A Byte of Coding Issue 414

Hey-yo,

Sorry for missing the last two issues. Traveling always messes with my schedule more than I expect it to. Currently in San Diego though, so if anyone is around and wants to meet up, let me know!

Anyway, here’s the issue.

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Finding connected cities in a road network

Published: 9 June 2024

Tags: algorithms, games

Edaqa Mortoray details a specialized algorithm to track connections between locations in his game The Way to Hexet. The algorithm uses a flood-fill method to determine connected components by processing placed roads and updating network states dynamically.

Some highlights:

• Uses a matrix for tiles, a list for cities, and another for roads for map structure.

• Flood-Fill Algorithm use to initialize and update network states for cells and cities based on road placements.

• Iterates over roads rather than cells and uses bit-masked values for quick connection checks.

LLM Research Insights: Instruction Masking and New LoRA Finetuning Experiments?

Published: 2 June 2024

Tags: ai, machine learning, research

Sebastian Raschka reviews recent AI research on instruction masking in finetuning and LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation). Not masking instructions can enhance model performance, while LoRA balances learning efficiency and memory preservation, particularly in knowledge-intensive domains.

Some highlights:

• Not masking instructions improves finetuning, depending on dataset size and response length.

• LoRA: Less effective in learning new knowledge but preserves original capabilities better than full finetuning.

• MoRA: Introduces high-rank updates, improving memory tasks but trailing in instruction finetuning.

A guide to organization modeling

Published: 16 February 2024

Tags: sponsored, auth, architecture

WorkOS has published a guide that “surfaces complexities and implementation details” for supporting user-team-organization relationships in B2B auth.

Some highlights:

• “if you ever want to sell to an enterprise your backend needs to be ready to support complex models of users and teams”

• looks at the different ways you can implement the database tables for modeling the organization

• most of the complexity comes from users that need to be a part of multiple organizations

The Functional Programming Hiring Problem

Published: 9 June 2024

Tags: functional, hiring, philosophy

Noah Snelson addresses the hiring challenges associated with using niche functional programming languages, using a hypothetical language "Gooby" as a stand-in. It argues that while hiring Gooby engineers can bring in highly passionate and skilled individuals, it also attracts a problematic focus on the language itself rather than the pragmatic needs of the company.

Some highlights:

• Hiring for niche functional programming languages like Gooby often yields three main types of candidates: résumé-spammers, enthusiastic but inexperienced undergraduates, and senior engineers deeply invested in the language for its own sake.

• Engineers with a strong focus on niche languages can become too engrossed in the language's complexities, potentially neglecting practical and more critical aspects of software development.

• Companies should avoid language-specific job boards and emphasize flexibility and pragmatism in their hiring processes to mitigate the risks of hiring language zealots who might introduce technical debt and disrupt engineering culture.