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nvln

441 karma · joined August 18, 2022

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nvln··on Claude Code Agent Definition for new frameworks
One of the downsides(!?) of the AI aided coding wave is the huge benefit for entrenched frameworks that the models are pre-trained on making it harder for newer frameworks to gain acceptance.

To tilt the balance slightly, I've added documentation on how to work with Claude when building with Duct UI.

I think such documentation will become essential for all new libraries and helpful even for older libraries trying to direct generated code towards certain standards or guidelines.

AI shouldn't mean end of experimentation and such efforts will make experimentation worthwhile.

nvln··on Duct – A DOM first UI library
Given the library is merely days old, it's probably not very surprising :). I'm still experimenting with the DX and the proportion of magic vs logic.

The docs are freshly baked as well, please feel free to let me know if you spot any inaccuracies or errors.

nvln··on Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization?
There is definitely a lot of value in practice and repetition. I don't think rote memorization / drilling are the only means of getting that practice and repetition. Ironically, with a bit of creativity, we can provide both. Lot of practice, lot of repetition, paired with understanding, play and making things.
nvln··on Creativity fundamentally comes from memorization?
There is deliberate practice for skill-building. There is exploratory "making" that fuels originality. There is inspiration hunting and incremental tweaking to get to creative mutation. There is high productivity that triggers eventual ingenuity. I find the article hyperbolic in its thesis and execution especially when it comes to the final hand-wavy bit about how there is more per-capita creativity in non-rote learning.

While its hard to prove or disprove without a long study to prove or disprove the author's claim, I'm willing to die on the following hills:

1. Kumon sheets are the antithesis to creativity 2. Understanding is not a form of memorization (not the rote variety anyway)

nvln··on Show HN: Huewords, a Word and Logic Puzzle
FiddleBrix[1] is similar.

[1]: https://www.fiddlebrix.com/

nvln··on Show HN: We are building GitHub for Education
No. Thank you. Will reach out to them.
nvln··on Ask HN: Why do functional programmers hate loops (for, while, etc.)?
1. Immutability: Functions are expressions that return a singular value without mutating state. Most loops are not expressions and have some mutation happening.

2. Composition: If the loops don't mutate there are functional alternatives (map, reduce/fold, filter, etc) which are composable.

3. Abstraction: Loops are traversal instruments. Sophisticated functional languages / environments have some mechanism for generalizing traversal of any data structure into a higher order function or some form of reusable generalization.

That said, I use a lot of loops in library code for performance and expose functional interfaces for consumers.

nvln··on Escaping High School
We are trying to codify this: https://puthir.org.

My son (and our first learner) launched his portfolio (real work, not fake stuff) back in December and he added his new math toy last month. We expect his portfolio (+ his experience, skill and knowledge) to grow over the next couple of years. Here is his Show HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36603838.

nvln··on Astro framework lowers competitors by ~40% on performance graph to looks better
Hope they correct it and don't repeat the mistake.

They really don't have to. I really like astro. They got a lot of things right. It is my go to choice for websites these days. I say this as a creator of one of the popular Static Website Generators.

nvln··on Show HN: SocratiQ – A brand new way to learn anything, together with friends
Hello HN,

I've been thinking about and tinkering with self-driven learning experiences in both physical and digital spaces for quite some time. They all ultimately hit the roadblock where requesting and receiving timely feedback is not scalable. Well, LLMs have solved the problem to a great extent despite the unreliability.

SocratiQ (very early beta) is one attempt at a solution empowered by LLMs. It is a self-driven, exploratory, social learning experience facilitated by GPT4.

This is my second AI facilitated LX. First one (https://seed.kood.app), takes a different path with a slightly different intent.

I'm super eager to get feedback from life-long learners and parents in the HN community. It is a super early release, so expect a slightly messy experience. Signup is required unfortunately.

Thank you.

nvln··on Ask HN: Is split keyboard worth the effort?
I use the ErgoDox EZ, I love it and I've been RSI free with good, productive workflow.

My first non-standard keyboard was the Kinesis Advantage. When I first got it (to mitigate RSI), I went through a similar phase as you.

My solution was to stop everything else, get Mavis Bacon (any typing tutor really) and develop muscle memory. 1 week later, my productivity levels were manageable and I used the keyboard for regular work stuff. I continued Mavis Bacon for 2 more weeks. At the end of the 3rd week, I felt more productive than before. It's been 8 years now and I haven't turned back.

The switching to regular keyboards part might be a real issue if you are, like me, a creature of habit. I avoid it as much as possible.

nvln··on Paul Graham is an investor in the company trying to kill Twitter
That's a super interesting take.
nvln··on Paul Graham is an investor in the company trying to kill Twitter
Absolutely not. It's just a lens that I found recently and thought it was interesting enough to share in this context. Not trying to justify or soften the actions or consequences.
nvln··on Paul Graham is an investor in the company trying to kill Twitter
Over the past couple of months, I have developed a slightly generous take on twitter and Elon:

- Being forced into buying twitter has pushed the company / him into absolute survival mode

- Instinctive paranoia kicks in when you are in that mode to keep you on your toes

- When you have seen outsized success and have a sycophant army, but no deep friendship, the paranoia brings in a me against the world mindset

- All the people you alienate as a result of your paranoid action gang up, further affirming your paranoia.

- The vicious cycle continues

This lens explains most of his actions and has softened my view of Elon as a CEO trying his very best to keep the company afloat.

nvln··on Show HN: StorySeed – AI Facilitated, immersive, creative learning experience
Hey, maker here:

I'd love to know which words are buzzy. The writing is a lot more flowery than usual because, well, it is a product for writers :)

---

Gist:

1. There are 2 products

2. Papyr: An infinite editor and writing tool

3. StorySeed: An inquiry based learning course that helps you understand story composition by asking you to think about the stories that you know and love.

4. At the end of the chapter, the products come together. You begin writing based on the composition you choose and the prompts provided.

^ Hope this one is clear.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll see what I can do to clarify the message.

nvln··on New React docs pretend SPAs don't exist anymore
Yes, using just the FE part is still joyful (Svelte, React etc). It's the move towards full-stack (Next, SvelteKit etc) that I'm slightly complaining about. My complaint is also limited to how complex the build process is in combination with other aspects of the fast moving TS/JS ecosystem.
nvln··on New React docs pretend SPAs don't exist anymore
What part of my comment suggests that I think people are stupid?

---

Tools can solve important problems "and" increase the complexity to point where they create other problems which makes the trade-off untenable.

nvln··on New React docs pretend SPAs don't exist anymore
Does anyone else feel that the complexity of the full-stack frameworks is getting untenable?

1. There is a significant gap between dev and production environments. (See #2 why this is critical)

2. The production build times are super high

3. ES modules are great, but the JS ecosystem being a bundle of small libraries, getting them all to play nice is hard.

4. I occasionally get X is included twice errors that are painful to track and debug

5. There are frequent instances where I find out that the very problem I had has been solved by someone, but they don't know how or why. They remove a, b, c then it works. They add it back, it still continues to work.

What happened to KISS?

nvln··on Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python
Ah quota issues make more sense.

Thanks.

nvln··on Multi-Account Containers
Yeah, its a good way to circumvent tracking / fingerprinting mechanisms. Anonymization primitive.

But the primary usecase for me is to access a rarely used account temporarily without having to logout and login from the main account (AWS, Cloudflare, Google, etc).

nvln··on Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python
My worry was more about random failures on Open AI side (I'm building something with it). Thanks for sharing. I'd love to see a blog post on how you are handling the quoting issues.

Are you planning on sticking with Open AI or is it a stop gap until you train your own models?

nvln··on Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python
> We call the OpenAI API - they don't always answer these days :-(

Yikes. That's worrying. Is this rate limiting or API timeouts that need some retry logic wrapped around?

nvln··on Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python
With pay-per-use services propping up around AI, I'm sensing that asking users to sign up before trial will become inevitable.

1. Is this a HN only phenomenon or is there a significant drop-off in general because of the signup requirement?

2. If the drop-off is general, how are you planning to handle AI pay-per-use credit tracking without signup?

nvln··on Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python
This is neat. Congrats on the launch. Having a python repl next to spread sheet will be handy for a lot of user cases.
nvln··on Multi-Account Containers
I've been using this for a few months now and I love it. Along side temporary containers[1] and tridactyl[2] which gives

- auto containerization based on url match

- keyboard driven way to open new pages in a specific container

FF transforms into a powerful browser OS running applications with hard boundaries.

The only UX issue (which admittedly could be because I have changed the theme to be minimal by hacking userChrome) is that sometimes the temporary containers I spawn are the ones I need to retain (user storage) etc and I tend to forget that and loose data.

[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...

[2]: https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl

nvln··on Ask HN: How do you find stuff on the internet now?
All programming related queries (and ones where I can attest to the validity with my knowledge or commonsense) -> Chat GPT.

Others -> Chat GPT with cross checking with DDG and Wikipedia.

News -> Twitter, Google News with extensive cross checking.

nvln··on Ask HN: What have you created that deserves a second chance on HN?
I made an infinite canvas specialized editor for poets because I was frustrated with the painful workflow for submitting poetry to magazines: https://koodpad.com/venba.
nvln··on Ask HN: What would be your stack if you are building an MVP today?
Thank you, 'the next to nothing' bit is very helpful. I'd like to have a decent runway and a decent protection for my wallet just in case the MVP takes off in terms of user growth but not in terms of revenue growth.
nvln··on Ask HN: What would be your stack if you are building an MVP today?
I'm building the MVP to make a product and get some market feedback / validation.
nvln··on Ask HN: How do you trust that your personal machine is not compromised?
I used this a while back when I was worried something weird was going on: https://github.com/mvt-project/mvt. (Nothing was going on).
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