<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: MattHeard</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MattHeard</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:03:06 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=MattHeard" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "AI will make formal verification go mainstream"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>it can tell you if your spec is bad, but it can't tell you if your spec is good</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:29:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299528</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299528</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299528</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>One thing I haven't seen addressed in the post or comments (sorry if it's there and I just missed it) is for apps and websites that sell non-digital goods to customers.<p>For returning customers, a customer with an app installed is simply going to have a lot less friction to open the installed app and place an order than a customer who has to open their browser, log in again, and then place the order.<p>That alone is worth the investment for many companies in making an app, even if a minority of customers actually choose to install the app and keep it installed.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 31 Dec 2024 19:14:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42561029</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42561029</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42561029</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Andrej Karpathy on learning (should never be fun)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort.<p>Karpathy clearly wrote something different that what you say he wrote.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 Nov 2024 12:23:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42099818</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42099818</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42099818</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Diagram as Code"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I use Github Copilot with PlantUML. I use PlantUML comments to describe what I want the diagram components to show and then the syntax is written for me. I can then edit it pretty easily and iteratively.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:00:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42052518</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42052518</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42052518</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Learning to Reason with LLMs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It appeared for me about thirty minutes after I first checked.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Sep 2024 19:09:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41524397</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41524397</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41524397</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Show HN: Infinity – Realistic AI characters that can speak"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hello, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. I'm currently writing a blog post where the thesis is that the root disagreement between "AI doomers" and others is actually primarily a disagreement about materialism, and I've been looking for evidence of this disagreement in the wild. Thanks for sharing your opinion.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Sep 2024 06:18:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41471857</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41471857</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41471857</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Good refactoring vs. bad refactoring"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I got as far as here:<p>> If you need to introduce a new pattern, consider refactoring the entire codebase to use this new pattern, rather than creating one-off inconsistencies.<p>Putting aside the mis-application of "pattern" (which _should_ be used with respect to a specific design problem, per the Gang of Four), this suggestion to "refactor the entire codebase" is impractical and calcifying.<p>Consistency increases legibility, but only to a certain point. If the problems that your software is trying to solve drift (as they always do with successful software), the solutions that your software employs must also shift accordingly. You can do this gradually, experimenting with possible new solutions and implementations and patterns, as you get a feel for the new problems you are solving, or you can insist on "consistency" and then find yourself having to perform a Big Rewrite under unrealistic pressure.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:16:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41298264</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41298264</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41298264</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Legacy"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>the pythagorean theorem is not named after its discoverer, unfortunately, as historians of mathematics have dated its earliest known usage to well before pythagoras</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:08:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41056708</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41056708</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41056708</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Software MVPs can no longer be low quality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If the quality is too low, it's not viable. This was always true.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:01:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40608329</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40608329</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40608329</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Low Cost Robot Arm"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>i was going to ask if turtlebot was too small for you, but thought i should check the price first so uh, yeah, i'm guessing you're thinking the 250 price point instead of the turtlebot's 1000+</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:46:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39904268</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39904268</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39904268</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Regex character "$" doesn't mean "end-of-string""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My working assumption has always been to check the docs of your specific regexp parser, and to write some tests (either automated or manually in a REPL) with specific patterns that you are interested in using.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 09:04:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39764180</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39764180</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39764180</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Dear Paul Graham, there is no cookie banner law"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"I would like website operators to assume that I consent to being tracked, so I'm annoyed that website operators are not allowed to assume that everybody consents to being tracked."</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:54:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39743702</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39743702</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39743702</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Job Titles Are Bullshit"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>surprisingly common to find oneself caring strongly about bullshit</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:06:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512067</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512067</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39512067</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have/had this cat water fountain too (my cats are now happy with a normal bowl) and I believe I just threw the wall wart into a box with the rest of my unused USB A wall warts. A little bit like electrical Russian roulette now, I guess.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 19 Dec 2023 13:19:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38695165</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38695165</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38695165</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Fixing Classical Cats: How I got tricked by 28-year-old defensive programming"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Barely related, but I remember the joy as a kid of putting a computer game CD-ROM in my Walkman CD player just to see what happens and discovering that I could listen to the game's soundtrack just like a normal soundtrack CD. Can't remember which game, but it is a fond memory of mixed-mode CD technology. Can't do that with your Steam games and Spotify!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:46:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38600156</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38600156</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38600156</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was hopeful for a private-industry approach to AI safety, but it looks unlikely now, and due to the slow pace of state investment in public AI R&D, all approaches to AI safety look unlikely now.<p>Safety research on toy models will continue to provide developments, but the industry expectation appears to be that emergent properties puts a low ceiling on what can be learned about safety without researching on cutting edge models.<p>Altman touted the governance structure of OpenAI as a mechanism for ensuring the organisation's prioritisation of safety, but the reports of internal reallocation away from safety towards keeping ChatGPT running under load concern me. Now the board has demonstrated that it was technically capable but insufficiently powerful to keep these interests in line, it seems unclear how any safety-oriented organisation, including Anthropic, could avoid the accelerationist influence of funders.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:10:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38377296</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38377296</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38377296</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others to join Microsoft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I've heard the opposite about Brockman. What makes you so confident about this tech abilities?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:10:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38346308</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38346308</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38346308</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "Meta disbanded its Responsible AI team"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Maybe this news should challenge your priors, then?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 19 Nov 2023 07:06:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38329987</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38329987</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38329987</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "German court prohibits LinkedIn from ignoring "Do Not Track" signals"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A lot of courts use rulings from other countries where the cases are similar. Any interpretation by the Berlin regional court that GDPR implies that DNT should be treated as a GDPR opt-out should be easily adopted by courts in other countries deciding similar cases.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:07:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38082936</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38082936</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38082936</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MattHeard in "AI model weight providers should not police uses, no matter how awful they are"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The licence is not for the user, the licence is for the publisher to do the bare minimum needed to tell their bosses that the model weights or implementation code was published ethically.<p>As others have pointed out, these licences appear unenforceable.<p>The publisher simply wants to appear responsible. There are likely many open-source-oriented engineers and scientists at these tech firms who have been pushing for publication. (See the discussion between Mark Zuckerberg and Lex Fridman.) The involved tech firms only care about the licence as far as it might minimise the likelihood of public backlash if any of these published models cause harm.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 Sep 2023 17:24:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353735</link><dc:creator>MattHeard</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353735</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353735</guid></item></channel></rss>