HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

squircle

1,665 karma · joined March 16, 2024

submissionscomments
squircle··on Ask HN: Favorite Speculative Fiction Novels?
Why is it... the only? Do you think Dick was riffing off this precarious history when he wrote Man in the High Castle?
squircle··on Brain Study Shows ChatGPT Makes You Dumber
This feels significant. What if, without understanding how AI works, or even clearly understanding how cognition works, treating is at oracle or deity, or simply just a really weird calculator, theres a tendency to allow the LLM to reason for us, or else reinforce biases (and hence pathways?) My programming ability has certainly declined, but I am also thinking with scope, and with patterns more than in the past, solving work related problems more quickly. What to do with this extra energy is a wholenother matter. If I engage in other activities not requiring the computer, would this compensate for whatever the negative effect this loss of complexity entails?
squircle··on How AI Is Ruining the Electric Grid [video]
Should this problem be solved (as it very well could be) or, should ecological and environment constraints and limitations drive policy considerations here?
squircle··on How to Build an Electrically Heated Table
There are designs around the web for using tea candles for warmth (when paired with a thermal mass like a terracotta pot.) I tried this but it was not efficient enough. I have some other ideas along these lines but, priorities. You know?
squircle··on Cognitive Assessments for Autism: The Best Tools and Methods
A disease is only real if its physical?
squircle··on Ask HN: What is the best way to generate a ton of money as a dev?
Cool cool... what would you do with a ton of money?
squircle··on The Word Hacker (2004)
Generalizing here, and this certainly deserves scrutiny, but if I was an old man advising a young man, my advice:

Be like Kant, not a C*nt.

squircle··on Filial Piety: An Important Chinese Cultural Value (2019)
Oh, for sure. Is there not a significant difference between willingly adopting these values and being compelled to adopt them by an external force?
squircle··on There Is No A.I.
This is a poignant observation. What if there was real tender love and care put into gathering these training materials? (Y'know, truly free and open source, with a deep understanding of what it means to be human.) If you are working on this, we should talk.
squircle··on Women are not dolls
I am confused... first off, duh. Second: if I say to my partner, "use me, abuse me, spank me harder" am I not asking her to objectify me? If a woman uses a sexual apparatus to satisfy herself, you know, a big honkin' thing that makes even the most confident/capable/endowed man feel silly, is this not objectifying maleness? Also, from observation, do both men and women not want to feel beautiful or handsome or whatever?

"Fucking and fighting..." as it goes--is not there something primal about this? Now, this does not make sexual violence acceptable in any way, especially where exploitation is involved. But, weapononizing identity and biology in this way seems like a huge fucking fallacy, especially if algorithms are being used by law enforcement. Cobra problem, anyone? Pun intended.

How about: women, men, any gender in between (and uh, asexuals and eunichs?) should be able to defend themselves without the state, judicial, and intellectual apparatus intervening?

Lastly, sex work. Dancers, porn stars, etc... Some people want to do this. I imagine its a thrill. Strip clubs are not something I frequent or promote but, the inversion of roles is most amusing and perhaps even illustrative of what egalitarian sexual roles look like. I am not about to pay for it, and non consensual pornography makes me sick. However, sex is healthy, folks. (What are the chances certain cancers and other maladies are linked to disregulated hormones and bodily fluids? What would you say if it was discovered temperance is good but equipose is better, and normative value judgements are at the root of most major health problems?)

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Please explain to me what an asshole I am. I might even change my opinion. Regardless, thinking and writing is most pleasurable.

squircle··on A Breakthrough in Consciousness
This headline grabbed my attention. I dont care for religious texts of this nature myself. But I do enjoy reading experiences of other peoples phenomena of consciousness. I think its safe to say that when in a heightened/altered state of consciousness, the mind generates meaning by collapsing on archetypal images in a Jungian sense.
squircle··on Ask HN: Data engineers, What suck when working on exploratory data-related task?
Hah okay. I read VS different from vs. The pain, in part, is hidden functions, rarely ever inline documentation, difficult to reuse or repurpose, Windows-centric, etc.
squircle··on Ask HN: How can I raise $8k to build a classroom in rural Tajikistan?
Hey, you're welcome. Nice chatting with you and best of luck! I agree that internet donations (having cash to get you going) seems most viable and appropriate. If it takes off, I look forward to reading about it. The place looks beautiful.

Aside: is there a regionally local non/not-for profit that would accept non monetary gifts like old computers, etc? No need to respond but it might be valuable to pursue this.

squircle··on Ask HN: What types of tasks have coding agents reliably completed for you?
Iteratively one shotting new features into existing code bases, rolling fully realized tools from scratch ("do one thing well"), rapidly applying WCAG guidelines to front-end projects, etc. Also, learned me some Rust quickfast, and have attempted to show others how they can make their own websites and self-guided technical tutorials (because I'm tired of being the "smartest" guy in the room when it comes to this stuff... its fecking boring.)
squircle··on Ask HN: How can I raise $8k to build a classroom in rural Tajikistan?
> in practice, these businesses are usually not very expensive to set up and mainly serve as a way to recover the initial investment, rather than generate significant profit.

Okay, so this makes me think, perhaps, you might want to expand the definition of what you're attempting. Network with small business owners and, I dont know, set up a billboard where they can advertise their wares, or a (temporary) boutique stand/stall for local craftspeople to sell on consignment, with an agreement that a small amount of proceeds go to funding what, to me, sounds like a community center. Do you already have a designated location and permission to do this if the funds come in? Look into "B Corporations" and read "The Lean Startup" if you're not familiar.

> As for Tajik music...

Nice. Thank you for the recommendations.

If it is not too presumptuous/uncouth to ask... Are you a native English speaker or, what language is your mother tongue? Asking only because someday I would like to actually learn to speak a second language conversationally... superficial spanish/latin/french/german doesn't get you very far. Russian or Chinese seems like they would be the most fun to learn.

squircle··on Blue Origin to Launch Six More Tourists to Space on June 21
Are there any women-owned private Space enterprises? I can't stop giggling about the idea of strong women being shot into space in a mans proverbial fallus.
squircle··on Ask HN: What podcasts are you subscribed to?
I have... zero subscriptions. When I am interested in a topic I read/chew through all of the source materials I can get my hands on. Then, I engage in dialogue with those around me, or attempt to actively apply what I've learned about the topic at hand. Podcasts feel rote IMO :/

Edit: if I was going to design a search engine it would be wholly different from what Google or Microsoft currently offer. Disappointing results 95% of the time. Edit: No offense to any search engineers out here... I just want to read the original source materials, or sources with provenance/known exegesis/derivation. Also, Bing loves to push Bible verses. Like, all the time. Thats fine if its your jam but, meh... I only need/want to read something once unless I'm doing research for some particular purpose. (Perhaps it is simply a cultural linguistic phenomena emerging from the Western fascination with this particular canonical text.)

squircle··on Ask HN: How can I raise $8k to build a classroom in rural Tajikistan?
Are there any economic activities the community might engage in to raise their own funds and grow the coffers? How about garnering attention from potential allies in the Tajikistan economy? (Are there any regional hubs or cities where you might find musicians, for instance, you could invite to the village to share their art and possibly gain some regional attention? Are there enough resources for a potlatch with open invitation to outsiders? Out of curiousity, now I need to explore the music of Tajikistan...) Is there a governing body with a budget? How are existing structures built and maintained? What is the village's main form of economic activity?
squircle··on Why has American pop culture stagnated?
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44203874
squircle··on Terpstra Keyboard
First thing I did when I started playing with LLMs was vibe code a bunch of shitty virtual instruments. Roll your own, folks! Good fun.
squircle··on What Happened to Progressivism?
This resolving to the topic of vaccines is inflammatory for sure.

Medicine and science = good. Force feeding and shaming people into changing their behavior != good. Also, not science... only a very flaccid form of fascism.

Some days it feels as if everyone I meet has never learned how to wrestle with paradox or exercise Yeats "negative capability." (Note: I am not an artist. Just human doing human things.)

squircle··on Ask HN: Data engineers, What suck when working on exploratory data-related task?
Ah, well, rereading your original post I realize now this isn't necessarily painful for me. Perhaps though, the annoying aspect is seeing others use proprietary excel spreadsheets without a data lake. Conway's Law?

Does VS here mean Visual Studio? I would not call myself a data engineer, I just play one at work sometimes. Many hats, yknow?

squircle··on Ask HN: How can I raise $8k to build a classroom in rural Tajikistan?
Sounds like a barn raising to me.

Posting a gofundme link and sharing your story on social media feels like a not unreasonable approach.

Otherwise, you are building infrastructure, eh? Can the building serve other purposes or provide value to the community at large? Say, it's a school during the day--can it be used in the evening and off school days for other purposes?

Also, let's say its not possible to raise the money. Can you start by making a gazebo? Can you build it from recycled or repurposed materials, i.e., wooden palettes or straw bales, etc? How are other buildings in Tajikistan constructed? (Is it possible to convince more wealthy individuals in the community and surrounding countryside to upgrade their own buildings, possibly in exchange for your own labor, so they can gift the original materials to the community for this enterprise?)

squircle··on Ask HN: Data engineers, What suck when working on exploratory data-related task?
Conversations and interviews > Jupyter notebook
squircle··on Ask HN: You have $35,000 how do you invest it?
In the past? Take some time off, do some reading, attend a couple college courses, fart around and see where the winds take me. Now? I would probably buy a bunch of musical equipment and start a music production company. But, in reality, I am attempting to acquire a business so this would make for a down payment on a loan.
squircle··on What Happened to Progressivism?
Of course. Source materials are critical. I used to be diligent about this. Way back when a friend told me I read for pleasure (this was never true, escapism at best but more likely an adaptation), which I naturally took as an affront and a challenge... The past 5 or 6 years or so I've made a conscious decision to firehose myself and study the effect on my consciousness. It has been fun and interesting to say the least but, non plus ultra.
squircle··on What Happened to Progressivism?
I dont abide in any particular worldview... ideology is for campers. But, this article is interesting for its discussion of cognitive framing.
squircle··on How the little-known 'dark roof' lobby may be making US cities hotter
Interesting comment thanks for the response.
squircle··on How to Tell If You're an Adrenaline Junkie
Hey no worries.
squircle··on The full version of the saying: "Jack of all trades, master of none."
All good
Page 1 of 8Next →