MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by tetha | 2025-05-02 17:28:05+00:00
I dislike "everyone can learn to program" because it conflates many, many levels of skills and expertise.

I very much think many people could learn the more advanced Excel Formulas, Power Automate and even simple Bash/PowerShell scripting to make their work more effective. I've met quite a few folks who had been intimidated out of trying who could do it.

On the other hand, how many people on this site could bootstrap a linux kernel on either very new or very old hardware? I know there are some, but they are certainly not the majority. I certainly won't be the first person to get linux and doom to run on a quantum computer.

But that is similar to other professions. Everyone with a largely functioning body can learn to turn a few planks and some metal parts into a functional shed door with some basic tools or to put up a decent brick wall that won't topple over in a month.

That doesn't mean everyone is qualified to pour concrete for a dam or a bridge foundation, or to re-do some historical work in original style.
by gitremote | 2025-05-02 17:28:42+00:00
Absolutely. That's why people can be perfectly fluent in a programming language and a high performer at work, but fail an interview algorithms/leetcode problem in that language, as algorithms are math problems that programmers almost never see at work.

The recruiter labels an algorithm problem as a "coding" test, but it's a math test, and concludes that most applicants who claim to be fluent in a programming language can't code and must have lied on their resume.

For context, I don't mind algorithm tests, but I strongly disagree with recruiters presenting it as a coding assessment.
by abeppu | 2025-05-02 17:28:47+00:00
> But antivenom is made much the same way it was 130 years ago when it was first produced. A small amount of venom is pumped into a horse, camel or sheep, and the antibodies produced in response are harvested. The antibodies tend to be specific to the type of venom injected, and do little to ease symptoms from other types of snakes.

Ok so this guy did some crazy self-experiments with venoms from a range of snakes over an extended period. And more institutional scientists are finding useful antibodies in his blood. But ... why have the institutional scientists not previously done the equivalent process with animals. I.e. if you inject a horse with increasing concentrations of venom from a range of snakes, can you produce a universal antivenom?
by klik99 | 2025-05-02 17:29:09+00:00
I was gonna disagree with you, until I saw this line:

"Mr. Friede’s first snake encounter, a harmless bite by a garter snake at age 5, started a lifelong fascination. “If I only knew back then what was going to happen,” he recalled, laughing uproariously.

But he didn’t begin dabbling with snakes in earnest until he was married with children and working in construction."

"Dabbling with snakes" is just poetry

I mean, I think people can be that altruistic, but the people who really make a difference are those whose interests align with an altruistic outcome.
by carefulfungi | 2025-05-02 17:30:27+00:00
A fair critique, at least of national US politics.

State and local democracies, which are extremely impactful to education, housing, roads, and most services Americans touch day-to-day, are quite different from the national news and face different challenges.

However, I think your comment on campaign donations is incorrect. Donations are allowed in many OECD countries. See for example https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/anti-corruption-and-int....
by tzs | 2025-05-02 17:30:46+00:00
> bribing politicians is legal in the US. It is called "campaign financing" and it is ok and stimulated. No other country in the world accepts that.

What exactly do you mean here? Looking up the limits on corporate and individual donations to political campaigns in several other countries it appears that many have looser limits than the US.

For individual donations this includes the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, probably Brazil (the limit is based on the donor's previous year income), India, and South Korea.

Several with looser limits on corporate donations include the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and India.

Where the US seems to stand out is in Super PACs. I didn't find anything really similar elsewhere.
by p_ing | 2025-05-02 17:30:51+00:00
> it should be up to people to judge for themselves, not the platform!

If you download an App using MSFT Edge on Windows, it will warn you (MoTW). If you download an App using any browser on macOS, it will warn you (also MoTW). But if you grab apps via the App Store, there's no warning.

Is that also unfair?

While it's been many years since I did hands on end user support, or even worse, support for family friends back in the 9x days, people still have little clue about what they're doing without a big flashing warning sitting in front of them..., which even that sometimes does not work.

Even I'll often choose an extension for Firefox that has more installs. If I'm going to get a SAML decoder, I want the least phishy SAML decoder available.
by saghm | 2025-05-02 17:30:59+00:00
It sounds like showing those numbers already conveys the information you find useful; the question isn't whether the number of users is informative, but whether it's reasonable for Google to bucket apps into groups of competitors and then choose a threshold of minimum number of users to avoid actively discouraging additional users. I'm not opposed to the idea of owners of app marketplaces taking a more active step in curating things to try to help users, but this way of doing it seems pretty dubious.
by gary_0 | 2025-05-02 17:31:25+00:00
Using 2024 numbers for ARM might not give a clear picture, because that was many years after major companies like nVidia and WD already switched all their major internal chips to RISC-V. ARM's lunch was already partly eaten; many billions of RISC-V chips were already in the wild in 2024. And companies like Tenstorrent have been building high-performance stuff on RISC-V for a while. If Jim Keller thinks RISC-V is worth it, the advantage must be worth more than 1%.
by diggan | 2025-05-02 17:31:35+00:00
> So there are examples online, with rust code and types and compiler errors, and how to fix them. But for clojure, the type information is missing and you need to get it from repl.

Right, my point is that instead of the LLM relying on static types and text, with Clojure the LLM could actually inspect the live application. So instead of trying to "understand" that variable A contains 123, it'll do "<execute>(println A)</execute>" and whatever, and then see the results for themselves.

Haven't thought deeply about it, but my intuition tells me the more (accurate and fresh) relevant data you can give the LLM for solving problems, the better. So having the actual live data available is better than trying to figure out what the data would be based on static types and manually following the flow.
by mrandish | 2025-05-02 17:31:54+00:00
> the judge is saying Tim Cook was acting in willful violation of the court orders

Yes, I chose not to focus on Cook because of the reason you mention, "unable to gather evidence." While I'm certain an EVP-level exec had to sign off on the aggressive non-compliance posture, I'm also almost certain that EVP ran it by Tim Cook. The problem is that very likely happened in a one-on-one, in-person conversation. No notes, witnesses or recording.

It's the same age-old problem of convicting the mafia boss for ordering or approving the hit when it was a private conversation and he spoke euphemistically or even just nodded. So, I decided the EVP who communicated the strategy with the team in a wider meeting was probably the best we could do.
by WorldMaker | 2025-05-02 17:32:03+00:00
I'm a big fan of using Emoji for names of test/dummy users. It helps test your application and dev stack's end-to-end Unicode compliance. It is less likely to conflict with real data (so far as I'm aware we haven't yet seen children born named with emoji, though that is likely a matter of time). It is often very visibly test data that stands out. But also and maybe more important, you can have fun with it.
by tekla | 2025-05-02 17:32:09+00:00
People fail to adhere to diets because its SO EASY TO MAKE EXCUSES.

People can do intermittent fasting all they want, but if they're eating a stick of butter during feeding times, its worthless. Eating to satiety is useless as a marker because satiety is subjective.

Measuring your food does not give you an excuse to cheat, except the person simply choosing not to do it properly. There are no weird ways of getting around the fact that you have a maximum calorie limit, and thats it.
by bpshaver | 2025-05-02 17:32:24+00:00
Why are you conflating "best" with "what you would recommend a friend"?

Many of the best things in life are hard. And you wouldn't necessarily recommend them to a friend.

When you consider specific domains, often the best instances of X tend to be harder versions of X. Or, when people become familiar with many instances of X they seek out the "best" instances of X. Its natural that those best instances would be difficult for people unfamiliar with the domain.
by snowwrestler | 2025-05-02 17:32:37+00:00
> It feels like Google is unfairly punishing smaller, specialized developers in favor of mass-market apps.

This seems like a problem across Google generally. Search seems like it has been tuned toward the mass market in almost every query, which buries high-quality content, which is by its nature rare, specialized, and less well-known.

They have also tuned the features of Search in this direction, for example replacing queries with similar but more common text strings, and applying “did you mean” redirection more often, instead of just executing the search as typed. They now do this even if you quote the search string!

Google tests and tunes its algorithm updates. If an algorithm update results in lower prominence for sites they consider popular, they tune the algorithm to “fix” it. As a friend said, the modern Google would never release an algorithm update if it doesn’t put Home Depot on the first page for “buy power saw.” Result: a generous in-kind marketing subsidy for whoever is already popular. I’m convinced this is why Fandom and Quora still hang around polluting SERPs. They’re well-known because they’re well-known, like the Kardashians.
by TimTheTinker | 2025-05-02 17:32:40+00:00
> In the beatific vision, faith is no longer necessary

Many traditions argue that faith and hope are temporary, since in God's presence all is revealed. But on the basis of Paul's statement "these three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love", others argue that faith and hope remain within the culminating beatific vision, since even the saints in his presence know him truly but not fully in the infinity of his nature. Faith and hope are at that point an enduring confidence that he will continue to be and do what is ultimately for his glory and our good throughout the "ages to come."
by its_down_again | 2025-05-02 17:33:01+00:00
The current title “How aging stem cells fuel visceral fat gain in middle age” suggests that existing stem cells simply ramp up fat production as they age.

Single-cell RNA sequencing of APCs then identified a new committed preadipocyte population that is age enriched (CP-A), both in mice and humans. CP-As displayed high proliferation and differentiation capacities, both in vitro and in vivo.

It should read more like "aging triggers emergence of a specific stem cell type (APCs) which drives visceral fat expansion"
by Lammy | 2025-05-02 17:33:04+00:00
That's still not really what I'm looking for. I am curious about a “what we keep, for how long” policy for the sensors on the outside of the cars like the Flock one I linked above.

Your second link does mention cameras and microphones outside the car but doesn't mention what they keep (full video? stills? LIDAR? RADAR?) or for how long:

“Waymo’s cameras also see the world in context, as a human would, but with a 360° field of view. Our high-resolution vision system can help us detect important things in the world around us like traffic lights and construction zones. Our systems are not designed to use this data to identify individual people.”

The “Our view on your privacy” section links to the same page as your first link, and that page's “What we keep” section is explicitly only about riders:

“We will retain information we associate with your Waymo account, such as name, email and trip history, while your account remains active.”
by hinkley | 2025-05-02 17:33:45+00:00
One of my most memorable “this interview is over” moments was I used to ask people to reflect on their last project and ask what they would do differently if they knew then what they know now.

One fellow, sitting with both myself and the owner, answered with a single word, “nothing.” And that was a very awkward silence.

I’ve been asked this question myself, which is why I stole it. Even on a project that went exceptionally well, where you pick the right tech and don’t spend a lot of time working around issues, there is usually at least one question you should have asked a little sooner to save some rework or avoid blocking issues. And I had to answer that way once. I had a feeling we should check on this thing but I or someone else talked me out of it, and three weeks later I regretted it.

It reflects on your capacity for continuous improvement. If you can’t think of anything then that’s less about how the project went and more about your opinion of yourself, and your ability to notice feedback from others, or from the situation.
by dragonwriter | 2025-05-02 17:34:27+00:00
> SCOTUS' ruling on Trump's presidential immunity blew a massive hole in the guardrails.

Not really; aside from the various limitations on it (full immunity only for a few core Constitutional functions, case-by-case immunity for other "official acts" depending on impact to function of the office, no immunity aside from that), criminal prosecution after leaving office is almost never the decisive constraint on Presidential action, and that's all the immunity applies to.

What blew a massive hole in the guardrails is the a faction fully supporting Trump being an authoritarian dictator unbound by law securing full control of the GOP, and the GOP securing a two-house Congressional majority. (It doesn't hurt that they also control a majority of state legislatures and a near majority of states both legislature and executive helps here, too.)
by Pet_Ant | 2025-05-02 17:34:49+00:00
I think if you really get down to it, there are only three motivations for people to do things:

1) they benefit from it somehow, even if it just flatters their sense of justice

2) they did it unquestioningly because someone told them to, it didn't occur to them that they even had a choice

3) they did something reflexively and may not even have realise they did anything.

So I find criticising people for "they did it because there was something in it for them" such a lacklustre criticism, because that applies to almost everything. It's what was in it for them and how much they gave up for it that makes it laudable or contemptible.
by deeThrow94 | 2025-05-02 17:35:05+00:00
> That problem solving skills are relevant is pretty obvious, but language less so.

To me, problem solving ability is precisely the same as the ability to articulate the problem and a solution. I don't see a major difference.

If you can solve a problem but you can't articulate what the problem is or why the solution will address it, I wouldn't call you a good problem solver. If you can articulate the problem well but not come up with a solution, you're already doing better than a lot of programmers in the world, and I'd probably prefer working with you over someone who presents the solution without "showing their work".

In fact, what is problem solving without such articulation? It's hard to even grasp what the skill means in a raw sense. Arguably creativity in this context is just the ability to reframe a problem in a more approachable manner. Many times, if not most times, such framing implies some obvious solution or sets of solutions with clear tradeoffs.
by DebtDeflation | 2025-05-02 17:35:17+00:00
>It’s ok to assume that you absorb 100% of what you eat

That's not really true. If you've ever done the keto diet, you know that your body expels unburned ketones through your breath, sweat, and urine. Protein can be used to repair structures rather than burned or stored for energy.

There's also something called the "thermic effect of feeding". Your body requires more energy to process protein (20-30% of calories consumed) than it does carbs (5-10%) than it does fats (0-3%).
by carleverett | 2025-05-02 17:35:24+00:00
As someone from the US who's traveled all over the country for fun, I can assure you there are loads of delightfully unique places and rich communities that think and act quite differently from each other.

But yes I could see how work travel only could make them feel like carbon copies - both from the mindset you'd be in and from the types of places you might only go for work.
by Tallain | 2025-05-02 17:35:27+00:00
Location: Thailand

Remote: Preferred, BKK acceptable

Technologies: C#, SQL, Python, Delphi, JavaScript/Typescript/etc.

Email: me@tallain.com

Senior backend engineer and integration specialist with 10 + years in .NET/C#, Azure, SQL Server, RabbitMQ, and Vue. I also have experience with Python and Delphi. I've worked on mission critical systems for fintech fraud prevention, public safety, and financial institutions; more recently I've been leading teams and slowly moving away from the world of individual contribution. Currently in Thailand (UTC+7) and fully remote, I’m looking for senior or lead roles -- or short, high‑urgency projects up to a year if you need a contractor who's good at cleaning up messes and stabilizing chaos.
by tetris11 | 2025-05-02 17:35:27+00:00
GTA:SA (PS2) is also a good game, with a decent story, and also allows you to just enjoy the spectacle without having to engage in violent behaviour.

One of my favourite things to do after a long day was to jump in a Rustler and fly it into the sunset whilst listening to the game's country music.

GTA IV also has its quirks, with some of the best car physics to play with, where it took real skill to drive it properly, and pedestrian reactions felt more human and realistic.

GTA5 was pretty, but that was it. Situations would escalate from out nowhere. Car physics was laughable. Pedestrian animations were muted or canned.
by godelski | 2025-05-02 17:35:30+00:00
It think this is silly on multiple accounts. I'll claim that there's not real thing such as a "language brain" or "math brain." I'll also claim that most people don't know what math is, and that their evidence supports a "math brain".

Math isn't about calculations/computations, it is about patterns. You get to algebra and think "what are these letters doing in my math" but once you get further you think "what are these numbers doing in my math?"

A great tragedy we have in math education is that we focus so much on calculation. There's tons of useful subjects that are only taught once people get to an undergraduate math degree or grad school despite being understandable by children. The basics of things like group theory, combinatorics, graphs, set theory, category theory, etc. All of these also have herculean levels of depth, but there's plenty of things that formalize our way of thinking yet are easily understandable by children. If you want to see an example, I recommend Visual Group Theory[0]. Math is all about abstraction and for some reason we reserve that till "late in the game". But I can certainly say that getting this stuff accelerates learning and has a profound effect on the way I think. Though an important component of that is ensuring that you really take to heart the abstraction, not getting in your own way by thinking these tools only apply in very specific applications. A lot of people struggle with word problems, but even though they might involve silly situations like having a cousin named Throckmorton or him wanting to buy 500 watermelons, they really are part of that connection from math to reality.

This is why "advanced" math accelerating my learning, because that "level" of math is about teaching you abstractions. Ways to think. These are tremendously helpful even if you do not end up writing down equations. Because, math isn't really about writing down equations. But we do it because it sure helps, especially when shit gets complicated.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwTQdOop-nU&list=PLwV-9DG53N...
by alabastervlog | 2025-05-02 17:36:14+00:00
Yeah, to be clear, I'm not diagnosed with anything like that, and am only likening the experience to what I imagine it's like for dyslexics of humans language as a ready metaphor—meanwhile, the concepts aren't hard for me, like, a lot of people with no diagnosis of anything fall off the math-wagon right around the time operations on fractions are introduced, but the concepts have always posed no trouble to me and I breezed through early potential trip-ups like that. The style of presentation, specifically, is what gives me such a hard time and is what makes trying to approach even fairly easy "real" mathematics so hard for me.

> It prevented me from having a CS degree, I was unable to complete the math courses, but as far as actual programming and "software engineering" goes (design, etc) it's never hindered me. I can work out the logic and I let the computer do the math.

This is what's wild to me: I have a long, successful career in a "STEM" field that's allegedly math-heavy, while being practically incapable of working with math. Like, it's never even been slightly a problem. I can't relate at all to characterizations of programming as heavy on math. It's never been my experience of it, and at this rate, probably never will be. If it were, I'd for-sure be in a different job.
by adamgordonbell | 2025-05-02 17:37:03+00:00
If you go through and learn some basic examples, JQ is a lot more understandable than seeing golfed examples in the wild might led you to believe. I wrote a tutorial once.

But it does also seem like a place where LLMs are handy. Why learn jq or regex or AWK, if you use them infrequently, when you can just ask an llm?

Edit: tutorial: https://earthly.dev/blog/jq-select/
by Night_Thastus | 2025-05-02 17:37:16+00:00
There's a huge difference between accepting some natural amount of body fat, and also realizing that there is an absolutely astronomical obesity epidemic in most of the industrialized world. Accepting obesity is not a good idea - it's bad for physical health, it's bad for mental health, it's bad for the economy. It's just bad and something needs to be done about it.
by brendanyounger | 2025-05-02 17:37:23+00:00
Yes, you're still calculating an infinite decimal, no matter how you approach the problem.

What Wildberger is suggesting is that, rather than taking an nth root (solution to x^n = A where A is a fraction) as a "fundamental" operation, what if we took power series with "hyper-Catalan" coefficients as fundamental operators? (This is where I get a bit fuzzy because I haven't read and understood his work.)

Galois proved that you can't have a general algorithm for solving polynomials of degree >= 5 if all you can use are +,-,*,/, and nth roots. But what if you can use a different operation besides nth roots? That's what Wildberger is proposing and apparently it works for higher degrees.

Stepping back a bit, this is very much in line with Kronecker's notion that God made the natural numbers and all else is man's handiwork. There's no avoiding infinite series for computing non-rational roots of equations, but it is possible to choose series that are easier to work with.