So you know what really grinds my gears to a level of minor annoyance. These TI-84 calculators being super slow when graphing. Recently I have been working on my summer assignments for school so I had to do some stuff for math. And there is one issue. How dang slow they are. Examples being with graphing, loading, and clearing.

However, I recently found out this issue can be remedied for this.

[For speed] Window > Xres

[For effect - for all line to be produced at the same time] Mode > Simul (graphing)

Then change it to something greater than one (example: Xres = 3). X resolution is at what interval the calculator graphs a plot. I found this extremely useful for speeding up my results during the SATs because I had to wait a significantly less amount of time to graph four different functions on one graph.

Limitations

When you are using the trace function (which finds a certain Y value for a given X, you are much more limited). This process is ONLY for seeing the general shape of the graph. Adjusting this X Resolution effects everything from the Table, Calculating Minimums and maximums, and all other functions that are used to find exact Y coordinates. This setting does NOT reset when the calculator turns off.

What was my one goal in life as a nine year old? To download hacks (otherwise know as cheats) in Minecraft. I said to myself “If I can get hacks, I can do anything”. This was probably my first attempt at understanding code and computers. As simple as downloading a modpack was - I simply did not know how to do it and would have to learn.

I now take this philosophy to every area of my life. If I don’t know how to do it? Learn it. If I can’t do it? Do it. If I can’t be it? Be it.

2026 Addition

I still barely know how to code or the detailed mechanism of repository development or maintenance but I am able to use and modify the tools other have created. At-least for me the real reason Large-Language-Models have become so effective is that most of the single-task user applications I want to build have an easy way of getting prompted. Aka, I am the perfect match for vibe coding. It has become significantly easier to build simple tools and significantly easier to diagnose something someone else built is not learning. While I can take the time to learn the fundamentals of computer science the need for that knowledge is not there due to how and what task I need to be completed. In a way I am “losing” my ability to code but I never really wanted to code in the first place, I wanted to solve problem - an essential pillar of a software developer.

A quote originally found on Simon Willison’s blog:

I’ve been very outspoken in support of agentic coding tools, both here and elsewhere, but I still don’t fully buy this analogy. I don’t feel like I’m puzzling any less. If anything, I’m spending more time on the part I actually enjoy: figuring out how to solve a problem, together with a very capable machine that can reason through it with me. The puzzle is still there. What’s gone is the labor. I never enjoyed hitting keys, writing minimal repro cases with little insight, digging through debug logs, or trying to decipher some obscure AWS IAM permission error. That work wasn’t the puzzle for me. It was just friction, laborious and frustrating. The thinking remains; the hitting of the keys and the frustrating is what’s been removed.

I don’t like solving why I have to run python 3.11 instead of python 3.13 because of dependency issues. I want python to work so I can usually use the tool it’s running.

1. Always be skeptical, if you are set on a position always check to make sure the evidence and logical consistency backs you up
2. No matter how much intelligence you gain, always believe you are stupid because when you think you are too smart this is when you fall into traps
3. If you have a question about anything, look it up
4. Never stop questioning
5. Always try to gain more knowledge even if boring to do so, it will develop good habits
6. Never block out one side of an argument

This is an egg. At first you don’t care about the egg and say “hey that’s a cool egg”. Overtime you start experimenting on the eye figuring out a way to crack it. You try many different methods slowly learning about the egg, but still not caring much about the egg. One day you learn how to crack the egg, this gives you the greatest satisfaction you have ever gotten, so you continue and you keep getting better at cracking the egg until it’s basic muscle memory. But then one day you get distracted and you don’t focus so much on cracking the egg. After a while you stop cracking the egg. Soon after you start seeing other people cracking the egg at the same or faster speed then you. So, you think to yourself “why not try to crack again”. You go to crack the egg, but nothing happens, you always knew how to crack the egg but all of a sudden you have no idea anymore how to crack that egg. You then look at the other people doing it more effectively and efficiently getting frustrated that you can’t crack the egg like you used to. This gives you an immense feeling of disappointment.

There are two options to take after this road. One, you shall give up in cracking the and say “I will never be as good as them, I used to be, but I am not any longer”. Or two, you shall be patient and relearn how to crack the egg slowly but over time knowing you might be as fast as you used to. This is the very frustrating path, and few succeed but patience is the key and with it and enough time you can get to doing anything.

I originally made this as an analogy when I recently forgot some Algorithms to solve a Rubik’s Cube 3×3.