I love SQL and use it all day long to answer various business questions, but I would never use raw SQL in my code unless there is a good reason for it (sometimes there is). ORMs are there for maintainability, composability, type safety, migrations, etc.. trying to do all that with raw SQL strings doesn't scale in a large code base. You need something that IDE tools can understand and allow things like 'find all references', 'rename instances', compile time type checks, etc.. Raw SQL strings can't get you that. And managing thousands of raw SQL strings in a code base is not sustainable.

ORMs are one of those things that a lot of people think is a replacement for knowing SQL. Or that ORMs are used as a crutch. That has nothing to do with it. Very similar to how people here talked about TypeScript 10 years ago in a very dismissive way. Not really understanding its purpose. Most people haven't used something like Entity Framework either which is game changing level ORM. Massive productivity boost, and LINQ rivals SQL itself in that you can write very small yet powerful queries equivalent to much more complex and powerful SQL.

Sounds like your issue is writing the complex SQL all as strings in your codebase instead of as functions in the database.

No issue at all. There is a place for stored procs and functions in cases where you need to do things an ORM is not capable of. It is an exception, not a rule. Managing procs/functions is overhead and has the same if not more maintenance headaches than raw SQL strings in code.

Would you be homeless for 3 days a month so that you could have 30 days of AI?

Not a serious question but I thought it's an interesting way of looking at value.

I used to sell cars in SF. Some people wouldn't negotiate over $50 on a $500 a month lease because their apartment was $4k anyway.

Other people WOULD negotiate over $50 because their apartment was $4k.

Returning HTML sounds like a styling nightmare, if anyone changes the structure, unintended consequences. Plus it’s difficult to reason possible states of the UI with fragments sitting on the server, possibly dynamically built on the server. Very jquery/PHP ish. I had my fun and don’t want to go back.

To "get" HTMX, you have to think server-first. State is persisted on the server and all state-change logic is performed on the server (often triggered by http requests from a "dumb" client).

If you hang on to "possible states of the UI" that are client-side only then yes you'll have some difficulty implementing server-generated HTMX responses but more importantly, when your client has state that sometimes isn't in sync with, or shared with, or validated by your server, you're setting yourself up for errors and bugs that will exist regardless of framework.

In short, HTMX forces you to apply "single source of truth" concepts to your application.

Clearly you haven't used something like HTMX. Do you understand what "returning HTML by the server" mean? You are basically sending back a view, like you would in any other framework actually. This would be the exact same pattern as displaying or dynamically adding a new component from either React or Vue. It doesn't create any styling issue at all, nor any unintended consequences.

I’ve used jquery which is very heavy into html fragments. It can get unwieldy compared to keeping all your rending logic in one place and applying data to it like in React. Other comments here validate the suspicion that HTMX can fall apart in large systems.

Unless you’re saying the components returned by HTMX are using the shadow dom for isolation, you can very easily run into styling problems by changing a style and not realizing some injected fragment of HTML somewhere relies on it being a certain way. I hope you’re using a monorepo because unlike typescript APIs, those HTML fragments and CSS styles are not type checked.

This is easy to solve. Just configure htmx to automatically add an `Accept-Version` header to its requests:

    document.addEventListener('htmx:configRequest', evt => {
      evt.detail.headers['Accept-Version'] = APP_VERSION;
    });

And have a middleware that checks for this header. If it finds a version mismatch, have it respond with an HTTP 400 and a message to update the app to get the latest version. This is pretty similar to what many SPAs are already doing nowadays so it shouldn't come as a big surprise.

Well yeah, HTMX wouldn't be a good fit for micro-frontends, but I didn't think many people were actually using those. You have to write all your html in accordance with a single stylesheet, but that strikes me as the least of HTMX's impositions.

That's because jquery takes a very global approach to the DOM, which will naturally lead to spaghetti code.

Every backend framework, be it dotnet or Symphony or Rails, has a concept of components. It's a non-issue.

With full health coverage, people in Japan can pursue simpler jobs and get by, with more free time for artistic endeavors.

Most other countries have full health coverage, it's really just the USA that has such a broken health system.

That doesn't mean we do more art. I am considered unusual because I sketch, badly. I think it's this "why would you do something you're bad at?" attitude in our western culture that kills it for us.

And, yet, a Japanese mangaka living in squalid poverty with shitty health is practically a stereotypical meme.

oh, they have full health coverage.

hell, i had full health coverage when i was an unemployed foreigner in japan.

It's the next level of social gaming, being in VR makes the experience a lot more immersive and visceral.

I used to have a zillion todo txt files in the early 2000's, migrated to OneNote around 2005 and have been using the same OneNote notebook for 20 years now. My life is in there - 20 years worth of todos, lists, thoughts, ideas, etc.. always evolving, perfectly synchronized across computers and mobile. I'm referencing and updating my OneNote all day as I get things done, have ideas, and think of new things to do, or things to remembers. It's an extension of my brain at this point.

I've tried alternatives, but OneNote has been simple and reliable, it just works everywhere. Probably one of the most important apps in my life.

Same but with Keep and GDocs. I still use a local neverending txt like TFA though, as a short-term todo list + clipboard. Short thoughts and little factoids like license plate numbers, appointments, and restaurant recommendations go on Keep (although some of those "short thoughts" have ended up busting the character limit). Refined structured notes end up in a GDoc by topic. Some of my GDocs are now the size of small textbooks. I also love Google Takeout so that I can backup it all up periodically.

I would say, just as you would about OneNote, Keep is one of the most important apps in my life.

One thing I can't do is the never ending todo list, if my main todo list is too long, it's just too stressful for me. I need to break things out into other notes, or just go over it and clean it up into a manageable state. It's kind of like an inbox, you try to get it to zero, you rarely do, but the point is everything in there is on mind and actionable to some extent.

You don't want to lose track of important things in some never ending list. And if they're not important, move them out into a more static list, often it's not even a todo item, but a piece of reference information that's perfect to go into it's own note of related reference information.

Could you please say more about your day-to-day with OneNote? How is your notebook organized, how do you add to it, how do you review it, etc.?

I have a primary todo that is heavy read/write of the things I need to do in the next couple weeks. OneNote has a nice drag/drop by line so it's easy to move lines from like Monday to Tuesday, etc.. When ever I think of something I need to do, I add it to the list somewhere, and whenever I'm not doing anything, I open the file and pick something to do, when it's done, I delete it from the list.

Lower down in the todo I have things I need to keep my mind on, but doesn't have like a specific date. Like I have list of things on want to read/watch/listen to/play in the near term, like 5 items each. I have longer lists of each of those as separate notes with like a hundred items each. Near term health stuff I need to monitor. Some back burner tasks, etc.. I try to not let the todo list overall get too big, and will once in a while go over it, and clean it.

The todo is just one note of like a hundred. I have a note of like 'quick references' important addresses, account numbers, identity numbers, vehicle vin/license, insurance numbers, airline mile numbers, etc.. That's a very useful note. So that's like in a Main section, I also have Self, Recreation, Future, Thoughts sections my Personal notebook.

The Self section has like health info/logs/history, car info, house, finances, taxes, even like a list of gifts I've given people for holidays as a good reference for next year (15 years of gifts in a single note). Every time I get sick I add to my health log note: got sick on this date, this is what happened, etc..

Recreation section has notes for movies, tv shows, video games, music, friends, places I'd like to travel to, podcasts, even a Halloween costume list of ideas and costumes I've decided on over the years.

Future is like future plans for work, housing, life, finances, etc.. Thoughts section is like notes for app ideas, thoughts on people, my jobs, random thoughts, like blog post ideas, etc.. I'm always thinking of some random thing and cataloging it away in a particular thought note by subject.

I also have a private section that is password protected with even more personal stuff in it. Each of the programming projects have their own section

There's a Projects notebook with sections for each of my work and personal programming projects, and each of those sections have notes like todo, design, operations, etc..

Search is really nice in OneNote as well, I can just hit ctrl+E and get full text search, quickly jump to a particular note file, or line in a note with matching text. So ctrl+e, enter AA, hit return and it'll open my Quick Ref note right on the line with my AA miles number on it.

I've also been on OneNote for 20 years. I've been trying out Obsidian. But there is simply too much stuff already in OneNote.

Having a mental disability is chic for kids right now. You won't find a discord or other online profile of a kid with less than three mental disabilities listed. For better or worse, they use them to connect with one another, have something in common. It doesn't help either that these disabilities are super easy to misdiagnose with dishonest patients which means lots of real drugs are flowing to children with fake problems.

This is all aside from the fact that these disabilities can be used as a way to get all sorts of special treatment. That's just icing on the cake. They see each other doing it and say why not me as well. It's a feign mental disorder chain reaction that's gone critical. Sexuality as well. They like to collect labels like Pokémon. Massive social benefit.

haha yeah im just queer for clout I love being popular

It doesn't annoy you that people are using your label for clout though? With all the adults focusing on LGBTQ+ trans, etc.. a label is a way to make yourself standout, and kids are desperate to do that. Especially with mental disorders and sexuality because takes zero effort to give yourself a label, and now you have something to talk about.

yeah there's totally a huge social benefit to being queer right now. definitely.

Are you being sarcastic because in kid social circles there 100% is. Play any games on Steam and/or Quest and it's very apparent.

Are you hanging out in kid social circles?? What gives you this impression??

Unfortunately yea a lot of VR games on Quest are mostly kids, I don't talk much in them, but I hear their conversations.

I'm seeing like 80% of software dev applications at my company are H1B/OPT, like thousands of candidates - and they're getting hired just because of the sheer numbers they drown everyone else out. So yes, they are 100% taking jobs. A lot of them. I can't comprehend how there are so many.

Maybe there is some pool of candidates that applies to all jobs due to automation making the numbers scewed?

Yep, they are 100% doing that and it’s working. The people only applying selectively are being drowned out.

Claude is just so good. Every time I try moving to ChatGPT or Gemini, they end up making concerning decisions. Trust is earned, and Claude has earned a lot of trust from me.

Honestly Google models have this mix of smart/dumb that is scary. Like if the universe is turned into paperclips then it'll probably be Google model.

Well, it depends. Just recently I had Opus 4.1 spend 1.5 hours looking at 600+ sources while doing deep research, only to get back to me with a report consisting of a single sentence: "Full text as above - the comprehensive summary I wrote". Anthropic acknowledged that it was a problem on their side but refused to do anything to make it right, even though all I asked them to do was to adjust the counter so that this attempt doesn't count against their incredibly low limit.

Idk Anthropic has the least consistent models out there imho.