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My app isn't database heavy; most pages renders without a single database call (user information stored in cookie) and the pages that do call the database contain maximum one call. Other data, like database schemas and subscription status, are requested in the background directly from the browser so it doesn't stall page rendering.

It actually looks very interesting, but my app is not particularly affected by database query time, but rather by the time spent on the various AI generations.

Inflation rose by 6.5 cents/year in the period 2020-2022, and if that were the case for the entire period, the 50 cents would have grown to 201.5 cents.

The database is hosted on Railway. I have enabled Smart Placement that should, depending on request time, automatically use an endpoint closer to the database to speed it up. When requesting a route that includes a database request, the response time on the US east coast is around 200ms and closer to 1000ms in Denmark. I am hoping that the Smart Placement will work better when I go live with the app (still in beta) and that it mainly needs more traffic to calculate optimal endpoint placement.

I am in the process of porting my web app[1] from NextJS hosted at Vercel to Astro/React hosted at Cloudflare, and something that particularly surprises me is that I can render a web app on every request at “the edge” and have response times of 100-200ms. That is almost as fast as fully static pages.

I have also definitely noticed an improvement in Cloudflare Worker over the last few weeks; cold starts have practically disappeared, and they are significantly more stable in terms of response times.

[1]: https://app.sqlai.ai/

What is the smallest fraction of a Nobel Prize that a winner can be awarded?

Everyone talks about Alzheimer's and dementia, but Daniel Kahneman has neither. He chose to commit suicide because he wanted to avoid “natural decline.” That's an unexpected statement from a 90-year-old. I'm more surprised by his lack of will to live and that he just “gives up” and throws away the most valuable thing he has.

I think it's more the Nobel Peace Prize that stands out.

I must admit that I disagree and believe that AI will only be used more as it improves. There is already a big difference between GPT-4 and GPT-5 in terms of hallucinations. If AI can do your tax accounting in 20 seconds with a 95% probability of accuracy (perhaps better than most accountants—after all, who can really understand tax legislation?) and with some clear checksums, who wouldn't use it instead of doing it themselves? In addition, AI is really excellent at inferring meaning from data (and see relations).

Unrelated question, where are these cores produced?

They could also have added this to the headline to make it more informative.

After endlessly tweaking the SQL generators[1] that I am working on, I would recommend setting a "reasoning" output string to activate step by step thinking and better responses. Even better if you can add output "reasoning strings" more relevant to the specific task you are trying to solve.

[1]: https://app.sqlai.ai

Many prominent Stoics advocated the use of “negative visualizations” for a number of reasons. One argument for using negative visualizations was that by imagining potential misfortunes, one could prevent and avert them. Another argument was that they believed misfortune strikes hardest those who believe life is a bed of roses:

> “But no matter how hard we try to prevent bad things from happening to us, some will happen anyway. Seneca therefore points to a second reason for contemplating the bad things that can happen to us. If we think about these things, we will lessen their impact on us when, despite our efforts at prevention, they happen: “He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.” Misfortune weighs most heavily, he says, on those who “expect nothing but good fortune.” Epictetus echoes this advice: We should keep in mind that “all things everywhere are perishable.” If we fail to recognize this and instead go around assuming that we will always be able to enjoy the things we value, we will likely find ourselves subject to considerable distress when the things we value are taken from us.”

A third argument put forward by the Stoics is that the use of negative visualizations makes you realize what is truly valuable to you and appreciate it:

> They recommended that we spend time imagining that we have lost the things we value—that our wife has left us, our car was stolen, or we lost our job. Doing this, the Stoics thought, will make us value our wife, our car, and our job more than we otherwise would. This technique—let us refer to it as negative visualization—was employed by the Stoics at least as far back as Chrysippus. It is, I think, the single most valuable technique in the Stoics’ psychological tool kit.

And a fourth argument is the one you highlight, that thinking about death makes us realize how precious life is:

> Why, then, do the Stoics want us to contemplate our own death? Because doing so can dramatically enhance our enjoyment of life.”

(All quotations are from the book “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy – William B. Irvine”, which comes highly recommended.)

This reads as an AI generated response as well with the; "thanks", "you're right", flawless grammar, and plenty of technical references.

UI-wise it reminds me of Craigslist.

Thankfully not months.

The most powerful Macbook Pro currently has 16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores, and 128 GB of RAM (and a 16-core “neural engine” specifically designed to accelerate machine learning). Technically, it is a laptop, but it could just as well be a computer optimized for AI.

It is interesting that it ranks `GPT-4.1 mini` higher than `GPT-4.1` (the latter costing five times more).

I have also just moved into a new apartment in Copenhagen and needed to find new furniture, including a bed. The cheapest and easiest option was to “buy” a used bed (buy is in quotation marks because many beds are either given away or cost a modest amount, as long as you pick them up yourself). The first bed I bought was too wide to fit through the stairwell, so I sold it the next day without any problems. The next bed (a futon in perfect condition) was easy to take apart and fit through the stairwell without any problems.

Compared to buying new, it was much cheaper, and compared to building it myself, it was both much cheaper and easier.

It appears that GPT-4.1 is missing, but nano and mini are there.

It's basically micromanaging an industry that European countries have not been able to cultivate themselves. It's legislation for legislation's sake. If you had a naive hope that Mario Draghi's gloomy report on the EU's competitiveness would pave the way for a political breakthrough in the EU - one is tempted to say something along the lines of communist China's market reforms in the 70s - then you have to conclude that the EU is continuing in exactly the same direction. I have actually lost faith in the EU.

What a pleasant website theme for reading.

Separating out the database layer in a monorepo package was the best architectural decision I made this year. Now it is my default because at some point you either want to rebuild the existing app entirely or separate out services such as public API access that all need access to the same database.

If paying Apple 20 billion to be the default search engine in Safari, paying Telegram 300 million in cash and equity for access to their 1 billion monthly active users, seems like a good deal for xAI. Where else are they gonna get users at that scale?

Perhaps it should be mentioned that he is 96 years old.

Perhaps it should be clarified that this is a writing guide for marketing material and the formula is the same as always; concise sentences with a focus on action (readers almost always need to be pushed to click something, do something or buy something). If you write a blog, fiction or poetry, this writing guide will most likely crush any creativity, originality and desire to write.

If you want to learn how to write well, your best bet is to read different great writers and notice how they write, what they write about and what they leave out. Take one of their sentences and rewrite it in your own words.Deconstruct every sentence. Deconstruct every sentence.Take their sentences and rewrite it in your own words.

I know the Recharts[1] library have been trying to make their charts more accessibility, but so far I haven't seen any users with screen readers give feedback. If there are any users here with screenreaders, can you read the chart on this link: https://www.chartmaker.io/charts/Ra1UTI7gArCTO0o2MV4zZ

[1]: https://recharts.org/

Inspired by yesterday's post "Apps lighter than a React button"[1] to show that you can render a React/ShadCN button and strip the JS when it isn't required.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43543241

Had to lookup office.com myself to see it; their office package is literally called MS Copilot.

“A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” by William Irvine has an entire chapter dedicated to letting go of past trauma and moving forward. The Stoic advice was “fatalism”. The Stoics' advice was “fatalism” in relation to the events that fate deals us. This is in stark contrast to the psychologizing approach of modernity where everything must be turned around and the answer must be found, preferably within the individual.

Here is an excerpt where author William Irvine highlights Marcus Aurelius' thoughts on fate and grief:

> Marcus also advocates taking a fatalistic attitude toward life. To do otherwise is to rebel against nature, and such rebellions are counterproductive, if what we seek is a good life. In particular, if we reject the decrees of fate, Marcus says, we are likely to experience tranquility-disrupting grief, anger, or fear. To avoid this, we must learn to adapt ourselves to the environment into which fate has placed us and do our best to love the people with whom fate has surrounded us. We must learn to welcome whatever falls to our lot and persuade ourselves that whatever happens to us is for the best. Indeed, according to Marcus, a good man will welcome “every experience the looms of fate may weave for him.

Today, when I experience regrets and sadness that I can't control, I think; it couldn't have happened any other way.