Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025I frequently call myself stupid because this takes a painfully long time. I can spend a week agonizing over a problem before getting somewhere. This just feels so counterproductive and empty while others "deliver value" or whatever that bullshit is called within a much tighter time limit 120
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025Like, there isn't any way to speed up this process. I'm just waiting for my subconsciousness to wander in the right direction. My brain works in overdrive and I quickly get tired, but sometimes it produces the exact result I'm looking for and I can finally move on 120
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025Isn't it weird how all problem solving is just "random bullshit goes brrr" and you can't do anything about it? Pattern recognition and external knowledge can only get you so far, and then you're kind of just stuck drawing doodles until something clicks 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025I do need to rest, and optimization is relaxing, but I can't help but wonder if I reach for it only because that's basically the only self-soothing behavior that works for me 020
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025I keep repeating buzzwords like "faster" or "better", and they are at least somewhat valid, but I think at this point I'm just addicted 120
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 15/06/2025I wonder if I'll ever stop reinventing the wheel. I could use a well-developed framework, but nooooooo, I just had to develop custom algorithms for my decompiler... 120
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 09/06/2025If I had a nickel for every time I saw a worst-case quadratic SSA-adjacent algorithm described as "fast", I'd be able to afford therapy 000
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 09/06/2025Compiler design seems to be a uniquely odd area of computer science: it has a ton of theory and research, and there's also a large focus on performance, yet there's almost zero interest in quasi-linear algorithms or worst-case analysis 100
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025It's got a little better for me recently: some people are subscribed to my RSS feed and repost the content to Reddit and HN a few hours after publication. But that works just because I cheated earlier. I still don't understand how I was supposed to get the initial audience "fairly". 030
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025Mind you, *I'm not trying to sell bad content*. A couple of my posts are controversial, others niche, but about half of my posts had >100 rating on HN, and some were daily top 1. It's something people like, but platforms cannot successfully promote. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025I like writing and I don't dislike the audience on the platforms, but the absurdity of what I have to do to reach it is apparent. I've asked friends to submit my posts for me. I've initiated discussions to attract attention. It's manipulation. I shouldn't have had to do this. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025I can set aside time to write useful stuff, and I do like discussing things from time to time. But I don't want to, nor can I waste time reacting to meaningless posts on LLMs, news articles, tech bro predictions, and other aspects of late stage capitalism that form the core of tech platform content. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025But all those platforms condemn submitting your posts exclusively in the name of preventing self-promotion. They want you to participate in the community in a different way, i.e. by interacting with others' posts. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025Writing good posts is hard work. You need to research a topic, design software, find the right angle, create illustrations and examples. Writing and polishing text can easily take days. Beyond that, I often have to update my blog software to improve post quality (tikz *shudders*) or accessibility. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 07/06/2025I've never realized how much HN, Reddit, Lobsters, and tech media in general ostracizes writing thought-out material as an individual until I started a blog. 130
Alisa Sireneva @purplesyringa.bsky.social · 29/04/2025If it makes you feel any better, I have the imposter syndrome as well :) Thought I'd be dunked on when I wrote this. The syndrome is a universal experience, not something to do with skill. 120
