Hackers' Pub

Syntax	Description	Examples
`"` keyword `"`	Finds the string within quotes, including spaces. Case-insensitive. (Escape quotes inside with `\"`)	`"Hackers' Pub"`
`from:` handle	Finds content written by the specified user.	`from:hongminhee` `from:hongminhee@hollo.social`
`lang:` ISO 639-1	Finds content written in the specified language.	`lang:en`
`#` tag	Finds content with the specified tag. Case-insensitive.	`#HackersPub`
condition condition	Finds content that satisfies both conditions on either side of the space (logical AND).	`"Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
condition `OR` condition	Finds content that satisfies at least one of the conditions on either side of the OR operator (logical OR).	`#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
`(` condition `)`	Combines the operators within the parentheses first.	`(#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" OR "Hackers Pub") lang:en`

Robert Roskam @raiderrobert@mastodon.social

8/21/2025, 12:04:30 PM

Public

Birthday Problem: In a group of 23 people, there's a 50% chance that two people share the same birthday.

This counterintuitive probability applies to software engineering:
- Hash collisions happen more often than expected
- Database ID collisions occur sooner than you think
- Cache key conflicts emerge with fewer entries than anticipated
- Bug report duplicates appear with smaller user bases

The lesson: when dealing with random events, our intuition about probability is usually wrong.

If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://mastodon.social/users/raiderrobert/statuses/115066658521612467 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)