Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
-
@tykling I remember at least 10 important numbers and I carry a small
notebook.... but that's just me who started carrying a notebook playing pretend slueth since I was 7 -
@tykling mental arithmetic is another. Coming from a precalculator generation it was once second nature. Now I still remember (with a slight delay) the times table, but ask me to do division in my head and I almost have to start from first principles. But I guess later generations never had this ability? #vibecoding
People were doing division in their heads? Wow. That's hard.
It's hard for computers too, by the way. Division takes much longer than most other instructions, and when a program says to do division, optimizing compilers will substitute a different operation when possible. A division by 2, for example, can be done faster by just shifting the bits, much like division by 10 in decimal is faster.
-
@marinheiro @tykling so many times I've reached for the phone calculator then thought half way through "why am I putting in something this simple, should be able to at least rough it in my head"
@patterfloof @tykling That is something I notice, that a quick estimate in your head is often enough, and if it isn't its still enough to check you didn't do anything silly with the calculator...,
-
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
You probably also don't know how to make fire with rocks or make rope from tree bark. Or how to saddle a horse.
While you were forgetting phone numbers, you were probably also learning websites, email addresses, and passwords.
Socrates thought that reading would lead to the erosion of memorization.
Did it? Maybe. But things not committed to writing have been lost to the mists of time.
We lose old skills so that we can hone new ones.
-
People were doing division in their heads? Wow. That's hard.
It's hard for computers too, by the way. Division takes much longer than most other instructions, and when a program says to do division, optimizing compilers will substitute a different operation when possible. A division by 2, for example, can be done faster by just shifting the bits, much like division by 10 in decimal is faster.
@argv_minus_one @tykling I'm not talking about two long multidigit numbers like Ramanujan or anything. Smaller divisions are just reversing times table, slightly longer divisions visualise writing the steps on a piece of paper. Converting to binary first would be a step too far (although thats just division too..)
-
@argv_minus_one @tykling No,
but I have been hunted by a few govt ones (it's not all paranoia) -
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
@tykling I went about 9 months without doing any collaborative software development using Git, and when I returned to it I found myself flailing around hopelessly.
-
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
@tykling A bit off the topic of AI: Practise your emergency contacts’ phone number. One day, your life may depend on it.
Short story: My wife got a lorry driver whose lorry sat on top of her to call me from his phone. Worst call ever. But I’m grateful for getting to her before she got taken to the hospital. At the time I didn’t know if she’d survive (thankfully, she did).
️ -
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
@tykling Born in 2001 here
First phone I got was a smartphone in ~2014.
The only phone numbers I ever remembered are the family home’s nulber and my own.At some point I freaked out and started noting a bunch of contacts in a physical notepad. I haven’t updated it in a while now
EDIT: did not read the last sentence. yeah.
-
One of the few numbers I remember actually is my own mobile number - from all the times I had to enter it or write it down somewhere.
-
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
@tykling I remember my own and my wife's mobiles. But not my kids'.
-
Back when I first got a cellphone and slowly started forgetting phone numbers I remember thinking "OK that is scary, it really didn't take long for me to forget something that used to be second nature for me"
It has been 25-30 years since then, and today I have no idea what the phone numbers of even my closest peers is. Not using that skill just entirely obliterated it from my brain over time. I am not even sure how much effort it would take to get back into it.
This post is about vibe coding.
@tykling
This the hack of using a sharpie to write emergency phone numbers on your body. -
B bettina@mastodon.nu shared this topic
