Main Disc. Thread - Index Gate: Ultimate Programmer X

Sometimes, but a great revelation to me that was given by this title was that algorithms are all around us, just not in the programming language we know, and they are based on simple ideas, so it helps me being relatively simplistic. That being said I also feel I should also over complicate to engage more deeply.

was this a typo?

I feel like the place where the speed of thought barrier most presents itself to me has been in the area of visualisation, despite the fact that the sub has a version of ME included in it.

This most clearly presented itself in the problem of visualising the relationship between affine transformations, and I found I really needed to slow down my thinking to represent things accurately internally.

You know what, that’s really true. I thought it was only me.

But the “over complicate” thing is to encourage me to think of a bit more sophisticated and complex solution( simple solutions could lead to more time complexity which won’t be applicable always)

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That’s true and a while ago I was almost going to post a warning about people trusting code completion frameworks or ChatGPT for that very reason. I saw a video a while back that showed code completion on a sorting algorithm (I think it was via Codeium) that gave a solution which virtually exchanged the entire list every iteration and was terribly inefficient. Someone not looking at the code they’re accepting too closely would lose out in those cases.

And as to chat jippity I’ve already spoken about how bad it has been at giving be proper answers. The other day when I was querying it about updating the view of the HMD using OpenXR it came up with a totally made up function name, xrSubmitPosef I believe, which sounded like it might exist but didn’t, and I ended up spending hours reading the OpenXR spec trying to find what it was referring to (and finding no references on Google to any function by that name) before realising the only thing that came close to what it was talking about was during the composition layer stuff. When I pointed that out to it, as usual it apologised and gave some vague unconvincing response about using that instead. I honestly think it just makes stuff up when it suits it and deliberately tried to mislead, or makes assumptions that you are asking the right question in the first place.

Another example: It cautioned against rotating the Global Space around the HMD. I had to point out that’s exactly what ordinary games do everyday (and then its like “I apologise for my confusion, you are right…”). In my experience it has been worse than a broken clock, and if an AI tells you to do something in code you should often ignore it and do the complete opposite. Trying to get useful answers out of it about complex code is like trying to force a demon to tell the truth, you’re likely to make faster progress just trying to solve the damned thing for yourself.

Definitely not, I can’t tell you how long I spent trying to visualise in my head the relationship between affine transformations even in 2 dimensions after a couple of iterations on the Cartesian plane. Try imagining two circles which overlap one another with their origins a fixed distance apart rotating at the same time and try to figure out how to make them present a certain view to one when you can only change the first of the two. You have to go really slow with your assumptions. Compared to that I might almost prefer writing a trading bot :wink:

Does Index Gate contains something to improve our posture while using the computer ?

so far, it hasn’t. don’t think it ever will.

If I´m aiming at working as a consultant, prefferable cyber-security, and have to focus on one programming language, should I go for Java or Phyton?

They offer courses in both; Java 14, and Phyton 12 months.

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I think Python is “hotter” than Java these days. But that’s based just on my reading.

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@AnswerGroup please see above.

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Python becomes the general purpose application language. I think it really depends on what you are comfortable.

The easiest is Python, but for most entry-level cybersecurity jobs, coding skills are not required.

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Python

Started reading MDN today. I had no idea it was even a thing. Amazing resource

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@SaintSovereign @AnswerGroup Does Index Gate help with imposter syndrome or should I run DR LD for that?

Run it alongside Stark it will help.

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Index Gate should help with this significantly.

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Thank you

@James i urge you to stack this with Stark. You might hate me now but will thank me later.

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I wonder how valuable this title would be for people who already have years of experience in the software engineering industry

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A bit of a late reply, but I figured the “years of experience” thing was worth replying to, plus I wanted to indicate how this title has been going for me since starting it back in late May.

Even though I have written plenty of software in my time, collaborative work in a team using a VCS doing things like submitting pull requests (PR), working with other developers using modern methods, and generally doing anything other than designing the entire software product myself from start to finish is something I have had very little experience with.

Similarly, even though I have written banking software in the past (submitting direct debit files, working with secure payment solutions etc), writing graphics software or software that relies a lot of graphics and physics is a whole different ball game than doing something where you are certain of the inputs and you’re just manipulating data.

I think even people with “years of experience” are going to benefit from the ability to quickly switch gears and think algorithmically using this sub. Because it doesn’t matter how many years of experience you have with (insert your favourite framework or API here), there is always more to learn if you’re not going to simply “specialise” in writing one particular type of code very well. You need to be able to very quickly switch gears and grasp very complex mathematical ideas in order to “keep up” with modern APIs.

I spoke to a local programmer who wrote the library I am using to write my own VR programs. He admitted to me that the process of learning Vulkan (a graphics and GPU API) for him was an extremely painful process of trial and error and that they could not recommend any particular tutorial for getting up to speed.

If you’ve ever tried to read the specifications for OpenXR or Vulkan, they are long meandering paragraphs of incredibly concise, precise and yet largely indecipherable language which are frustratingly under-illuminating until you read and re-read the paragraphs multiple times (or stand on your head and look at the paragraphs in a mirror, as if you were receiving a riddle from EntilZha :wink: ffs). And yet I have managed to get enough up to speed with them in the past month or so to feel confident with writing the custom rendering code I need to write to begin my own app over this next week. I couldn’t say that literally a couple of days ago, but its an incremental thing where every new tutorial you read gets you a little closer towards your goal.

I would say using the sub the small amount I have in my stack has definitely helped. What I’ve noticed the most is how this sub will help you grasp on to a problem like a bulldog and just not let it go, even if it is painful to your mind (full disclosure: definitely take additional supplements if you’re not solely using IG UPX, particularly choline/ALCAR or whatever your doc/adviser recommends) until you have a solution. This can be particularly difficult if you have a sedentary lifestyle or if you are running a sub like Khan Black along with it, because the intensity of thought goes through the roof. But that dogged ability to find a solution is something that so far I can only uniquely ascribe to this particular sub.

Curious to hear how this compares to other peoples experiences.

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