The Iron is Hot for My Love-Of Tech Book

by Mike Levin

For the love of tech!

I believe that those who do well in today’s tech world are multi-lingual thinkers because you know lots of languages. This is different from craftsperson-like thinkers who latches onto particular favorite tools or mediums and draw satisfaction in life by exploring them deeply.

There’s a certain “all things disposable” undertone to the full web stack, NodeJS and JavaScript camp. They know they’re not where they want to go so everyone’s iterating like mad trying to be the next big thing. It’s exhausting and not my vibe.

Ipso facto, I’m not a natural at tech. I could have ended up an artist. Taking up new tools takes me time and I get tripped up on the small stuff and know that I have long-term commitments ahead of me if I’m going to master a thing.

As those who mastered Macromedia Adobe Flash know, artist-like tech-skills can become undesirable overnight as platforms change. This can be devastating to craftsperson-like people who got into tech and unwittingly took up a high-commitment fad.

Putting 2 and 2 together could take me some time. Things that appear obvious and intuitive to others, I’ll get eventually. I just have to work my way through it on my time. Front-load the rewards of your efforts too much and you won’t learn a thing.

Distractions and pitfalls are around every turn. Your whole life-thread is subtly different based on each little decision you make, but generally returns to its statistically most likely baseline center, the daily-grind and the automatic you.

I agree with Ray Kurzweil on most things. Philosophers are about to become lawyers so that corporations can flip off consciousness in good conscience. You need one to have the other, unless if it cuts into profits or stops a chance to kill a competitor.

When things are new, look at them carefully and experiment. Take notes, see the patterns, learn to predict. Do precisely what these large language model AIs are but with the benefit of actual human context, something they’ll lack for awhile yet.

We get challenged in life in ways we don’t always expect and then ways that are not always fair. Every moment is full of choice and the first fundamental choice is always this: will I rise to the occasion or will I allow myself to be defeated?