wpietri

54 ms·

811.
by wpietri 3y ago
For sure. It's as foolish to me as somebody thinking they can keep a classic car going forever if they just use a better motor oil. In the early days of the automobile, Ford sent people around to junkyards to look at their cars. They w
812.
by wpietri 3y ago
I get HNers often thrive on being the smart guy, so I get the urge to correct. But that only is tolerable when you're actually right. Try occasionally assuming that the person you're talking to know what you are about to mention a
813.
by wpietri 3y ago
As an old-school nerd and non-neurotypical person, I think that's both wrong and insulting. I have never felt targeted by the term "tech bro". You could probably get at what people mean by it by starting with "person I d
814.
by wpietri 3y ago
So if even you don't believe that anybody self-identifies as a tech bro, why are you calling this "identity politics"? I'll also note that is a red herring, as it's not necessary for anybody to identify as an X for
815.
by wpietri 3y ago
Ok? I guess don't start your talks that way then. But I think that's a very shallow understanding of "identity politics". Typically that's used to mean a deep or immutable characteristic. It's not like techbros
816.
by wpietri 3y ago
"I don't necessarily like tech bros but I like talking with tech bros and at tech bros because they're easy to upset. The main way you upset them is by asserting either their humanity or everyone else's humanity."
817.
by wpietri 3y ago
I would also love some sincere answers to this question. I'm mostly a back-end person, but would love to start building some front ends that don't look quite so 1997-ish. But each time I think, "Gosh, I should learn whatever
818.
by wpietri 3y ago
I don't think there's as clear a line here as you think. It's not like crypto was just some small-time grifters who would otherwise be running crooked pop-the-balloon games at carnivals. Notable portions of the "real&quo
819.
by wpietri 3y ago
You're not questioning it. You're objecting to it. If you were actually questioning, you would have engaged with the fact that stories about hubris justly punished have been a staple of moral education for literal millennia. But y
820.
by wpietri 3y ago
For sure, but the fact that using a password as a password is the exceptional case is evidence to me that the paradigm is obsolete. Another way things like linking a TV to an account happens is not with a fixed string that we in theory inve
821.
by wpietri 3y ago
This to me sounds a lot like a Two Cultures view on the high modernist side. It seems hopelessly outdated to me. Personally, I'm much more concerned about scientists and technologists who ignore the humanities than vice versa.
822.
by wpietri 3y ago
Sure, I too want to just get there. I'd rather it just worked. But if I compare the disappointment of having a problem when I'm almost there versus one where I've just started, I'd definitely take the former. In either c
823.
by wpietri 3y ago
> Users understand passwords. Do we? My password manager has 1031 entries. I know maybe 3 of my passwords. For the rest, the fact that it's technically a password is mostly irrelevant to me. And there are a number of things I use th
824.
by wpietri 3y ago
I think "really good" is where we cross the point from LLM to AGI in that it can't just be a fancy autocomplete. It has to have decent model of readers to test various prose and structure options against to figure out which o
825.
by wpietri 3y ago
I'd personally take B. If something goes wrong on the trip, I'd much rather be almost there, as there will be more ways to complete the journey. But I think it flips for me when commuting, in that a short local ride is easier for
826.
by wpietri 3y ago
Totally. Advertising is fundamentally about distracting someone so you can put money in your pocket without regard to the impact on that someone. I have a lot of complaints about, say, McDonald's, but they make their money through givi
827.
by wpietri 3y ago
For sure. And I'd add that the acceptance of inequality as a reward does not imply anything about inherited inequality. Even if we grant the proposition that a good way for society-wide progress is to harness the desire of some to have
828.
by wpietri 3y ago
Ah, thanks. That's helpful. Amazingly, the talk was even worse. Which suggests to me that there are a bunch of people in the editorial chain who are propping him up.
829.
by wpietri 3y ago
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I agree that some execs can occasionally do better. I have even sometimes been that executive. I also agree with this as stated: > Depending on ICs to push cultural change up through the org isn't IMHO
830.
by wpietri 3y ago
Well that's an awful lot to take from my comment. Is this some sort of "hit dogs holler" thing? I'm American. I live in America. But I'm posting in a global forum, and I'm addressing something that's very
831.
by wpietri 3y ago
I am glad they did this work, but I don't think it gets at what's behind the joke about British teeth. For me, the exemplar is the Austin Powers jokes about his teeth. It's not that the average Brit has fewer teeth than the a
832.
by wpietri 3y ago
Funnily, this is an idea that keeps recurring. I talked with a would-be founder circa 1999 who wanted a discussion sidebar for every website. He too was excited about wresting control of the experience of a site from the site's owners.
833.
by wpietri 3y ago
So glad to hear it. After the talk I nearly had an out of body experience in the lobby afterward hearing people talk positively about what to me was a hot mess.
834.
by wpietri 3y ago
That can be it for you. But that's demonstrably not true for everybody.
835.
by wpietri 3y ago
I think this depends a lot on how sensitive to incentives one is. Obviously, there are plenty of people who are. But there are also plenty who aren't. I think at root we have twin problems. The very common ideology that personal financ
836.
by wpietri 3y ago
I agree with all of this, but it's really depressing to me that even somebody like Mironov just takes this as a given: "Companies, especially executive teams, can generate a lot of chaos: 'small' interrupts, sudden shift
837.
by wpietri 3y ago
This is where they lost me: > Someday, science and art will merge, Bohm predicts. “This division of art and science is temporary,” he observes. “It didn't exist in the past, and there’s no reason why it should go on in the future.”
838.
by wpietri 3y ago
I don't see any moralizing in what you're replying to. I see them challenging an assumption that is an extremely common one in American culture.
839.
by wpietri 3y ago
Nothing magic about it. When you fire all the people who contradict you, you create yes men and a culture of sycophancy. At that point it's self-perpetuating. Twitter had many issues as a company, but one of its strengths was a lot o
840.
by wpietri 3y ago
One of Twitter's stockholders is valuing it now at only $15 billion: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/31/tech/twitter-value-fidelity-e... Even Musk values it at $20 billion: https://www.thever

More ›