mctoasterson

Something free/open that basically just hit-n-runs YouTube and doesn’t serve any ads.

Examples: Kreate (or a similar fork), Metrolist, etc.

Downside is that YT will push deliberate updates that break these types of apps occasionally and you may have to wait a few days for them to be fixed. It is a cat and mouse game.

Use these apps for music discovery. If you like a particular artist, buy the album directly from them and cache it digitally on your intended listening devices. Or go see a show or buy merch directly from the artists website. The artist makes more margin on those than they will make for thousands of Spotify streams.

It is really nice to have something to show for your work besides just a paycheck. This is something many don’t consider when evaluating career paths. CS or IT related careers damn near require you to do something tangible as a side hustle or at least a hobby, because the outputs of “commits” and “ticket closure metrics” just aren’t a edifying use of our creative spark as humans.

I relate to this strongly. Many of us in this field feel catfished by our jobs. We took the role to get access to exciting emerging tech, or to fulfill some useful purpose and apply strategic thinking. Instead the reality of the day to day is business-led bullshit, drudgery of ticket work for issues affecting one user (and its probably a problem they caused), or having to report progress and “green” status to some talentless PM who doesn’t give a shit about you or your career. That and meetings. And fires and escalations and technical bridges.

If all AI really is classified as a “weapon” for export-control purposes, well… in the US possession of weapons is a protected individual right. The US gov should be training open weight models and encouraging self-hosting.