<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: KenPainter</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=KenPainter</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:18:02 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=KenPainter" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: What Is Intelligence?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Curiosity</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:52:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191026</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191026</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191026</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Show HN: Denorm – Declarative derived columns (Postgres)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Author here, wanted to add some stuff that did not fit above.<p>I came to this 20+ years ago as I was not satisfied with orthodox solutions to the tension of between normalization and the inherent need to generate derived values from the normalized ones.  In 2002 I wrote a passable version in PHP and made my living with the approach until about 2009.<p>Last year I reasoned if LLM's were truly capable, I could make a far more robust and capable version in Typescript.  This is the result, after several iterations.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:10:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169267</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169267</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169267</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Show HN: Denorm – Declarative derived columns (Postgres)]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Denorm solves my own long-standing pain points with biz logic and the DB, providing a declarative DSL in which derived columns are part of the schema.  Data moves along foreign keys: down from parent to child, aggregate from child to parent, and of course within rows.  Can also generate parents and children along the foreign key.<p>The README example:<p><pre><code>  table us_states
    column state_code char(2) primary key
    column state_name varchar(20)
    column children_count integer count child_table

  table child_table
    column child_id serial primary key

    fk us_states references us_states pushes child_table
    column state_code is us_states.state_code

    column state_name sync us_states.state_name
</code></pre>
Denorm colocation of external values with derived values offers very high compression of logic definitions.<p>It's a "pay me now" trade.  The write is more expensive in exchange for simpler modeling, simpler reads and writes, simpler stack.<p>The builder traps cycles, so we get termination.  Builds are idempotent and additive, any-state to current.  Ranged foreign keys are first class citizens (not just time series).  Derived values are not subvertible.  Race conditions and deadlocks eliminated (*except generating children can produce deadlocks the client must handle).<p>If you already have Postgres installed, you can get something usable in 10-20 minutes following the README.</p>
<hr>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169173">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169173</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 1</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:03:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://gitlab.com/kendowns/denorm</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169173</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49169173</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I really like this.  The box/row/column UI generality is exactly what I have in my head and have not found anywhere, that alone will have me playing with it.<p>I'll also want to see how I can get it plugged into my Postgres database.<p>What are your goals for client-side performance in the browser?  Do you make any claims to be better than React or Angular?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 13:15:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155383</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155383</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155383</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I just finished up Denorm release 1 a couple of hours ago.  It solves a class of biz logic problems I've faced since the 90s. Materializes derived columns in Postgres databases, within and across tables.   Termination, no race conditions, non-subvertible, concurrency.<p><a href="https://gitlab.com/kendowns/denorm" rel="nofollow">https://gitlab.com/kendowns/denorm</a><p>Apache license.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 23:45:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149556</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149556</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149556</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Best books/courses to learn the theory behind strength training?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If you do Stronglifts for two months that will get you a foundation in powerlifting and adding weight.<p>Then you calculate your theoretical max for each lift on this site: <a href="https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator" rel="nofollow">https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator</a><p>Then plug those into 5/3/1. I can't say enough good things about 5/3/1 - it gives you an elegant and consistent approach to PRs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 16:27:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262967</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262967</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262967</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Best books/courses to learn the theory behind strength training?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sometimes called "the last website." Somehow this site has survived all of the changes on the internet.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 16:24:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262926</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262926</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39262926</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Best books/courses to learn the theory behind strength training?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Actually there is not much to the theory, I can probably fit it all into a 2nd reply.<p>Treat strength as a skill.  Practice makes stronger.<p>Weight training is a deliberate stress to the body.  It responds by overcompensating.  You get stronger.  Most people who are not juicing require a day off after a good session.<p>Free weights and body weight are safest and most effective.  Pulley systems come second.  There is no third.<p>Learn the big six full body compound moves and their dimensions.  Deadlift is a lower body pull - weight is pulled towards you.  Squat is a lower body push - you are pushing the weight up.  Bench press is horizontal push, barbell row is horizontal pull.  Standing press and pull-ups are the vertical push and pull. You will do these forever.<p>Injuries are rarely dramatic or instantaneous.  Most injuries are in the joints and build gradually. They are caused by bad form.  You spend your entire life improving form.<p>Bodybuilder moves are not strength training.  Bicep Curtis and other isolation moves are of no use to us.  Neither are high deep sets where you "feel the burn".<p>A personal trainer who is not a power lifter will never let you lift enough to get strong.  A personal trainer who is a power lifter will get you injured - but not badly.  I prefer the latter.<p>"Push through the pain" refers to the voice screaming in your head to quit. Push through that.  Never push through physical pain in the muscles or joints.<p>Strength gains are gains in the musculo-skeletal system and the nervous system.  Bones get stronger,  muscles get stronger,  and more connections are wired up from your brain to the muscle.<p>Very heavy lifts,  that you can hit only one or two reps,  drain your nervous system.  It is restored by sleep.  You will eventually get strong enough to lift enough weight to need 2 or 3 good nights sleep before lifting heavy again.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 03:23:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256937</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256937</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256937</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Best books/courses to learn the theory behind strength training?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>To get started on the practical while researching the theory: <a href="https://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5/" rel="nofollow">https://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5/</a><p>For much more on the beginner stuff, "starting strength" by Mark Rippetoe. The author is, in my opinion, a bit biased towards athletes so he offers a few opinions as facts.  But these are harmless early in training.<p>After you've finished stronglifts 5x5 which will take a few months,  buy "5/3/1" by Jim Wendler.  IMHO the perfect training program, for a lifetime.<p>The website t-nation.com has surprisingly high quality considering it exists to sell useless dietary supplements.  It's a "tips and tricks" site so you've got to read hundreds of articles before you can tell the wheat from the chaff.<p>Overall, everything you need to know is on the web.  It's just that the signal to noise ratio is so freaking low.  Learn to recognize the methods that are for "juicers" - the guys lifting better through chemistry. Stay away from those.<p>Good luck!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2024 02:29:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256629</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256629</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39256629</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: How to Build an LLM of the Buddha?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Fascinating question.<p>I think the problem is that the 15-17k pages of the Pali Canon are already hopelessly sectarian.  You won't get ChatBuddha, you'll get ChatTheravada.<p>As an aside, this answers the oft-posed question: how could Ananda possibly have recited the entire canon after Master Gotama's death?  Answer: there was a lot less of it then.<p>More useful is to discard the sectarian suttas, read the rest and do what they say.  In my experience it is highly effective.  When you realize you must be "a lamp unto yourself" then you're almost there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 2024 02:45:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39199142</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39199142</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39199142</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Any way to write a simple desktop app anymore?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks everyone this gives me a lot to look at.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:14:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39091139</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39091139</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39091139</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ask HN: Any way to write a simple desktop app anymore?]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Back in the day I used Foxpro, originally for single users, then LAN, then client/server.<p>Foxpro was only one of many desktop tools that were reviled by Real Programmers(tm) but they sure got the job done.<p>For years I've missed this basic ability to make an app for myself where I could ignore the "stack" and just get the job done.   Before I go off and start some side project, anybody know of anything?</p>
<hr>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39079543">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39079543</a></p>
<p>Points: 8</p>
<p># Comments: 17</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jan 2024 15:56:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39079543</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39079543</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39079543</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: What was the purpose of the fence in Chesterton's Fence?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The idea is don't tear down the fence until you know why it's there.  But a fence across a road - it's so obviously wrong everybody wants to tear it down - not recognizing somebody with a good reason put it there.  Big lesson when examining legacy code.<p>Then there is the Terry Pratchett version, when they move a big piece of furniture to reveal a door with a sign,  "under no circumstances should this door ever be opened. " so they open the door and general madcap laughs ensue.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:55:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38171621</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38171621</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38171621</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Are You Religious?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Group together as religions those systems of thought and their institutions that make specific truth claims about<p>1. Origins of the cosmos and, specifically, homo sapiens
2. Existence (or not) and nature of super-human sentient beings, their character and agency
3. What happens after death
4. Some root cause of all problems faced by individuals, tribes, nations, and humanity
5. Prescribed and proscribed behaviors that eliminate the root cause of problems<p>This description covers, to my knowledge,  Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, all in their many varieties.<p>Inasmuch as I have my own answers to these questions, then by my own definition I'm religious, though I am not backed by a state-spnsored institution :)<p>My path is best described as Buddhist, without reincarnation or supernatural "devas" that were syncretically added even as Sidhhata Gotoma's dead body was still warm.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 06 Nov 2023 13:09:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38162111</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38162111</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38162111</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: How to learn work ethics and discipline as an adult?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My heart goes out to you. My story is similar.  Everything in school came easy to me. Later in life I found myself outmatched by "lesser minds" who knew the value of consistent effort.  I knew I lacked discipline, was envious of others whose parents had taught them this, but could not figure out what to do.<p>If and only if you are like me, the actual problem is that you have not mastered yourself. One who does not master himself is mastered by others.  Mastery of oneself is the ability to make a wise decision and execute.<p>To get started, literally from scratch, I determined to commit to one decision professionally and another personally. Then later I would expand.<p>By the way, none of this involves delayed gratification. Self-mastery is immediately gratifying day by day and hour by hour as we see the small results.  What people call delayed gratification I experience more as compound interest.<p>At work it was simple.  I committed to watching closely those I admire (or envied). I studied their behavior carefully and practiced it myself. As Aristotle said, when you imitate a person's behavior, you gradually gain an internal understanding of it.  Sometimes you even know why they do things better than they do, as you have come into it deliberately and with objectivity.<p>On the personal side I committed to pursue something fun that I enjoy - even past the easy and fun part. Deeper pleasure in something we enjoy become possible when we give up being the dilettante and seek to be the master.<p>Life is amazing, but anything worth doing requires sustained effort.  Pick something that is worth the effort - to you - and master it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:57:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37365886</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37365886</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37365886</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Tell HN: Today I cam across a recruiting scam"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I saw something similar 20 years ago.<p>I had a vacation home.  They wanted to rent.  Sent me two cashiers checks for 5000.00 requesting a wire transfer of remainder.  I ghosted them and kept the checks as souvenirs.<p>There is a twist. They sent a dozen or so FedEx letters that somehow were billed to my address and shown to originate from my address.  FedEx reversed the charges.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 09 Aug 2023 23:12:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37069649</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37069649</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37069649</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Which university degree is most conducive to personal growth and wisdom?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I can only tell you what I did.<p>Physics IMHO.  It's weight lifting for the mind, teaches you judgement, precision, and abstraction while insisting results be grounded in physical reality.  What better skills for the acquisition of wisdom?<p>Get in some classical philosophy if you can, as Aristotle answered the question beneath your question - how does one become wise? One becomes wise by imitating the actions of a wise person.<p>Physics and Aristotle provide the escape from modern philosophy which emasculated itself with the phrase "normative statements cannot be derived from empirical observations". More commonly stated as "you cannot derive an ought from an is".<p>For me it all led to a study and practice of the oldest Buddhist material in the Pali Canon. This is quite different from the semi-digested pap offered up as "mindfulness" these days. Fascinating stuff, sharing the qualities listed above for Physics.<p>Best of luck and don't forget to enjoy it all.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 25 Apr 2023 01:17:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35695421</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35695421</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35695421</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Does GPT-4 signal the start of the singularity?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 19 Mar 2023 12:22:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35218247</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35218247</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35218247</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Has anyone been able to transform their personality?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Pithy non-answer: no and why would you want to?<p>Serious answer:  yes but it's not a change of personality.  It's about recognizing fear and developing skills.<p>When I experienced this level of deep self doubt I emerged having learned a few things.<p>One, I'm not broken and don't need to be fixed.  I'm more like some sloppy code that got rushed to production and could use some fixes.  I do them one at a time to remove whatever blocker is hindering my happiness at the moment.<p>Two, I'm much happier when I do things I like.  I took up oil painting because I wanted to.  I painted a nude and hung it in my living room.   I became a private pilot.  Full in your own blanks.<p>Third and most importantly, I learned how to deal with racing thoughts.  Racing thoughts feed on the energy we put into fighting them.  If you fight them you feed them.  Meditation was my method but it's tricky for us.  We are told it relaxes you but when we try the racing thoughts give us an experience of failure.  The trick is to stop fighting them and let them flow freely, while gently bringing your attention over and over to the meditation object (typically the breath).  The first meditative state described in the oldest Buddhist texts "is accompanied by sustained and appplied thought".  It's normal for everybody.  Sooner or later you learn not to believe everything you think and freedom begins.<p>Best of luck.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 15 Jan 2023 06:14:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34387172</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34387172</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34387172</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by KenPainter in "Ask HN: Anyone use only resistance band to workout at home?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Injuries usually build gradually through many repetitions of bad form.  While free weights can push joints into unhealthy stretches the bands are more likely to pull the joints into bad form.  It requires a firm suppression of ego as regular discipline to avoid this.<p>Gaining some minimal muscle is likely possible with increasingly heavy bands, so long as the above caution about form is heeded.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2022 15:07:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33943784</link><dc:creator>KenPainter</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33943784</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33943784</guid></item></channel></rss>