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Comment by giarc | Hacker News Reader

>Glad to see a realistic take on HN.

From an account created 1 hour ago, claiming to have worked with the author. Take with a huge grain of salt.

I would only expect these kinds of posts from a throwaway account created very recently with a single post.

Anyone with a long HN history is more likely trying to karma farm and chase clout by spinning up some bullshit. Trying to establish themselves as an authority on a trending topic.

But because a throwaway account has no past or future, it is the purest form of communication.

It is entirely believable that a person with substantial trace on HN and ties in the field would rather create a throwaway than post such remark under his main account.

Then they would not out their identity by claiming to have worked with the author. That piece of information alone whittles their identity down to maybe 100 people. Out of 100 adjacent academics how many post on HN, with this style, and this specific level of knowledge in that specific subfield? They may as well have just made the account their irl name. Anonymity is not a realistic goal. Assuming a realistic poster means it's reasonable to suspect their earnestness.

You are frustrated and this makes you act in a deliberately obtuse manner.

There is a world of difference between "anyone who has worked with the guy" and "has worked with the guy + has hundreds of comments on HN identifying career track over the last few years". The former grants each suspect plausible deniability, while the latter pinpoints the true author.

> Anonymity is not a realistic goal.

It obviously is for a throwaway account. Time to reread the classic

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/about/anonymity-and-the-inter...

I don't feel frustrated. I am just applying game theory to explain potential motivations from an untrustworthy source.

i agree re. skepticism but all I'm saying about HT Kim is that he's a real scientist with real bona fides, which I think you could find by asking anyone in my specific subfield of condensed matter physics

i should also have mentioned that I do not personally know the extent of his knowledge about superconductivity, to my understanding he was an expert on the synthesis of phase change materials, particularly the metal insulator transition. in the 2nd paper he is cited for proposing the superconductivity mechanism based on mechanisms seen in the metal-insulator-transition, which I have not seen before as an SC mechanism

Yes, this is the internet.

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