

You know...morons.

You aren't "just toxic", but there are some ADHD traits that are probably behind both the original behaviors and your reactions to your partner calling you out for them. The number one thing is probably feelings of shame because you forget important things, or because you impulsively say or do things that you later regret. Shame and regret are very unpleasant feelings, and it is normal to want to avoid them by justifying your actions.

I would suggest trying to buy yourself a little space when your partner calls out your bad behaviors. Take a deep breath, and maybe say "I'm sorry. I'm trying to get better at that." Or, "I'm sorry, I didn't think that through or I wouldn't have said it."

The two things that drive most negative behaviors are distractibility (which is why you forget important things) and impulsivity (which is why you say or do things that are hurtful, but realize it after the fact). Medication can help with both, but it takes a lot of work to reduce the impact to the point where it's not a big negative in your life.

Having a good reminder system can help with forgetfulness. Every phone comes with a calendar and a to-do list. Keep using them and understand that it is a whole set of skills to use them effectively, so it's going to take time until you get good at it.

Impulsivity is a bit tougher to overcome. A few simple breathing techniques, and a regular meditation practice can go a long way toward reducing that, though. (Meditation doesn't mean becoming a Buddhist. Just using one of the meditation apps on your phone every day will have a cumulative effect over the course of weeks and months.)

For those (like me) who didn't know what it was, Nebula is a creator-owned and operated video streaming service.

I had one at 46, and 12 years later I'm glad we did. That said, it is draining to keep up with him. I had to get my physical fitness shit together, and that helps. I also aim for 8h of sleep per night. (I didn't get that with a newborn, but I do now.)

I took that comment as criticizing dumbed-down science reporting and/or being suspicious of reported breakthroughs from China.

That we can build a sane, rational society.

The premium version has gotten a LOT better in recent months. I just fed it,

"you can't soothe a tree" meaning

And it replied with: This phrase is not a standard idiom with a widely recognized meaning. Its interpretation depends on the context in which it is used. Literally, it means you cannot comfort or calm a tree in the way you would a sentient being, as trees do not possess emotions or consciousness that can be "soothed". Metaphorically, it likely means:

• Some entities (problems, situations, perhaps even certain people) are unresponsive to attempts at emotional comfort or calming.
• Trying to apply emotional solutions or appeals to things that are inherently non-emotional or unchangeable is futile.
• It could describe someone who is extremely stoic, impassive, or emotionally unavailable. The specific meaning depends heavily on the situation where the phrase was encountered.

I have had a similar experience. Lost 40 lbs, and discovered that decades of weight lifting really had paid off. I also had a couple of moles removed from my face. Neither was for cosmetic reasons. (Actually, I guess the moles were. I went to a dermatologist for a skin cancer check as one should when over the age of 50, and asked if he could remove them while I was there. It took less than 10 minutes.)

I had a ton of work experience before this happened, but now people solicit my opinion. I also landed a new job that pays a lot more.

I won't go so far as to say that women fawn over me, but I find them to be as friendly and chatty as most men are now. (I'm happily married, so I don't go out of my way to flirt.)

Overall, I probably went from a 4 to a 6, but it's enough to notice a difference.

I I received the email today telling me that they were going to raise the price of my family plan by $4 per month. I'm guessing that their costs have not increased in any way, and probably have decreased. I assume it's just another squeeze tactic from the company that used to not be evil.

I think a lot of the crunch in the labor market for programmers is "monkey see monkey do" thinking at the big tech companies. It might even be somewhat calculated, though I hesitate to call something a conspiracy when it could simply be due to stupidity on the part of senior management.

Large tech companies tend to have a lot of flexibility and their total headcount because they have a wide variety of departments and tasks that they can set aside for an extended period before it causes any problems. Those problems will eventually catch up with them, though, as will a code base written by somebody who doesn't understand what they're trying to accomplish.

So I think the pendulum is going to swing back to a labor crunch at some point. My guess is at least another 6 months before we see any hint of that, though. I don't think it will be as bad as it was before the advent of LLMs, though. They really are a productivity enhancing tool, particularly for software developers who know what they're doing.

Came here to say this.

I don't find caffeine effective for ADHD, but amphetamine (Adderall) is. It is quite likely that the mechanism of action for methamphetamine is much more like other amphetamine formulations.

That said, I'm not even sure if they were talking about meth or something else.

I'm pretty similar. I'm probably more generous with upvotes. I'll also downvote:

• any link without a description
• YouTube links
• Twitter reposts (that's usually on reddit, though)

I have to force myself not to downvote anything with anime. I have a visceral dislike for anime, probably a result of the shitty afternoon TV cartoon lineup in the 70s.

I block a LOT of accounts. Anything that looks like ragebait or just arguing in bad faith.

Skim the book, "working effectively with legacy code". In a nutshell, you write characterization tests around the module or method, then do safe IDE based refactorings, then do some slightly more significant refactorings. After that the code should make enough sense for you to make changes if you need to.

It is as much in art as a science. The important thing is that as you are doing refactorings, the main one you do is to extract methods, and give the methods clear names that say what they are doing. You should be left with a top-level method that reads like a narrative of what the whole thing does.

Medication helps me quite a bit. I am also using Atomoxetine. The effect is much more subtle than stimulants, but I think just as powerful in the long run.