When I started doing this work it was scary how fast they progressed. I thought I’d be redundant in a few months. Then they hit a wall very hard. The models might even be getting worse now. That could be my perception because a big part of the job is steering them toward failure and correcting the mistakes, so now I’m in the habit of exploiting their weaknesses.

They aren’t going away, but if we can figure out the niches where they’re actually useful, maybe the big AI companies will stop pretending LLMs are a digital panacea.

That’s exactly what my main income is these days. I signed up with DataAnnotation a couple of years ago, chipped away and started getting more access to a bigger pool of higher paying projects. I get online whenever it suits me, do work, claim time, get paid. No meetings or time wasting.

It’s not perfect, feedback is minimal, technical issues exist, but the flexibility is such a huge advantage that it’s hard to give up. It does mean you’re contributing to the whole AI… situation. My moral justification is that we’re actually making the models better at sticking with what they’re good at, and getting more efficient with it.

Specific professional skills like legal seem to be in high demand too. I’m a software engineering specialist, but they keep giving me finance projects just because I have that domain on my resume. They also gave me some referral codes specifically requesting legal, medical, and STEM pros. I don’t know if using my codes would give you an advantage in the application, but I guess it couldn’t hurt. DM me if you want one.

I stopped using Windows on my own machines many years ago. It was probably about the time when the games I was playing ran well enough, so dual booting was just taking up space I could use.

Marsha Mathers

I live next to a very popular MTB town. Everywhere I look it’s adults going out on bike adventures. It’s driving half the economy around here.

My therapist specialised in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, so we started out by trying to identifying things in my life that I was overreacting to. It turned out I was dealing with Real Shit, and remarkably chill under the circumstances. We had to abandon the CBT approach.

That was still helpful though. By asking the question, it validated my behaviour, so I didn’t doubt myself as much going forward. It helped me make some big life changes.

Why would anyone want something that provides the olfactory promise of bacon, but never delivers actual bacon?

She doesn’t spend the cash. It’s her ID card.

Now I want to know why Sabaton hasn’t done a song about the Emu War.

It’s not all Australians, but those who do it are all over social media for some reason.

I’ve been rolling up my clothes for years. I thought it would leave wrinkles, but it doesn’t. So much faster than folding, and much easier to pack when travelling.

I’m going to guess, based on the pattern of other misuses, they use it like “ultimate”, but with emphasis?

I think strong/static typing with inference is the sweet spot. Complex types can change, so it helps to at least have your boundaries well defined. Within the scope of a function, if you need explicit typing on everything then your function might be getting too complex.

Sometimes the jankiest decorations look the best. Especially with the right lighting.

I live in a part of the world that doesn’t usually celebrate Halloween much, but last year our street made an effort. It seems people noticed because this year someone decided to hold a themed market here, and there was a big turnout. I think it’s becoming a thing for the town now.

My neighbour is getting seriously into 3D printing and made lots of cool toys that he gave away instead of food. That was cool to see, because he’s been struggling a bit since his wife died, and he was never very community-oriented, but having something like this brought out his good side.

I reused a wizard costume from a fantasy fair earlier this year. Hung a pumpkin full of treats from the end of my staff, and rode around on my electric unicycle for a bit, giving them away. Any bit of novelty is valid if it’s in the right spirit. That’s what I like about Halloween.

You can’t really go wrong if you wear something that works for you. High or low effort, it’s all good.

I thought metal was more popular than ever. Maybe my perception is skewed because I’ve been going to plenty of metal festivals in recent years, but all the subgenres have representation from what I can see.

I’ve seen stingrays absolutely gorge themselves during a big crab moult. I think I’d rather be a ray.

That soy filler is the bane of my existence. I’m intolerant to legumes, and I’m pretty sure soy additives are the reason almost all manufactured foods affect me. In theory, I should be able to eat bread, but it’s very rare to find any that doesn’t include soy.

I’m pretty sure all my “gluten free” family are actually reacting to the soy too.

You know your stuff for someone who hasn’t partaken.

I’ve done ayahuasca but not regular old DMT. Those are the main points I would have suggested.

Adding to that, allow plenty of time to process the experience after the trip has ended. I journaled it, which helped make sense of it all, especially parts that felt disconnected from normal perceptions.

Music you vibe with will help too. Some of the music that accompanied my experience was a bit overwhelming and magnified parts that I didn’t enjoy. I had to take myself outside to ground again (if you can call communing with the stars grounding).

The trailer for season 4 just released was the nail in the coffin. Liam Hemsworth is doing his best, but there’s no way Henry Cavill would have uttered the line, “Let’s fuckin’ move.” The writing is so bad he couldn’t save it.