Hacker News: AnimalMuppet

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Why a $154B CEO just endorsed stripping most Americans of voting rights"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:39:04 +0000

But when everyone says stuff like this, they get punched out in a bar, and only the people in the bar hear it at all. When this guy says it, it's news that the whole country hears.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Why a $154B CEO just endorsed stripping most Americans of voting rights"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:38:59 +0000

It's not only deciding who gets to distribute those taxes. It's who gets to decide, for example, whether we go to war, and whether you have to serve in the military and get shot at.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Why a $154B CEO just endorsed stripping most Americans of voting rights"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:18:30 +0000

A total refund, that is, $0 in income tax.

Even more interesting (and less deliberately manipulative): The government could make it voluntary. Below $X tax liability, you can choose a total refund - but you can't vote. That would be voting by those who actually care about the vote (or who owe more than $X).

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Programming Languages Are Authoring Tools for Platforms"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:35:33 +0000

Hmm. That section about "costs a language must reduce" is interesting when read in light of AI.

Implementation time? AI is a huge win, at least in the small. For a multi-year project, I'm not sure yet. (It is, literally, too soon to tell.)

But for new developer onboarding and team maintenance, I'm not sure whether AI is more of a handicap. Yeah, AI can digest a huge mass of code and give you a summary. It can also create a more indigestible mass of code. Is it reducing that cost, or increasing it? (Again, too soon to tell.)

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:29:24 +0000

Perhaps too low. Definitely too much of a step function.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:27:35 +0000

Related: "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Jesus, in Luke 12:15).

Life is not about how much you make or how much you're worth. It's about being worth something to someone. It's about having meaningful relationships.

As a typical software nerd, it took me decades to get that.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore"

AnimalMuppet — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:18:43 +0000

But individual grocery stores throw out a lot of food each day. So the problem isn't distribution, it's that nobody bought it.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Sam Altman says we are in the singularity: 'This is the moment'"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:53:57 +0000

It depends. Is it just a PR stunt, or does Altman actually believe it? If he genuinely believes it, saying so may be unwise, may expose him to be deluded, but is not just PR (except maybe bad PR).

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "America's Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:50:07 +0000

Assume that's true. They (and their cars) aren't in your city. They come in once in a blue moon for something. If you have a problem with that, why? You'd be better off (from your perspective) reducing to zero the number of people who do live in your city and use a car.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Ask HN: Why is every company encorporating AI everywhere?"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:54:33 +0000

Because it's very publicly claimed to be the path to approximately infinite dollars. And therefore if they don't pursue it and get left behind, the CEO and the board are going to be fired. Whereas if they try it and it fails, it was "a prudent business risk".

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Worse on Purpose"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:20:21 +0000

I'm moderately sure that there's a part of private equity that would be content with a steady profit (at the right price). It's just not the part that you usually hear about.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Worse on Purpose"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:57:36 +0000

Why would private equity not want high prices and a wait list? That's guaranteed future sales at high margin. Sounds pretty good to me...

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Shay Locomotives"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:53 +0000

I think my dad had a copy of the book that had this data.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 02:47:23 +0000

By the measure of "keeping the summer heat out of your home", which was in fact the topic at hand.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 02:22:47 +0000

Honest question: Does a wipe just wipe what's on the phone, or does it also tell the cloud to delete stuff?

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 02:11:07 +0000

That's a different discussion. Are you interested in staying out of trouble at the border? Or are you interested in taking down the system (or at least fixing it)?

If you think the system needs fixed or destroyed, you do you, but don't be surprised when that approach gets you in trouble at the border.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 01:45:53 +0000

Too keep it from killing too many people too fast, anyway.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Ask HN: How do you figure out what you're passionate about?"

AnimalMuppet — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 01:23:28 +0000

First, look for more fundamental reasons why you're so tired. Are you sick? Are you depressed? (Though finding something you're passionate about may help with depression.)

Then, are you looking for something that you are already passionate about, but are unaware that you are? Or are you looking to discover something to become passionate about?

Either way, talk to people - people at work, neighbors, people at church or the bar or the gym or the park. What were you talking about when you suddenly realized that you'd been talking for 45 minutes? You're pretty interested in that. Or, what was the other person talking about for 45 minutes, and you weren't searching for some kind of graceful way to get out of the conversation? You're pretty interested in that, too.

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "Third Drone Shot Down in Three Days in Romanian Territory"

AnimalMuppet — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 19:36:39 +0000

And President Trump?

New comment by AnimalMuppet in "What is happening to jobs? Separating AI hype from reality"

AnimalMuppet — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 19:22:06 +0000

Con: "Where's the evidence that this actually is improving productivity?"

Pro: "The evidence hasn't shown up in statistics yet; it's too new!"

Con: "And won't this destroy maintainability?"

Pro: "Show me the maintainability disasters caused by AI."

Con: "I can't yet; it's too new!"

Both sides are playing the "it's too new" card when asked for actual evidence to prove their claims. In fairness, it actually is too new for there to be much statistically-valid data, especially if the inflection point was November 2025. So both sides are trumpeting their position, neither with actual trustworthy data.

Everybody has their anecdote. Nobody has data yet.