skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I love the flavor text for that one.

---

Problem

People think Communism was some crazy idea that had its comeuppance 40 years ago. A fever that shook the world, never to return again. They were right. Until he woke up today – a spiritual corpse responsive only to the call of Commodore Red, prostitutes, and Kras Mazov. For him, Communism is still a thing. He will single-handedly raise the Commune of '02 from the oceanic trench where it has been resting, covered in ghosts and seaweed! He is the Big Communism Builder. Come, witness his attempt to rebuild Communism in the year '51!

Solution

0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself sad. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov fucked him over personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.
We're talking gig workers here. Can you not imagine someone on such apps might be living under tighter constraints than a well paid software engineer paid once a month?
Good point and agreed. Do you think for him it is more an issue about how much money WP Engine is making compared to him or the relative influence they have?
I admire PG's essays, but this one seems to give an origin theory about a complex societal issue without any evidence.

My pet theory is is that liberalism won the battle with conservatism and achieved everything useful that it could with it's existing instruments. But then it kept looking for something more and went into wokeness with good intentions. With women's equality and gay marriage the movement was able to convince people and also create legislation. When going into equity and inclusiveness there isn't a legislative solution (or there are, but they don't do much to fix the root of the problem). And people are already convinced that it's good in theory. The only solution is to make an incredible effort to actually help the communities that are raising the disadvantaged- an incredibly challenging task. Instead they maintained the existing approach of convincing and cancellations and DEI policies (in place of legislation).

I think the approach for liberalism to get back on track and achieve their goals is to do the hard work of helping disadvantaged children. If you want to make a difference, the Big Brothers Big Sisters program is a program that helps things at their root- improving the support structure of children in need.
You aren't wrong, but if you use Cloudflare Pages with a static site the only job you have to do for a static site is make sure your Cloudflare account is secure with 2fa etc. Cloudflare will handle the security of everything else.

If you have Wordpress exposed to the internet, there's a lot more security stuff to deal with.
Mullenweg Before:

https://www.youtube.com/live/Qq1SBFzByDw?t=28744s

Mullenweg After:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HblPucwN-m0
The CDC, Palantir and the AI-Healthcare Revolution
You might've been downvoted for bad style, irrespective of your actual argument.
>it absolutely endorses fully fledged communism

I might miss something, but my recollection is that the setting itself is a post-communist revolutionary ruin. Ruin in many ways, we see literal ruins as a visual setting, I don't think there is any piece of building that's intact, and the people are chewed out as well, and often full of some kind of negativity. Many of the game's political discussions flew over my head, but never once have I felt that whatever I'm shown is endorsed in any way, or that any system, like communism, is a good idea. My gathering was that systems usually just grind down the individual, and so, participation is questionable, and value is coming from caring for one another, in a personal way.
>It's funny, I can't think of one.

Dwarf, midget, retarded, idiot, oriental, cripple, gypsy are just a start. Facticity doesn't actually seem to be on your side.

>As you see it

Woke to me is when people are doing performative moralizing that benefits absolutely no one, all to achieve moral supremacy, and often to the ends of white shame (only ever targeting whites, particularly white males). The "cargo cult" article that might still be on the front page is the perfect example.

It's is absolutely true that there are right wing groups that think a woman existing in media is "woke". A woman not having adequately large breasts in a video game is "woke". But on the flip side, there was a "woke" push that meant that every lead character everywhere had to be female, even better a minority female, even better a lesbian minority female, maybe with a handicap. Every commercial had to feature a mixed race or same sex couple, etc. When that becomes obvious and apparent to everyone, people do naturally start to suspect and see ghosts everywhere. It is an incredibly obvious outcome of pushing something to the points of parody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg
I'd argue that's a side effect, not an intent... but you never know.
I am not a lawyer, much less a trademark lawyer, so I don’t think I can reasonably try answer this question.
Interesting. I like the idea of a meta-mechanism that learns to update an associative memory based on how surprising the data is. The other stuff, reading memory via keys and values and selectively erasing it with gating, look pretty conventional on a first glance. Thank you for sharing this on HN. I've added it to my reading list.

EDIT: I'm reminded of this other type of associative memory: https://github.com/glassroom/heinsen_routing. The idea there is to compute a mixture of memories that best predicts the given input sequence. Quite frankly, I don't remember how the whole thing works, but I do remember that it works. It's been a while since I used it, so YMMV. In any case, it may be of interest to you.
That definetly doesn't apply to unrolling.

In eve the ability to zip ranges is fundamental and is very important
> I'm surprised that there hasn't been a larger profile attempt to make a spiritual successor to it that can shake the baggage of being PHP and the long history of vulns that have come along with it.

I imagine that a spiritual successor would have a one-click install in many web hosts, which is all but impossible if not still written in PHP, and then installable through the various turnkey web hosting reseller stacks (e.g. Softaculous).

Then, replicating many of the popular plugins, and getting a whole community of contributors onboard who already make their living off WordPress and have little incentive to adopt something with little traction.

WordPress isn't a code framework; it's a very complete application with a massive ecosystem of plugins that serves as its moat.
RedNote Jumps to #1 in App Store as TikTok Ban Looms
The only new thing there is they'll threaten replace you with AI
> If I had to think, I imagine the entire point of RTO mandates is to keep cities sustainable.

In a few cases (certainly not all), it's to keep the c-suite's reputation sustainable.

If you're a CEO that signed a lease or construction contract on any piece of property since, idk, 2015, you have, in some way, burned a lot of money on a piece of ground that could have, in many cases, been replaced with a far cheaper internet connection and suite of remote work applications.

You have two options at this point:

1) explain this bonfire of cash to the board and possibly to shareholders, which is a pretty good way to see yourself shown the door

or

2) justify your expense by telling the rank-and-file to get back in the office and make use of the capital you are now locked into having.
Publishing a website is about as good as writing a book and dropping it off in an alley trashcan. You may have a voice but you won't be given volume or oxygen. X actively drops visibility for posts linking to external sites, and bot generated blogs are polluting Google so badly that you have no luck for organic reach.

Free speech requires public spaces [digital townhalls], but any journalist breaking critical news of Musk gets muted or banned on X. [https://thespectator.com/topic/spectator-story-debunking-elo...]. This is why several major global journal outlets have taken to just entirely leaving X in protest [https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/journalists_leaving_x_bl...].
I feel for him and the people in his wake. Benevolent dictators of open source are great for productivity until benevolence gives way to malevolence.

At this point, if he stepped down it would be seen as giving in. So highly unlikely until the legal dust settles a bit.

I also agree with other commenters that it's not a mental breakdown but more of a poorly executed strategy that's been in the works for awhile. To take Wordpress more into a closed source hybrid ecosystem.

And at this point, anything Matt does in favor of Automattic's business plan will blow up on social. My bet is this will continue for another 6 months at least until Automattic's revenue increases or flatlines.

But yeah, I'm curious about the mental toll when founders go through these types of hyper public events. The startup world needs a lot more discussion and guidance for mental health.
ghaff. you said the first part well well. Welch "looked great" its the second part "until it wasn't." that stands out to me...because his approach, to kill the goose to get the golden eggs, so to speak, was doomed from the beginning. Its just hard to tell early on if you don't know what to look for. People in his orgs knew what was happening, but hard to go against the "hero".

I don't know a solution to these kinds of scenarios except for having a more wise and educated populace. Perhaps trusting the people at the bottom. Big issues. Hard to solve. And in today's world, harder than ever.
I hate these stupid ‘smart’ devices. Personally, I just have some decent quality speakers hooked up to an good quality old school amp with an AirPort Express feeding into the line in.
Over twenty five odd years, I have found the path to a general debugging prowess can best be achieved by doing it. I'd recommend taking the list/buying the book, using https://up-for-grabs.net to find bugs on github/bugzilla, etc. and doing the following:

1. set up the dev environment

2. fork/clone the code

3. create a new branch to make changes and tests

4. use the list to try to find the root cause

5. create a pull request if you think you have fixed the bug

And use Rule 0 from GuB-42: Don't panic

(edited for line breaks)
Employers don’t keep the extra amount. If that were the case, the workers would have no motivation to work or to get the supply/demand in balance.

I don’t get to “choose” how much I make. I just get to choose whether the amount of money I’m being offered per hour is worth my time.
One reason that Reddit's API changes killing the best clients was so poisonous is that the resulting non-exodus showed other companies that they can take user-hostile actions with impunity. A big enough mass of passive and undiscerning users will stay no matter what. Hence there being more freedom to take a strategy like this.
There is nobody left to disagree with him, he made sure of that. Disagreeing with him at this point means he's gonna come after you [1], your job [2] or your reputation [3].

1. https://ma.tt/2024/10/on-dhh/

2. https://kindness.is/examples/2010/mullenweg-the-coward/

3. https://ma.tt/2024/12/inc-hit-piece/
A UC Santa Cruz professor unearthed the oldest alphabet yet
I consider myself to be an (occasional) user of AI services like the ones OpenAI and others provide. I've learned how to consume the services reasonably effectively, and make good use of them, but that's about it. I am not an AI engineer.

Similarly I know how to call cryptography libraries to get my passwords hashed using a suitable cipher before storing them. I don't understand the deep math behind why a certain cipher is secure, but that's fine. I can still make good use of cryptographic functions. I'm not a cryptography engineer either :).

My take on it is that if you should call yourself any kind of "XYZ Engineer", you should be able to understand the inner workings of XYZ.

This reading list is most likely (mostly) for those who want to get a really deep understanding and eventuellt work on contributing to the "foundational systems" (for a lack of a better word) one day.

Hope that helps.
I've found that RTO is mainly useful for new employees. They have lots of novice questions, false assumptions, and sub-optimal workflows that are most easily corrected in person (where the barrier to talking or noticing issues is lower).

For ICs with good experience/independence, I haven't noticed any benefit.
"Gig workers" have less consistent hours, and are probably much poorer than your monthly salaried friend. Picking up some extra shifts to pay for unexpected expenses is a sad but common reality. Charging them a fee to not wait 30 days is definitely exploitative.
Good luck hacking an html file served through nginx.
"Music" in this case has such a high quality bar. Truly, the delta production value of popular music today vs. even 20 years ago is huge. So our standards are higher, and if you're a solo musician trying to reach these high standards you will most likely burn out and hate the process.

But maybe I'm over-thinking it. Musicians have told stories of giving up everything for their music over and over again. It can be one of those tortured loves.
Oh, for sure, between a well designed building and a glass tower, the well designed one is always better.

But between an ordinary building with partial windows or completely covered in glass, the glass one tends to give you a much better experience.
I was comparing Keaton to a modern film that has people talking back and forth without any interesting use of space on film. This video explains it well:

https://youtu.be/jGc-K7giqKM?si=0sOBkBrsYa4IBo5N

A lot of Keaton’s gags and shots are similar.
The problem is that he thinks he solves the problem by bringing 'prig' into the conversation and in reality he just paints a broad swath of people with a broad brush. A lot of folks who are in the "earnest helpers" category are also categorized by the right as "woke". That's the problem with the word right now, it can go all over the place.

"Prig" is in the eye of the beholder. What about when the "prigs" were right? I'm sure the Quakers were seen as "prigs" by the southern slaveholders/traders. The Quakers were early to the abolition party and their opposition to slavery was based on religious zeal which made them seem like "prigs" to the people in the South who's whole society and economy was built on slavery. But we now consider the Quakers were right and the slaveholders wrong. MLK was viewed as a "prig" by many southern whites for interfering in their racism. But MLK was right.
I first heard the term from my ex-wife when she was involved with black politics in Chicago in 2014. At that time their definition was firmly in the "awareness of racial and social injustice". It was seemingly later twisted to mean hypocrisy or hyper political correctness. Redefining it seems to have nerfed any effect it once had.
And yet we're not observing a trend of CEOs rushing to talk about crime in their haste to accommodate the new regime, we're seeing them rush to update their moderation guidelines to stress that "gays are freaks" and "immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit" must be understood as valid political commentary and not abuse, delete pronouns from their profiles and shut down their diversity programmes.
To see pro-union comments like this on Hacker News gives me hope.
Honest question (no agenda): How does burning plastic interact with the environment in terms of producing pollution and/or CO2, I guess compared with putting it in a landfill?

I'm fine with stipulations like using some kind of (economically-viable) filter on the resulting smoke.

All that I "know" about it is only based on vibes so that's why I'm asking.
So we compromised on giving them devices/phones (with restricted access) but in return, got them to agree that they will not use social media of any kind at least until 18.

I think it is very difficult in today's world to prohibit completely. It may create more rebellion down the road and I like to be open with my kids. A little bit of device is not end of the world as long as you control it which we do.
I don't think many will, those are far too difficult to use compared to WP which most people use because its so easy.
This is a common argument that we hear time and again.

My take is that this assumes the job - any job - that can be done remotely, can also be done by just anyone, and that there is someone in India or elsewhere with the same or higher level of critical thinking and IQ and who is willing to do it for a lot less pay.

But maybe none of this matters.
Maybe the company is OK with a below average warm body in a 3rd world country that can do a version of the job for 1/3 of the pay.
@jvanderbot agreed. I think you are on to something. where can we go to learn more?
> Those who generally agreed with efforts to improve the status quo and did what they could to help (started displaying their pronouns, tried to eliminate language that had deeply racist connotations, etc)

You're making the assumption that most of that isn't performative nonsense that in reality doesn't help anything.

Also known as slacktivism.

It got to the point where I would see pronouns and flags and URLs to DEI policies (Click here to stop racism now! Really?) in people's email signatures that I would immediately assume they were insincere and phony.

One person I knew had "LGBTQ Ally" in their professional signature. It's one step removed from writing I HAVE GAY FRIENDS and frankly I found it all really weird, fake, and reminiscent of 1940s Germany where people had to wear their pins to proclaim their allegiance. None of this has place in a professional setting.
There will always be some social-ness, but let’s be real that it’s out of fucking control right now. I’ve been doing this professionally for more than 20 years and “who you know not what you know” hasn’t run this badly amok in that entire time.

The industry is very unsettled right now: credible (or at least loud) opinions on AI range from “fancy autocomplete nothingburger” to “programmers are obsolete starting now”, RTO is in some weird ass place where it’s really unclear the merits or lack thereof, consolidation of half the S&P into ~7 companies and the whole startup pipeline running through guys who fit in a banquet room is uh, not highly not a working free market.

This is how you get a chorus of “talent shortage” on one side and a chorus of “CS is cooked fam” on the other: software engineering jobs are experiencing a market failure, price discovery isn’t happening, and shit is going to be weird until the market starts working again.
Note that even in the above example, a proper response might be to address the mosquito population or to begin initiatives to vaccinate as many people as possible against rabies. Likely a combination of both.

Of course it might be good to continue researching possible treatments for rabies as well, but there are other things which can be done to mitigate the impact.

I don't think climate change will be the only reason for societal collapse, if it happens. I think late-stage capitalism (which is also implicated in driving this climate change) is at least another significant factor.

I also don't pretend do know what societal collapse might look like, and what might come after. Societies don't seem to be immortal[1], and collapse has historically been inevitable. An immortal society is as unprecedented as human immortality, which isn't to say that either are strictly impossible, but that we should analyze both against historical data on statistics and symptoms which might indicate proximity to end of life.

Personally I believe the societal stressors which appear over the next few decades are significant enough that they represent a much larger chance of societal collapse than people seem to recognize. I guess we'll see.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse#Societal_lon...
Isn't it interesting that your response here is questioning and perhaps dismissive?

If a minority were sharing their perspective about whatever their lived experience was with regards to racism, would you respond this way?

I'll answer that: no, you wouldn't.

Which very quickly lifts the curtain. The movement is not about empathy or understanding. It's about empathy and understanding for people you deem worthy of receiving it.
"Prig" is in the eye of the beholder. What about when the "prigs" were right? I'm sure the Quakers were seen as "prigs" by the southern slaveholders/traders. The Quakers were early to the abolition party and their opposition to slavery was based on religious zeal which made them seem like "prigs" to the people in the South who's whole society and economy was built on slavery. But we now consider the Quakers were right and the slaveholders wrong. MLK was viewed as a "prig" by many southern whites for interfering in their racism. But MLK was right.
That plus the community having grown.
Can you explain this? I don't understand the point you're making.
This always comes up in RTO discussions. Why haven't they already done it - why go through the pain of forcing an RTO when they can cut costs by 2/3?
> capital sort of did an end run around some of that by literally packing factories up and shipping them overseas.

Knowledge workers did this to themselves by moving everything to the cloud and remote work. My boss was literally told by one of our private equity overlords that if a job can be done from home, then it can be done from India. They proved good on their word by doing it to my job within two years. And that was before the current era of mass layoffs. I was here warning people to this effect and making myself rather unpopular back during the boom times.
Tracks that I’ve primarily seen A/B tests used as a mechanism for gradual rollout rather than pure data-driven experimentation. Basically expose functionality to internal users by default then slowly expand it outwards to early adopters and then increment it to 100% for GA.

It’s helpful in continuous delivery setups since you can test and deploy the functionality and move the bottleneck for releasing beyond that.