<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: Procrastes</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Procrastes</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:29:51 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=Procrastes" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Men Who Stare at Walls"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>@aselimov3 Thank you for the reminder! This is something I used to do all the time when I was younger, and I have gotten away from it. Very helpful.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:31:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922169</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922169</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922169</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Show HN: Mediator.ai – Using Nash bargaining and LLMs to systematize fairness"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Mediator here. This comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what mediation is for. Mediation is about helping the disputants find a solution they can live with, but mediators never decide what that is. Mediations have a large emotional, human component. Most mediations include a step of just giving parties a chance to be heard by another human being. Mediation outcomes don't look like court outcomes for a reason.<p>And mediators do sometimes offer a mediator's proposal, but that's the exception, not the rule, and mediators do not decide what is fair. That's not mediation.<p>Real examples:<p>1. $50,000 contract dispute, really just wanted an apology, and dropped the dispute once they got it.<p>2. Civil dispute over incomplete landscaping that had been paid for. Was actually about an explanation for a romantic break-up. Ended with paying to replace the flowers.<p>3. So many disputes over which extended family members can have what access to kids, pets, and boats.<p>Those are choices the disputants made for what was an acceptable outcome, not the mediator, which is the point of mediation.<p>This tool sounds like it might be closer to something for Arbitration? That's a very different environment.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:09:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47852280</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47852280</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47852280</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I remember the first time I heard this story. I was maybe 7 at a planetarium and they animated it with music little hand drawn starships and retro computers floating among the stars. They turned the stars all out for the final scene.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:46:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805910</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805910</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805910</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Six Characters"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A half-joking comment I once heard from someone who was part of the group that established the NUC. It stood for "Not US Currency," but tracks the dollar because that compromise was the only thing everyone could agree on. The first stablecoin.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:31:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798327</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798327</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798327</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Six Characters"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There used to be a story going around, possibly apocryphal, that the process to reset them used to be entirely manual and generally unknown to the rest of the organization. There was a big problem the week the person who had that task retired. Someone around here was probably there if it really happened and can add some color.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:27:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798282</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798282</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47798282</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Here's a thought experiment. I offer you the chance to be put in a medically induced coma and shipped around the world to strangers you know nothing about. You don't know what economic, political, or moral system you'll awaken to. The only thing you know for sure is they, for some reason we're interested in receiving an unconscious person, no questions asked.<p>Do you take the deal? Do you sign your family up for it?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:49:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468098</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468098</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468098</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Measuring progress toward AGI: A cognitive framework"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm going to assume you mean this seriously, so I will answer with that in mind.<p>Yes, I can.
- I can build an unusual, but functional piece of furniture, not describe it, not design it. I can create a chair I can sit on it. An LLM is just an algorithm. I am a physically embodied intelligence in a physical world.<p>- I can write a good piece of fiction. LLMs have not demonstrated the ability to do that yet. They can write something similar, but it fails on multiple levels if you've  been reading any of the most recent examples.<p>- I can produce a viable natural intelligence capable of doing anything human beings do (with a couple of decades of care, and training, and love). One of the perks of being a living organism, but that is an intrinsic part of what I am.<p>- I can have a novel thought, a feeling, based on qualia that arise from a system of hormones, physics, complex actions and inhibitors, outrageously diverse senses, memories, quirks. Few of which we've even begun to understand let alone simulate.<p>- And yes I can both count the 'r's in strawberry, and make you feel a reflection of the joy I feel when my granddaughter's eyes shine when she eats a fresh strawberry, and I think how close we came to losing her one night when someone put 90 rounds through the house next door, just a few feet from where her and her mother were sleeping.<p>So yeah, I'm sure I can create things an LLM can't.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 02:16:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433998</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433998</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433998</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Ask HN: Share your personal website"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Fun! Mine is <a href="https://billglover.com" rel="nofollow">https://billglover.com</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:29:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46621476</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46621476</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46621476</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Researchers find evidence of ChatGPT buzzwords turning up in everyday speech"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have --- set to autocorrect to —. I've been using it in formal writing for 30 years. When we were in high school, we had a "Dash Party" in English class, where we ate Twinkies and learned about the different dashes.<p>I would argue that LLMs overuse the emdash more because they overuse specific rhetorical devices, e.g. antithesis, than because they are being too correct about punctuation.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:59:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053042</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053042</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053042</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "What a Hacker Stole from Me"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm a lifetime member and have enjoyed mynoise.net for many years. It's the best thing I've found for focus and distraction blocking. I have brain.fm, and YouTube music, but I keep coming back to his site because it's just better, more intentional, and more effective for me.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 02:09:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477216</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477216</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477216</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "We're Not Innovating, We're Just Forgetting Slower"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I loved my TI-99/4A. I used to think it was ahead of its time, but now I realize it was from an altogether alternate timeline where we built stuff to work.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 17:09:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466190</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466190</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466190</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "The Rise of Whatever"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This captures something I've been struggling to describe, and "Whatever" is the perfect term for this.<p>Private Equity & Financialization: Whatever for business
Flood the Zone & Deadcatting: "Whatever" for politics<p>It's what I think about when I hear all of the "AI is going to eliminate all the jobs." That's just a convenient cover story for "Tax laws changed so R&D isn't free money anymore, and we need to fire everyone."<p>When almost every drop of wealth is in the control of a tiny number of people, it's not surprising that the world turns into one big competition for ways to convince those people that you have a way for them to sop up the remaining thimbleful too.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:57:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466101</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466101</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44466101</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Using Sun Ray thin clients in 2025"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That's definitely how we worked at the Sun offices. And since we hoteled, I never knew where I would be sitting. I loved it really. It felt very minimalist and slick.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 02:24:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44439731</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44439731</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44439731</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Show HN: Physical Pomodoro Timer with ESP32 and e-paper screen"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's interesting that your experience is different, but in my region and social circles, I haven't seen anyone wear a watch in ten years or more, other than the occasional smart watch. That habit doesn't seem to last long, either. For people I know, watches have turned into fashion accessories for millionaires.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 29 Mar 2025 16:27:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43516657</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43516657</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43516657</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Natural occurring molecule rivals Ozempic in weight loss, sidesteps side effects"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> and leaves muscles alone<p>But might destroy your bone marrow's ability to create blood cells[1].<p>1. <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/aplastic-anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355015" rel="nofollow">https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/aplastic-anem...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:11:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43291352</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43291352</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43291352</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "The origin of the cargo cult metaphor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm someone who used to use this phrase frequently after reading Feynman, but stopped long ago after realizing how lazy the story was. It became a popular phrase with the same crowd it most closely described. That's about the time people started saying things like "drink the Koolaid" in a positive sense. I guess the real revelation is that Orwell was the prophet of our own little apocalypse.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:01:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678402</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678402</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678402</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "It's time to abandon the cargo cult metaphor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>See also, the prophet Wovoka and the Ghost Dance in North America.<p>1.  <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wovoka" rel="nofollow">https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wovoka</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 12 Jan 2025 23:44:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678293</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678293</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42678293</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Ask HN: What are you working on (September 2024)?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>New for me, I guess:<p>- Doing a massive tech modernization for a global nonprofit.<p>-Ghostwriting educational email courses for agTech founders who want to convert more customers or investors.<p>- IF I'm good and get my chores done, I may let myself build a better way to apply for agTech grants.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 29 Sep 2024 20:27:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41690163</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41690163</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41690163</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "Brainfuck Enterprise Solutions"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm just glad I lived to see this.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Sep 2024 01:19:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41621536</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41621536</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41621536</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by Procrastes in "[dead]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It took me one question to hit a censorship block. Do I win?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:54:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41305687</link><dc:creator>Procrastes</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41305687</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41305687</guid></item></channel></rss>