Not really, in my experience you still have to be good at solving problems to use it effectively. Claude (and other AI) can help folks find a "fix", but a lot of times it's a band-aid if the user doesn't understand how to debug / solve things themselves.

So the type of programmers you're talking about, who could solve complex problems, are actually just enhanced by it.

Yes, exactly. I have exercised daily (either weight training or cardio) for nearly 20 years. I've also had anxiety and depression for that entire stretch of time.

Exercise was how I stayed mildly sane for a good majority of those years, but when I started taking medication it was like the entire world changed. I wish I had started earlier in life. It helped me to become a lot more introspective as well, being able to better examine why I was feeling the way I did.

There are some things that no amount of exercise or "healthy living" can fix, that's unfortunately just the human condition. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Exactly this. I don't do it much in the USA to be honest, but when traveling.

Yeah, they acquired the company I worked at and left us alone for a year or two. Each year would get worse though, and each year we swapped nearly all bureaucratic things around. Always a different way to do performance reviews goals, etc.

A lot of the successful projects at the original company are now dead.

It's also weird being in IBM, because if your "contract" ends they put you on the bench. Then you basically have to job hunt within IBM, and if you can't find anything within a month or so you are out. It's super weird.

"It's also weird being in IBM, because if your "contract" ends they put you on the bench. Then you basically have to job hunt within IBM, and if you can't find anything within a month or so you are out. It's super weird."

This is standard operating procedure at most consulting/professional services firms.

Yes, the bench sounds great but it is incredibly nerve-wracking and I never liked that aspect of consulting at all. Better to just go to zero pay and be a free agent and if the company finds you another gig, great, but no promises either way.

I retired a couple of years ago at 54 and now spend my days feeding horses, mucking stalls and spreading the resulting manure (a task consulting prepared me for), but for about 24 of my 30 year career prior to retiring I worked for consulting companies and was lucky enough to never sit on the bench.

Also the CIA

Sounds similar to university applied research arms too.

GTRI locally hires a lot of non-students to work in its various labs. Its labs then pitch ideas to private companies and the DoD. Sometimes they're solicited directly if the lab is well-known and has a track record of delivering good research-oriented results. They research and build prototypes around various capabilities: robotics, avionics, even classified stuff.

They're always pitching, because contracts end or fall through, and that's the source of everyone's payroll. The labs can even be competitive with one another, and the individual researchers might spend time split between labs.

Academics as a service.

Can you elaborate? That sounds interesting

John Kiriakou Described the process in a podcast, maybe the JRE.

I don’t know how many contracts IBM deals with, but the concept of a bench is very common in government contracting. It helps retain talent in an environment that’s more volatile than a typical office. Good for the company to avoid brain drain and hiring overhead, good for the employee because it’s a built-in safety net. Much better than your contract ending and immediately being out of a job, especially in today’s market

Those are the positives. The downside is that the sales team presents you with really lousy contract opportunities and you are pressured to accept one knowing it is a crap assignment that isn't helping your career growth. And you can be stuck on one of those for years!

I don't think they're objecting to the idea of a bench as an ultimate fallback; I think they're objecting to the idea that there isn't, during such "internal layoffs", a default automatic reassignment of all headcount to other teams. In such cases, you would only land on the bench if you refuse the automatic reassignment.

Longer Bench allowed only for consultant with security clearance as those are such a hard thing to come by. General govt work, they just let you go like in commercial sector.

The thing is, the people on those "algorithm-free" forums still get manipulated by the algorithm in the rest of their life. So it seeps into everything.

It’s always frustrating to see the implication that people just need to exercise to solve their mental health struggles. It might not be your intention, but it's a take I see a lot online from influencers.

I say this as someone who is extremely fit. I've worked out religiously since high school. While exercise is integral to me feeling somewhat normal and provides a short-term boost, that is just not how it works for everyone. Some of us have 'broken brains' that cardio can't fix.

Exercise manages my baseline, but sertraline is what helped me finally bridge the gap. It allowed me to regulate my emotions and anxiety in a way that no amount of exercise ever did. And the introspection from being on it helped me make lifelong changes.

To be honest, fearmongering from folks online is what stopped me from taking it sooner, but I wish I had. It was fairly life-changing.

I think the reality is likely more nuanced than 'all good' or 'all bad.' While the side effects you linked are real risks that should be taken seriously, claiming these drugs are 'by no means safe,' cause 'mostly permanent' damage, or lack evidence is a pretty extreme generalization that doesn't align with the experience of millions of patients.

Speaking for myself, I took sertraline for years and it did wonders for my mental health. It didn't ruin my life or numb me, it gave me the ability to regulate my emotions when I previously struggled immensely with anger and crippling anxiety.

It’s possible for these drugs to be handed out too easily in some contexts and simultaneously be life-saving, effective treatments for those who genuinely need them. Suggesting they violate 'do no harm' ignores the massive harm caused by leaving severe mental health struggles untreated.

Yes, that image is so funny, because it really is the difference between me being able to make a meal for myself vs needing something immediate.

It also helped do wonders for my anxiety, which I previously treated with sertaline.

I'm not the hyperactive sort of individual who has ADHD so I didn't get diagnosed until late in life, around a year or so ago, I'm just the "Inattentive" type.

But finally I can take my meds, and do things that other people do without feeling like it's mental torture. And I can also remember to do important things, like my taxes, on time!

It's so weird comparing my days on it to off it, when I happen to run out. I start getting a backlog of little things that my brain decided it couldn't take one minute to knock out.

I could second every word of what you just said (as you already know after reading that page, of course).

Just wanted to reiterate it for anyone who's reading this thread.

I tried to get Kickstarter to take down an obvious scam a while back. Best I could do was post on Reddit to warn folks though.

Checked on it recently, so many comments of folks asking for shipping details / anything. Hundreds of thousands of dollars just scammed from folks. And they're still raising / stringing folks along.

It's wild.

That sounds tantalizing! Link please?