Week 37 / 2024

Published: 15/09/2024

My bestie Harjas was staying over last week. So, I decided to skip writing last week's note, and focus on spending time with him. As a result, this week's note is a mixture of happenings from the last two weeks.

What's been happening?

1. I added a tiny feature to the website to let readers navigate back and forth between blog posts. I wanted to add this feature to help readers navigate between weeknotes. Check the feature out once you're done reading this note!

2. I completed four years at my current workplace (woop!). S started a (very cool) new job (woop woop!).

3. Arun shared a Steve Yegge video with me about Chat Oriented Programming (CHOP). The video encourages programmers to switch from using Google (and Stack Overflow) to Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve programming problems.

   My favourite bit from the video is when Steve acknowledges how prompting an AI can be frustratingly time consuming. In the same breath, he also says that manually Googling for solutions every time you're stuck is equally annoying. With CHOP, you spend time providing context to an AI upfront, whereas with Google, you distribute your research time throughout the work session. Choose your poison, I guess. :)

   Personally, I'm starting to use LLMs more and more as part of my work and I'm enjoying the experience.

4. I had a great chat with my nutritionist about my blood work. It's fascinating to see how your vitals can change based on your diet. My blood report while on a ketogenic diet showed elevated levels of fat-digesting proteins. These levels decreased when I returned to a more "normal" diet. Very cool!

5. I bought some Fellow Atmos canisters to store coffee beans. They are quite handy and can automatically vacuum seal themselves with the press of a button. They make a great addition to my coffee setup!

   

6. Harjas and I played a lot of Hades. I beat the game a while ago, but there's still so much left to do. Doing play-throughs with a friend adds a whole new dimension to the game. We took turns to play and were making in-game decisions collectively.

   If you like video games and haven't played Hades, I highly recommend it.

7. 2024 is a self-determined phone upgrade year for me. The iPhone 16 Pro has been pre-ordered and I'm excited to get it in my hands! I'm moving from an iPhone mini to the larger Pro model. While I will miss the mini's size and usability, I'm looking forward to experience the Pro's larger, 120Hz screen.

Media Diet

• I've been enjoying listening to the new Linkin Park single. It was a pretty emotional experience listening to new Linkin Park music after so many years. That said, its been hard to ignore the controversy surrounding the new vocalist.

• NEW 'FRED AGAIN...' ALBUM! AAAAAA!

• When Harjas and I weren't playing Hades, we were watching shows on Dropout. Dropout is a subscription-based comedy network created by the team behind CollegeHumor. I had heard of Dropout before, but this was my first time watching content on it. We watched many episodes of a show called Game Changer, which is a game show where the game changes in every episode. Hilarious stuff.

~

This week's note was typed out on a Perryworks Mc65, built with broken-in and hand-lubed Cherry MX Blacks, on a Aluminium plate.