I hate to be so crass. But we gotta start having a different conversation about this shit. We can't mount a defense to any of this until we agree to entertain the possibility that *everyone* involved is either an active scammer or has knowingly decided to be a collaborator.

Everyone always laughs nervously when I show this slide, but - seriously - don't make things that are creepy and weird. Don't purchase tools that are creepy and weird. Don't get free licenses to see how they work, just in case. Don't take meetings with the people who make them.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I don't want to replicate this as an adult, but I'd absolutely believe that I (or most adults) could, in 4-6 weeks, become conversational enough to get by in a new language if I could replicate that total immersion (plus some structured instruction) somehow.

I learned American Sign Language this way -- moved from a public school to a school for the deaf. It was either learn ASL or be almost totally clueless.

It took a few years to go from thinking in English to thinking in ASL, but it only took maybe 4 weeks to be conversational enough to get by.

I really love that Ash is opinionated. Like, really opinionated. And very thoughtfully constructed.

That alone has given me a lot to reflect on and improved my craft in the non-Elixir / non-Ash codebases I work with in my day job.

It’s still probably not the final form, but I don’t need it to be.

I think the general case here works well too: Ash is a clear improvement along some major lines over what had existed. It’s probably not the final form.

Kinda like how Elixir is a clear improvement (along many lines) over many of its predecessors, but it’s almost certainly not the final form.

If your cat is screaming, it may be trying to warn you about Men

4. Work on accuracy/success first (getting a solution that works), then on improving the code, then (and only then) on lowering your time to write the code.
5. If you're feeling really wild, record yourself solving / narrating, then watch it back and see what you notice. Again, please be kind.

Take these for whatever they are worth:

1. Be patient with and kind to yourself, please.
2. After solving a problem (or getting stuck and looking up the solution), come back to it in a few days and do it again. Then come back to it again in a week or two.
3. Practice narrating your thinking/work

Meanwhile, I had a bunch of students (when I taught at a state university) who missed class because a car broke down, or their kid was sick (or their kid's daycare closed), or they had to take an ailing parent to a doctor's appointment.

None who I felt were abusing the system.

Back when I did ACT/SAT tutoring (not a bad summer gig), the only parents I heard complain about this (usually without data) were ones who wanted their kids to go to an Ivy or otherwise elite school, and who were sure that someone else was cheating to take their kid's spot.

Alt text for those who need it. This is amazing.

It's pretty easy to look at a high-fidelity mock-up and say "Oooh, that looks great. It's very polished!" without ever actually testing the design to see if it works (ask me how many times I've done this 😅) and let major UX flaws through.

Harder to do that if you actually try it out.

Watch yourself actually interact with things. Watch other people actually interact with things. Interrogate those experiences and get to the core, most important parts.

You can do this with low-fidelity wireframes, or relatively un-adorned pages.

As soon as it gets more complex than that, or if ever my dev ops (or collaboration) needs got heavier, I'd probably look at Docker.

But probably I could get a long way with a cheap app server and DB on Fly (or equivalent)