30 ms·

> He's one of the most valuable writers on LLMs Is he, really? Most of his blog posts are little more than opportunistic, buttressing commentary on someone els

by _zagj 9mo ago

> He's one of the most valuable writers on LLMs Is he, really? Most of his blog posts are little more than opportunistic, buttressing commentary on someone else's blog post or article, often with a bit of AI apologia sprinkled in (for example, marginalizing people as paranoid for not taking AI companies at their word that they aren't aggressively scraping websites in violation of robots.txt, or exfiltrating user data in AI-enbaled apps). EDIT: and why must he link to his blog so often in his comments? How is that not SEO/engagement farming? BTW dang, I wasn't insinuating the mods were in league with him or anything, just that, IMO, he's long past the point at which good faith should no longer be assumed.

simonw 9mo ago
If you're not assuming good faith what are you assuming here? What's my motivation? "buttressing commentary on someone else's blog post" That's how link blogs work. I wrote more about my approach to that here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/ https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/ (And yes, there I go again linking to something I've written from a comment. It's entirely relevant to the point I am making here. That's why I have a blog - so I can put useful information in one place.) I'll also note that I don't ever share links to my link blog posts on Hacker News myself - I don't think they're the right format for a HN post. I can't help if other people share them here: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=simonwillison.net https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=simonwillison.net
- _zagj 9mo ago
  > What's my motivation? Are you really going to insult my and others' intelligence like this? Directly or indirectly, your motivation is money. You already offer monthly subscriptions to your blog, and you're clearly trying to build a monetizable brand for yourself as a leading authority on AI, especially as it pertains to software development.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - simonw 9mo ago
    If my motivation was money I would cash in on the reputation I've already built and go and land a Silicon Valley salaried job somewhere. Sponsorship from my monthly newsletter doesn't come close. Seriously, do you have any idea how much money I'm leaving on the table right now NOT having a real job in this space? Being a blogger is wildly financially irresponsible!
    - jheez3 9mo ago
      Lol this argument doesn't hold weight. Do you really want to be an employee? Lets see what your reservation price is first. Im pretty sure you'd need to be paid a lot to forgo having control over your time and so on. Lets keep it one-hunnid.
      - simonw 9mo ago
        That's why I haven't got a job: I enjoy the freedom of working for myself, and I have enough of a financial runway from a previous startup acquisition that I can afford to do my own thing for a few more years. At some point I'm going to need to get back to earning more than I spend.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
dang 9mo ago
Please stop.
- th0ma5 9mo ago
  I think when a moderator keeps intervening like this it really does mean that there's something wrong here. I think people would be less mad if you just went ahead and said that you have some kind of special arrangement here with this influencer and post publicly that you like them constantly spamming the site and letting their fans flood the place with deflection and appeals for donations to them. Even YouTube had to add a sponsored post disclaimer.
  - dang 9mo ago
    There's no special arrangement. The only issue is clarifying what content is welcome vs. unwelcome on HN. simonw's content is obviously welcome, and this ought to be obvious. > I think people would be less mad People aren't mad about this. The vast majority of this community values simonw's contributions, which are well within the sweet spot for material on HN. That's why his material gets upvoted, as minimaxir (no friend of astroturfers) has pointed out elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451969.
  - jheez3 9mo ago
    Agreed. The preferential treatment is blatant and obvious. The fact that an old-timer like yourself comes forward and says it means that the newer people aren't nutters thinking it.

by _zagj 9mo ago

simonw 9mo ago

If you're not assuming good faith what are you assuming here? What's my motivation? "buttressing commentary on someone else's blog post" That's how link blogs work. I wrote more about my approach to that here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/ https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/ (And yes, there I go again linking to something I've written from a comment. It's entirely relevant to the point I am making here. That's why I have a blog - so I can put useful information in one place.) I'll also note that I don't ever share links to my link blog posts on Hacker News myself - I don't think they're the right format for a HN post. I can't help if other people share them here: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=simonwillison.net https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=simonwillison.net

_zagj 9mo ago
> What's my motivation? Are you really going to insult my and others' intelligence like this? Directly or indirectly, your motivation is money. You already offer monthly subscriptions to your blog, and you're clearly trying to build a monetizable brand for yourself as a leading authority on AI, especially as it pertains to software development.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- simonw 9mo ago
  If my motivation was money I would cash in on the reputation I've already built and go and land a Silicon Valley salaried job somewhere. Sponsorship from my monthly newsletter doesn't come close. Seriously, do you have any idea how much money I'm leaving on the table right now NOT having a real job in this space? Being a blogger is wildly financially irresponsible!
  - jheez3 9mo ago
    Lol this argument doesn't hold weight. Do you really want to be an employee? Lets see what your reservation price is first. Im pretty sure you'd need to be paid a lot to forgo having control over your time and so on. Lets keep it one-hunnid.
    - simonw 9mo ago
      That's why I haven't got a job: I enjoy the freedom of working for myself, and I have enough of a financial runway from a previous startup acquisition that I can afford to do my own thing for a few more years. At some point I'm going to need to get back to earning more than I spend.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]

dang 9mo ago

Please stop.

th0ma5 9mo ago
I think when a moderator keeps intervening like this it really does mean that there's something wrong here. I think people would be less mad if you just went ahead and said that you have some kind of special arrangement here with this influencer and post publicly that you like them constantly spamming the site and letting their fans flood the place with deflection and appeals for donations to them. Even YouTube had to add a sponsored post disclaimer.
- dang 9mo ago
  There's no special arrangement. The only issue is clarifying what content is welcome vs. unwelcome on HN. simonw's content is obviously welcome, and this ought to be obvious. > I think people would be less mad People aren't mad about this. The vast majority of this community values simonw's contributions, which are well within the sweet spot for material on HN. That's why his material gets upvoted, as minimaxir (no friend of astroturfers) has pointed out elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46451969.
- jheez3 9mo ago
  Agreed. The preferential treatment is blatant and obvious. The fact that an old-timer like yourself comes forward and says it means that the newer people aren't nutters thinking it.