A thing I've been doing lately is trying to come to the same conclusions others have without looking their the direct techniques and code. Last night I tried to figure out why people do vector based retrieval for RAG and ended up running these experiments: n0tls.com/…/2026-09-03-i-think-…rag-with-grep.html
I'm still going to do an explore agent.
Any conversation
🐉
let N=6,D0=[0,1,0,-1],D1=[1,0,-1,0],s=[],g={},d=x=y=xa=xb=ya=yb=0;
for(let n=0;n<N;n++){s=s.concat([1]).concat(s.map(x=>!x).reverse())}
for(let i=0;i<s.length;i++) {
x<xa && (xa=x);y<ya && (ya=y);x>xb && (xb=x);y>yb && (yb=y);
let t=s[i]?1:-1,e=(d+t+4)%4;
g[x]||(g[x]={});
g[x][y]=g[x][y]?"┼":"┌┐└┘"[(t*(D0[d]+D0[e])>0?0:2)+(t*(D1[d]+D1[e])>0?0:1)];
x+=D0[e];y+=D1[e];d=e;
}
for(j=yb;j>=ya;j--) {
let u=""; for(i=xa;i<=xb;i++){u+=(g[i][j]||"·")} console.log(u);
}·┌┐┌┐·······
┌┘└┼┘····┌┐·
└··└┐┌┐···└┐
···┌┼┼┘···┌┘
···└┼┼┐┌┐┌┼┐
···┌┼┘└┼┼┘└┘
···└┼┐·└┼┐··
····└┘··└┘··But maybe we'd all be a little saner if we remembered what we're actually doing: building tools to make our lives and the lives of others easier.
This resonated a lot. I’m glad I read it now, before going totally insane lol. But I disagree that it’s just a glorified spreadsheet. The UI/UX matters, how you present the data, how they can change and so on, all of those things play a role. The good thing with AI is iteration is cheaper than ever, so you can experiment and process the results quickly. But yeah sometimes I just do things here because I just have to be doing something, I can’t leave it alone.
Agreed. The "just" makes the statement sound dismissive, but I do agree with the underlying sentiment that most software boils down to CRUD apps that help people organize information and complete tasks more efficiently. I think the path to developer enlightenment is realizing this truth without despairing over it.
@kapankatsuragiprofilefollow
I may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.wrote:
I may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.wrote:only when the bullied attacks the bully, it's when the teacher intervenes
I have a theory that it's because they fear the weaker one that has been suffering and bottling emotions for days, weeks, or even months. once it's unbottled, the bullied won't stop until they're sure they won't be bullied again, and that could be bad... for the school and the teacher.
replied to@kapankatsuragiprofilefollowI may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.:
I may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.:might be true
@prophetorit💧profilefollow
grand and intoxicating innocence
always onlinereplied to@kapankatsuragiprofilefollowI may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.:
grand and intoxicating innocence
always onlinereplied to@kapankatsuragiprofilefollowI may know more about Disney History and trivia than you. Maybe, I dunno.
I write about pop culture on Super Review Time.:I had never been able to release my pent up anger in a good way, oh well! this definitely won't back fire in my adult years!
…
Microservices.
Not really programming, as this is more on the architectural level.
Microservices is a valid approach when you need to address massive scale. The thing is, I have seen it applied to things that could realistically serve its audience in a handful of modest servers with a less fashionable approach.
It was done under the guise of simplification; each individual microservice was in fact very small. But this at the cost of absolute spaghetti architecture.