@karlhigley@recsys.social
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

karlhigley

@karlhigley@recsys.social

I build recommender systems that work for actual people. Aspirational cyclist. Actual dog person. Not even remotely neurotypical.

I run RecSys.social. I don’t accept follow requests from accounts without a bio or profile picture.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

recursive, (edited ) to random
@recursive@hachyderm.io avatar

I was thinking of making a list of types of software that most people think is "too difficult" and they leave to "the experts", e.g.:

  • geometric modeling kernel
  • integrated circuit floorplanning
  • cryptography
  • compiler backends
  • database query planners
  • electromagnetic simulation (antennas, transmission lines, microstrip design, etc)
    ...

Oh, it's all applied math.

(As an aside, I just want to note that there's some really difficult work to be done in accessibility and UX too.)
[1/?]

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@recursive i had all of these but the one my peers hated the most was discrete math as a prerequisite weed out course

(i took number theory as a teenager, loved that class, and eat over 10000 spiders a day)

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@recursive i hated all the the things my peers were fine with and vice versa. almost failed several semesters of calculus in a row, never attended modern algebra and set the curve. i literally got carded to turn in my exams but also desperately needed a tutor 🤷‍♀️

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

this town will not accommdate the numerical totality of our combined mass

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

Big plans this evening, we’re going to watch that classic movie about an autistic person whose special interests are relevant to their career: Legally Blonde

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

Food processors: what are your favorites?

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

This is your annual reminder that many autistic people consider groups seeking to prevent or cure autism to be eugenicist hate groups and would strongly prefer that any donations you make go to groups that seek to improve the lives of autistic people instead

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

how does adding an island make the kitchen bigger? what kind of bizarre high-dimensional witchcraft is this?

recursive, to random
@recursive@hachyderm.io avatar

You can use a BlenderBottle as a cocktail shaker

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@recursive i bet that works great for sours and fizzes

elizabethtasker, to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

In my 20s, I was very excited about travel. In my 40s, I’m tempted to cancel the entire trip at the last minute and claim to have contracted want-a-regular-week-with-the-cat fever.

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@elizabethtasker I bailed on an international conference trip (that I’d paid for myself!) while I was on the way to the airport because I had legitimately contracted want-a-regular-week-with-the-dog fever, so…I believe in you. You can do it!

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

tfw enchiladas seem too complicated so you make enchilasagna instead

Cassandra, to random
@Cassandra@autistics.life avatar

Thinking about the guy I dated briefly who suggested there should be a user manual for me.

I didn't find it insulting. I think it could have been full of very useful information, for those who bothered to read it.

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@Cassandra reminds me of someone i dated who actually wrote a manual about me for the next person. kinda wish i still had that actually

andrewfeeney, to random
@andrewfeeney@phpc.social avatar

Every hot-take programming article ever:

"[pattern] worked well in my context, therefore [pattern] alone is correct in any context."

Every counter hot-take on hot-take programming article ever:

"[pattern] did not work well in my context, therefore everyone who does [pattern] is wrong and should feel bad."

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@andrewfeeney it’s almost like tech people aren’t good at contextual thinking 🧐

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

I slept poorly last night, in no small part because of large animal running across the roof multiple times.

I never got up to see what it was, but it was larger than the usual cats. I haven't seen possums or raccoons around here in a few years, but maybe they are back.

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@MLE_online this is such a weird thing to have in common! our roof seems to be some kind of animal highway between places unknown. the snow here has rendered it blissfully quiet for the past few days, but the traffic noise keeps me up all the time

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

me: uh hey twitch you made me an affiliate about a month ago but for some reason I can't get on any of the community rewards stuff. based on the browser console it looks like the emotes service isn't seeing the affiliate role on my account and it's throwing a graphql error.

twitch support: thanks for getting in touch with us! have you tried turning off your antivirus?

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@gsuberland This is one of the few use cases for LLMs that I’m actually optimistic about. “Recognize this pattern and respond accordingly”—in this case by routing issues to appropriate support—seems doable, particularly in an area where labeled data should be possible to acquire and mistakes are undesirable but not catastrophic.

(Directly answering support requests on the other hand…🙅🏼)

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

watching two time travel shows, and for maybe the first time in my life, i’m rolling my eyes at the one with the elaborate time loopy puzzle box plot and really enjoying the one that’s just about the characters connecting with their younger selves, reflecting on their lives now, and trying to fix a few things without messing the present up too badly for each other

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

I’ve just seen it too many times now: the past causes the future, the future causes the past, yadda yadda. we get it already—there’s no beginning or end and everyone is trapped in a perpetual cycle of experiencing and re-experiencing slight variations on the same time travel shows

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

A very clear way to express the “divide and conquer” software project management fallacy:

“We cannot hunt a part of a bear each. We’re either capable of hunting a bear as a team, or we cannot hunt one.”

https://sollecitom.github.io/software-product-development-blog/posts/2023/2023-12-31-so-you-think-you-work-in-a-team/

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

I don't know if I want to dress to look cute or look cool tonight

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@MLE_online looking cool is overrated?

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@MLE_online the right people will also think you’re the other one no matter which one you choose

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

My plan (very ill-advised in hindsight) to binge graphic novel series so heavy that the creators had to take a break from making them has come to a screeching halt after about twenty pages

recursive, to random
@recursive@hachyderm.io avatar

I just watched Annihilation (2018), and it's a pretty good horror film.

Somehow it felt both more believable and less frightening than I think most people would receive it. I guess I've Ship-of-Theseus'd myself enough at this point that, well...

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@recursive As someone who really enjoyed the books, I watch this movie not infrequently, which I think is pretty high praise. They share a lot and it’s a fairly faithful adaptation but intentionally made as a single film instead of a trilogy, which changes the story somewhat. The themes of grief and transformation always resonate.

karlhigley, to random
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

After hand delivering tiny snacks to the dog in her favorite chair, I’m pretty sure she’s concluded that I’m just the wait-staff

blue, to random
@blue@autistics.life avatar

I finished a tv mini series ("Lessons in Chemistry") where the female character and her 7 year old-ish daughter were both autistically coded. It was so wholesome to see their relationship. The daughter was not reprimanded for being direct. They talked a lot about science or books and had a loving and caring relationship (no refrigerator mom klischee).
The father seemed AuDHD to me, btw.
It was really nice to see their social relationships being depicted so positively.

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@blue @Cassandra I’d second that—surprised to find that almost all of my favorite shows are on Apple TV these days. Increasingly wondering if there’s an autistic person over there green-lighting the shows 😆

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

"Hey, maybe I should finally write that essay on how AI is primarily a massive force for commodification and devaluation and how building your entire value proposition around it is a major strategic blunder?"

Then I take one look at the replies I get on a single, off-hand post on "AI" research and decide instead to go out for a walk in the cold.

Now I feel a bit like shit but it's still better than another round of "AI" discourse.

karlhigley,
@karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

@baldur I get it, but I do wish that essay existed. (Not at the expense of your mental health though.)

lzg, to random
@lzg@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    karlhigley,
    @karlhigley@recsys.social avatar

    @lzg making some turkey stock and a loaf of wheat bread

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