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markk

24 karma · joined November 20, 2007

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markk··on Ask HN: How to be alone?
Not liking an experience is always due to a mix of internal and external factors - the key is to disambiguate these. It's possible you don't like being alone primarily because of the feelings associated with loss. It's also possible you don't like being alone even if there was no loss. But what is the contribution of each of these to your mood? What are other factors?

You might not have this information. Changing environment is a good way to gather information because it triggers new thoughts and insights. That can be a good way to frame trying things - as a way to learn about yourself, rather than some new thing you now have to stick to. It could be useful, it could not - but nothing lost. If you go to the dog park and nothing much happens, no big deal.

In your shoes, I might be tempted to go the nearest big city without any particular plan. Just the energy of the place will have an effect. Go to busy places, quiet places, restaurants, cafes, art galleries, shops. No pressure for anything to be a certain way, or to have some big resolution. Or perhaps go the other way and go into nature.

markk··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)
A phone OS. Design focused. Msg me if you want to hear more. markkinsey gmail
markk··on Notes on OpenAI's new o1 chain-of-thought models
Stupid question: Why can't models be trained in such a way to rate the authoritativeness of inputs? As a human, I contain a lot of bad information, but I'm aware of the source. I trust my physics textbook over something my nephew thinks.
markk··on Copying is the way design works (2020)
Designers should feel the "need to be original", in the sense that every project is different, and can be looked at with fresh eyes.

Perhaps a project is 50% similar to existing project A, 45% similar to existing project B, and 5% novel. Finding this correct balance of copies of A and B, and finding a good solution to the novel part - this process feels "original" in many ways.

markk··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2024)
Location: UK (can travel, have green card) Remote: Ok Willing to relocate: Maybe Technologies: Any Resume: Facebook Eng and PM, Angel, Self-taught coder and designer Email: mark.kinsey@gmail.com

I've done everything from strategy work to on-the-ground engineering.

markk··on GPT-4o
Yep. I'm not quite sure what he's up to. He takes all these interviews and basically says nothing. What's his objective?

My guess is he wants OpenAI to become a household name, and so he optimizes for exposure.

markk··on GPT-4o
I found this statement by Sam quite amusing. It transmits exactly zero information (it's a given that models will improve over time), yet it sounds profound and ambitious.
markk··on Google Brain founder says big tech is lying about AI danger
Maybe an odd take, but I'm not sure what people actually mean when they say "AI terrifies them". Terrified is a strong wrong. Are people unable to sleep? Biting their nails constantly? Is this the same terror as watching a horror movie? Being chased by a mountain lion?

I have a suspicion that it's sort of a default response. Socially expected? Then you poll people: Are you worried about AI doing XYZ? People just say yes, because they want to seem informed, and the kind of person that considers things carefully.

Honestly not sure what is going on. I'm concerned about AI, but I don't feel any actual emotion about it. Arguably I must have some emotion to generate an opinion, but it's below conscious threshold obviously.

markk··on The downside of AI language translation
Does knowing an AI can do something reduce our enjoyment of doing that thing ourself? I don't know if we have enough data/experience to say.

An example in my own life: an AI I'm sure can perform a piano piece (via MIDI) better than I can, but I've literally never considered this has any bearing on how much I like paying piano.

markk··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2023)
Location: London + US (have green card)

Remote: Y

Willing to relocate: Y

Technologies: Anything - particularly Flutter

Résumé/CV: Facebook Eng, Facebook Design, Angel investor, designer, McKinsey

Email: markkinsey@gmail.com

markk··on Split Brain Psychology
This is interesting. So is the person writing here is one of these personalities? Or are "you" watching one of these personalities writing?

If the former, are there any personalities that are not aware they are one of many?

markk··on Ask HN: My wife might lose the ability to speak in 3 weeks – how to prepare?
Maybe using a lav mic and the recorder in the pocket would be the most natural
markk··on Ask HN: How did you fix your narcissism?
Narcissistic behavior in general can be viewed as a defense mechanism to avoid feeling the opposite...small and inadequate. Often we have shame from various childhood experiences of feeling inadequate - failing in various ways in which we felt others judged us for. Feeling humiliated and ashamed etc.

Imho, one great approach is to examine your past for such experiences. Then sort of bring them to mind and reexamine the meaning we assigned at the time.

markk··on Bail – Get out of your plans, guilt free
There's an argument to be made that learning to have hard conversations with friends/family is a useful skill, and also builds closeness and trust over time.
markk··on Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?
Reimagining what a phone interface could look like. If you have an interest in this too, send me a note. (markkinsey@gmail.com)

I just like reimagining things, trying to elucidate first principles and go from there.

markk··on Ultraprocessed Foods – A New Theory of Obesity
Agreed. Seems to me the simplest explanation is that our bodies were calibrated over years of evolution eating "real" foods. Processed foods of any kind are significantly less likely to have the correct energy/satiety ratio.
markk··on Show HN: Textile – Return Facebook photo exports back to nicely-named galleries
you could integrate with people's existing dropbox (i.e. copy the photos into it) and provide a super simple web viewer
markk··on Why do traders in investment banks feel their jobs are immune from AI, etc?
I think there is a technical and experiential aspect to these 3 elements. I think the technical aspect can be met, but perhaps it's equally true that the experience of trust etc with another human can not be replaced (in a literal sense, given that it specifically requires a human).
markk··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2016)
Fair.com | Los Angeles, CA | Lead iOS | ONSITE

We're looking for an experienced iOS person to lead the development of an app to make the car-buying process incredibly simple and fun. We have an amazing designer on board (+ a small full-stack team), so you will be building something both beautiful and very useful.

The company is very well funded and on-track to be a household name. Get in touch, please! Interview process will likely be a trial period.

mark [at] fair [dot] com

markk··on Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes
Yes, maybe I am being hypocritical.
markk··on Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes
Wrt money - I'm just pointing out that assuming someone is happy because they are rich is flawed.

3 is interesting, and backed up by what's happening in this thread. My question is really: is that the world we want to live in? Throughout human history we have gradually been curtailing our violence as a species, and I hope everyone here thinks that's been a good thing, and hopes it will continue. Wishing suffering on anyone for any reason is a form of violence.

markk··on Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes
We know that money is not a great thing to measure to ascertain happiness, so I feel her bank account is irrelevant. And compassion is not a finite resource.
markk··on Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes
This is advocating revenge, and being pleased to see someone suffer. Imagine she had a breakdown due to stress and her life went off the rails - would you feel that was fair? How much would she have to suffer before you are satisfied?
markk··on Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes
There's never a good enough reason to withhold compassion. That's the whole point of it.
markk··on Show HN: Get the inside scoop on jobs (video app)
Feel free to email me at markkinsey at gmail
markk··on Ask HN: Good all-round CS book
Thanks