Warez irc channels were the best social media ever

IRC is not social media. But otherwise agree.

> IRC is not social media.

what is it then?

specifically: what is the medium in which IRC exists, or operates in? are the people using IRC networking with each other, perhaps socializing?

That was certainly not my implication. Although there were plenty of bots!

They're making crud apps

I fell into this career because I programmed as a kid, hacked on pre internet bboards, and understood how to drive a computer via the command line. I like solving the problems. GED, college dropout. I never planned on making this much money, but I'm certainly not giving it up. I don't feel like I fit in either camp tbh.

That was super quick.

For me prototyping whas always about going in trying to surface the unknown unknowns.

Agreed, that what makes it endlessly exciting.

Threw me off too. Like why???

Reverse signaling

It's a tech bro thing. Altman does it too, and I've worked with people in the past who do it.

I read it as "I'll take literally any conscience for myself no matter how minor, at any cost for you no matter how big".

why take the least charitable possible reading D; i've always read and intended it as inviting informality. i also don't find it harder to read at all (most people don't know some find it harder to read: i didn't)

I don't read it as informal. Childish or lazy perhaps, at best.

When you intend it as "inviting informality", you're implicitly doing this because "formality" is too much effort. The thing is you're not inviting, but rather demanding. You have decided the conversation is informal and low effort, and that's how you'll treat it, without considering the person you're communicating with.

This is of course all a lot of strong statements and these things don't matter as much as this sounds. I don't feel _that_ strongly about these things, but the lowercase thing always strikes me as just plain weird, and deconstructing why I feel that way this is where I get to.

I didn't take it any particular way besides maybe a hint of informality. Regardless it definitely threw off my reading in an unpleasant way. Anecdata point for the poster maybe. I would read again.

it's an internet thing. people were typing lowercase on IRC in the 90s.

there is a very big difference between starting an ephemeral instant message without capitalization, and lacking capitalization throughout a more "persistent" long-term medium

It's not derived from that. Most people don't use IRC anymore and there are basically no open chat platforms left. Most people now use phones to chat, where the keyboard automatically changes case for you after finishing a sentence.

So typing in all lowercase is a choice. I think it's a way to signal "I don't follow norms". It signals membership in a group.

I actually think of it as a tumblr thing. Like my first thought whenI see it is that the person who wrote this runs in queer or activist circles.

Not my read on OP, but “tech bro” is not my first thought associated with the style

Someone build a chess harness already...

Does practical improvement apply to only humans or intelligence in general?

Excellent article. I believe the majority of benchmark performance gains moving forward will come from this side of the stack enabling faster iteration/recursion.