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Does performance not matter?

What if your AI uses an O(n) algorithm in a function when an O(log n) implementation exists? The output would still be "correct"


> Does performance not matter?

No, unfortunately. In a past life, in response to an uptime crisis, I drove a multi-quarter company-wide initiative to optimize performance and efficiency, and we still did not manage to change the company culture regarding performance.

If it does not move any metrics that execs care about, it doesn't matter.

The industry adage has been "engineer time is much more expensive than machine time," which has been used to excuse way too much bloated and non-performant code shipped to production. However, I think AI can actually change things for the better. Firstly, IME it tends to generate algorithmically efficient code by default, and generally only fails to do so if it lacks the necessary context (e.g. now knowing that an input is sorted.)

More importantly though, now engineer time is machine time. There is now very little excuse to avoid extensive refactoring to do things "the right way."


If it's not tested, it's not Engineered.

Test what you care about. If you care about performance, then test your performance. Otherwise performance doesn't matter.


> Does performance not matter?

Performance can be a direct target in a feedback loop and optimised away. That's the easy part. Taking an idea and poof-ing a working implementation is the hard part.


Also most performance optimisations exit at the microservice architecture level, or db and io level

As it stands today the average engineer is much more likely to ship an unoptimized algorithm than an AI.

In most cases no. Bottleneck is usual IO.

Generative video is insanely expensive and OpenAI is burning through money. They need to use the compute on things that they actually might make money on - like enterprise Codex usage.

OpenAI is bleeding money faster than they can afford to and they are literally running out of people that they can go to for more. They need to stop the bleeding.


For now...


The best satire is that which becomes reality.


I would posit that the best satire is that which holds a clear enough mirror to society that people choose for it to not come to pass.


Best comment here!


There's literally nothing that can be done about it. The people with actual ability to make a change don't care.

We're going to have to figure out how to adapt to it. Expect many of the things you love now (seafood, coffee, etc) to be gone within your lifetime.


There were voters who could do part of it. Long term, having a US President that doesn’t cancel wind projects, tear up EV subsidies, and promote coal would probably be a difference maker for US emissions.

And if the voters were just a bit smarter and not bought into the “China bad” narrative, we might even get proper, nice, affordable EVs in the US.


Here's the thing: NOTHING we do in the US matters when various Southeast Asian countries are rapidly industrializing. And in the rapid growth phase sustainability and clean energy is not a priority.

Then there's a billion and a half people in Africa, also rapidly growing, that may be next.


Optimistically I'm hoping they're just bridging the gap to produce a ton of solar energy. Can't be upset until they eclipse the USA emissions.

Although I'm surprised China doesn't just build nuke plants.


Trump is still all bluster and words. He can't change the math. I've convinced 2 people to get EVs over ICE this year. They still make economic sense even without federal subsidies (dependent on your home/work situation). Though I don't deny that most OEMs are likely selling at a loss now. It's foolish how foreign wars directly affect how much it costs you to get to work.


I agree with this basically 100%.

> Say no by default — every feature has a hidden cost: complexity, maintenance, edge cases

AI-assisted development is blowing up this long-standing axiom in the software development world, and I am afraid it's a terrible thing.

Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.


We all know this, but no one is willing to fix it.

Be the change you want to see in the world. If you are in management, promote those that see the value in simplicity.


It's an incredible value but a world of resource-hungry vibe-coded webapps and 8GB of RAM just does not feel compatible.

If you primarily use native Apple apps though this thing is awesome. $499 with student discount? This thing is going to do NUMBERS.


I love Raycast. I would probably be called a "power user" - I use it all day long and have a fairly sophisticated and customized configuration and set of workflows. Raycast is actually one of the primary things keeping me on MacOS these days (please release a Linux version!).

I am worried this is the start of them trying to diversify their product offering because revenue has stalled in the core Raycast product and VC demands more returns. I don't want to be jaded, but history teaches me to be. Here's hoping that Raycast itself is still a focus for the company.


A $1600 60hz display in 2026 just feels extortionate.

The Studio Display XDR seems nice, but I wish they would have kept a 32" option.


Especially since a very similar, if not exactly the same, panel from the XDR will be in monitors from other brands for a fraction of the price (like the LG 27GM950B).


Mobile app is pretty good, my biggest complaint is it won't sync in the background. It only syncs when you open it up. But it's well designed and fully functional.


No promises but I hope we can solve that this year. I agree it would be a much better experience.


Looking forward to it! Just wanted to say thanks for helping to build Obsidian. It's a great piece of software.


That a nuisance as I spend a lot of time on the subway without service but not a total dealbreaker


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