MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by throw0101d | 2026-01-14 21:00:59+00:00
> The physical size of charmin changed during the pandemic.

This is generlly taken into account. From StatCan, who publishes Canada's CPI numbers:

> 7.10 Quantity adjustment entails accounting for changes in the quantity (e.g. package size, number of tissue ply, etc.) of observed POs. This is another implicit method of quality adjustment because it is assumed that the quality per standardized unit is the same over time.

> 7.11 Quantity adjustment is the default treatment for nearly all of the POs in the food major aggregate as well as some of the products in the household operations, and personal care supplies and equipment aggregates.

* https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/62-553-x/2023001/chap-7-...

* https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/62-553-X
by queuebert | 2026-01-14 21:01:04+00:00
There is no a priori reason why a bunch of meatbags would have the ability to test all laws of physics of this universe. I think we may have gotten lucky for a while there. String theory is so far out there that a new methodology has been developed, namely using beauty or symmetry or Occam's Razor to choose between competing theories. None of these have the pedigree of empiricism, but they may also not be wrong. I hope some aesthetic could be applied to the laws of the universe, but that is also not at all guaranteed.
by TomasBM | 2026-01-14 21:01:09+00:00
In addition to other great suggestions (a good night's sleep being #1), two things come to mind:

- Write down thoughts that pop-up and seem potentially useful, and then forget about them. It's easier said than done, but you have to balance "this may seem useful later" with "I got better things to do now". For me, knowing I have the idea recorded somewhere puts my mind at ease.

- Feel free to just get rid of accumulated browser tabs, random to-do's or even mental notes. If you always have multiple things open, do a hard reset every now and then. It's difficult to let go at first, but you may realize that if an idea was really worth entertaining, it will come back to you. No great contribution is the result of one single thought, IMO.

Note: I lean closer to scattered attention than AD(H)D, because it doesn't affect my normal functioning. Sure, it gets progressively more annoying when deadlines are looming, but it also provides a great source of creativity.
by grayhatter | 2026-01-14 21:01:22+00:00
I agree with echelon; don't apologize. I'm not objecting to the message, only to the framing.

How to create more code I can enjoy using has been something that I've been thinking about for a long time. I've even advocated for a stance[0], similar to yours. While I don't agree it's correct to conflate the malign intent surrounding the xz takeover, with the banal ignorance as to why so many people don't want to support people creating cool things, (and here I don't just mean financial support.) I do acknowledge there are plenty of things about the current state we could fix with a bit more money.

But I don't want open source software to fall down the rabbit hole of expectations. Just as much as I agree with you, people opting-in to supporting the people they depend on is problematic. Equally I think the idea that OSS should move towards a transactional kind of relationship is just as bad. If too many people start expecting, I gave you money, now you do the thing. I worry that will toxify what is currently, (at least from my opinionated and stubborn POV), a healthier system, where expectations aren't mandatory.

The pocket base FAQ, and your hint towards burnout are two good examples, describing something feel is bad, and would like to avoid. But they are ones I feel are much easier to avoid with the framing of "this work was a gift". I have before, and will again walk away from a project because I was bored of it. I wouldn't be able to do so if I was accepting money for the same. And that's what leads to burn out.

I do want the world your describing (assuming you can account for the risks inherent into creating a system with a financial incentive to try to game/cheat), but I don't want that world to be the default expectation.

[0] https://gr.ht/2023/07/15/donations-accepted.html
by sejje | 2026-01-14 21:01:28+00:00
I mostly use YouTube without ads, and with sponsorblock, so a similar experience.

I think YouTube shorts is exactly the experience we're talking about. And the youth watch it by scrolling up, not by selecting shorts that look interesting.

I resisted shorts for a long time, but I watch them now as well. Prefer them, even.

The fact we're not seeing ads, and that the comments are atrocious content, is irrelevant--our attention spans are at stake, not our wallets.
by thewebguyd | 2026-01-14 21:01:36+00:00
The problem with e-ID is its focused on identity verification, not just age verification and that's where the problem lies.

We still need the ability to be psuedoanonymous online. We should be able to verify age without divulging any identifying information to the service requesting age verification.

An e-ID registry could work on a sort of public/private key system so long as the services requesting informatino from the registry only receives a yes or no of "is this person old enough" and no further information.
by stevenalowe | 2026-01-14 21:01:39+00:00
Real musicians play real instruments, not synthesizers

Real musicians play real instruments, not samples

Real musicians play real instruments, not AI-generated slop

All of the above is bullshit y’all

Real musicians play with anything they want.

Bandcamp’s first policy will become an enforcement nightmare in the short term and irrelevant the long term.

I’m still waiting for someone to create something really good with AI - meaningful, impactful, emotionally gripping - not just novelties. Same problem as AI text slop - by the nature of its training, it regresses to the mean

Also: how much time/effort/money one spends creating art is unrelated to quality. Spending 40 hours recording and producing a mediocre song does not make it “better” than a mediocre song generated in a few seconds by AI or any other tool
by nosuchthing | 2026-01-14 21:01:57+00:00
The Tragedy of the Commons has long been discredited by the noble winning game theorist Elinor Ostrom and her research of numerous case studies on the commons, and how people coordinate for collective resilence and prosperity (through rules and by auditing and retaliating against abusers and selfish exploiters)

The infamous "tragedy of the commons" rational resource optimization game is often cited as justification for machiavellian exploitation, but humans being social creatures are subject to reputations, and have sophisticated methods of communication, cooperation, reputation, trust, accountability, auditing, and retaliation capabilities. [1] [2]

Elinor Ostrom's "Rules, games, and common-pool resources" and Robert Axelrod's work "The Evolution of Cooperation" both explain game theory in the context of human scale realities. Of particular interest to the hacker community would be Ostrom's Common Pool Resource principles, which are totally applicable to the way we form communities anywhere. Decenteralized or in any form.

At the core of game theory and human civilization is communication and trust. The abuse of mass media to manipulate populations knows the power of communication and cultural narratives, and we're in a new enclosure [3] [4] of the commons and as media communication networks are being used to exploit through "hypernormalization" and "accelerationism" [5][6][7][8]

For a better applicable human scale game theory primer, check out Bruce Schneier's (yes, the same legendary cryptographer Bruce), "Liars and Outliers"

[1] https://ncase.me/trust/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom#Design_principle...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything

[5] on Cybernetics and the 20th century "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" by Adam Curtis https://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-lov...

[6] on propaganda and 20th century culture "The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-century-of-the-self/

[7] on the hyperreal news and the use of crisis to manipulate populations and normalize a polycrisis - "Hypernormalization" by Adam Curtis https://thoughtmaybe.com/hypernormalisation/

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism
by tshaddox | 2026-01-14 21:02:22+00:00
> Does the US currently allow immigrants who are likely to become a "public charge"?

Providing evidence that the applicant is unlikely to become a public charge is an important part of most visa and green card applications. Form I-864 is an Affidavit of Support where a sponsor (usually the family member or employer sponsoring the visa or green card) promises to financially support the applicant.

If the U.S. really does have a problem with lots of visa and green card holders becoming public charges, it's not because their application process doesn't directly address the issue.
by cameldrv | 2026-01-14 21:03:56+00:00
I don't get this attitude. Everyone criticizes auto companies for not making a small truck anymore, and then Ford comes out with the Maverick and then you say it doesn't have enough towing capacity. It can tow 4000 lbs. That covers a whole lot of use cases. It also has a payload capacity of 1500 lbs which is quite respectable for a small truck. As for FWD vs. RWD, who cares? How does that affect your ability to move things around?

Really the only thing I think you can ding it for is the small bed. It used to be that trucks this size would have a regular cab or an extended cab with the two tiny side facing seats, and they would have a longer bed. With the tailgate down you can still move sheet goods with a Maverick though.
by A_D_E_P_T | 2026-01-14 21:04:00+00:00
Dude, working for other people basically sucks.

If you're really hard up and have zero ideas, you can freelance as a software developer on Fiverr or something. (Lots of web app & SAAS work there.) You'd need to undercut the Indians and Pakistanis who are all over the platform, but at least it's honest work in the field of your choice.

In the meantime, and as your main gig, found a startup. There's so much going on right now, so many opportunities just waiting for somebody to grab them, that with some initiative and resolve you really can't go wrong. I'd be happy to help, if you're interested.
by tolerance | 2026-01-14 21:04:08+00:00
If this were to take effect with the bulk of social life taking place digitally we can expect minimum voting ages to be decreased the same and in the case of the US, the age of consent for sex to be standardized in the same direction too with a deemphasis on 18 as the de facto minimum at the cultural level.

And we can expect 15 year olds to hit the workforce full-time around then too I reckon. Or younger. Imagine 9 year olds stowed away in Waymo taxi trunks with socket wrenches and cyberdecks.
by bscphil | 2026-01-14 21:04:09+00:00
I do think it's vastly superior to preferential treatment for some traffic, which seems to be the most popular alternative. The one caveat is that ISPs need to be forced to be transparent about this. Often, with cell providers, it's "Unlimited 5G" advertised, with a tiny asterisk pointing to even tinier disclaimer text at the bottom explaining that they throttle your rates once you hit a (fairly low) cutoff. That type of misleading marketing undercuts the fairness of the offer.
by dontwannahearit | 2026-01-14 21:04:19+00:00
This too shall pass.

In 2050 people will say "Do you remember social media?" and someone will say "Oh yeah, those online systems where everything you said was used to build a marketing profile of you? Where every picture you posted of your girlfriend / wife / sister / daughter / aunt / grandmother or child was taken by some weirdo and turned into porn? Where our kids hung out and were radicalized by fanatics and foreign powers?"

"Oh yeah, whatever happened to them?"
by Tazerenix | 2026-01-14 21:04:41+00:00
> If, then, it is true that the axiomatic basis of theoretical physics cannot be extracted from experience but must be freely invented, can we ever hope to find the right way? Nay, more, has this right way any existence outside our illusions? Can we hope to be guided safely by experience at all when there exist theories (such as classical mechanics) which to a large extent do justice to experience, without getting to the root of the matter? I answer without hesitation that there is, in my opinion, a right way, and that we are capable of finding it. Our experience hitherto justifies us in believing that nature is the realisation of the simplest conceivable mathematical ideas. I am convinced that we can discover by means of purely mathematical constructions the concepts and the laws connecting them with each other, which furnish the key to the understanding of natural phenomena. Experience may suggest the appropriate mathematical concepts, but they most certainly cannot be deduced from it. Experience remains, of course, the sole criterion of the physical utility of a mathematical construction. But the creative principle resides in mathematics. In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.

- Albert Einstein
by rvz | 2026-01-14 21:04:50+00:00
Exfiltrated without a Pwn2Own in 2 days of release and 1 day before my comment [0], despite "sandboxes", "VMs", "bubblewrap" and "allowlists".

Exploited with a basic prompt injection attack. Prompt injection is the new RCE.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46601302
by wasmainiac | 2026-01-14 21:05:20+00:00
Honestly part of the reason why I left my last job was because I had to extensively work with GitHub workflows and actions. Debugging was absolutely hell, especially with long running tasks (~1hr) that would fail with next to no debug or traceability. I offered many times to overhaul the system and make it easier to maintain, but we had no time budget. I now work for 30% less but am substantially happier in life without github. It sounds crazy, but I’m not exaggerating.
by datahack | 2026-01-14 21:05:34+00:00
This is a case study in the failure of product market fit.

There is tons of room for a low cost, high quality small electric or hybrid pickup in today’s market.

Ford Maverick sales have been exceptionally strong, setting records in 2025 with 155,051 units sold in the US of A, up almost a fifth from last year.

Tesla needs to make a product that people want, and continuing to try to sell one they don’t want just won’t work. Why not pivot and build the truck people are asking for? Otherwise, this program will fail.
by phatfish | 2026-01-14 21:05:40+00:00
I see lots of claims about governments using age gating to "track" people, but no evidence. Your last point about uploading ID documents to random online services (which i agree is a privacy risk) would be solved with a government digital ID.

That is never going to happen it seems, as -- in the UK at least -- people go crazy whenever it is mentioned. Despite "the government" having the ability to track whatever they wanted already, should they care to.

Age gating discussions always devolve into some fantasy land were people are arguing for children to have access to porn and other inappropriate material, and happily construct some straw man where age gates lead to censorship for everyone.

If your government wanted to censor the internet they can do it without age gates. As a parent I am happy to have society agree on some basic rules around what children can do online, as there are rules on what children can do in the real world.

Yes, I know all the come back arguments about how it is my responsibility as a parent. Don't worry, I will be responsible for what my children do online when they are older. But in the end a society raises children, and society should agree a limit on what children can be exposed to online.
by DennisAleynikov | 2026-01-14 21:06:16+00:00
Thanks for making this blog post, very informative!

I've found as well that while you can run agents with a lot of tools and set them free autonomously they tend not to be prompted correctly by default to not get enormously stuck and do really dumb things along the way.

Never open pandoras box without understanding the implications and principle of least privilege and trust apply at every layer of the equation now
by general1465 | 2026-01-14 21:06:22+00:00
I am kinda using LLM for code generation, but the moment I will have the chance (Smaller models or cheaper hardware), I am hosting it locally, because I don't want to give anyone my data.

Currently I am solving this problem by having like 6 AI services and drip-feeding each one with a little bit of problem so there is no context apparent from the queries.
by tracker1 | 2026-01-14 21:06:51+00:00
My biggest issue with work visas is they're treated as an under-class that literally competes at upwards of half the pay or less and used to suppress wages. Especially in the past 5 years.

I'd like to see a 100% tax on Visa workers combined with salary floors per work classification. A tech worker that needs to be imported from another country shouldn't be paid less than 6 figures IMO, and depending on the position upwards of twice that. The tax itself should specifically be used to fund grants for STEM undergrads and graduates.

Just my own take on this, and I do have a personal stake and took a 40% pay cut last year just to be able to keep working.
by joshuamorton | 2026-01-14 21:07:02+00:00
This isn't really indexing in the same way that the CPI is indexing.

Alice pulls medians from other surveys (so it uses what I assume to be CPI food and CPI housing data, though they may also use other things), and then includes childcare and healthcare costs with some (imo) pretty painful assumptions, and then tacks on a random 10% "misc" category. It does a good job of creating a very high estimate of costs. As one example, I looked at the housing cost for an suburb I'm familiar with, and it lists the housing cost for a single individual as nearly $1800, you can pretty easily find 1BR apartments for 1-1.2K in that area, and utilities aren't going to run $600/mo, and you can pretty easily go cheaper.

And then again after doing that it tacks on a "misc" 10% budget item. I wouldn't call it a good estimate of "what people really need" and also it consumes the basket of goods, it doesn't compare to it.
by JohnFen | 2026-01-14 21:07:40+00:00
I think this is a truly terrible idea. First, headstones in graveyards are the opposite of offensive. They're memorials. That they're physical and long-lasting are important parts of that.

It would also require loved ones to have smartphones (not everyone does) and to run a particular app (which is intrusive) in order to honor their deceased. It means that there will be living people excluded.

> without disrespecting the graves

I think it would be disrespecting the graves to do this.

> rather than constantly in your face.

If people are so offended by headstones (I suspect few are), they can just not go to graveyards.
by danaris | 2026-01-14 21:07:47+00:00
Except that something effectively equivalent to spam filters will be utterly ineffective here.

Spam filters

- mitigate the symptom (our inboxes being impossible to trawl through for real emails)

- reduce the incentive (because any spam mail that isn't seen by a human being reduces the chances they'll profit from their spamming)

- but does not affect the resource consumption directly (because the email has already been sent through the internet)

Now, this last point barely matters with spam, because sending email requires nearly no resources.

With LLM-training scraper bots, on the other hand, the symptom is the resource consumption. By the time you see their traffic to try to filter it, it's already killing your server. The best you can hope to do is recognize their traffic after a few seconds of firehose and block the IP address.

Then they switch to another one. You block that. They switch to another one.

Residential IPs. Purchased botnet IPs. Constantly rotating IPs.

Unlike spam, there's no reliable way to block an LLM bot that you haven't seen yet, because the only thing that tells you it's a bot is their existing pattern of behavior. And the only unique identifier you can get for them is their IP address.

So how, exactly, are we supposed to filter them effectively, while also allowing legitimate users to access our sites? Especially small-time sites that don't make any money, and thus can't afford to buy CloudFlare or similar protection?
by stared | 2026-01-14 21:07:57+00:00
Well, it is a surprisingly natural path from Quantum Field Theory (QFT). So many things we get for free (primarily: gravitation), I would be surprised if it were just a random coincidence.

Yet, no one knows how to turn it into an actual theory in physics. It feels like we had QFT but weren't able to create the Standard Model.

It is, obviously, possible that the String Theory framework is just too broad. Or that it is in principle true, but we reached a level where it is too hard. Or it is just a step in the right direction, but we are missing something.

Given the effort of the smartest minds and still no progress (I do not think there is any hype left), it is possible that we need to wait for something more. Like the revival of artificial neural networks in the 2010s, after decades of slumber.
by vel0city | 2026-01-14 21:07:58+00:00
> If we get rid of ICE, who handles Handles interior enforcement (raids, investigations, and deportations)? Another org?

Yes, a different org, back under the Department of Justice, staffed by very different people and with a different way of going about enforcement of immigration law. I'd argue there have been a lot of issues with the Department of Homeland Security and that massive parts of the organization should probably be reworked.

The DHS' mission is supposedly all about protecting people from terrorist attacks, go read the arguments on why it was a good thing right after it was created to see that kind of connection[0]. Why do we have an organization designed to fight terrorists in charge of handling civil infractions? Its no wonder we have agents treating everyone as a terrorist; its what the department is supposed to focus on, fighting terrorists! Its almost like maybe we should have a different group of agents equipped to handle potential terrorist threats to the agents making sure foreigners aren't overstaying visas or working while not authorized to work.

In another direction but related to this, we should also pretty much scrap and redo all of our immigration laws as well. They really don't work well and are generally pretty bad. Note I'm not saying we should have no immigration laws at all, but the systems we have today are largely dumb, ineffective, and just end up hurting a lot of people while not really doing much good for the American people.

> This feels like people who argue to get rid of the police, and replace it with "Community Security Forces", or something of the likes.

A lot of what the police do these days probably should be re-tasked to different, potentially new agencies with different trainings and different focuses. Police these days are expected to handle such a wide range of community issues, many of which probably don't need the same kind of people who respond to violent threats and what not. When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis we probably shouldn't send people who spend their days training to perceive every action as a threat to be handled with a gun as the first line responder. When there's someone on the street strung out on drugs having the police respond and put them in jail/prison probably isn't helping the situation.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20071114000911/http://www.dhs.go...
by BirAdam | 2026-01-14 21:08:59+00:00
I switched to US Mobile a long time ago just due to pricing. I was WFH most days of the week (before Covid) so I could do minimal data and pay around $100/yr for unlimited talk/text. Now, I do unlimited everything as I commute 5 days each week, but it's only $200/yr. Still significant savings.