MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by rayiner | 2025-04-03 04:42:31+00:00
https://www.silvercrestgroup.com/do-the-budget-and-trade-def...

> Government budget deficits are part of national savings. When Washington runs a larger budget deficit, national savings goes down. In a closed economy, interest rates must go up until households save more (and consume less) and fill that gap. In an open economy, the needed savings can come from abroad instead, and as a result we end up running a larger trade deficit.

This would suggest that if we eliminate free trade, inflation will force us to manage our budget deficits.
by BrenBarn | 2025-04-03 04:42:57+00:00
I mean, I think most people who say this do think the Republicans are more to blame. It's just that they also think the Republicans are beyond hope so there's no point attempting to make them feel guilty.

Also we as humans tend to assign a different flavor of blame to people who do bad things than to people who claim to be preventing them while not actually doing so. If a criminal is holding a victim at gunpoint and then they drop their gun and a bystander picks it up and hands it back to the thug, we tend to view that as wrong act even though it's dependent on the criminal's earlier wrong act.

Likewise when Republicans do bad things over and over and then Democrats argue that they'll do better but they just hand the same system back over to the Republicans, people are going to be dissatisfied with that. Added to this is the perception that Democratic politicians do this to protect their own political position and preserve what power they individually have, which makes Democratic inaction even more irritating.
by hinkley | 2025-04-03 04:43:05+00:00
I've worked at a couple consultancies who played themselves by investing too heavily in one or two customers.

Once a single customer is 1/3 of your revenue they can start extracting considerations from you that may not be what your employees thought they signed up for. It's a good way to end up being a body shop. I don't have a philosophical problem with body shops per se, it's just that I don't want to work for one, so I pick places that should know better, but sometimes don't.

It can also be problematic if 2 customers account for 45% of your revenue and they both get the same idea, which can happen particularly when the market shifts. You have no way to call their bluff and move enough people to other projects to make it stick.
by zenoprax | 2025-04-03 04:43:12+00:00
Why SDF over a free limitless VPS?

I joined SDF last year and was disappointed. I was willing to tolerate the limitations (eg. can't change your shell unless "validated"; can't even 'touch' a file...) in exchange for community but it's a ghost town. To make matters worse, IRC for new users is only available on a Sunday!

I would love to give it another shot but I don't understand what its value is in 2025.
by drdaeman | 2025-04-03 04:44:16+00:00
Services that take on Google can not just win over some user base but even become profitable (see Kagi's example), so it's not strictly about $0 price tag. But they gotta be really good (for some target audience), and the hard part is beating the already established offerings, of which there are plenty and covering for every kind of crowd I can think of. I wish MZLA luck, but given all the Mozilla Foundation history (which started amazing but is less than stellar in terms of recent PR) I'm quite skeptical.
by FireBeyond | 2025-04-03 04:44:20+00:00
Exactly. It's discretionary, but for reasons I won't go into here, I had to have an immigration attorney for my green card adjustment. Her constant refrain was that I was not to worry as it was "discretionary but presumptive" - my previous efforts and process laid it that the onus was on the USG to show that my green card was or might be fraudulent or in bad faith.

Now? The same applies, but the current administration's attitude is "So stop us."
by kerkeslager | 2025-04-03 04:44:58+00:00
It seems to me that when some of your friends want to imprison, institutionalize, or straight-up murder some of your other friends, not taking a side and standing up for the latter group of friends is being a shitty friend.

And maybe "How does this benefit me?" isn't the right question to be asking in this situation.

"Moderates" always like to speak in vague terms as if it's not literal murder being proposed by one side. I literally know a guy who is accumulating firearms, has bumper stickers that say "kill your local pedophile", and thinks all trans people are pedophiles. This is not a person I am going to be friends with just because we play the same kind of guitar music.
by KyleJune | 2025-04-03 04:45:23+00:00
One way people keep themselves in bubbles is by dismissing counter opinions as being tribal or trendy. Some opinions may appear that way because the people that have them seem similar. But it could also be due to them having similar backgrounds that led them to those opinions. For example, most doctors believe in vaccines, but that's not group think, it's based in evidence that they have studied. From the outside, it might seem like group think.
by ivraatiems | 2025-04-03 04:45:35+00:00
I love these old ThinkPads. I refurbish and sell them all the time. Just moments before writing this, I finished fixing up a T580; earlier today I did a heatsink replacement on a W510 which is going strong with an SSD and 20GB RAM.

The older they are, the better they are, but even the modern ones are still pretty good. Like the OP mentions, the market for parts is strong and it's easy to get what you need. Then when you go to sell them, they sell for a good amount. That W510 is worth at least $100 in its current condition.
by simonw | 2025-04-03 04:46:00+00:00
I tried getting that working earlier using Claude to convert your script - you can see the result here: https://claude.site/artifacts/b747d94a-2923-4904-8ed1-7330bf...

Here's the transcript and code: https://claude.ai/share/4a562082-b681-4f0c-909c-3c32c34fd050
by dragonwriter | 2025-04-03 04:47:03+00:00
2008 was a long time ago, and it was notable at the time because it was already contrary to the overall trend of partisan polarization, which had been consistently escalating since the end of the long period of overlapping realignments that started in the 1930s and settled out in the 1990s. (Political polarization had been high in much of that realignment period, but because the major parties weren't coherently aligned around the high-salience issues that divided the public, that polarization was not strongly partisan.)
by gitremote | 2025-04-03 04:47:20+00:00
A lot of the times, the BA gives you wrong business requirements, and an experienced software engineer can see it's wrong by reading it, and refuse to start it until the requirements are fixed. By "wrong", I meant there is a logical contradiction, or there would be harmful logical side effects because the BA can't play out the logic in their head, or it's technically impossible, or the development effort would not be worth it (for example, replicating what Google took years to build as a nice-to-have feature for an internal tool that isn't critical to the business).
by JeremyBarbosa | 2025-04-03 04:47:29+00:00
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by skydhash | 2025-04-03 04:48:28+00:00
I mentor a few friends and my first question when they come to me for troubleshooting is: What's the problem you're having and what has you tried so far? Then I restrict them from talking in too specific technical terms. Instead I orient the conversation to the appropriate metaphor, and more often than not, they can see the solution by themselves (unless it's really a technical implementation issue).
by shw1n | 2025-04-03 04:49:09+00:00
posting my explanation of the graph from another comment here

"it was meant as a visual specifically for Paul Graham's article here: https://www.paulgraham.com/mod.html

I should probably generate a new one or just remove since it appears to have sent this message to multiple people

But yeah I don't think it's entirely tribalism, but I do largely agree with PG's essay, though I'd understand a contesting of his statement that 'the left and right are equally wrong about half the time'"
by SecretDreams | 2025-04-03 04:49:15+00:00
Does it matter what drives someone to vote for a candidate if the outcome is all the same? It feels like we're discussing manslaughter vs. first degree murder. I don't want to be friends with someone who takes the life of someone else and doesn't feel remorse for it.

Maybe it's a good theoretical exercise, but life is too short for me to appreciate the various reasons that might drive someone to become an asshole.
by keiferski | 2025-04-03 04:50:14+00:00
Funny that you say pragmatic, because that’s exactly the word I tend to use when describing my own political beliefs. The best that I have come up with is “pragmatic with a propensity for…” and a few sub-categories that more accurately define what I’d like to see politically happen.

For example - preventionism. It seems to me that many issues could be avoided or eliminated entirely if we tried to prevent them from happening in the first place, rather than choosing between two actions, both with unavoidable negative consequences.

Another is aesthetics. For some reason, the simple desire to make public spaces more beautiful is not really a policy position adopted by any political group, at least in a primary way.

And so maybe the solution is an issue-based political system in which votes and resources go toward specific issues and not parties. (Or work toward eliminating those issues in the first place.)
by callumprentice | 2025-04-03 04:50:25+00:00
I keep meaning to get back to my suite of equirectangular image functions - viewers, editors, authoring etc. and this reminded me to resurrect the Viewer.

https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://raw.githubusercontent...

Not quite right I think because the source image issn't 2x1 aspect ratio.

They can look really nice: both in the real world - https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://upload.wikimedia.org/...

or

the virtual world: https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://live.staticflickr.com...
by bodiekane | 2025-04-03 04:50:42+00:00
I think you're taking the graph way too literally.

The Republicans and Democrats are both coalitions made up of many different groups, and their policies are constantly shifting depending on which individuals get elected and which of those sub-groups hold more power, as well as due to different sub-groups shifting allegiances.

It's statistically almost impossible that someone would agree 100% with the platform of the Republicans or Democrats at any given moment. Even if you just pretend there are exactly two stances on a given issue (R or D) you'd still be looking at like 2^1000 different possible outcomes (for 1,000 different issues). The more perfectly someone claims to align to one party, the more likely it is that they're doing so out of tribalism than because they actually matched the exact one-in-a-zillion set of opinions.
by nearting | 2025-04-03 04:50:53+00:00
> And to your point, if anyone ever asked an engineer to insert another floor between 8th and 9th floor of a 15 story building, they'd laugh at them. In software engineering, this is possible even if hard.

Ah yes, another cocktail party idea [1] where a software engineer pretends like they understand civil engineering.

[1] https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/
by danpalmer | 2025-04-03 04:51:13+00:00
> I think where MatterRank shines right now is for finding results where you wouldn't mind waiting an extra 20-30 seconds for an added layer of vetting, as opposed to just wanting a quick answer.

I've not used it, but anecdotally, I can refine my own search query to get what I want, or conclude it doesn't exist, within 20-30s. Assuming ~5s per search to write, search, read, decide, that's 4-6 searches.

Do you think you're getting more value than 4 iterations on the initial search term? Are you always getting it in one search, or do you end up still needing to refine the search term, extending it beyond that 20-30s?
by mlinhares | 2025-04-03 04:51:22+00:00
not to be harsh but let me tell you, this is bullshit, there's only rule of law if most people accept it. its all ink in paper, the moment someone tries to subvert or pretend it doesn't exist and there are no consequences the "law" is irrelevant.

the laws only exist to the extent that the people that "control" it are willing to exert it. for instance, at any other point in time, everyone involved in the signal-gate scandal would have been fired (and i bet if you were an actual army officer you would still be fired) but the people that enforce the rules can just pretend this isn't a problem and move on.

there is no crime if no one is interested in sending you to jail.
by hiya_wb | 2025-04-03 04:51:33+00:00
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by YZF | 2025-04-03 04:51:57+00:00
It's a good point but the flip side is not every point in time is 1932 Germany.

How do we keep a democracy where ideas we don't agree with can still be implemented if there's a majority (assuming minority rights are protected reasonably well) while at the same time ensuring we don't end up with democracy being used as a tool to get a totalitarian regime.

For a more recent example we can look maybe at Türkiye.

Preventing ideas that are still within the boundary of a democracy from being implemented is not democracy either.

The US e.g. has a Supreme Court and a constitution. Presumably as long as that court is functional and the constitution is applied then all is good?

Unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with Germany's fall into fascism and whether there was some sort of watershed moment where it was clear that something was broken and could still have been remediated.
by donatj | 2025-04-03 04:52:20+00:00
I personally like trackballs with a large central ball where I can use all my fingers. I am aware Ploopy offers one. This style however has fallen out of popularity, but I've been using them since the mid-90s.

Just using your thumb for all navigation seems like an RSI waiting to happen.

Also I don't know who in the last couple years decided it's a "Trackball Mouse" it's just a Trackball in the same way it's just a "Trackpad" and not a "Trackpad Mouse"
by Crye | 2025-04-03 04:53:36+00:00
Completely agree and it is an oversimplification when you graph people on even a 2-dimensional axis.

In reality we all have beliefs that are formed by our "in groups". People have groups beliefs formed from their religion, work, hobbies, study, and internet consumption. These all form our views and then get flattened to a 2-party system.

Unfortunately people can now form their identity solely on a political identity primarily due to social media.
by goatlover | 2025-04-03 04:54:03+00:00
I would have agreed with this article before Trump took office a 2nd time. I liked to think of myself as not belonging to a tribe, a moderate who didn't buy the propaganda from either side. But now I've seen what the Trump 2.0 looks like, and I've become convinced we're headed toward autocracy with a mix of techno-feudalism and Christian nationalism.

I don't think you can maintain moderate views on that sort of situation without becoming complicit. Yes, Elon is up to no good. Trump is not the sort of person that should have this kind of power. Putin turned Russia into an autocracy. It's happened in other countries as well. There is a playbook for this, and the Trump administration is following their version of it. We don't have to go back to WW2 to make comparisons. Putin is not a good person, and Trump admires him.

The problem with the reasonable independent thinker is that they are relatively powerless against autocratic takeover. You need to join a side that is resisting. Assuming you value democracy and it's institutions.
by BrenBarn | 2025-04-03 04:55:00+00:00
To an extent that's true, but those good-faith assumptions are sort of what I mean by wink-wink-nudge-nudge. It's like a bunch of people working in an office with a bunch of high explosives lying around. Having "good faith" that no one will set them off is another way of saying you'd rather not actually acknowledge or fix the problem.

Also, it's harder to believe it was all good faith unless you ignore some quite egregious earlier situations that pretty clearly showed that festering issues were being swept under the rug.

Most obviously, after the Civil War the South was placed under military occupation. In 1877 it was ended as part of a political bargain, whereupon the South resumed the racist policies it had previously had in place, and which had been supposedly banned by the reconstruction amendments and laws. It should have been obvious to people at the time that many people in the South had not learned their lesson, and perhaps military occupation and strict enforcement of reconstruction would have been necessary for decades more.

The willingness of both parties to condone outrageous gerrymanders over decades also indicates a shared desire to look the other way rather than face the dangerous implications head-on.
by tgma | 2025-04-03 04:55:10+00:00
Actually USCIS pretty much has blessed your VWP "loophole"

> "INA section 245(c)(4) renders aliens admitted under the VWP ineligible to adjust status to that of a person admitted for permanent residence. This provision, however, includes an exception for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Thus, an individual admitted under the VWP who is also an immediate relative is not precluded from seeking adjustment of status, even after the VWP period has expired."[1]

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/memos/201...
by wkat4242 | 2025-04-03 04:55:20+00:00
No I was just a bit thrown by the "sometimes". I thought they were referring to a reliability issue. I am aware of the limited card support with ROCm and I complained about this elsewhere in the thread too.

Also I didn't accuse anyone of lying. No need to be so confrontational. And my remark to the original poster at the top was from before they clarified their post.

I just don't really see what AMD can do to make ollama work better other than porting ROCm to all their cards which is definitely something they should do.

And no I'm not an AMD fanboi. I have no loyalty to anyone, any company or any country.
by Vaslo | 2025-04-03 04:55:39+00:00
I have one of these that was a tablet and touchscreen from my mba program in 2008. I still have it and put some version of Linux command line only (peppermint maybe) and it still works. Haven’t touched it in a few years.

Honestly was never that impressed by it and have had to replace the fans on it multiple times but it’s still kicking while other laptops are not.
by jjani | 2025-04-03 04:56:45+00:00
I can strongly sympathize. The image with the squares and circles hit home hard, from an early age, it's been pretty lonely. Depending on your environment it can be super hard to find others part of the 1%, so you really need to treasure them when you do find them.

One point of criticism:

The usage of the word "moderate". It seems PG's article is the one to blame here. The word "moderate" when used about politics means something to people in English. And given that meaning, saying that independent thought leads to one being "moderate", is straight up wrong. What the article is really talking about is that independent thought leads to a set of beliefs that is unlikely to be a very good fit for any particular ideology, and therefore, political party. That's true! But that's not "moderate". That's.. diverse, pragmatic, non-ideological. Those words aren't ideal either, but "moderate" is definitely not it.

The 99%/1% is also greatly overstated in a way. Firstly, it's definitely dependent on locale, culture, subculture, environment, as the writer already says themselves. More importantly, if you manage to somehow get people 1:1 in an environment where they feel safe, it turns out that many actually aren't that tribal/ideological after all, and they do actually have beliefs that span different mainstream tribes. But then that conversation finishes, and they go back to being a tribe member.

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of experiments that directly show the above. That when you give people policy choices that are non-obvious (e.g. they've never thought about), and then make them vote on them, they'll often vote against their tribe. But if you'd beforehand tell them which tribe voted which way, they'll always vote with the tribe.
by cjbgkagh | 2025-04-03 04:59:44+00:00
If the right loses the culture war then those deported will just be invited back to finish the job.

Either do a ‘dewokification’ on the scale of Germanys ‘denazification’ or do not. This half measure is sure to fail, exercising power may be cathartic but it comes at the cost of legitimacy which in the long run will come at the cost of power. The Trump administration should focus on governing well not on capriciously punishing weak individuals in raids. The right wing is split on the issue of Israel and the pending war with Iran is already unpopular and it hasn’t even started yet.

Sometimes I wonder if the only thing that could save the right would be if AOC gets the democratic nomination - I wouldn’t put it past them.
by coro_1 | 2025-04-03 05:00:34+00:00
From what I know the entire purpose of the Macbook "Pro" line is literally that they're made to be modular. They were at least. I maintain a 2011 Pro. The build quality is noticeably nicer than the cheaper chassis they produce today. The experience itself is actually much nicer too, smoother, feels better. Added, modern displays have great resolution. But the aged units carry an interesting and rich in depth projection ability you don't find today.
by shw1n | 2025-04-03 05:00:57+00:00
PG has two different terms for it in his essay: unintentional moderates vs intentional moderates

https://www.paulgraham.com/mod.html

That's what represents the two circled areas in the graph, though I realize if people don't have that context it could be confusing

added an explanation to clear things up

fwiw, I don't think that's arrogant, I've met plenty of high schoolers that understand this concept