MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by aerostable_slug | 2025-08-31 19:40:11+00:00
> effectively religious and conservative

Your friend should have stuck to his guns, because that old saw is masking the truth: new migrants who become eligible to vote, and their birthright citizen children, overwhelmingly and reliably vote Democrat. And why wouldn't they? They perceive Democrats are who let them in and Democrats give them the entitlements they disproportionately depend on.

It is chicanery to pretend otherwise. It's also a brilliant plan and I congratulate the DNC on the long play. It works out great for their donors as well, as immigration tends to drive down labor costs for things like construction and agriculture.
by claw-el | 2025-08-31 19:41:15+00:00
I have seen two sides of these artificial constraints people at their work impose. I am still not sure if these artificial constraints are good or bad.

On one hand, I see these artificial constraints making it hard for individuals of varying skill set (outside of the imposed constraint) to contribute better for a group of people working together. This is when startups say they are scrappier and ‘just do it’ instead of being bogged down by bureaucracy.

On the other hand, having these artificial constraints makes it very easy for hiring, training, communication and alignment, all which are also important in a functioning group.

I work at a place where I interact with customers of various sizes. Sometimes I wonder why larger companies come up with this weird bureaucratic political system of constraints limiting their employees.

Other times, I wonder why some smaller companies let their employees manager a critical system when they seem part expert but not really capable of handling it end to end yet.
by m101 | 2025-08-31 19:41:35+00:00
Quantum mechanics is "true" insofar as it's useful for some purpose. Until then it's a theory and the jury is still out.

Randomness is something which I feel is a pretty weird phenomenon. I am definitely one of those 'God doesn't play with dice' types.

Randomness is also something that we call things when actually it's random from a subjective perspective. If we knew more about a system the randomness just falls away. E.g. if we knew the exact physical properties of a dice roll we could probably predict it better than random.

What if it's the case that quantum mechanics is similar. I.e. that what we think of as randomness isn't really randomness but only appears that way to the best of what we can observe. If this is the case, and if our algorithms rely on some sort of genuine randomness inherent in the universe, then doesn't that suggest there's a problem? Perhaps part of the errors we see in quantum mechanics arise from just something fundamental to the universe being different to our model.

I don't think this is that far fetched given the large holes that our current understanding of physics have as to predicting the universe. It just seems that in the realm of quantum mechanics this isn't the case, apparently because experiments have verified things. However, I think there really is something in the proof being in the pudding (provide a practical use case).
by tonyarkles | 2025-08-31 19:42:59+00:00
I posted elsewhere in the thread about my late diagnosis. When I was much younger than when I was diagnosed, I was on Bupropion for smoking cessation and it had a pretty significant positive effect for me with respect to my ADHD symptoms (which I didn’t recognize as ADHD at the time). Definitely worth exploring; it doesn’t work for everyone but it can be quite effective if it does work for you.
by akarki15 | 2025-08-31 19:43:36+00:00
> Creators will then go back to the good, old fashioned model of hosting their own websites and videos

LMAO. Nope they won't. They'll go to tiktok or some other platform where you'll surprise pikachu face have to watch ads. Ads powers internet. Someone has to pay server cost at the end of the day- either pay with your dollar or your attention. There's no other option.
by vunderba | 2025-08-31 19:44:15+00:00
At the last company I worked for in the U.S., I was part of the hiring process and as a result of a combination of rampant cheating and AI spam - we had to completely revise our procedures and settled on the following rules:

1. Minimum of a BCompSc or adjacent field (using a dedicated academic verification service)

2. Brief 30 minute phone screener

3. On-site interview

The jobs were actually fully remote positions, so we would rent out a shared workspace where we would conduct the interview itself. We found that this cut down on the chaff by about 90%.
by ranger_danger | 2025-08-31 19:44:35+00:00
> Mastodon and the broader ActivityPub (AP) network offer little hope here. Everything lived on that server.

> we don't all run our own copy of the entire stack

Why can't we do just that in a user-friendly way?

What if every user had all their content stored locally on a (or multiple) device, whether that's their phone, a desktop, server, anything, just something that keeps a local copy of their data and then federates that with other servers... that way they can always easily move wherever they want, and the data is still visible from some other server so they don't have to run their own.
by crazygringo | 2025-08-31 19:45:07+00:00
Databases on cloud providers are usually not on file systems local to the instance because local instances are meant to fail at any time.

Block storage is meant to be reliable, so databases go there. Yes it's slower but you don't lose data.

Generally, the only time you want a local database in the cloud is if it's being used for short-lived data meaningful only to that particular instance in time.

Or it can work if your database rarely changes and you make regular backups that are easy to revert to, like for a blog.
by timr | 2025-08-31 19:45:14+00:00
You have spent a lot of words arguing about anything other than the core point: the fact that Prasad was hired into Marks' old position does not suddenly make the position "political".

Marks resigned, Prasad was hired. Same position. Arguing that he can be fired is...true, I suppose (in the same way that Marks was "fired"), but non-responsive.
by BrandoElFollito | 2025-08-31 19:46:14+00:00
So this is Vinay Prasad. I did not know that guy (not to mention that I am French and I don't care) but now I know that Vinay Prasad is hiding something.

Vinay Prasad may be a liar, because Vinay Prasad is hiding something.

Vinay Prasad, a name to remember. Well wouldn't have happened if Vinay Prasad was whole enough to stand by his claims and not try to hide the idiocies Vinay Prasad said in the past.

Hey, I actually learned Vinay Prasad by heart now!
by Waterluvian | 2025-08-31 19:46:26+00:00
Kind of! There's nothing on paper that says the King can't just decide that democracy is over and dissolve Parliament. Another example is that the King's representation in Canada, the Governor General, unilaterally gets to decide whether or not to give any passed legislation "royal assent." However in practice, they always do and they otherwise never put their thumb on the scale. Doing so would be a constitutional crisis that would likely end our relationship with the Monarchy more formally and put pen to paper that no, you don't actually have any real kingly powers.

The Governor General has in recent times prorogued Parliament when the Prime Minister asked them to. Ie. "This is politically nasty. Let's hit the pause button and come back when things are better and we're not about to be ejected from power..." And that has been politically controversial. Historically the Governor General just says yes because they want to avoid playing a political role at all (ie. preserving this convention that the Monarchy is really just a decoration of our government).
by tonyarkles | 2025-08-31 19:46:39+00:00
One of the things that I have found is very important for me: when you take your medication, make sure you’re doing something you want to be doing for a while. Like you say… if the medication starts working while I’m browsing Reddit, I’m probably going to keep doing that for a while.

Since Concerta is extended-release, this usually means that I have to start work early most days. If I take the medication too late in the day it’ll disturb my ability to get to sleep, and since the medication has mostly worn off by that time it’ll generally mean… browsing Reddit in bed until way later than I should be up.
by giantg2 | 2025-08-31 19:46:42+00:00
No security, benefits, etc can be a barrier for most people.

I get more judgemental about the people mostly lucking into wealth. Stuff like the gymbro type that land a VP sales role selling stuff that basically sells itself, or relying on all the hardwork of the other people who built the sales tools. Or the small to medium CEOs who act important when they do very little. For example that guy that set a $70k minimum wage at his company but goes around giving paid speeches about it to enrich himself. Even many of the startup people here - you got lucky and picked a winner while there's plenty of others who worked just as hard on equally good ideas that didn't catch the same lucky break/timing. People asking for money and getting it... does it really matter if it's the guy washing your windshield at the light or trying to start up a company that might not do anything for society?
by mordechai9000 | 2025-08-31 19:47:32+00:00
I don't think it is a question of discipline when it comes to addiction - if you are taking it on a regular basis at a high enough dose to become addicted, you will become addicted, and you will have withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking it.

It might be possible to manage the addiction and maybe keep it from escalating with discipline, but the addiction will always be there.

Humans are excellent at denying addiction and rationalizing addictive behavior. And you don't even realize you are doing it - I've seen it in myself with cigarettes, which I fortunately quit years ago.
by hirvi74 | 2025-08-31 19:48:00+00:00
> So we should determine who to give chess lessons to with chess tournaments? That seems pretty dumb.

By your logic, we could even declare grandmasters based on IQ scores alone without anyone needing to play. Clearly that misses the point of skill assessment.

History also doesn’t support the claim of potential ability all that well, in my opinion. Lewis Terman’s study tracked high-IQ children across several decades. Many of the children went on to lead ordinary lives and did not reach noteworthy achievements. However, two lower-IQ children that were excluded went on to become Nobel Prize winners. IQ alone does not seem to be a robust predictor of domain mastery.
by andrewaylett | 2025-08-31 19:48:31+00:00
JJ has the concept of "immutable changesets" -- if it sees a commit is referenced from a branch that it's not tracking, it assumes it ought not rebase that commit. Changesets on branches that look like the main branch are immutable too. And you can edit the revset that JJ considers immutable if you need it to be different from the default.

The net effect is that I can change "my" branches as I wish, but I can't change stuff that's been merged or other folks' branches unless I disable the safety features (either using `--ignore-immutable` or tracking the branch).

JJ also makes it really easy to push a single changeset as a branch, which means as you evolve that single commit you can keep the remote updated with your current work really easily. And it's got a specific `jj evolog` command to see how a specific changeset has evolved over time.
by akarki15 | 2025-08-31 19:48:40+00:00
Its not "gatekeeping". Its called paying for a service. NIH is funded by US taxpayers. Youtube isn't- they need to pay for the servers; it isn't free, you know.

You wanna pay someone else, feel free- vimeo, and a zillion other platforms exist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms
by khelavastr | 2025-08-31 19:48:41+00:00
So, why don't you see more lawsuits when executives commit fraud against other executives?

Why don't you see more public grievances in churches and to families? Why don't "toxic leaders" get personally confronted and shunned?

People like Ben Ellet, Megan Herald, and Toolie Garner at Alaska Air promote unhealthy, wasteful development and cost their corporations millions in mismanagement.
by Wowfunhappy | 2025-08-31 19:48:45+00:00
> The sacred fire of Vesta burned for over a thousand years in the same spot. Within 15 years of it being extinguished, Rome did a hard pivot toward decline, and began, basically, a freefall. The ancient prophecy—that Rome would fall if Vesta’s fire went out—thus came true.

I am not a superstitious person, and so of course I don't actually think the Flame had anything to do with anything...

...but wow is that spooky!
by necovek | 2025-08-31 19:49:27+00:00
With phones becoming our main computing platform, I wonder why do we look at it any different from our personal computers?

On my computer, I can choose to containerize applications I run with something like docker, flatpak or snaps; run them in a VM, under a separate user, in a chroot... or, not! I can get them from the Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/... archive or... not! Or I might compile it from source and run it directly or... not!

Based on source of the app I decide how much I trust it and thus decide on the encapsulation strategy for it (sometimes, none).

Yes, I understand having full control of your system has some minor downsides (you can mess things up more easily), but you can usually do that anyway (just fill up your phone storage with photos and see how your phone behaves).
by dzhar11 | 2025-08-31 19:49:44+00:00
I appreciate the author's notes on managing ADHD. I was glad to find I didn't learn much new, because I'm already applying many of these practices.

I've tried several to-do apps, but centralized systems didn't work for me. I now use multiple to-do lists across different media: some on paper, some on my phone, others in markdown files within project folders... sending email to myself. It may seem messy, but it works for me. One system doesn't fit everyone. And any customization and tweaks are encouraged.

Books that helped me:

Atomic Habits by James Clear emphasizes small, consistent changes. Over time, they build into significant improvement. It’s better to improve your system gradually than attempt a major overhaul.

The Now Habit by Neil Fiore offers tools to overcome procrastination and start tasks. It helped me understand my resistance and find ways to move forward.

Getting Things Done by David Allen focuses on reviews and planning. I struggle to make time for them regularly, but even occasional reviews help.

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, especially annotated versions, provide a Stoic perspective. His reflections on virtue and responsibility inspire me. He seemed to dislike being emperor, preferring philosophy, but accepted his role out of duty. That example helps me do necessary tasks, even when I don't feel like it.
by pixelready | 2025-08-31 19:49:56+00:00
I always like to say we aren’t rational, we _rationalize_. Much of our decision making process is subconscious / vibes / “system 2”, but we also have a strong need for a sensible narrative structure to our lives. So what hack did nature come up with? Let us make the gut decision based on a bunch of soft heuristics, then rationalize it and wrap it into a sensible narrative before it reaches our conscious mind. Lets us use our efficient system 2 thinking most of the time while avoiding all that messy cognitive dissonance that would arise from a conscious awareness of how chaotic such a system would be at the scale of… oh, say, a global civilization of such creatures ;)
by toast0 | 2025-08-31 19:50:42+00:00
I don't know about Hetzner, but the failure case isn't usually tripping over power plugs. It's putting a longer server in the rack above/below yours and pushing the power plug out of the back of your server.

Either way, stuff happens, figuring out what your actual requirements around uptime, time to response, and time to resolution is important before you build a nine nines solution when eight eights is sufficient. :p
by m01 | 2025-08-31 19:50:51+00:00
Surely you can still pay with plastic cards, at least if the venue advertises accepting the big card issuers?

The latest neobank might require an app, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find any bank in your country that allows you to spend money without using mobile apps.

Ask if you can order/pay without using the QR code. I'd be surprised if venues didn't have a paper menu as backup.
by carlosjobim | 2025-08-31 19:51:40+00:00
The answer to that question is absolutely yes. Investigative journalism, which is some of the most useful content in existence can not sustainably be provided by volunteers.

> many people who can't pay

Everybody is already paying for Spotify and for Netflix. They can pay for mass syndication of textual content. But it needs to be like Spotify or YouTube, where everything and anything goes. Poor people always had access to read newspapers.
by robotresearcher | 2025-08-31 19:52:29+00:00
A personal Bletchley Park anecdote: my grandfather, an electrical engineer, staffed a radio listening station during the war, and every evening a motorcycle dispatch rider would take the day’s intercepts away to a secret location. It was more than 20 years before my grandfather figured out they went to Bletchley.

In the 1980s the Bletchley museum project put out a call for wartime electrical components so they could build their Colossus replica. My grandfather in the 1950s had made a chain of Christmas tree lights from govt issue tiny light lightbulbs he pinched from work. He painstakingly removed the nail polish he had painted them with 30 years earlier, and sent them to Bletchley. They used his family Christmas lightbulbs in the replica that is still there today.

I had the privilege of touring the museum with him in the 1990s. Also on that day I heard my grandmother’s stories of her time in the British Army during the war. That day was incredibly interesting and moving, and is an important memory for me.
by akarki15 | 2025-08-31 19:52:30+00:00
Well go ahead- g/android isn't stopping anyone from moving to iPhone...

I myself use iphone cause I like the hardware quality (over android). I pay for youtube premium cause I like the service (over apple music for example)...

You can bellow as much as you want that you are losing a "free service" but nothin is free buddy at the end of the day. You get what you paid and youtube premium is one of the few services I find worth paying... Not worth it, you say? Feel free to bounce to a zillion other video platforms - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms .
by bonoboTP | 2025-08-31 19:52:32+00:00
> 13 years ago, Cory Doctorow warned us:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI

Wow, that's in Talks at Google. Listening to the Q&A is just so weird. The audience (I assume Google employees) are openly advocating for digital freedoms and the classic hacker ethos. Crazy how much the Overton window has shifted. I wonder where those people are now.
by timr | 2025-08-31 19:52:43+00:00
> Why didn't you apply this level of analysis to the parent claim (without evidence) that 'Prasad is a bay area liberal'

I posted evidence: there was a Wall-Street Journal editorial calling Prasad a liberal. He was attacked by the right for being a leftist. It's all extremely well-documented. It just wasn't enough of an ideological purity test for you, I suppose. I'm sorry that I can't post a binary dump of the man's brain.

(I've also personally listened to dozens of hours of the podcasts, so I know very well where he stands. You're more than welcome to do the same, since it's all out there -- don't take my word for it.)

> as if everyone in the bay area had the same political views? You're very pedantic and argumentative on multiple threads, but your pedantry only seems to run in one direction.

That's the weirdest way of saying "you defend your argument" that I think I've ever seen. Thanks?
by ashwindharne | 2025-08-31 19:52:44+00:00
I always find that my regular crud apps kind of grow into something not-so-cruddy due to a single feature (realtime communication, bursty usage profile, large batch jobs to precompute something to expensive to do at request time) and the architecture just explodes from there. s

also, it always feels like I need a second instance at the very least for redundancy, but then we have to ensure they're stateless and that batch jobs are sharded across them (or only run on one), and again we hit an architecture explosion. Wish that I was more comfortable just dropping a single spring boot instance on a vm and calling it a day; spring boot has a lot of bells and whistles and you can get pretty far without the architecture explosion but it is almost inevitable
by anonym29 | 2025-08-31 19:53:35+00:00
I don't disagree with moral equality one bit - the golden rule should absolutely apply to everyone and we should all strive to look at each other with compassion, tolerance, empathy, understanding, grace, humility, and goodwill - but there is a loud, vocal subset of people that truly believe in absolute biological equality - not just between people with different IQ's, but even between different biological sexes and all other categories of humans; "tabula rasa" proponents who argue that ALL differences in outcomes along the lines of categorical differences (e.g. sex, race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, culture) are exclusively and irrefutably explained strictly by discrimination and discrimination alone, which is a patently absurd assertion that should be refuted. Discrimination is real and should be confronted vocally, but the idea that it's the only factor explaining differences in outcomes between groups is a harmful myth.

The fact of the matter, relating back to the original discussion, is that sex/race/gender/ethnicity/nationality/religion/culture-blind IQ testing is not only a strong predictor of job performance, it is perhaps one of the best tools we have for eliminating discrimination based on sex/race/gender/ethnicity/nationality/religion/culture in hiring, as it explicitly controls for differences along these lines by exclusively targeting an assessment of g in abstract ways that are explicitly stripped of cultural, religious, racial, and gendered biases.

Pseudonymized hiring that relied exclusively on IQ tests, with zero indications of race/sex/gender (e.g. legal name), stripped of proxies for SES and/or parental SES (e.g. which university was attended, if any) would be significantly less biased than current hiring practices. Throw in job-specific pseudonymized skill evaluations (so, no voice calls, no video calls, just direct assessments to candidates) and you've got a system to dramatically reduce hiring discrimination along protected classes.
by pcrh | 2025-08-31 19:53:44+00:00
Note that most people rent, even in the US. They either rent the property itself, or they rent the capital used to buy the property (i.e. a mortgage).

With that in mind, housing associations or co-ops and the like take the place of banks, that is, they possess the capital and rent the property to the residents, but keep a portion of the revenue for future renting, as a bank does for future lending.

The difference between the two is that the housing association is typically not-for-profit, and that in a housing association the resident does not accumulate capital, which allows for a reduction in costs compared to a mortgage.
by echelon | 2025-08-31 19:53:58+00:00
> recently used Lovable and Base44

Are you happy with either product? I tried them earlier in the year, and it was also really slow to make changes. I felt like they got stuck after a bit, too.

It's a neat concept, but I feel like they're expensive templates. I'd honestly prefer a template gallery with a smooth and fast editing UI.