Aaron's Status

January 15, 2025

10:31 am

It’s too damn cold. Also, climbing, health, AI, RTO, TLA.

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  • Blue 5.11 (flash; maybe a 5.10 at best)
  • Purple 5.11 (flash; decent 11 but felt like a 10+ maybe)
  • Tan 5.11 (two attempts; this one is actually hard!)

We’ve officially entered the part of the year when I am ready for spring to arrive. I always feel this way a good couple of months before it’ll happen, so I look forward to feeling increasingly miserable as we move forward. Bear with me.

I’m really lucky to be able to afford to heat my living/working space to the point that I feel comfortable, but there’s something about an artificially heated space versus a naturally heated one that just hits different. It’s warm enough, sure, but there’s always a bit of a draft and the air is kind of stale and… You know what I mean?

Anyway, I’m done with it.

Climbing

We climbed yesterday as usual. I went in feeling about 80% about my lower back, and more about that later, but I climbed OK regardless. I took another few swings at the demonic green V5 that I’ve been visualizing. I got to the last move and chickened out. Twice.

It’s one of those big swingy lunge moves where if you fuck it up you’re going down sideways and hopefully you don’t elbow yourself in the mouth. I have a hard time committing to those. Oh well.

We did get a chance to top rope a bit, though, and that was fun. There are a handful of new 5.11s, but as it turns out, I think most of them are super soft. $wife and I both flashed two of them, which is an indication that they’re not really 11s, given that I have two 11 projects I haven’t been able to complete.

I have sent a good number of 11s, but I’m not really a “flashes most 11s” climber yet. I can onsight most 10s at this point.

The last one, though, a tan 11 with a prolonged slab start with no hand holds, that one is solid. You have to ladder up three foot holds without any hands and then lean over and grab a sharp jug and then cut loose and get your toe on one little hold below and make a huge, powerful pull up to a distant hold above.

For me, the slab part is the hardest. The cut-loose and the reach are pretty doable for me and felt great, and strong. Then there’s a technical pinchy climb up and the end hold is pretty tough, too. I got to the top on the first attempt (very proud) but couldn’t hold the final hold, which is like a side-pull pinch and you have to squeeze pretty hard to stay on.

Got it on the second attempt, though!

Health

Boy it’s been a real roller coaster ride with my lower back stuff in the past week or so. I had one day when it felt, hand to god, like I was healed. For a few hours there it felt like I could finally stop thinking about it. That ended quickly, though.

As a trend line, it’s trending well. I have good days and bad ones. Today is one of the worse ones but it’s still tolerable. I absolutely aggravated it by climbing, but I still climbed. I couldn’t have written either of those sentences last summer, so I remain optimistic and continue to work at it.

Still, it’s annoying. I reserve the right to bitch about it.

AI

A day will come when the internet isn’t flooded by people talking about AI, but until then, I will join in their hellish chorus. I wrote a piece this morning about how AI may not replace you at work, but it will certainly give your boss a reason to replace you.

Here’s a pro-tip for you programmers out there: get really good at doing the parts of your job that aren’t programming. Be good at programming, too, but make sure that when a PM says “make this do that,” you are one of the only people who can figure out what the fuck that means.

Do code reviews. Get good at critiquing architecture, choosing libraries, and planning an architectural roadmap (even if unofficial).

RTO

The Washington Post told everyone to come back to the office, and I guess Amazon did, too, or something? I can’t keep track of these RTO orders. They’re all the same, though; rich white guy wants to walk amongst his peons, rejects the notion that people are different, wants to Eli Whitney the shit out of his workforce, etc., etc.

What if I told you that the RTO debate was not reconcilable? Some people like running into colleagues in the hall, or whiteboarding shit. Other people don’t. There is less than zero empirical evidence that either approach is “better” or “generates more innovation.”

But one thing is certain: for a given person, one of the two options will absolutely create more joy.

Wait, people are different? People have different preferences? Well, fuck me, that’s news.

More to come on that tomorrow morning I think. Watch the feeds.