Hacker News: IliaLitviak

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel"

IliaLitviak — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:43:09 +0000

I am, yes. As I said, I am aware of my privilege and even though I might technically theoretically be a valid asylum case It would feel like abusing a system designed to help people in actual dire need. So even though I am more than willing to relocate, I would definitely NOT do that through the asylum process.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel"

IliaLitviak — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:10:51 +0000

A more than valid question! It's the only way I could figure out how to economically convey "I am a Russian who decided to leave Russia to not be complicit and because my history of protests and support for opposition makes it scary to stay, while I completely understand the level of privilege I'm enjoying and can't call myself a refugee even remotely". Even though I always wanted to live abroad, I didn't decide when and how exactly I would emigrate, hence "forced".

Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

IliaLitviak — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:56:46 +0000

Earlier I posted in a “Who wants to be hired?” thread, looking for a place where I could apply my experience in hospitality, food tech and automation.

A couple hours later I received an email:

“Hi Ilia,

I saw your comment on the June Who’s Hiring thread. I build production-ready TypeScript and Python systems that integrate LLMs into real workflows, with particular focus on RAG, agent orchestration, and clear blah-blah-blah”

Come on. I am a forced immigrant with a wife, a cat, rent and crushing debt, who’s been unemployed for 6 months. I am naturally an extremely optimistic person, but boy is energy on the low by now. And every e-mail in my inbox, especially one starting with something related to my job search, is a glimmer of hope. Just to be crushed by what comes next. Yes, it’s a minor cut, but those compound.

Please just don’t do this.

Maybe add a skill to your Claude Code called “empathy”? You can have your Claw access a “be considerate of other people’s experiences” MCP server! Or just ask your “Daily Grind Reminder” Telegram bot to recommend a good book of fiction from time to time. Just to develop some humanity.

Sorry for venting.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48370330

Points: 806

# Comments: 217

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026)"

IliaLitviak — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:00:25 +0000

Entrepreneur and consultant in all things food, beverages and tech - from teaching robots to cook to developing central kitchens around high levels of automation. Would love to make sure your humanoid handles food safely and deliciously!

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: yes

Technologies: business development from 0 to 115 person teams, AI-native, LLM-augmented

Résumé/CV: linkedin.com/in/ilia-litviak

Email: ilia.litviak@gmail.com

New comment by IliaLitviak in "I used o3 to profile myself from my saved Pocket links"

IliaLitviak — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 09:36:54 +0000

Recently vibe-coded a web-app that takes your listening history from Apple Music (sad to see Spotify API go) and recommends a variety of different media based on that. Was truly surprised by how OK those recommendations are, given an extremely limited input.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:30:26 +0000

That’s what I was thinking of, yes. S3 was a huge source of inspiration for me. And Hill Helicopters with their updates and AMAs.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:59:30 +0000

We are obviously thinking about that. VTOL capability makes our aircraft a bit more safe - it can literally land anywhere but water. And there’s probably a way to make it float two. But! Air is not an easier environment, it’s just different. With lot’s of limitation, both natural and regulation. My good friend is developing an automation suite for small aircraft and he’s dampened my optimism significantly! But still, It is the way to go, it’s just not as easy as it might seem.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:56:04 +0000

Not yet, we are a bit too early for that! But I sure hope that we’ll be able to start actually building soon, and then we’ll be very much doing that in public. It’s companies like Astranis, Boom and Hill Helicopters who inspired us and we’d love to follow their lead!

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Love them or hate them, this couple reign in Russian literature"

IliaLitviak — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 15:25:09 +0000

There is a black market of illegally printed “proper translations”. I had to buy a full HP anthology for my younger sister off some guy’s Corolla, paying in crypto. Same guy was selling counterfeit LEGOs. It was low-quality paper and flimsy covers, but the translation was “correct” and that’s all that matters.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 20:09:27 +0000

The beautiful part is that our powertrains are completely separate. You fly up/down using rotor. You fly forward using turboprop. The only transition that occurs is change in pitch of rotor blades to go from “powered” state into “passive autogyro” state. No complex clutches, no rotating mounts (like on Osprey). Completely separate independent systems. It also provides some measure of redundancy.

You are right that most of the noise comes from blades. And yes, there is some awesome blade design progress, especially for auto-gyros. Also there are a lot of specific things like low rotational speed, lack of tilt and other stuff that plays well into less noise in our specific application. But no, we won’t be as quiet as multicopters, especially those with ducted fans. That’s ok, this is a reasonable trade-off - manageable noise levels, a lot less complexity, lots of lift.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 14:11:51 +0000

We are far from public yet, but you DM me on LinkedIn, I’m always open for a chat!

It’s a sweet spot. Large enough to be useful, small enough to have reasonable refuelling times.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 14:09:17 +0000

When thinking about take-off/landing you have to take into account the powertrain, fuel, noise, power-to-weight ratio e.t.c. With modern electric motors, batteries, BMS’ e.t.c. we are at a point where system weight is comparable (the battery is relatively small, motors are quite light and powerful), but all the other things - noise, efficiency, time between overhauls e.t.c. is much-much better.

Long-term vision is to build-out a network connecting large metropolitan centers to smaller places, unlocking swaths of real estate. You can live in Albany and fly to Manhattan/Boston/Syracuse in 30 minutes whenever you need to report to office/go to a concert/visit a non-emergency doctor’s appointment. Vertiport can be located on a floating pier, on the roof of an existing transportation hub, on a plot adjacent to a bus/tram terminal e.t.c.

New comment by IliaLitviak in "Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?"

IliaLitviak — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:03:15 +0000

We are building a hybrid aircraft to connect cities with high speed door-to-door transportation, without train/airport infrastructure.

It’s a powered 55-seater auto gyro - an electric helicopter during take-off and landing and a conventional turboprop regional “plane” during flight. We are at a “works on paper, let’s start prototyping” phase: basic assumptions are verified by people from industry, a development plan is in place.

My co-founder is an experienced high-power electric propulsion engineer and he’s currently developing our power train. I am in charge of the business/operations/relationships side. We are currently looking for a third co-founder to lead aircraft design.