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peter422

1,936 karma · joined April 9, 2014

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peter422··on Why I code as a CTO
The only title that a founder can have that matters more than "founder" is a CEO.

He calls himself a CTO, and that's fine, but he's really just a technical cofounder, and that's what he's acting like (and it sounds like it's a very positive thing for the company).

The CTO title and the whole point of the article are not really relevant, this entire situation would not be possible if he weren't a co-founder.

I think it is a good lesson that founders shouldn't necessarily be pigeon holed into roles they don't want, but the CTO title really has nothing to do with it.

peter422··on Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
If your definition of “making money” is turning bitcoins into USD at bitcoins low point, and then paying that back to them in 2 years, alright.

You can have whatever opinion you want about the bankruptcy process, but FTX was most certainly insolvent, due to fraud, and at that point whatever happened after the recovery to make people as whole as possible (which for many was not even close) really shouldn’t get credited to SBF.

peter422··on Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
Stage 21 was a great example of how tactics can beat a stronger rider. Pogacar was probably the strongest but Matteo burned up his energy chasing attacks in the final lap and then at the right moment WvA was ready to pounce and take the stage.
peter422··on Dict Unpacking in Python
I love the union syntax in 3.9+:

  new_dict = old_dict | update_keys_and_values_dict
peter422··on Co-founder exiting after pivot – what's a fair exit package?
The investors invested on a previous idea.

The fact that the other founders are deciding to pivot is just a luxury of the fact that the company has inertia, not value, which is why they are switching ideas.

Our OP doesn’t want to work on the new idea, the one that might have value, therefore he is entitled to very, very little.

You do not understand the economics of VC backed startups.

peter422··on Co-founder exiting after pivot – what's a fair exit package?
The issue has nothing to do with whether he worked hard, it has to do with the fact that the work the company did ended up being not very valuable, so much so that the company is doing something completely different.

Ultimately he created very little value and therefore is entitled to very little value. The company can just go out of business and start fresh!

Raising money is not value.

2-5% could be appropriate. 10% is completely insane.

peter422··on Serving 200M requests per day with a CGI-bin
If you rely on ‘cgi’ in your Python application, you are probably fine using 3.12 until mid-2028 when it stops being maintained (and probably beyond).

You guys are all really getting worked up over very little.

peter422··on Everything around LLMs is still magical and wishful thinking
In my codebase in my proprietary project, it’s possible that LLMs write around half the code, but that’s just because a lot of the trivial parts of the project are quite verbose.

The really difficult and valuable parts of the codebase are very very far beyond what the current LLMs are capable of, and believe me, I’ve tried!

Writing the majority of the code is very different from creating the majority of the value.

And I really use and value LLMs, but they are not replacing me at the moment.

peter422··on I made my VM think it has a CPU fan
Pretty funny that a blog post talking about complex and innovative ways to help investigate malware has a block of the lowest quality, scummiest ads that probably lead to malware.
peter422··on Field Notes from Shipping Real Code with Claude
Just to provide a contrast to some of the negative comments…

As a very experienced engineer who uses LLMs sporadically* and not in any systematic way, I really appreciated seeing how you use them in production in a real project. I don’t know why people are being negative, you just mentioned your project in details where it was appropriate to talk about the structure of it. Doesn’t strike me as gratuitous self promotion at all.

Your post is giving me motivation to empower the LLMs a little bit more in my workflows.

*: They absolutely don’t get the keys to my projects but I have had great success with having them complete specific tasks.

peter422··on I made a chair
This chair is made from pressure treated wood. Technically speaking, it is safe to sit on, but personally I'd like to avoid those chemicals against my skin if I could. Regular lumber probably would be preferable, especially when it would take $10 and 20 minutes to replace it after 5 years when it has rotted (or you could spring for redwood or cedar for an extra $10 and double or triple the life of your chair).
peter422··on Federal cuts disrupt repairs to iconic U.S. trails
The number of people who use state and federal parks in a given year is roughly equal to the number of people who fly.

It’s definitely a few notches above “very few”.

peter422··on The Return of Digg, a Star of an Earlier Internet Era
It is very funny that the article highlights these two guys saving Digg, and they both care so deeply about it that they are going to... sit on the board and keep their day jobs.

They won't go all-in on the idea and expect that we'll all be super excited by it. Just shows how out of touch VCs can get.

peter422··on GSA Eliminates 18F
I don’t remember the exact amount but after I filed my taxes last year I got a refund from the IRS for under 1 dollar because I had mistakenly put a small typo while entering a 1099 and they automatically corrected my return and sent me a few cents of a refund.

The fact that they are capable of doing that implies how much time we all have to waste doing our taxes.

peter422··on California Fire Facts
Scrutinizing is one thing, spreading deliberate misinformation is another.

Think about the asymmetry here — if there were a single fact wrong on that page Newsom released, he would be criticized and castigated and he’d have to correct it and apologize. All the people that he highlights spreading misinformation, are any of them going to apologize or correct the mistake? Of course not.

peter422··on California Fire Facts
It’s very sad that otherwise unrelated parties are incentivized to spread misinformation as part of some broader political strategy with no concern for the truth or livelihood of their fellow citizens.
peter422··on Gavin Newsom vetoes SB 1047
So your argument is that the good things about the state have nothing to do with the governance, but all the bad things do? Just want to make sure I get your point.

Also, I'd argue that if you broke down the contributions to the state's rules and regulations from the local governments, the ballot initiatives and the state government, the state government is creating the most benefit and least harm of the 3.

peter422··on Cutting Board Designer
It's a huge exaggeration. My Supermax 19-38 has helped me produce cutting boards larger than any normal person would want and it's a 120v machine. It does require dust collection but so does a table saw, planer and jointer, which are other machines you'll need to make a decent cutting board.

Now drum sanders do take up space (though mine is on wheels and can roll to the side when not in use), and aren't the easiest machines to use and maintain. But when it comes to cutting boards it vastly reduces the labor. Most of the time is just waiting for the glue to dry.

peter422··on Cutting Board Designer
Once you have a drum sander the amount of hand sanding for cutting boards goes way, way down.
peter422··on Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity
The main advantage of being an early employee is that you can leave.

Founders generally need to go down with the ship, early employees do not. If the growth trajectory starts to falter after 1.5-3 years, just get out of there and try another company. Let the founders clean it up (and you have equity in case they do).

peter422··on Solar Passes 100% of Power Demand in California [Updated]
The good news is that electric car charging will be mostly done whenever power is cheapest and demand is lowest so it should be the easiest possible extra demand for the grid to support.
peter422··on Tesla Settles Fatal Crash Suit Ahead of California Trial
Google has the best self driving in the world with Waymo and I don't think it's even close.
peter422··on Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems has died
One of those people died of a gunshot wound, so whether it was self-inflicted or not, their age and health and any related statistics have nothing to do with the death.
peter422··on US House passes bill to ban TikTok if owners won't divest
Are you suggesting that censorship is more is an issue in the west than in China?
peter422··on How engineers straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa [video]
I also stopped there for the afternoon on a train between Florence and Cinque Terra. Was super convenient.

Standing under the leaning tower I legitimately felt like it was going to fall on me. It's a one of a kind experience. Well worth breaking up a train ride to see it and grab a meal.

peter422··on US judge says FTX can sell its Anthropic shares; FTX invested $500M in 2021
It’s funny that this is getting downvoted when it is true.

It is more complicated though, the bankruptcy lawyers had to come up with some system to pay people back, and if not for the huge run up in crypto prices, which happened mainly after the policy was locked in, it wouldn’t be so bad.

Still though it does seem a very generous to the other FTX creditors (I doubt the equity holders are getting anything).

peter422··on Lableak truther loses $100k in his own debate
The guy in the OP paid somebody $100k to beat him a debate using a self-defined empirical system, which somebody did, and the original guy now believes the lab leak theory even more.

Honestly I think I’d prefer if it were a lab leak, since that seems easier to prevent in the future, sadly for me I think the overwhelming evidence points otherwise. A quest for the truth isn’t real if the truth can only be one thing.

But look I’m not going to convince you, your faith is your own and I hope it serves you well.

peter422··on Lableak truther loses $100k in his own debate
There is more than enough evidence now to make a strong conclusion, as the OP shows. When the people were caught lying, only like 5% of the eventual information was known. It’s bad for their personal reputations that they were caught lying (or at minimum misrepresenting their own views), but their lies don’t change the underlying facts. I also think it is notable that the politically correct view turned out to be most likely correct.

I also strongly suspect a lot of lab leak proponents and/or anti-vaxxers are knowingly lying as well. But still it doesn’t change the underlying facts.

peter422··on Lableak truther loses $100k in his own debate
I do always find this funny as a major support for the lab leak theory. At that time there wasn’t any of the genetic lineage information that we have now which is the strongest evidence for zoonotic origin.

Why does anybody’s public or private beliefs at that point in time matter? Politics have always existed in science but generally over time the truth wins.

peter422··on Lag in Cybertruck's drive-by-wire system
I’ve watched many reviews of the cybertruck, including people that have driven thousands of miles with it, and I’ve not heard a single one of them complain about the steering or lag.

So my guess is this tweet with one short video and no additional evidence or reasoning behind their claim is wrong.

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