MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by fakedang | 2025-12-25 16:55:26+00:00
Easy on the fellow. OP doesn't feel great at the moment because of feeding the "lies" about merit to his daughter, the same "lies" they fed all of us back in our day that doing everything by the book pays (Lies in quotes because there's obviously a ton of substance in those statements still). You don't need to push him down further. While the lack of any celebration is not the best idea (assuming OP is still reasonably well-off), a stern rebuke won't help either.

As I mentioned elsewhere, companies are hiring. We're in Europe with a US office and we're hiring, in spite of being in a country that's practically in recession mode. But the main issue is connecting the talent to the company. That's what's messing up hiring these days. Inbound is finished and outbound isn't scalable.
by hafizdhanani | 2025-12-25 16:55:28+00:00
- The Problem: Most Facebook ad campaigns fail because they are mathematically underfunded relative to the algorithm's needs.

- The Constraint: Meta requires ~50 optimization events per week per Ad Set to exit the "Learning Phase.

- The Solution: I built this calculator to determine the exact daily budget floor required to stabilize performance.

- Minimum (Risk): 7x CPA (Hits ~50 events/week)

- Ideal (Safe): 14x CPA (Buffer for volatility)
by Lord-Jobo | 2025-12-25 16:55:57+00:00
Interviews tuned properly for the position are almost always 95% talking with a decent trial/probation period. If they have the general credentials and can talk competently about the detail work, there is no benefit for either party doing these asinine code challenges.

The problems that spawn these leetcode barriers are WAY better solved at the source.

Prob 1: the interviewer doesn’t know shit about the actual role. I know it’s an uncommon opinion, but this should just not happen ever. I would gladly sit in on a speaking interview for my would-be coworkers, with the hiring manager, to check this. And the actual manager should be present and knowledgeable too. But 3 employees doing something is too much $ I guess.

Prob 2: credentials and high degrees are prolific, super mandatory, but also treated like they are meaningless. Experience is borderline ignored entirely. Worked with a software deeply for 10 years, but your cert is out of date? You won’t even get past the computerized HR filter. But because this is so openly stupid, companies tack on leetcode as another filter instead of rethinking the value of experience and relying on probation and bullshit detectors.
by coliveira | 2025-12-25 16:56:18+00:00
The most stupid narrative ever. If AI is so good for productivity, why don't you use it to make your 4000 workers produce even more than other companies? Why you need to fire them, so now you have hands tied to your back, and go back to produce the same amount of software? It is completely obvious that the goal is to fire workers, not to get AI stuff done.
by krapp | 2025-12-25 16:56:21+00:00
Not really a bar raise - many people have assumed that "AGI" would mean essentially omnipotent/omniscient AI since the concept of the technological singularity came into being. Read Kurzweil or Rudy Rucker, there's a reason this sort of thing used to be called the "rapture for nerds."

If anything I've noticed the bar being lowered by the pro-AI set, except for humans, because the prevailing belief is that LLMs must already be AGI but any limitations are dismissed as also being human limitations, and therefore evidence that LLMs are already human equivalent in any way that matters.

And instead of the singularity we have Roko's Basilisk.
by echelon | 2025-12-25 16:56:23+00:00
> when they closed down all the mental institutions.

Why on earth did we do this?

I look back at period pieces - films showcasing the 40s, 50s, etc., and it seems like mental institutions would be a wonderful way to house these folks and keep them fed and warm.

I know there were abuses, but we have cameras now. And that's surely better than leaving them on the streets to freeze to death.

I can't imagine it would cost that much, and it would clean up the streets of drugs and homelessness.

I feel so bad for what we as a society do to these people. When my city closed down the local homeless shelter in midtown, the people on Reddit - supposedly leftists - cheered. I was so sad. These are the same people that call me fascist all the time for being a fiscal moderate and saying we shouldn't build subway to the suburbs. Being humanitarian would cost 1/1000th of that.
by avereveard | 2025-12-25 16:56:46+00:00
Same I have multiple subscription and layer them. I use haiku to plan and send queue of task to codex and gemini whose command line can be scripted

The issue to me is that I have no idea of what the code looks like and have to have a reliable first layer model that can summarize current codebase state so I can decide whether the next mutation moves the project forward or reduces technical debt. I can delegate much more that way, while gemini "do first" approach tend to result in many dead ends that I have to unravel.
by perfmode | 2025-12-25 16:58:17+00:00
You wrote: “I told her for years that merit would protect her. It didn’t.”

You believed that because you wanted her to be safe. That’s love. And you were working with the information you had. The guilt you’re feeling is its own kind of grief — the loss of being able to protect her through guidance.

You can acknowledge this to her without making it about you. Something like: “I gave you a map that turned out to be incomplete. That wasn’t fair to you. I’m sorry.”

That kind of honesty, rather than weakening your relationship, might actually strengthen it. It models that being wrong isn’t the end of the world — and that love doesn’t require being right.
by geerlingguy | 2025-12-25 16:58:23+00:00
For a younger kid, a ball is often a good option.

This Christmas, after putting aside the push car, some books, and a few other little toys from the grandparents, my 1 year old has spent the past 30 minutes chasing a large beach ball one of his siblings brought up from the basement.

I can second the recommendation for magnet tiles, though; everyone in the family seems to enjoy the satisfaction of them clicking together, and finding new ways to build random stuff. The toddler just makes stacks of magnet tiles, which is fine for his development. The 8-12 year olds enjoy building relatively complex structures. Then watching the 1 year old act like Godzilla an destroy it.
by blueone | 2025-12-25 16:58:47+00:00
This isn’t about you, someone with years of experience. I also found a job within a month a year ago. Why? My experience.

My brother in law is experiencing the same thing as his daughter. He graduated with a 4.0 in computer science but couldn’t find a job to save his life. Why? It’s hard to customize your resume when you have no relevant experience. What’s he doing now? Getting his master’s. Piling on more debt. Hoping. Working on random projects, just like everyone else. Getting the occasional interview where they ask questions he has no idea how to answer because he’s never been in the situation to learn or develop a way to formulate an answer. Unprepared, despite preparing every single day. Why? Because teams have lost people due to layoffs, offshoring, etc., and now expect more from potential junior positions.

Reaching out to recruiters, hiring managers, people who work in the company/department isn’t some new thing. It’s just not working like it used to.
by amashal | 2025-12-25 16:59:49+00:00
There are a couple of reasons.

1. There is a wavelength and penetration depth trade off. For better accuracy you need smaller wavelengths (i.e. higher frequencies) but at higher frequencies ultrasound pressure gets absorbed at a higher rate, making it challenging to get the required pressure levels deeper into tissue.

2. Ultrasound focus can deflect as it travels in tissue (tissue is a non-linear material and multiple tissue types impacts wave propagation). The deeper you try to focus, the more likely that there is a deflection; thus your focus point won’t be exactly where you were planning.
by perfmode | 2025-12-25 17:00:00+00:00
You can’t fix this for her, and trying to will likely push her further away. What you can do is be a steady presence that communicates: I see you. This is real. You are not diminished by this. And I’m not going anywhere.

Don’t try to reframe it positively yet. Don’t suggest she “pivot to AI” or “try startups.” She knows the tactical advice. What she doesn’t have right now is a felt sense that she still belongs — to her family, to the future, to herself.

The absence of decorations, the quiet — I understand the impulse. But consider: the ritual of showing up for each other despite the pain is itself medicine. Not pretending things are okay. Just being together in the not-okay. It’s different from performing normalcy.
by Lord-Jobo | 2025-12-25 17:00:01+00:00
> psychology-breaking torture machine designed to eat youthful enthusiasm and ambition and spit out the dried up shell once the juice has dwindled to an arbitrary low yield.

And it shows through in the product. YouTube’s website is one of the 7 Wonders of UX Feces and they are climbing the ranks at a steady rate.
by hkpack | 2025-12-25 17:00:15+00:00
Since it is Christmas and we are talking about welcoming strangers in your house, I think we need to remember the story of the author of the most popular Christmas Carrol ("Carrol of the bells") - Mykola Leontovych.

His family was hosting a stranger in his house for the night who says he was nowhere to go, so he stayed in the room with Leontovych himself.

The stranger ended up being a Russia checkist who killed Leontovych and robbed his family. [0]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykola_Leontovych#Death
by throw123ha71 | 2025-12-25 17:00:32+00:00
So Salesforce is ahead of Microsoft in wisdom. Nadella is focusing on his grand visions again and is telling dissenters to leave:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/mic...

He also uses cultural revolution tactics and uses the young ones against the old. I imagine AI house of cards will collapse soon and he'll be remembered as the person who enshittified Windows after the board fires him.
by disgruntledphd2 | 2025-12-25 17:00:49+00:00
> Because they don't have an advantage in those areas, showing that the EU indeed doesn't actually cause any disadvantages in them.

Lots to unpack here.

So the issue is size of capital markets (for startup and IPO purposes). 27 small markets are much, much less liquid than one large one (like China or the US). Therefore, it's easier for European founders to raise US capital, which often leads to them incorporating or floating in the US. Like, Flutter (which is an Irish company) is on the US markets for exactly this reason, as are a bunch of other large Irish companies.

It would be better for the EU if these companies incorporated in the EU, for which one large capital market would work better.

And it's not that EU companies are disadvantaged vs Singaporean companies, it's that they are disadvantaged relative to US companies.

> are still a lot more integrated than if you'd pick two random non-EU countries.

I guess my point is that they're not integrated enough.
by perfmode | 2025-12-25 17:00:53+00:00
What your daughter is experiencing isn’t just disappointment. It’s the collapse of a worldview. She built her identity around a core belief: effort creates safety. That belief was scaffolding she stood on, and it just broke.

This is grief. Specifically, it’s the grief of losing trust in a covenant she thought existed between her and the world. The isolation, the crying alone, the withdrawal — these aren’t character flaws. They’re the nervous system’s response to having foundational assumptions shattered. Shame makes us hide. And when we believe we did something wrong (even when we didn’t), we hide from the people who love us most.
by ShiMo_Protocol | 2025-12-25 17:01:12+00:00
Hi HN,

I created this framework (Shi-Mo) because traditional CBT didn't work well for my racing thoughts.

I realized that emotions act a lot like background daemons in an OS. So I combined Stanislavski's acting system (Method of Physical Action) with system architecture concepts (Root User, Throttling, Circuit Breaking).

It's essentially a "wetware patch" to help regain executive control during high-stress situations.

It's open source (MIT). I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether this engineering approach to psychology makes sense to you.
by computerdork | 2025-12-25 17:02:46+00:00
Hmm, actually lines up for me at least. It was a pretty big news item a few months ago when Salesforce did this drastic reduction in their Customer Service department, and Marc Benioff raved about how great AI was (you might have just missed it):

https://www.ktvu.com/news/salesforce-ai-layoffs-marc-benioff

At the time, it was such a big deal to a lot of us because it was a signal what could eventually happen to the rest of us white collar workers.

Of course, it could still happen, as maybe AI systems just need another few years to mature before trying to fully replace jobs like this...

... although, one thing I agree with you is that there isn't much info online on these quotes from Salesforce executives, so could be made up.
by QuiEgo | 2025-12-25 17:03:25+00:00
> are not driven by prestige or a big paycheck.

I'm not sure I agree with this one, I think a lot of people are drawn to software because of the money in the same way people are drawn to being a doctor or lawyer - the job itself overlaps with their innate skills and interests __enough__, and there's the promise of good pay on top of that. I think a lot of software engineers would be in other fields if it paid badly.
by clejack | 2025-12-25 17:03:50+00:00
I can't speak to the current system because I have stepped out of it temporarily, but if you haven't done so; please tell your daughter that she is not her job nor is she the labels she places upon herself. It's tragic that she's placed so much weight on her job if she still has you supporting her.

None of the things you listed are signs of merit, they are signs of pedigree. If people recommended them here, they did so in error.

There's certainly a difference between universities, but the most important differentiators are connections (has she exhausted these) and prestige. If those aren't working for her, the only thing left is personal projects. That is the true indicator of merit in the software space.

As for specific advice, your daughter is in a similar situation to me. I graduated thinking I had did all of the right things, and that my degree (mechanical engineering) was some sort of magic ticket. I was unemployed and then underemployed for a year or two. I eventually went to a job fair and got a job as a data analyst then, finally, moved into data engineering.

Reality has shown her that there isn't always a direct path to a goal. Are there other skills she has that she could use to get meaningful or interesting work?

Tell her to explore alternate jobs outside of her field or preferred industry, build up a portfolio of projects on the side to keep her skills sharp, and keep applying to her preferred role, but now at a much slower and deliberate pace.
by estearum | 2025-12-25 17:03:56+00:00
Huh? Do you think the possible legal statuses of people in the US is either “here illegally” or “US citizen?”

My claim is quite clear: legal immigrants who have not committed any crime or administrative violations have 1) been deported, 2) without due process, and 3) to a foreign torture camp.

Any ONE of those elements is illegal with regard to legal immigrants, and items 2 and 3 are illegal even with regard solely to illegal immigrants.

Btw this is not including people whose TPS was canceled and were “made illegal” overnight, of which there are hundreds of thousands now.

https://www.cato.org/blog/50-venezuelans-imprisoned-el-salva...
by tabs_or_spaces | 2025-12-25 17:04:46+00:00
> We often hear that "people leave managers, not jobs." But sometimes, people leave jobs despite loving their managers.

There's too much sympathy given towards the manager here. Even if "the manager is really good" or "I have no problems with my manager"; part of promotions is your manager's ability to influence his leadership team. If they can't do that (after three tries no less), then they're simply not a good manager for your career at all.

> people all across the org knew me and said I was indispensable to the company and were surprised that I wasn't already at an L5/6 level .... “it’s unfortunately a no. You don’t have enough impact.”

Remember: For promotions, peoples' opinions of you means nothing if they're not decision makers. Next time, get to know the people who are decision makers and show your impact to them

There's a lot that the author is overlooking in terms of managing their career, managing their manager and understanding how companies actually work. I hope that they learn from this experience for the next job.
by hmokiguess | 2025-12-25 17:06:49+00:00
Usually jobs in established corporations have a specific goal, task, or focus that maps directly to the company's bottom-line and ROI. Research, on the other hand, requires funding and is more like an investment strategy for a company. If you want to create your job, and bridge that gap, then try and marry the two. How could the fruits of your work improve a company's bottom line?

My experience working and hiring PhDs in the past has been one that they sometimes are used to this being defined for them and/or used to applying to grants/funds in established academic environments but rarely do they think of creating the path themselves (except for some outliers). The fact that you are already thinking of that puts you in that category.

Lastly, when working at the edge of something and creating your job, be ready for this mantra: https://37signals.com/13
by netsharc | 2025-12-25 17:07:25+00:00
Warning, the following response is deeply cynical. I could just STFU, but that would be going along with the gooey intellectual dishonesty. Stop reading now if you'd rather have warmth.

Anyone else read this and feels the sincerity of an automated announcement at an airport/train station that claims "We apologize for the inconvenience."? Who's actually sorry/apologizing? Everyone working for the airport/railway? A text to speech system? Nothing?

"The universe profusely thanks you"... the universe is just atoms bouncing around, it's not doing shit.

"Your presence makes this univese immeasurably more joyful, more cheerful, more fun. The sound of your laughter shines like a ray of sunlight passing through a mountain meadow, enlightening all that it touches."

Ah, I can feel it too, as Netanyahu laughs while having some excellent dinner, after the great year he's had making the universe a more joyful place.
by throwaway078315 | 2025-12-25 17:07:27+00:00
If you take the average person who doesn’t have a mental illness and has no relationship with anyone who does, the system we have is pretty well optimized for their needs.

We balance many difficult and inherently conflicting goals, such as:

1) minimizing treatment, which is expensive and does have bad side effects

2) sufficiently good access to treatment where it’s economical for prevention

3) fear of being wrongly hospitalized (error, political motivation, etc.)

4) sufficient ability to lock other people up for frightening or violent behavior in public

It’s a tough problem, but I think the tradeoffs are managed near optimally, granting that the rights and interests of the mentally ill don’t matter at all to most public officials or voters.
by Lord-Jobo | 2025-12-25 17:07:54+00:00
They aren’t people that should be walking free, if we are being honest. Lock them up until we can get enough prison reform to genuinely try to rehabilitate them. The damage they are doing to our country is too high to hedge on this issue.

>“That’s so extreme, they just shouldn’t have power, freedom is paramount, return to normal” etc.

Sorry, too late for this. I advocated for more gentle measures 10 years ago when they were possible/plausibly effective. Just like any other infection, if you wait too long to address the problem you are forced towards extreme action. Or death. No third option.
by ohmyai | 2025-12-25 17:08:02+00:00
Thanks! really appreciate it! Shortly: We're trying to turn LACE into a curiosity engine instead of another note graveyard.

Right now you can clip fragments from the web, LACE auto-organises them into evolving research threads, builds a concept graph + summaries, and lets you chat with your own library (find bridge connections, pull related papers, or turn a cluster into an essay draft).

Where we're going: more “emergent” behaviour – high-signal rabbit holes (papers, videos, posts) based on what you’re actually working on, plus light collaboration so people can share drafts and reading lists around a question. The idea is that LACE keeps organising and resurfacing things for you, on the right time, instead of you fighting with folders/tags in Obsidian/Notion.

If that sounds fun, I'd love it if you can give it a spin and give us feedback. I'm on https://x.com/oyayla_ - if you can DM me I can also invite you to our Telegram group.
by jacquesm | 2025-12-25 17:08:44+00:00
It never works. You always just get the digital equivalent of a runaround and there simply isn't a human in the loop to take over when the AI botches it (again). So I gave up trying, this crap should not be deployed unless it works at least as good as a person. You can't force people to put up with junk implementations of otherwise good ideas in the hope that one day you'll get it right, customer service should be a service because on the other end of the line is someone with a very high probability of being already dissatisfied with your company and/or your product. For me this is not negotiable, if my time is less valuable to you, the company, than it is to actually put someone on to help then my money will go somewhere else.
by __float | 2025-12-25 17:08:49+00:00
I work in a large Sorbet codebase (though it isn't a Rails one) and it's a huge boon IMO. The number of tests we don't need to write because of Sorbet is really nice.

It does occasionally require structuring your code differently, but I find the type-system-encouraged approach often gives a more elegant and harder-to-misuse interface in the end.
by asmor | 2025-12-25 17:09:30+00:00
A Framework 13. I haven't replaced it yet.

And you missed the point. I believed in the "mission" of Framework. That was my primary motivation to buy one. But their stance here is not compatible with that. So I may as well buy a product that has more practical upsides for me. You know, when I actually have to replace my 7840U. Probably not anytime soon.
by cowboylowrez | 2025-12-25 17:09:31+00:00
your alerts seemed to have worked if you got one alert right? I used to work with situation alerts, and the "one alert" thing is a trap, you miss one and you're done. I coded alert recaps, alert reminders, custom scheduling etc etc, if you have opportunity for getting alerts, don't write them off because you got just a single alert, stop counting on perfectly response to a single alert and lean into multiple alerts wherever possible. take care of the human tasked with responding to alertable situations, we're imperfect error prone blobs of protoplasm lol