AFAIK you need a username to be able to extract anything from instagram at all.

You don't, I don't have an IG account but my wife occasionally sends me links to reels that I use yt-dlp to download.

What I also notice is that the very easily get stuck on a specific approach to solving a problem. One prompt that has been amazing for this is this:

> Act as if you're and outside observer to this chat so far.

This really helps in a lot of these cases.

Like, dropping this in the middle of the conversation to force the model out of a "local minimum"? Or restarting the chat with that prompt? I'm curious how you use it to make it more effective.

Yeah exactly forcing it out of a "local minimum" is a neat way to describe it. In the middle of the conversation I drop this sometimes. Works wonders. You just have to tell it it's stuck in a loop and it will suddenly pretend (?) to be self aware.

That’s a cool tip; I usually just give up and start a new chat.

> The search-results page is a battle of tooth and claw among low-rent importers. Also it’s just really freaking ugly

Yes, the search result page is truly horrendous. It shows many results, while most of them are not actually available.

"amygdala-bait" is such a good, concise way of expressing the phaenomenon. I too try to stay away from infinite scrolling. I installed an extension to block youtube shorts, for example, as they offer no value to me.

> The security risks aren't worth it for me

Care to elaborate? What security risks

Some website breaks the browser sandbox and gains access to your local neovim instance.. RCE

This is what happens when an engineer tries to apply mathematical models to entirely different fields where they have no applicability. Reducing human personality to machine learning concepts like 'gradient updates' misses the fundamental complexity of human psychology and consciousness.

You can accept that "personalities" have a state space without falling into reductive explanations. They're not mutually exclusive.

This is Bezos talking about this: https://youtu.be/e47wAgIhZ7o?si=LKZxoabqrCSCQ1ki&t=64

I'm curious, can you wear contact lenses while working? I notice my eyes get tired when I look at a monitor for too long. Have you found any solutions for that?

I use contact lenses basically every day, and I have had no problems working in front of screens. There's a huge difference between the different brands. Mine is one of the more expensive ones (Acuvue Oasys 1-Day), so that might be part of it, but each eye is compatible with different lenses.

If I were you I would go to an optometrist and talk about this. They can also often give you free trials for different contacts and you can find one that works for you.

FWIW, that is the same brand that I use and was specifically recommended for dry-eyes by my optometrist. I still wear glasses most of the time because my eyes also get strained from looking at a monitor with contacts in.

I'd recommend a trial of the lenses to see how they work for you before committing to a bigger purchase.

> Acuvue Oasys 1-Day

I don't often wear contacts at work but I can second that these are great for "all day" wear.

Age is important factor here, not just contract brands.

As you get older, your eyes get dryer. Also, having done Lasik and needing contacts after many years is a recipe for dry eyes.

This is very likely age-dependent.

When I was in my 20s, this was absolutely not a problem.

When I hit my 30s, I started wearing glasses instead of contacts basically all the time, and it wasn't a problem.

Now that I'm in my 40s, I'm having to take my glasses off to read a monitor and most things that are closer than my arm's reach.

Wait until you get to 50 and you have to take OFF your glasses to read things that are small or close.

This is the most annoying part of all my vision problems.

Hah, I'm already there in my 40s! I'm seriously considering getting a strap for my glasses - right now I just hook them into my shirt, but they'll occasionally fall out when I bend over for something, and it's only a matter of time before they break or go into a sewer.

My eye doctor recommended wearing “screen glasses”. They are a small prescription (maybe 0.25 or 0.5) with blue blocking. It’s small but it does help; I work on normal glasses at night (so my eyes can rest) and contacts + screen glasses during the day and they are really close.

Go try an E-Ink device. B&N Nooks are small Android tablets in disguise, you just need to install a launcher. Boox devices are also Android.

I can use an E-Ink device all day without my eyes getting tired.

I cannot, personally. They dry out

Not OP but I can recommend this talk by Thibault (the founder): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI

> We got self-styled prophets writing whole books about their personal philosophies and slapping general-purpose-sounding names on them like “Clean Code.” It reminds me of the dudes who ran around the Middle East 2,000 years ago claiming they personally could introduce you to G-d.

Top-tier comedy. When I was in university, not too long ago, all the CS professors were huge fanboys of uncle bob. Lot's of lectures started with a reference to his books, making it seem like a mandatory part of the curriculum.

I always like to say - One day I'm gonna spend an afternoon on the toilet writing a book like this, at the end I'll look at what's left in the bowl and name it after that. I'm hoping for creamy code.