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farceSpherule

-15 karma · joined May 7, 2024

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farceSpherule··on My role as a founder-CTO: year 8
Why does everyone assume that everything posted is based on GPT? There are people in this world who know how to write.
farceSpherule··on TikTok Deal Is the Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse
Social Media is the digital equivalent of "getting kids addicted to heroin" reply

> This was never about addressing ... national security

You have no idea what you are talking about.

farceSpherule··on Leaked Ice document shows worker detained in Hyundai raid had valid visa
You people realize that this was a month's long investigation and that the raid was approved by a federal judge?

ICE did not simply show up and start arresting people.

farceSpherule··on Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office
Another anecdote. I have a friend who manages his families (started by his father and grandfather) private market investment company. The family is worth nine figures.

He pulled his people back into the office because he said he "felt" like they were not working. Despite graduating from Harvard and from Harvard Business School he could not offer any qualitative or quantitative data to back up his "feelings." He lets his people WFH on Friday's but says he schedules video calls on that day to make sure they are working.

He said, "When they are working from home, I do not know if they are walking their dog for an hour but if they are in the office, I know they aren't."

What made this conversation laughable was that he and I were at a country club having lunch and bullshitting for half the day, on a weekday, while our kids (who had the day off from school) were playing a sport together. He stepped away more than once for "meetings" that he took from his cell phone.

It was laughable.

farceSpherule··on Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office
Microsoft, like other tech companies, over hired during COVID. This is their way of fixing that glitch while lessening the financial burden of severance packages handed out during layoffs.

It's a standard McKinsey & Co. playbook that is going around the various tech companies as a way to reduce headcount.

And, productivity is going to tank. If you force me to RTO, I will show up exactly at 8am, take my 1 hour lunch away from the office, and leave exactly at 5pm. And, when I do leave the office at 5pm, my work phone gets turned off and I will not do anything work related until 8am the next morning.

You would think these tech companies would do something innovative. A f*cking monkey can cut costs by firing people. How about you stop over hiring? How about you stop leasing building space and use the products you create that enable remote collaboration?

farceSpherule··on US High school students' scores fall in reading and math
I am not sure why this is news. Classic economic warfare.

Parents with higher education and stable incomes have the resources, time, and knowledge to supplement their children's education. This includes tutoring, enrichment programs, monitoring social media and phone use, and advocating within schools, as well as sending their children to smaller, private schools.

Most Joe Six Pack parents hand their children unrestricted iPhones and let the schools raise and baby sit them, while the parents sit back getting fat soaking up social media and TV.

farceSpherule··on Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users
You obviously do not or have never worked there.
farceSpherule··on Why language models hallucinate
I wish they would come up with a better term. Computers do not have brains or conscientiousness.

They erroneously construct responses (i.e., confabulation).

farceSpherule··on Who Owns, Operates, and Develops Your VPN Matters
VPN Comparison Table

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_Yal...

farceSpherule··on Who Owns, Operates, and Develops Your VPN Matters
You get what you pay for...
farceSpherule··on The staff ate it later
If you want the ultimate in "The staff ate it later" watch Steven Raichlen's Project Smoke on PBS. The crew of that show eat like Kings.

https://www.pbs.org/show/steven-raichlens-project-smoke/

farceSpherule··on Anthropic raises $13B Series F
Don't worry... It will crash down soon enough just like the Internet did back in the 90's after similar, insane investments in infrastructure.
farceSpherule··on Amazon has mostly sat out the AI talent war
Zuckerberg has to rush into every new fad with billions of dollars because he was a one trick pony with FaceBook.

Metaverse will never be FaceBook.

farceSpherule··on Vibe coding as a coding veteran: from 8-bit assembly to English-as-code
I have a colleague at Amazon who tells me he has several people on his team who vibe code and who blindly check in thousands of lines of LLM code when it "works."

It takes 10 to 20 times as long to debug because the code is impossible to change or understand how it works.

farceSpherule··on AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers: study
Sensationalist, alarmist, b.s. article.

It emphasizes "AI adoption linked to 13% decline," which implies causation. The study itself only claims "evidence consistent with the hypothesis."

The article also largely highlights job loss for young workers, while only briefly mentioning cases where AI complements workers.

The study's preliminary status -- it is not peer reviewed -- is noted but only once and at end. If the article was more balanced it would have noted this at the beginning.

Articles on the same subject by the World Economic Forum, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs are more balance and less alarmist.

farceSpherule··on In Search of AI Psychosis
AI today reminds me of two big tech revolutions we have already lived through: the Internet in the 90s and social media in the 2000s.

When the Internet arrived, it opened up the floodgates of information. Suddenly any Joe Six Pack could publish. Truth and noise sat side by side, and most people could not tell the difference, nor did they care to tell the difference.

When social media arrived, it gave every Joe Six Pack a megaphone. That meant experts and thoughtful people had new reach but so did the loudest, least informed voices. The result? An army of Joe Six Packs who would never have been heard before now had a platform, and they shaped public discourse in ways we are still trying to recover.

AI is following the same pattern.

farceSpherule··on Ask HN: The government of my country blocked VPN access. What should I use?
If you are a journalist or other, contact Team Cymru.
farceSpherule··on Proposal to Ban Ghost Jobs
Downvoted for being honest? Interesting. I have been a hiring manager at companies who engage in this behavior.
farceSpherule··on Proposal to Ban Ghost Jobs
Good luck getting anywhere with this... Companies will lobby hard to squash it.

Ghost jobs help companies do one important thing: hire the person they already selected and want in the position but have to go through the "interview" process to make things look "transparent." They post the job, "interview" some folks, included their preferred candidate, then miraculously "select" their preferred candidate over everyone else.

farceSpherule··on Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash
PSA: never serve on an HOA board in Florida. You can be individually named in lawsuits involving the HOA.
farceSpherule··on AWS CEO says using AI to replace junior staff is 'Dumbest thing I've ever heard'
Bravo.. Finally a voice of reason.

As someone who works in AI, any CEO who says that AI is going to replace junior workers has no f*cking clue what they are talking about.

farceSpherule··on Steve Wozniak: Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about happiness
Steve Jobs was a narcissistic asshole who treated people like idiots. More specifically:

- Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder - Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Borderline Personality Disorder

He thought he could cure his cancer with energy crystals and fruit juice.

farceSpherule··on Study: Social media probably can't be fixed
Social media is the new smoking...

Widespread adoption before understanding risks - embraced globally before fully grasping the mental health, social, and political consequences, especially for young people.

Delayed but significant harm - can lead to gradual impacts like reduced attention span, increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, and polarization

Corporate incentives misaligned with public health - media companies design platforms for maximum engagement, leveraging psychological triggers while downplaying or disputing the extent of harm

farceSpherule··on Most Illinois farmland is not owned by farmers
How about the US government stop subsidizing farmers? Let them fend for themselves like any other business.
farceSpherule··on Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
The governing bodies do not want to do anything about this because of the money generated by the races.

It's a cash cow.

farceSpherule··on Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
The only way to solve this is to allow them all to dope. It will level the playing field somewhat, however, will then become an exercise in economic warfare: those with the money will be able to afford the better dope and will win.
farceSpherule··on Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
WTF.. Sick and tired of the incessant cheating by these cyclists. It never ends. They cheat, then win, then walk around like they are some big sh*ts.

I mean, I am sick and tired of cyclists in general because of the way they act where I live. They obey no traffic laws, run red lights, never signal, blaze through intersections, and generally act like they own the road.

It's amazing how many of them forget that they are like cars and must abide by the same laws.

farceSpherule··on I've launched 37 products in 5 years and not doing that again
Everyone is trying to "copy" Pieter Levels "success" which as of now is "brand effect."

The guy started his thing over a decade ago and people look at it now and think they can replicate it.

The stuff the guy codes is garbage and what he does is far from solving any problems.

And, I do not believe his revenue numbers. At all. But people on the Internet see some shit posted, believe it, and then compare themselves to it.

Gleaning anything from his "1 in a million success" is falling prey to survivorship bias.

farceSpherule··on Anthropic cut up millions of used books, and downloaded 7M pirated ones – judge
Peterson was copying and selling pirated software.

Come up with a better comparison.

farceSpherule··on Evidence of a 12,800-year-old shallow airburst depression in Louisiana
The Younger Dryas debate spans climatology, archaeology, geology, and astrophysics, creating tension across multiple disciplines.

There is scientific evidence that the Younger Dryas event occurred, however, no universally accepted scientific study that conclusively proves WHAT caused it.

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