My latest armchair theory is that bullshit jobs might be like “junk” DNA, which researchers learned isn’t actually junk and influences various cellular and genetic behavior, just not through direct protein instruction.

Or as engineers know: sometimes legacy code doesn’t initially appear to do anything, but then messing with it has unexpected effects.

For sure.

Especially as organizations grow in size.

A small startup usually has little-to-no "junk" or "fat" to trim.

But as orgs grow, and since we have imperfect knowledge and communication systems, more an more "junk" or "connectivity" roles emerge.

Microsoft: 223,000 employees

Alphabet / Google: 198,933

Apple: 150,000

Oracle: 141,000

Meta / Facebook: 75,472

I tried to stay way from companies with retail or warehouse workers like Amazon and Walmart (though Apple likely has a lot of retail).

I don't see HOW companies get to that size without some "junk DNA" that keeps it operating.

Maybe in the next few years we'll have AI-powered knowledge bases and communication lanes that smooths things out, but - how do we 'quantify' what "Steve, the guy who has been there for 22 years and works as the company phonebook and knows who to refer you for the thing you need"

I have an x3 and love it. It’s so small I don’t think twice about taking it everywhere. I have the crosspoint firmware on it, and I sync it with calibre.

I’m no expert on self improvement, but my ambitions tend to be a lot lower on vacation. Instead of trying to cultivate better habits, I mostly just try to interrupt the old dumb ones. Instead of phone in bed, it’s a huge win if I’m in a hammock with a fun book. Instead of checking email over coffee, maybe I can sit outside with that coffee and listen to birds. Etc etc.

I still see picture books as an introductory path to literacy for kids, but unlike posting fan fiction on AO3, I have never heard a “success story”, where someone credits their early experience with picture books as key to a fulfilling career. Anyone?

The snarky analogy doesn’t really really work because plenty of people actually do credit video games for their successful career, myself included. Thanks, Roblox.

And plenty of great authors start with fanfic. Like actually. But apologies the snark landed that way. I was not intending to diminish people learning via game modding at all.

What I found irritating in the post is the premise that what we put in front of kids should be judged by counts of attributions to career success.

> What I found irritating in the post is the premise that what we put in front of kids should be judged by counts of attributions to career success.

For a start, that's effectively the premise it's sold on. And for another thing, if it's not contributing to the kind of thinking that would help with that job, what is it other than another esoteric game?

There are many things that no one will think to later attribute to “career success” that were in fact foundational to their learning and development.

In my experience it’s designed around a make/build/experiment pedagogical approach, not as a bootcamp system to get kids into programming careers

I'm guessing that Roblox will be responsible for more people learning programming than essentially any other single entity

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library project had to have had some justification.

I think picture books are not the same as Scratch. Scratch is much farther along that process. An equivalent might be comic books or graphic novels, which people actually do attribute a love of either as an introduction to fulfilling careers.

The absurdity is the point. Comparing the merits of scratch vs game modding in children’s eventual programming career success is such a silly overly serious adult thing to do. If kids experience fun and exploration while learning along the way, that’s what matters.

As a mid 40s person also, my advice: drink plenty of water, clean the kitchen every night, don’t try to time the market, forgive your past self for being an idiot.

I keep thinking about cleaning the kitchen every night (I just turned 30). The more I think about it, the more I think it's a good advice. I still need to forgive my past self for being an idiot, though :)

Short but brilliant. Well done.

I'd add: try to sleep well. It adds up.

So much to do and so little time. But you’re right, it’s so important.

> clean the kitchen every night

Is this a metaphor?

Wonderfully written. I’m intrigued by the section about emotion. It seems like no coincidence that it follows the section about seeing beyond monocausal determinism.

Why not just bake an agent into every service and chat with it? Sounds more fun at least.

Please keep researching and report back!

It’s not just solo developers. Startup teams with limited time that are focusing their energy on finding the right product to build also use openrouter.

I think the bet is that you offer enough value-adds that companies who find traction don’t want to switch to something enterprise grade, and you grow into being enterprise grade with them.

Very similar to Stripe’s trajectory, incidentally.

> Get rid of some of the baked in Co-Pilot integrations that might be compounding the extra workloads.

Yes, I’m curious just how much of the scaling issues might be self-inflicted.

Also I’d like to see the distribution of usage. I’m guessing a relatively small portion of accounts are responsible for the majority of load.

> a relatively small portion of accounts are responsible for the majority of load.

Probably 20/80 (Pareto) principle.