u/equipoise-young

The trend I keep hearing is that LLMs absolutely need to be paired with strong engineering practices or inexperienced devs make a mess. But recently I read on Thoughtworks that they recommended adopting Claude (assuming that proper engineering).

That raises the question: what are they actually good at? In what ways do you find LLMs genuinely helpful?

Speaking from my own experience the only use I've found is using them as supercharged documentation / a Stack Overflow alternative. Ask small, localized questions about specific pieces of syntax.

I'm the parent of a level 1 child and looking to understand how I can better support him as he grows up. I also have a scientific background and a decent understanding of his traits and autism more generally.

Just interested in hearing some advice on how I can be the best possible parent for my son. I do understand everyone's experience is different and autistic traits vary a lot, any and all perspectives are welcome.

Thank you!

A little background, I'm a hobbyist cook and know my way around the kitchen. At this point I'm able to execute on just about any recipe. I also cook my family dinner for most of the week. I'm a vegetarian but I don't cook them vegetarian meals for the most part, we do eat mostly fresh food every day.

Basically I'm looking for ideas that are not that energy intensive to make, but still somewhat interesting and enjoyable. The closest I get to that these days is either Stir Fry with a nice Hoisin sauce, or nicely seasoned Curry. Most other nights I'm cooking pretty basic meals just to grind out healthy food for my family. I am interested in keeping it healthy, for the most part.

Appreciate any advice!

Lately I'd been thinking about boredom and what it actually is, scientifically. I did some rooting around and found the following article, which said the following:

Boredom and curiosity: the hunger and the appetite for information - PMC

>Our emerging view is that despite their distinction on an experiential level, boredom and curiosity are closely related on a functional level, providing complementary drives on information-seeking: boredom, similar to hunger, arises from a lack of information and drives individuals to avoid contexts with low information yield, whereas curiosity constitutes a mechanism similar to appetite, pulling individuals toward specific sources of information.

This checks out on the topic of friendship. If we know significantly more than the people around us then our brain is literally driving us to avoid these people because there is a low information yield when we're around them.

Many years ago I read a book (sorry, I can't remember the name) which cited evidence that, on average, women tend to be more linguistically skilled than men. I can't cite specific evidence of this claim but it does reveal itself on close observation. Many women have very strong social and linguistic skills, many men less so, or tend to be quieter. I'm interested in understanding if we know the reasons why.

I've read arguments that linguistic skill facilitates language learning among young children during their early years. But I also wonder if this skill acts as an important defense mechanism for women. In lieu of having the same physical strength as men could it be a useful tool to defuse dangerous situations?

Has Anthropology said anything on this topic? What does the evidence say?

I know there are some locations like V-Food Spot that do donuts, and Plant Matter Kitchen has cookies. But I'm hoping for some better options. Is there anywhere doing vegan baked goods that are a little higher end and not entirely filled with sugar?

A few months ago I started the following thread here and received some excellent advice:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/1si055i/a_question_about_satiety_specific_foods_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I upped my avocado and other fat intake and have largely eliminated my reliance on cheese. So for the most part I'm a vegetarian who is just on the cusp of becoming fully vegan.

But at this point I'm still relying on some egg intake and am a bit unsure about taking the full step to entirely vegan. I want to know what I'm doing before I make the jump.

So I'm curious about practical strategies and actual foods to consume that will let me make this jump without too many issues. Assuming that I've now got my fat needs largely covered and am already about 95% vegan.

One of the problems I can foresee is a bit of boredom. I think I'm mostly eating eggs still because I like them, not so much because I can't replace them. But interested in hearing of steps I can take.

Thank you!

My wife and I are throwing a party in our backyard this summer but don't own a BBQ and don't plan on getting one so we can't take the easy way out of making a bunch of hot dogs and burgers.

The guests are going to be an older crowd so we're hoping for slightly higher quality food on the healthy side, but it doesn't have to be too fancy. We just need to feed people.

Given all that I'm wondering what some good catering options would be?

The last couple years the regular washrooms had been closed due to homeless problems, and I believe I heard that the pool is closing.

All that said I'm curious if there are washrooms available at Gibbons this season?

I've been in the industry for quite a while and feel like I have a pretty good grasp of corporate communication. Likely my biggest failing is not taking it seriously enough because I have a hard time making sure I do and say the 'right' thing 100% of the time. I wish more people I work with would just chill and stop taking every piece of communication so seriously. But at times the casualness can be interpreted as carelessness by people who don't get it.

With that caveat aside (that I'm already fairly experienced) I'm interested in hearing from other devs on what you consider the most important principles when communicating with management, either your direct superior or those above them. Also what principles do you keep in mind before escalating issues to your manager (via e-mail or other avenues).

I have two small kids (4 and 6) and I'm curious when and how they'll become less interested in us due to adolescence and the teen years.

What has your experience been like with this? Have any of you succesfully kept your kids interested in you through the teen years? How old were they when they started losing interest in you? What did that look like in practice?

Lately I've woken up to the fact that I've always had a voracious appetite for new information. When I was a teenager I loved high school, in college I generally took classes and electives that interested me rather than aimed at pursuing a goal. As an adult I've built a library and read hundreds and hundreds of non-fiction books, and spend most of my days reading online when I have spare time. I don't watch TV or Movies.

With that said I've recognized that my life is centered around this now, I have minimal to no interest in speaking with people who can't offer me interesting information. Consequently I've lost interest in getting together with a lot of the people I know because there is such a wide divergence between where I am and where they are.

And nearing middle age I'm also finding that I'm running out of novel areas to pursue. I don't find as many books I'm interested in lately, the internet repeats the same things over and over and is becoming less satisfying. So I'm finding myself spending more time focusing on real-world, useful activities. Cleaning my house, cooking, working, teaching my kids.

Gifted people speak a lot about 'being seen', but these days I'm not sure if that's my biggest issue, as much as it's being starved for interesting conversation. Conceptually I am so far ahead of my real-life friends that I'm almost always bored in social situations. It's like having an unending thirst that's impossible to satisfy these days.

Just curious if anyone can relate to that. The more I ponder how my life has gone the more I believe that this is the core, the world doesn't offer us enough intellectual stimulation. In that way giftedness could be seen as inclusive of an abnormal appetite for information and stimulation.

Recently I discovered the phrase 'weak central coherence' which basically means that some of those on the spectrum can be very detail oriented at the expense of seeing the bigger picture, or pulling details together from different sources to understand an overarching idea.

The obvious approach is to introduce the concept of a 'main idea' to our children so they can start thinking about the big picture, but I'm wondering if there is any more to this, or other approaches I haven't thought about.

In what ways can I help my son with this type of thinking? For reference he is age four and level 1, good expressive skills. I expect it to be very casual at this age, but I'm wondering what I can do as the years roll on.

I've been on a big Dolphy kick for the past eight months or so and am interested in getting some perspectives on Out to Lunch or any of his other albums you're interested in discussing.

Out to Lunch is considered his master work, but personally I find it a little too carefully calibrated, too precise (at least compared to his earlier work). That's not to say it isn't an enjoyable listen or impressive work, but I feel like he was playing a little more loosely in some of his earlier albums, not thinking too hard. I enjoy that organic feel a little more. Out to Lunch feels a little too self conscious to me.

I know criticism tends to attract downvotes, I'm not meaning to criticize him as an artist but it's an interesting album to discuss. Would love to hear some further opinions on it or any of his other work.

My family has shopped at The Tea Haus for many years, but we're starting to move into herbals and other decaf options like Mugicha.

I'm curious if there is anywhere in London where this type of thing can be purchased for a cheaper price, or in bulk. I'm thinking it's likely at some of our Asian grocery stores, but I'm not sure which ones.

I have a few Stellas that are in their second year of fruiting. Last year I recall it being very hot and the cherries came in very quickly, this year the flowers have dropped but no fruit yet. It's obviously been a bit colder this season so I'm wondering if that's what's delaying things?

I did put nets over my trees immediately after the blossoms dropped. That was likely a mistake but I just left them on there because they were already in place.

Our four year old son is level 1 although his symptoms so far don't seem to cross the line into 'disorder', so we are waiting to pursue an official diagnosis as per our doctor.

That being said he is level 1 and has many of the traits, and I'd like to get some opinions on when to explain this to him. I do wonder if introducing the ideas too young might get it into his head that he's not capable, which I want to avoid. I was thinking of an early approach where we help him with his traits without his knowing we're doing it.

But at what age do we explain all of this to him? Or is it a level of maturity? And how? My wife went undiagnosed her whole life and consequently I don't think she was able to recognize any of the traits in herself. I want to avoid that for our son.

Thank you!

I've been searching through old threads in this Subreddit and have seen a few recommendations for both ASDReading and Starfall for teaching those on the spectrum to read. My son has reasonably good expressive verbal skills but he does seem to have issues with comprehension and it's slow going with phonics.

Just curious how these two reading programs compare to each other? Is one better than the other for any particular reason? In what scenario should I use one or the other, or should I use both?

I would note that I do know about books like 'Teach Your Children to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' and 'All About Reading' but I'm thinking an interactive app may be more effective. We are going to try the former book as well.

Dorham had the chops to play at a high tempo but preferred his compositions to be more measured.

I'm interested in finding his recordings where he was playing the most uptempo.

I'm a bit confused about books and materials we can use that will help. For most books I get the sense that they're very basic and just teaching parents what autism is (I don't need that, I already know). I want to find books, materials and visual aids and such that will actually help him learn to read but am a bit lost.

We're already using standard materials (curriculum guides for preschool) and he does pretty well at the simpler stuff, wanting to find other material more geared to him. Any recommendations appreciated!