MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by rorylaitila | 2025-06-02 23:07:30+00:00
Nice! And thank you. Yeah I am also cataloging all of the small ads, local or obscure. I want to see what trends I find in them. But they admittedly are not that interesting, unless you are looking for that product. The 1990s and after are not yet interesting to me either. I wonder if web ads will be interesting in 30 years...
by baumy | 2025-06-02 23:08:04+00:00
My experience is the opposite. I've yet to see a single example of AI working well for non trivial work that I consider relevant, based on 15+ years of experience in this field. It's good for brainstorming, writing tests, and greenfield work / prototyping. Add business context more complicated than can be explained in a short sentence, or any nuance or novelty, and it becomes garbage pretty much instantly.

Show me an AI agent adding a meaningful new feature or fixing a complicated bug in an existing codebase that serves the needs of a decent sized business. Or proposing and implementing a rearchitecture that simplifies such a codebase while maintaining existing behavior. Show me it doing a good job of that, without a prompt from an experienced engineer telling it how to write the code.

These types of tasks are what devs spend their days actually doing, as far as coding is concerned (never mind the non coding work, which is usually the harder part of the job). Current AI agents simply can't do these things in real world scenarios without very heavy hand holding from someone who thoroughly understands the work being done, and is basically using AI as an incredibly fast typing secretary + doc lookup tool.

With that level of hand holding, it does probably speed me up by anywhere from 10% to 50% depending on the task - although in hindsight it also slows me down sometimes. Net hours saved is anywhere from 0 to 10 per week depending on the week, erring more on the lower end of that distribution.
by kentonv | 2025-06-02 23:08:12+00:00
As it happens, if this were released a month later, it would have been a huge loss for us.

This OAuth library is a core component of the Workers Remote MCP framework, which we managed to ship the day before the Remote MCP standard dropped.

And because we were there and ready for customers right at the beginning, a whole lot of people ended up building their MCP servers on us, including some big names:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/mcp-demo-day/

(Also if I had spent a month on this instead of a few days, that would be a month I wasn't spending on other things, and I have kind of a lot to do...)
by nomilk | 2025-06-02 23:08:13+00:00
> "but you have no idea what the code is"

> Are you a vibe coding Youtuber? Can you not read code? If so: astute point. Otherwise: what the fuck is wrong with you? You’ve always been responsible for what you merge to main. You were five years go. And you are tomorrow, whether or not you use an LLM.

This identifies a critical lever: it doesn't matter that AI sometimes makes mistakes, hallucinates, makes poor architecture decisions. All that matters is your PR to master, because that's what you always have been and will continue to be judged on. Merging trash? That's on you! Failing to utilise new tools and taking 10x longer to make the feature? Also on you!
by AdriaanvRossum | 2025-06-02 23:08:32+00:00
Simple Analytics | Full-stack developer | Remote | Full time | $5,000/month | https://www.simpleanalytics.com/

This is not your average company to work for. We are a very small team fighting Google. We make the internet a little better by adding privacy-friendly analytics. You will have a ton of ownership, and to get an idea of who you are dealing with, check out the video [1].

Hacker News gave us our first 30 customers through this post [2]. We have always had warm feelings for this community. This salary is not high in the US, but feel free to apply if it meets your expectations.

[1] https://www.simpleanalytics.com/careers?deadline=hackernews (keep the params, the other deadline has passed)

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18024277
by Fade_Dance | 2025-06-02 23:08:48+00:00
I think if you're talking on portfolio level a lot of these things are used as signals and parts of a greater whole.

In that sense, they can indeed add value. My current project is a modern version of a classic Harry Browne portfolio with even asset allocations to gold/bonds/equity/commodities, with optional layers of sophistication according to spec needs.

Something like systematic macro could be analyzed as a standalone return stream, but it's more useful when considered as an input into allocation/leverage adjustments (ex: if geopolitical uncertainty readings are high, cut down the trend following exposure). Even the more robot/quant stuff like vol trading feeds back into the wider portfolio management and portfolio construction level to some degree.
by kossTKR | 2025-06-02 23:08:58+00:00
Very important point, but there's also the sheer amount of reading you have to do, the inevitable scope creep, gargantuan walls text going back and fourth making you "skip" constantly, looking here then there, copying, pasting, erasing, reasking.

Literally the opposite of focus, flow, seeing the big picture.

At least for me to some degree. There's value there as i'm already using these tools everyday but it also seems like a tradeoff i'm not really sure how valuable is yet. Especially with competition upping the noise too.

I feel SO unfocused with these tools and i hate it, it's stressful and feels less "grounded", "tactile" and enjoyable.

I've found myself in a new weird workflowloop a few times with these tools mindlessly iterating on some stupid error the LLM keeps not fixing, while my mind simply refuses to just fix it myself way faster with a little more effort and that's a honestly a bit frightening.
by cmeacham98 | 2025-06-02 23:09:27+00:00
Update: Checked the script, and not only does their official installer not verify the download at all - it immediately executes it.

Therefore, it's trivially possible to RCE someone running this script you are MITMing - block all the HTTPS connections, and then replace the binary in the HTTP connection with malware.

Frankly this vulnerability is so obvious and so negligent that I would never use this tool, which is unfortunate as it sounds like a cool idea.
by westoncb | 2025-06-02 23:09:35+00:00
Location: Tucson, AZ (US)

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Maybe

Technologies: Typescript, node, React, three.js, dabbled with Elixir and Rust, lots of Java a long time ago and a bit of Objective C/Swift

Portfolio: https://symbolflux.com

Github: https://github.com/westoncb

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weston-beecroft-b4a98054

Email: westoncb@gmail.com

I'm an experienced generalist software engineer typically working with early-stage startups or with clients on relatively greenfield projects.

I have strong technical foundations, good product sense, and have gone deep with AI/LLM tech both in the sense of being able to use it effectively, and in exploring the design space for products/tools leveraging it.

I've done a lot of work in developer tools and data visualization of various kinds. Data-rich, non-traditional UIs with highly optimized UX, and rapid prototyping are my forte.

I've been basically on sabbatical for a while now, mostly taking the time to learn and build with AI. At some point in early 2024 I decided: okay, time to take this seriously, and have. After the long break, I'm ready to start something new!
by amacneil | 2025-06-02 23:09:41+00:00
Definitely! I agree with everything you said.

ROS is still very heavily used in industry and is growing in absolute terms, but most of the newer frameworks and research are learning towards e2e methods.

But even if you don't use ROS, it really helps to have a working knowledge of how it approaches things like pubsub, logging + replay, transforms, etc.
by satisfice | 2025-06-02 23:09:50+00:00
You know what, I can use the word “fuck” too, just like this pro coder does: I’m fucking tired of these fucking nuts who act as if there is no problem at all having AI mess with my code. It harms my relationship with my code! It reduces my agency. It threatens my accountability.

He implies that if I am talking about some other flavor of AI than he personally uses than I am just not serious— but that’s what they said six months ago and two years ago. These fucking boosters have already blown their credibility.

If you want to prove that AI agents writing code for you is safe then perform a large scale test and show your results. We’re not crazy for doubting you. You are crazy for not doubting yourself.
by breuleux | 2025-06-02 23:10:07+00:00
Sure, the core principles are mostly the same, but the point is that it is getting easier and easier to extract value from these models, which means that the learning curve is getting flatter. The main difficulty for now and for the foreseeable future is to get the models to do what we mean, but DWIM is the trend line, it's the objective everyone's trying to get at. Even if we don't quite reach, we'll get closer. And AI that does what you mean is the ultimate tool: it doesn't require any expertise at all. There is no first mover advantage (save for a hypothetical singularity, perhaps).
by simonw | 2025-06-02 23:10:21+00:00
I recommend reframing this.

LLMs don't make your hard-earned-knowledge less valuable: they make it more valuable.

You are better qualified to use them to build great software than people who don't have your level of experience and software engineering domain expertise.

If you don't want to do that then I guess you can find another career - but if you switch careers because you incorrectly think that LLMs make programming experience less valuable you would be making a big mistake in my opinion.
by samcheng | 2025-06-02 23:10:35+00:00
RINSE | REMOTE or San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, or Washington DC | QA Engineer, IT Associate | Full-Time | https://www.rinse.com

Rinse provides dry cleaning and laundry delivery services to customers in nine metropolitan areas in the US. We have sophisticated logistics optimization software, a polished consumer product, and firm business fundamentals. We're now over a decade old - this is a stable, yet consistently growing and innovating, company.

Our product team is distributed across the United States and internationally, and has been entirely remote for years now, but a desk can be provided in the above cities if you'd prefer. Because an IT Associate has some physical hardware responsibilities, we'd prefer that role be filled by someone in the above localities, even though the vast majority of the role can be performed remotely.

We're open to both newly-graduated or more senior technically-minded individuals and managers, provided they meet our bar.

Search term bingo: Logistics, Linux, Django, Testing, QA, Systems Administration, Network Administration, Test Automation, Playwright, Continuous Integration, Release Management, Information Technology, Amazon Web Services, AWS.

https://www.rinse.com/careers/qa-engineer/

https://www.rinse.com/careers/it-associate/
by erichi | 2025-06-02 23:10:37+00:00
Location: Barcelona, Spain Remote: Remote Only Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Python(FastAPI), Ruby(Rails), JS, Node, Docker Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericusmanov Email: e.usmanov@gmail.com

I'm Eric (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericusmanov). I'm software developer with 15+ yoe and 5 years of experience in browser automation (Puppeteer, Playwright). Currently experimenting with using AI in browser automation/scraping. Looking for position where I can continue working on browser automation and/or AI agents.
by douglasisshiny | 2025-06-02 23:10:38+00:00
Okay, how am I supposed to use them "correctly"? Because me explaining step by step, more so than a junior developer, how to do a small task in an existing codebase for it to get it wrong not once, not twice, not three times, but more is not a productivity boost.

And here's the difference between someone like me and an LLM: I can learn and retain information. If you don't understand this, you don't have a correct understanding of LLMs.
by jsheard | 2025-06-02 23:11:15+00:00
> Fly.io benefits from AI hype because... more slop code gets written and then run on their servers?

I don't know if that's what fly.io is going for here, but their competitors are explicitly leaning into that angle so it's not that implausible. Vercel is even vertically integrating the slop-to-prod pipeline with v0.
by fredoralive | 2025-06-02 23:11:15+00:00
A Driving Licence is ultimately a privilege and not a right, at least in the UK / most of Europe in general[1]. So either the registered keeper of the car[2] has to dob in the driver who did the speeding, or face their own consequences for not providing the information.

[1] eg. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jun/29/transport.eu

[2] Slightly odd terminology in the UK to handle the fact that car finance companies (etc) might actually own the car, rather than the person who has it on their drive.
by hiq | 2025-06-02 23:11:27+00:00
> a Python function signature without the function body.

This, and for multiple functions that end up composing well together as per their signatures. Maybe there's one public function I want to document well, so I write the docstring myself, and it's the result for 3-4 other internal functions which I'd let the LLM implement.

The nice part is that even if the LLM fails, all that is not lost, as opposed to some weird spec I'd feed an LLM but that's too verbose for a human reader, or a series of prompts.
by palata | 2025-06-02 23:11:43+00:00
> Well, if everyone uses a calculator, how do we learn math?

Calculators have made most people a lot worse in arithmetic. Many people, for instance, don't even grasp what a "30%" discount is. I mean other than "it's a discount" and "it's a bigger discount than 20% and lower than 40%". I have seen examples where people don't grasp that 30% is roughly one third. It's just a discount, they trust it.

GPS navigation has made most people a lot worse at reading maps or generally knowing where they are. I have multiple examples where I would say something like "well we need to go west, it's late in the day so the sun will show us west" and people would just not believe me. Or where someone would follow their GPS on their smartphone around a building to come back 10m behind where they started, without even realising that the GPS was making them walk the long way around the building.

Not sure the calculator is a good example to say "tools don't make people worse with the core knowledge".
by tzs | 2025-06-02 23:12:13+00:00
Those structural characteristic calculations for flying pressurized are to calculate whether or not the structure can withstand the massive forces from the pressure differential between the pressurized volumes (cabin and cargo hold) and the outside atmosphere.

If you were to fly it unpressurized there would be no such massive forces because there would be no pressure differential. The structural requirements would be the same as they are for when the plane flies unpressurized at low altitudes.
by wat10000 | 2025-06-02 23:12:18+00:00
I wonder if it comes down to there being many kinds of programming and this stuff is good for some but not all.

The author describes a world where most code is boring grunt work and most collaborators are mediocre. This world is not familiar to me. I can see LLMs being useful in such a world, but it’s not where I work.

The comment about buying a table instead of building it really stuck with me. We’re the ones who design the table! Saying we should buy one from the store is like saying farmers should buy their food from the store instead of putting in all that work to grow it.
by sanderjd | 2025-06-02 23:12:19+00:00
How does "person who makes software" imply "managing"?

I understand that "coding" is the fun part for lots of people, especially younger people. This is me as well, so I'm definitely sympathetic to it, and feel quite a bit of sadness about this.

Lots of people also enjoy woodworking and machining by hand, but that's not how most furniture or machines are made.

If I were independently wealthy, I might well spend some of my time making artisan software, but as a professional and entrepreneur, I'm going to try to use efficient tools for the job.
by mgraczyk | 2025-06-02 23:12:28+00:00
Being opposed to things that fail is not important.

You can rightly avoid new things 99% of the time, but if you miss the 1% of things that matter, you get left behind.

On the other hand if you adopt the latest thing 100% of the time and 99% of those things are a waste, you will probably be fine.
by jbrins1 | 2025-06-02 23:12:32+00:00
Actual link https://www.carsandhorsepower.com/featured/the-government-is...

"The rumble of a modified exhaust used to be the soundtrack of American freedom..." give me a break. No one wants to hear you showing off your anti-lag at 3am.

"Snitches, sellouts, and surveillance tech..." because of course you want the freedom to make as much noise as you want whenever and where ever you want to.
by mmooss | 2025-06-02 23:12:37+00:00
You have no idea what you're talking about; are you sure you want to risk nuclear war on the basis of your knowledge? It's far to dangerous to trust to hot takes on HN. I would listen to the experts.

This is how wars actually start - ignorant people, ignorant publics, demanding escalatory actions.

> why is having a defensive alliance in Ukraine more existential than having it in Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway which also border Russia?

The answer is pretty obvious. The Baltic states joined NATO when the relationship with Russia wasn't adversarial. Also, Russia wasn't at war with them.
by grishka | 2025-06-02 23:12:56+00:00
Magnetic stripes seem to only still be popular in the US. It always blows my mind just how insecure card payments are there. For small payments, like several dollars, they'll swipe your card in a reader attached to the POS system and that's it. No pin code, no nothing, you just get an SMS that your card was charged several seconds later. For larger payments they'll rely on entirely human-based confirmation methods like "sign the receipt" or "show your ID". I didn't even know this was a thing before I visited the US.

In Russia, where I'm from, I haven't swiped my card for at least a decade. Lately many places also started getting those square Android-based Sberbank terminals that don't even have the magstripe reader, only NFC and chip. Granted, our banking system has been effectively disconnected from most of the world since 2022, but I would be surprised if these aren't designed to accommodate MasterCard and Visa requirements for when they return. And skimmers are simply not a thing here any more. People get scammed through social engineering instead.

I also remember reading that magstripe transactions cost merchants more or something like that, precisely because they carry more risk because they only need static, easily copyable data.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that the threat model changes, and becomes much simpler at that, when transactions can't be made with static data. Because no matter what the scammer captures, even if that's the PIN and the complete data exchange with the card through NFC or the chip reader, they can't use that to make transactions. Obtaining the number, the expiration date, and the CVC is also unlikely to allow them to make online transactions because those need a second factor now. Except on Amazon. Amazon somehow manages to charge my card with just the number and the date, no CVC needed, and no 2fa code either.
by liveoneggs | 2025-06-02 23:13:17+00:00
The first paragraph of this blog calls senior skeptical developers "unserious" but the person who wrote it has a cartoon gopher as his avatar.

The next few paragraphs basically say "the tool run arbitrary programs on your machine, pull in arbitrary files, and use that to run more arbitrary commands" and then blames you for thinking that is a bad sequence of events.

In the best possible light I (an AI-neutral reader) can paint this rant on a hosting-company blog (why publish this?) is that 1) allowing random textbots to execute programs on your work computer is good (disagree), 2) those chatbots do, in fact, occasionally say enough correct-ish things that they are probably worth your company paying $20+/month for your access (agree).
by roarcher | 2025-06-02 23:15:08+00:00
You understand your coworkers' PRs as thoroughly and intuitively as they do? Any significant PR will contain things you don't even notice or think to ask about. And the answers to the questions you do ask are the end result of a thought process you didn't go through and therefore also don't understand as deeply.

Back to the novel analogy, you could ask an author why he incorporated this or that character trait or plot point, but all the explanation in the world will not make you able to write the next chapter as well as he could.
by brucehoult | 2025-06-02 23:15:28+00:00
Yes, as I mentioned in one of my other replies. Or 2400^0.25.

Same for 9: sqrt(81) = sqrt(8 * 10) -> (0.3*3 + 1) / 2 = 0.95

At some point it's easier to remember a few numbers than calculate a lot of formulas.
by red369 | 2025-06-02 23:15:34+00:00
I'm a big fan of using the mouse less. When I was having issues, I learned to use the mouse with my left hand. I got used to it enough to be nearly as fast, but I never liked it so it encouraged me to just use keyboard shortcuts.

I thought I invented it, but I've since seen occupational health and safety websites recommend alternating.

Here's a link to an Australian gov PDF: https://www.comcare.gov.au/about/forms-pubs/docs/pubs/safety...

I've seen it in NZ too. I think they suggested swapping the mouse buttons but I prefer to just leave them and do my left clicking with both fingers when using my left hand.
by simonw | 2025-06-02 23:15:41+00:00
It is entirely true that current LLMs do not learn from their mistakes, and that is a difference between eg an LLM and a human intern.

It is us, the users of the LLMs, that need to learn from those mistakes.

If you prompt an LLM and it makes a mistake, you have to learn not to prompt it in the same way in the future.

It takes a lot of time and experimentation to find the prompting patterns that work.

My current favorite tactic is to dump sizable amounts of example code into the models every time I use them. I find this works extremely well. I will take code that I wrote previously that accomplishes a similar task, drop that in and describe what I want it to build next.
by Karrot_Kream | 2025-06-02 23:15:53+00:00
I think the important thing here is you're being honest about how you're feeling. You bring up a very real anxiety and possibility and even folks who are using LLMs probably feel some degree of this alienation. That LLMs are yet another tool to push us to move as fast as possible rather than have our brains get into the nooks and crannies of hard problems that may take longer but are more rewarding to us.

But again, you're being honest. The problem with a lot of the AI skeptic arguments I see is a lack of this honesty. Others have noted that there are a lot of contradictory skeptical arguments, and I suspect the contradictions come because the authors have negative emotions about AI which they're using to create negative arguments.