Hacker News Reader

mustaphahon Gemini 3.1 Pro

That's been my experience too; can't disagree. Still, when it comes to tasks that require deep intelligence (esp. mathematical reasoning [1]), Gemini has consistently been the best.

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10177

mustaphahon Gemini 3.1 Pro

Google is terrible at marketing, but this feels like a big step forward.

As per the announcement, Gemini 3.1 Pro score 68.5% on Terminal-Bench 2.0, which makes it the top performer on the Terminus 2 harness [1]. That harness is a "neutral agent scaffold," built by researchers at Terminal-Bench to compare different LLMs in the same standardized setup (same tools, prompts, etc.).

It's also taken top model place on both the Intelligence Index & Coding Index of Artificial Analysis [2], but on their Agentic Index, it's still lagging behind Opus 4.6, GLM-5, Sonnet 4.6, and GPT-5.2.

---

[1] https://www.tbench.ai/leaderboard/terminal-bench/2.0?agents=...

[2] https://artificialanalysis.ai

mustaphahon SkillsBench: Benchmarking how well agent skills work across diverse tasks

I'm fine with editing the title, and I see your point.

In retrospect, I'd probably avoid "useless." While it's a fairly descriptive term for their finding, it probably carries a subjective tone.

mustaphahon SkillsBench: Benchmarking how well agent skills work across diverse tasks

Yeah, I got your point when I read the paper. You're essentially controlling for "latent domain knowledge."

I might have been a bit blunt with the title - sorry about that, but I still think it was a good title. From what I've observed, a lot of Skills on GitHub are just AI-generated without any feedback or deliberative refinement. Many thought those would still be valuable, but you've shown evidence otherwise.

mustaphahon Evaluating AGENTS.md: are they helpful for coding agents?

This is like trying to fix hallucination by telling LLM not to hallucinate.

mustaphahon SkillsBench: Benchmarking how well agent skills work across diverse tasks

What if the most interesting finding ends up buried under a vague title? Aside from the "self-generated skills" aspect, there isn't much there that meaningfully warrants deeper discussion.

I chose a title that directly reflects an interesting finding - something that offers substantial insight to the community. I think the rule should be applied with some nuance; in this case, being explicit is a net positive.

I have no interest in linkbait, and I hope that's evident from my previous submissions

mustaphahon SWE-AGI: benchmarking spec-driven software construction

Leaderboard: https://swe-agi.com/

mustaphahon What I learned building an opinionated and minimal coding agent

I've seen a couple of power users already switching to Pi [1], and I'm considering that too. The premise is very appealing:

- Minimal, configurable context - including system prompts [2]

- Minimal and extensible tools; for example, todo tasks extension [3]

- No built-in MCP support; extensions exist [4]. I'd rather use mcporter [5]

Full control over context is a high-leverage capability. If you're aware of the many limitations of context on performance (in-context retrieval limits [6], context rot [7], contextual drift [8], etc.), you'd truly appreciate Pi lets you fine-tune the WHOLE context for optimal performance.

It's clearly not for everyone, but I can see how powerful it can be.

---

[1] https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/1/31/pi/

[2] https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono/tree/main/packages/codin...

[3] https://github.com/mitsuhiko/agent-stuff/blob/main/pi-extens...

[4] https://github.com/nicobailon/pi-mcp-adapter

[5] https://github.com/steipete/mcporter

[6] https://github.com/gkamradt/LLMTest_NeedleInAHaystack

[7] https://research.trychroma.com/context-rot

[8] https://arxiv.org/html/2601.20834v1

mustaphahon Cursor Agent Trace RFC

I can see their point.

Traditional systems (git blame, review history, ticket links) tell you who committed or approved changes, but not whether the content originated from an AI agent, which model it used, or what prompt/context produced it.

Agent Trace is aiming to standardize that missing layer so different tools can read/write it consistently.

mustaphahon Claude Code: Merging Slash Commands into Skills

It's kinda popular these days. I've read some high-quality articles there.

mustaphahon Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

Once exercise becomes a habit, it's very easy to do even on days when your mood is terrible. A strict routine (initially) is the trick to making things easier forever.

You definitely want to build that habit when you're at your best.

mustaphahon Ask HN: Codex vs. Claude

Codex is better for backend coding. For UI/UX, Claude is a clear winner for me.

I use both interchangeably.

mustaphahon AI and reverse Dunning-Kruger effect

In their "highlights" section:

> Large Language Model usage levels out the Dunning–Kruger effect.

That's basically my title. I think that's the interesting finding in the study.

mustaphahon AI and reverse Dunning-Kruger effect

Seemingly, you didn't bother to read it.

mustaphahon New AI Browser Alert: Get 1 Month of Perplexity Pro for Free

At least I tried

> Comet isn't available for your system yet. Comet is currently available for Windows and macOS.

mustaphahon Ask HN: What's the most underrated skill for startup founders in 2025?

People keep looking for the "one underrated skill" as if startups had a secret cheat code. In reality, success comes from balancing messy tradeoffs and learning fast under uncertainty.

The real underrated skill is realizing there isn't one.

mustaphahon Ask HN: Anyone else experiencing lower quality in Claude Code since a few weeks?

Are you based in the US? I've heard that compute capacity peaks during US working hours, and access may be degraded during that time, for example, through dynamic quantization [1].

[1] https://www.seangoedecke.com/ai-is-good-news-for-australian-...

mustaphahon Ask HN: What are some impressive vibe coding projects?

https://vibecodingaward.com/

mustaphahon Migrating from AWS to Hetzner

Self-managed Talos K8s, self-managed CloudNativePG, and the operational overhead of networking, DNS, etc. All of these were used to be fully managed by AWS for them; zero operational cost.

I'd guesstimate a 2× increase in their operational complexity. So, if they previously required 0.5 DevOps of a full-timer, they'll now need one more DevOps full-timer just to handle the added complexity.

Does that make sense to you?

mustaphahon Andrej Karpathy – It will take a decade to work through the issues with agents

This aligns with METR's Time Horizons [1], the current SOTA "Moore's Law" for AI agents:

- The length of tasks AI can complete doubles every ~7 months

- In 2-4 years, AIs could autonomously complete week-long projects.

- In under 10 years, they might handle month-long software or knowledge work.

[1] https://metr.org/blog/2025-03-19-measuring-ai-ability-to-com...

mustaphahon Migrating from AWS to Hetzner

I meant +1 DevOps engineer dedicated to managing the added operational complexity.

mustaphahon Migrating from AWS to Hetzner

You've saved $426/mo but inherited a $10k/mo full-time DevOps job.

mustaphahon Bots are getting good at mimicking engagement

> Yet OP, in the business of "accurate ad spend analytics", only just discovered this!?

Looks like a very fresh business [1]; it only became worth writing about once they were ready to pitch their product.

[1] https://whois.domaintools.com/joindatacops.com

mustaphahon Bots are getting good at mimicking engagement

Good read, but worth keeping in mind the conflict of interest here - the author's company sells bot-detection tools.

The overall point stands, yet the specific "73% fake traffic" figure should be taken with caution until independent data backs it up.

mustaphahon Can AI replace junior workers?

http://archive.today/E0hR0

mustaphahon Ask HN: Who Got Hired from HN?

I'm not sure if it's the best, but I can confidently say that LinkedIn is the worst.

mustaphahon Ask HN: Who Got Hired from HN?

I've been approached three times over the past three months.

I got pretty close with one, but I wasn't a good match for the other two. Compared to direct applications, HN had the best SNR for me.

I'm based in the Middle East, so only companies that hire globally would consider me. If I were based in the US or EU, I would've definitely had more.

mustaphahon Aks HN: Large scale refactorings with LLM. Any experience to share?

This might help: https://engineering.monday.com/from-8-years-down-to-6-months...

mustaphahon Vietnam Airlines Data Breach

I've never been able to unsubscribe from their shitty emails - which I never subscribed to. I only signed up for a flight.

And now, my data is open-source ಠ_ಠ

mustaphahon Ask HN: What does your RSS flow look like?

RSS is my main source of news. I rarely open social media; mostly just to check notifications. It's simply the worst place to spend your time, and definitely not where I go for relevant news.

Here's a sample of what I’m currently following - maybe it'll help you build your own:

- Job listing (WWR [1], RemoteOK, etc.), because I'm looking for a job.

- Tech news: HN ≥ 100 pts [2], Github trends [3], TLDR AI & webdev [4], and r/technology [4], Product Hunt [6], Google devs [7].

- Science: r/science [4], ScienceDaily [8], and a couple few more.

- IMDb latest shows [4]: Sci-fi, Adventure, etc.

- And a lot of blogs!

RSS feeds are sometimes hidden - this tool can help: https://lighthouseapp.io/tools/feed-finder

---

[1] https://weworkremotely.com/categories/remote-back-end-progra...

[2] https://hnrss.org/newest?points=100

[3] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhadidg/gh-trends/refs/hea...

[4] Using RSSible [5] - a small utility I built, turning webpages into an RSS feed.

[5] https://rssible.hadid.dev/

[6] https://www.producthunt.com/feed

[7] https://developers.googleblog.com/rss/

[8] https://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/top/science.xml