MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by bombdailer | 2026-01-13 20:51:53+00:00
The making of art is a personal experience, and the beholding of art is another type of personal experience. If we suggest that the two can be separated such that we can behold art without knowledge of the production of it, well I would consider that wrong. There is a reason each piece in a museum is given a plaque telling its medium and brief background. This is because the meaning of a piece is derived from its context and cannot be separated from it without making art an arbitrary sensory stimuli.

The issue with the reduction of art to experience is that it ignore that our knowledge shapes our experience, and so the more we know about an artist and their process, the more different our experience of their art will be.

If one sees the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, they might not think much of it if all they know is that it's very popular. Another who knows why the Mona Lisa is particularly popular, because of its historic theft, has a different experience of it. And the person who knows of Da Vinci's life, who has read his journals, knows of his elaborate painting process and sophisticated details and meaning supplied in his paintings, why that person derives much more joy out of the work than one who merely sees it as a visual appearance producing merely a arbitrary liking/disliking.

Perhaps you might enjoy an AI composed track, but would you not enjoy it more if instead that track were human produced, particularly if you held more knowledge of the people making it?

As for meaning living in the reader, that cannot be true, for a person can find meaning in tea leaves or moving clouds. True meaning, as intentional, is not derived, but supplied, and it is the goal of every reader to behold the authors vision. That one fashions a different interpretation for themselves over the authors intentions is of necessity, for no two minds will see alike, but to look only for the reflection of oneself in art and not look beyond, why that is the death of art, for art is the revelation of the soul.
by singingbard | 2026-01-13 20:52:00+00:00
This took me a long time to work through:

1. People’s beliefs are strongly shaped by upbringing and social environment.

2. A belief feeling “natural” or common does not make it correct or benign.

3. What’s most commendable is the effort to examine and revise inherited beliefs, especially when they cause harm.

4. This framework lets me understand how any individual arrived at their views without endorsing those views.

I think this is why responses often split: some treat explanation as endorsement, others don’t. Both reactions are understandable, but the tension disappears once you treat explanation and moral evaluation as separate and compatible steps.
by bigwheels | 2026-01-13 20:52:05+00:00
To be clear: TFA is a thinly veiled legal services advertisement ("submarine" in HN parlance), so "dominated" is probably not the right word.

Acknowledging this, the fact is "influencers" are now becoming a relevant fraction of applicants. Fixating on the word "dominating" is probably a tad overly pedantic.
by michaelt | 2026-01-13 20:52:19+00:00
Generally the idiom "like family" implies very close and durable bonds of friendship and loyalty. That you'd drive several hours to help them bury a body, if they asked.

The idiomatic use is a much higher standard than literal family - members of the same family can hate each other.

As jchallis used the idiomatic term in the latter, more literal sense, I can understand people getting confused.
by pc86 | 2026-01-13 20:52:23+00:00
> > Does Brad Marshall mention that Palmitic acid is the dominant fatty acid in tallow? And since Palmitic acid is the most abundant SFA in the U.S. diet, can we draw a conclusion that it may partially play a role in poor health outcomes?

I don't know the answer to question #1 but the answer to question #2 is "no, we cannot draw that conclusion" because of the fallacy of composition.
by jborean93 | 2026-01-13 20:52:26+00:00
That's the thing, you don't have to :) While I think uv is a great tool and highly recommend it, you are more than welcome to use any of the other build backends or package management tools that fit your workstyle. By having these packaging PEPs (amongst) others, the ecosystem has been able to try out different approaches and most likely over time will consolidate on specific ones that work better than the others.
by btown | 2026-01-13 20:52:49+00:00
Among professional-ready DAWs, as far as I know, it's unique in its approach. Pro Tools and FL Studio still don't have score rendering or even MusicXML export! Reaper has limited score rendering/engraving support, but minimal customizability.

And on the notation-oriented side, you have things like MuseScore, Finale, etc. where there is an event model, but the UI itself doesn't have mature (or any) support for tracking mixer/knob automation (outside of what can be derived automatically from dynamic symbols).

Years ago, I used Logic in a musical theater context where I could build a constantly-updated demo for pitching/rehearsals/live-iteration and edit the final orchestration to be printed for the pit orchestra, both from the same living document. Could I have duplicated my changes in a DAW and notation software separately, and kept them in sync manually? Absolutely, and many creators do. But there's something special about having that holy grail at your fingertips.
by BrandoElFollito | 2026-01-13 20:53:33+00:00
I work in IT and I've seen it all.

Well until my family was adopted (and enslaved) by a cat who walked in one day and never left.

Windows 11 having a full screen countdown I've never heard about? Check

A key combination that disables the keyboard? Check

The disabled magnifier that shows up anyway, but now with a setting that forces to to hard boot because you see nothing? Check

I do not mention the 90 or 180° rotation of the screen, a switch of the keyboard and display to Turkish and others.

This cat is an IT desease.
by labcomputer | 2026-01-13 20:54:21+00:00
> Any idea why swapping didn't pan out for Tesla?

~~Two~~ Three things:

1. California changed the rules shortly after Tesla demonstrated their swap station, which practically eliminated the tax credit for battery swap (at the behest of lobbyists for Toyota, who were backing Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology). Specifically, the credit would be prorated by the percent of “fast refueling” sessions a car did, so EVs primarily charged at home received almost nothing while HFCV got the full credit. Building swap capability adds complexity to the car (think about all the fluid connections), which isn’t worth it without credits.

2. It was also around this time that a Model S ran over an anvil (or something) which punctured the pack and started a fire. In response, Tesla added an aluminum battery shield, which further complexifies swapping and was probably the final nail in the coffin.

3. The logistics of storing your very expensive battery (so you could get it back later) basically make the system unworkable. When the Tesla swap station at Harris Ranch (you can still see the former building, next to Harris BBQ, which currently houses the restrooms) was operational, you had to make a reservation some hours in advance so that Tesla could have a pack ready and be ready to take your pack to/from storage.

3a. Gresham’s Law. Without eventually returning the pack to the original owner, there is an adverse selection problem: people with very weak packs will gladly roll the dice on a swap, but those with brand new packs are reluctant. So the average quality of packs in the swap network will quickly decline creating a death spiral.

3b. You could probably fix 3a by leasing the battery (or selling battery-as-a-service) but car buyers mostly don’t like that, especially back in 2013.
by foldr | 2026-01-13 20:54:39+00:00
No, but it serves as a sense check on the other data. If the official stats were bogus and crime were spiraling out of control in London, it would be somewhat surprising to see homicides going down. The fact that one of the most objectively measurable crimes is going down lends some additional credibility to the statistics indicating that this trend is also being seen across other crime categories.
by cwoolfe | 2026-01-13 20:54:46+00:00
This is a good question. Many of us work out of blind habit or to support a lifestyle we didn't consciously choose. Asking this question can lead to freedom, no matter how much money you have and no matter whether you work or not, because its a question that leads to living deliberately. Which I am all for. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
by yellowapple | 2026-01-13 20:54:56+00:00
I think a key factor there is that programmers (in the actual sense, rather than so-called “vibe coders”) are more likely on average than (current) artists and musicians to have intimate knowledge of how AI works and what AI can and can't do well — and consequently, the quality of their output is high enough that it's harder to notice the use of AI.

Eventually that'll change, as artists and musicians continue to experiment with AI and come up with novel uses for it, just as digital artists did with tablets and digital painting software, and just as musicians did with keyboards and DAWs.
by parasti | 2026-01-13 20:54:59+00:00
Been using git since 2008, and this looks more intimidating than helpful. git rebase takes a list of patches and applies them one by one on top of a given "base" commit. And that's it. It's not all this complicated git command soup. It's just patches. No objects, no sha1s, no metadata, no branches, just literal textual diffs applied in order. It's the dumbest and also one of the most powerful things about git if you care at all about a readable history. If you don't, that's fine, but in some circles, e.g. most (if not all) open source projects, patch management and history hygiene is a very important part of good collaboration.
by fkfkafjfjk | 2026-01-13 20:55:04+00:00
Both assertions display an offensive level of detachment and ignorance.

> Federal minimum wage is a strawman in large cities.

I did first mention city minimum wage, and only referenced federal minimum wage after to drive the point that federally this discrepancy is even more grotesque.

States with "large cities" that use the federal minimum wage:

> Five states have not adopted a state minimum wage: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Three states, Georgia, Oklahoma and Wyoming, have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour. In all eight of these states, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour generally applies.

https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage...

> I'm in a medium cost of living city and I doubt I could find a minimum wage job listing if I tried.

Tell me your city and I will find you a minimum wage job posting.
by eZinc | 2026-01-13 20:55:08+00:00
A trope is a trope because it is commonly true for long periods of time. This proves nothing.

Cycles exist, and there can be periods of time where there is true passion in an industry followed by lack thereof.

A boom and bust economic system guarantees that there will always be times where a ton of "normies" enter tech who just want a paycheck during booms.
by jgord | 2026-01-13 20:55:14+00:00
Investors are not investing in small startups much, perhaps due to high interest rates.

Now is a great time to invest in small startups applying ML to realworld problems, and will result in a lot of useful new tech being built.

Id make a lot of small bets on early stage startups of this kind - and perhaps top up when they get a POC and at MVP / early traction stage.

It would almost be worth buying a building in Danang Vietnam, and hosting small teams for 3m at a time to get more bang for your buck - ie. rent arbitrage / quadruple the effective runway due to low cost of living.
by lossyalgo | 2026-01-13 20:55:18+00:00
It may be a tedious job to spend days rotoscoping but I personally know people who get paid to do that, and as soon as AI can do it, they will have to go find other work (which they already do, on the side, because the writing is on the wall, but there's a ton of people worldwide who do this kind of work, and that's not the only process being delegated to AI).
by tshaddox | 2026-01-13 20:55:21+00:00
> To be fair, the new opt-in "use strict" here is "switch to Temporal"

Yes, but adding an entire new API that solves way more date-related problems is obviously much more difficult than fixing a very clear and well-understood bug. Temporal is only just now starting to ship, over 15 years after this bug was introduced and over 10 years since they decided to never fix the bug.
by raymond_goo | 2026-01-13 20:55:36+00:00
So like slavery? The thing once considered good?

I am not the standard, that's my whole point.

The world does not agree on what is good and bad.

That's the problem.

Truths and morals have changed for all of human history.

Some people still think the earth is flat.

Some people still think, raping captured women (what the right hand possesses) is good.
by noahbp | 2026-01-13 20:55:55+00:00
https://x.com/nickgerli1/status/2006872715316121750

Permitting reform made Austin, Texas the second-most affordable city in America by rent to income ratio.

>There are neighborhoods full of affordable new construction houses not far from where I live. They sell slowly because people would rather live in the popular areas.

Mortgage rates rose and property prices have not yet fallen to match reality. I would bet that this is a much stronger factor in preventing those new homes from selling rather than buyers simply having a preference for different neighborhoods.
by Tycho | 2026-01-13 20:56:02+00:00
> “deeply off the rails”

How sheltered are you people? Scott Adams was a pretty standard non-woke boomer. Do you think that just because you don’t hear certain opinions in the workplace or the faculty or the Atlantic podcast, that they aren’t widely held by members of the public? Do you think everyone’s into DEI, BLM, trans-rights, multi-culturalism etc?
by seanmcdirmid | 2026-01-13 20:56:09+00:00
> that is its always Iran/China bad and at the same time they Kidnap a foreign leader and its all wow look how great we are.

If you think American news is weird, you should try reading Chinese news. English ones like China Daily or globaltimes.cn, I would read it a lot when I was in China since American news sources were blocked.

It has gotten better since 2002, but is still pretty bizarre in how they frame conflicts. Forget CNN-level bias, they have FoxNews-level bias in how they do the news.
by ToucanLoucan | 2026-01-13 20:56:18+00:00
> That's normal for any kind of creative work. Some days it just happens quickly, other days you keep trying and trying and nothing works.

For me, the artist, sure. I've not yet had a day where Affinity Photo just doesn't have the juice, and I don't see the appeal. Photoshop, for all it's faults, doesn't have bad days.

That's the difference between the artist and the artists' tool. A difference so obvious I feel somewhat condescending pointing it out.

> I spent some of the 90s and 00s making digital art. There was a lot of hostility to Photoshop then, and a lot of "That's not really art." ... But I found that if I allowed myself to experiment, the output still had a unique personality and flavour which wasn't defined by the tool.

"People were wrong about a completely different thing" isn't the slam dunk counterpoint you think it is.

Also as someone else in that space at that time, I genuinely haven't the slightest idea what you mean about photoshop not being real art. I knew (and was an) artists at that time, we used Photoshop (of questionable legality but still) and I never heard this at all.

> The requirement for interesting art is producing something that's unique. AI makes that harder,

Understatement of the year.

> The reality is that most hand-made art is an unconscious mash-up of learned signifiers mediated by some kind of technique. AI-made art mechanises the mash-up, but it's still up to the creator to steer the process to somewhere interesting.

The difference is the lack of intent. A "person" mashes up what resonates with them (positively or negatively) and from those influences, and from the broader cultures they exist in, creates new and interesting things.

AI is fundamentally different. It is a mash up of an average mean of every influence in the entire world, which is why producing unique things is difficult. You're asking for exceptional things from an average machine (mathematical sense not quality sense.).
by notnullorvoid | 2026-01-13 20:56:38+00:00
No one knows what the actual "right way" to hold (prompt) an LLM is. A certain style or pattern to prompting may work in one scenario for one LLM, but change the scenario or model and it often loses any advantage and can give worse output than a different style/pattern.

In contrast table saws and cars have pretty clear rules of operation.
by owenversteeg | 2026-01-13 20:56:45+00:00
Well said. The credit is with the model; you commissioned it but did not create it.

With AI art... there is no passion, there is no pain, there is no emotion, there is no sex, there is no feeling, there is no reason. When Blaze Foley sang If I Could Only Fly or Nina Simone sang Stars or Bardot sang Je t'aime or Morricone wrote Se telefonando or Vermeer painted Zicht op Delft or Orozco painted his Epic of American Civilization or Maugham wrote Of Human Bondage or Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead or Cheever wrote The Swimmer there was a magnificent concentration of real feeling and a real reason that each of these things were made.

Could you imagine someone prompting a model, receiving the result, and then writing, as Cheever did about The Swimmer:

>It was a terribly difficult story to write. I couldn't ever show my hand. Night was falling, the year was dying. It wasn't a question of technical problems, but one of imponderables. When he finds it dark and cold, it has to have happened. And by God, it did happen. I felt dark and cold for some time after I finished that story.
by shimman | 2026-01-13 20:56:48+00:00
Most code people interact with are creations shat out by soulless corporations, why would they care? Being honest here, the vast majority of people have their code experience dictated by less than a handful of companies; at their jobs they are told to use these tools or get file for welfare. The animosity has been baked into the industry for quite a while, it's only very very recently that the masses have been able to interact with open source code and even that is getting torn down by big tech.

Compare this to music where you are free to choose and listen to whatever you want, or stare at art that moves you. IF you don

At work most people are force to deal with code like SalesForce or MSFT garbage, not the same experience at all.

Why would people care about code coming from an industry that has been bleeding them dry and making their society worse for nearly 20+ years?
by tempsaasexample | 2026-01-13 20:56:55+00:00
So what? It's written by humans, and those people are just as human as you. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean they are wrong.

There are a billion Muslims that worship a guy that married a prepubescent child. Who are you to say that they are wrong to do so? Or that not liking a group of people (like you are doing yourself) is wrong?
by phkahler | 2026-01-13 20:57:06+00:00
Not sure why people like the bay area so much. Move someplace else and retire. Most anywhere in the US is going to be dramatically cheaper.

Buy a summer place on a lake in the Midwest for under 200k. Get a winter place somewhere warmer, since the weather must be what people like about CA. We have tons of retirees doing this with well under $10M.
by rchaud | 2026-01-13 20:57:16+00:00
It's in Chapter 1 of his autobiography. He used to work at a bank in the 80s, and was turned down for a managerial or executive position (can't remember) which went to an Asian candidate. He was certain it was due to DEI (in the 80s!) and quit the corporate world to become a cartoonist.

The strip that got him dropped in 2022 featured a black character (first in the history of the cartoon) who "identifies as white".
by al_borland | 2026-01-13 20:57:21+00:00
I ran across this[0] post about a month ago, which makes an argument against the chronological blog, and to rather embrace the digital garden. I quite liked the idea. For so long it's felt like a blog is the default, but I find browsing pages without a blog much more interesting. I think it also removes that pressure to post all the time, as adding content is simply adding content. It doesn't matter when it was last updated. Looking at my history (which I had to use to find this), I deleted all my started and abandoned blogs the same day I read this.

edit... Ironically, I just clicked "All Articles" on his home page and it's a chronological blog... At least there is some curation to it.

[0] https://joelhooks.com/digital-garden/
by troupo | 2026-01-13 20:57:21+00:00
No one in these threads ever discusses how you would identify and remove AI-generated music.

E.g. how is this worse and needs to be removed: https://youtu.be/L3Uyfnp-jag?si=SL4Jc4qeEXVgUpeC but crap that top pop artists vomit out into the world doesn't
by m3047 | 2026-01-13 20:57:30+00:00
I'm over 65 and I'm fabbing a ladder to permanently install on my high-aspect roof at the moment (out of iron. drilling, cutting, bending, welding, threading rods, oh my!). I'll get to install it myself, too. Every few years I get out a credit card and rent a 40' (overkill!) Z-lift for a week, it's much better than working on ladders for anything major, like repairing / replacing fascia or installing wire cloth over the gutters: America, gotta love it. And there's no OSHA inspector to worry about when you're the property owner as well as equipment operator.

I view it as exercise. If people don't need me to prep their data or fix their internet plumbing, I have other things to do (and it's possible someone will see the work and I get a side gig, it's happened before).

Ironically yesterday I was stapling wire cloth at the top of the stairs on the wooden deck because it gets slippery.

It is hard to find good handy help. They "repaired" a gutter by nailing it to the crown moulding, which is not structural (resulting in the failure of the fascia, but I digress); repaired copper supply lines with plastic; didn't tighten a slip ring on a sewer trap in the crawlspace. We just had a new roof put on, and overall they did a competent job but there is one leak, coming from a problem we explicitly paid them to solve, and getting that fixed is going real slow. The guy responsible for that aspect is obviously not a native english speaker; OTOH we prevailed on them to install some overhangs, and the carpenter worked with us and allowed us to paint the decking / sheathing / soffit which would be exposed before it was installed. During one of my burnouts I worked as an estimator for a high-end wood flooring company; literally over half of our competition was illegal, unlicensed, and sometimes part of an acknowledged criminal enterprise (not totally throwing shades at people who aren't from here, we had five crews and the Italian and the former Russian physicist (beautiful inlay work!) crew leads were class acts). But I digress.

I've done crazy shit my whole life, my dad died scuba diving at 52 (cause of death was inconclusive) but his brother lived into his 90s. A couple of years ago my father-in-law died after a fall; he was taking photographs in a park. Somehow when he fell he broke his neck; could have been a stroke, but he never really stabilized enough to find out, was dead within a week. He was in his 80s.