Hacker News: a4444f

New comment by a4444f in "Officials seize 27k artifacts looted by a single French treasure hunter"

a4444f — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 18:05:50 +0000

Alternative news: "Treasure hunters seize 27k artifacts looted by a single French official".

New comment by a4444f in "EU countries team up for semiconductor push"

a4444f — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 19:13:58 +0000

Why do chip makers need subsidies?

New comment by a4444f in "Ask HN: Learning about philosophy"

a4444f — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 20:11:45 +0000

Are there any artists that are considered a must for someone new to the field of art? What path did you follow to develop a personal (individual) artistic style?

Learning philosophy or philosophy history is one thing (I'd guess it is more about discussing texts with others than acquiring encyclopedic "knowledge").

To develop your own "philosophy", you need to get rid of other philosophies. Then maybe you will become another philosopher or not. Check my answer on how to think for yourself for the details.

New comment by a4444f in "This is Real, That's Not"

a4444f — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 07:26:35 +0000

The author has experienced switching perspectives, therefore concludes that what has remained unchanged is reality. But it is possible to switch realities (timelines) as well, though writing about that kind of experiences is kind of pointless, because the new "reality" may not include old writings, and if switching realities is possible, than humans beings are not what they are commonly considered to be. (and one may as well write something on the surface of a lake, and expect permanency). How many downvotes for this comment?

New comment by a4444f in "The Strength of Being Misunderstood"

a4444f — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 04:03:01 +0000

Neither addiction, perfectionism nor being an idiot is OK. The word OK has an opposite meaning. A different matter is whether it is possible to be without addiction, perfectionism or idiocy.

New comment by a4444f in "The Strength of Being Misunderstood"

a4444f — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 03:56:05 +0000

Being understood is impossible (an illusion). There is nothing to understand. Following social conventions is possible. But life is not (necessarily) about following social conventions. Nor is it about not following social conventions.

New comment by a4444f in "Dijkstra Was Wrong About 'Radical Novelty'"

a4444f — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 20:33:42 +0000

I'd agree with Dijkstra, provided that he wrote about individual human beings, rather than computers. It is humans that are characterized by radical novelty, not computers, which can be understood by metaphors. It is easy to predict computers (that is why they are useful), and impossible to predict humans.

New comment by a4444f in "The psychology behind ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’"

a4444f — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 20:05:39 +0000

"Many Chinese prioritise long work days over leisure time or sleep – even though they know it’s unhealthy. What’s driving this behaviour?"

Some typos in the summary, fixed.

New comment by a4444f in "Metal Monolith in Utah Gone"

a4444f — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 11:12:03 +0000

There is a lack / something is missing.

New comment by a4444f in "How the self-esteem craze took over America (2017)"

a4444f — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 23:59:04 +0000

How the "How the self-esteem craze took over America" craze took over HN.

"Number Six: Where am I? Number Two (not identified as yet): In the village. Six: What do you want? Two: Information. Six: Whose side are you on? Two: That would be telling. We want information...information... information!!! Six: You won't get it! Two: By hook or by crook, we will. Six: Who are you? Two: The new Number Two. Six: Who is Number One? Two: You are Number Six. Six (running on the Village's beach): I am not a number; I am a free man!!! Two: [Laughter]"

New comment by a4444f in "Things I Don’t Know as of 2018"

a4444f — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:47:51 +0000

My idea is, that the type of IT knowledge is often of a particular trivia quiz kind. You may "learn" the next trivia quiz, but you'll not be necessarily any more wiser after 20 years (due to forgetting and obsolence) than after 5 years. I guess a painter, sculptor, doctor or lawyer might be significantly better with 20y exp than 5y.

New comment by a4444f in "Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging"

a4444f — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:18:59 +0000

Well, there is a gap in your answer, you speak about line, holes and points (domain of geometry, very well), but then you introduce numbers somehow. Also, I'd be more interested in relation between people, swearing and irrational numbers, not between irrational numbers and geometry. Unless you'll provide a mapping between geometry and people, that relates to irrational numbers.

New comment by a4444f in "Fucking, Austria changes name to Fugging"

a4444f — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 08:13:17 +0000

Why are there irrational numbers? Why so many, why so different? Are rationals not enough?

New comment by a4444f in "Things I Don’t Know as of 2018"

a4444f — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 08:03:44 +0000

The older I am, the more experience I have, the harder i find landing a job. 10+ years of experience, multiple companies. Also, not that many techs/skills from earlier years are applicable now, it seems that there were couple of technology cycles since then, and more experienced persons may have no much advantage over younger persons.

If people you know do not know much, then the people you know do not know much, there are also people you do not know.

New comment by a4444f in "I asked GPT-3 for the question to “42”"

a4444f — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:44:17 +0000

I agree. Or lacanian psychoanalysts, pure structure, no (imaginary) meaning (like maths, or functional programming, no side effects), which I like. Book of Kohelet / Ecclesiastes seems similar to Book of Changes/ I ching.

New comment by a4444f in "Multi-Paradigm Languages"

a4444f — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 15:59:17 +0000

"metalanguage does not exist"

New comment by a4444f in "Brexit can best be understood as a civil war within capitalism"

a4444f — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:55:31 +0000

I guess capitalist state is an oxymoron. Either you have capitalism or a state.

"What Is Capitalism? Capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals or businesses own capital goods. The production of goods and services is based on supply and demand in the general market—known as a market economy—rather than through central planning—known as a planned economy or command economy."

New comment by a4444f in "How I Spend My Attention"

a4444f — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:37:38 +0000

After a while, you may discover, that (also) you create the news.

New comment by a4444f in "IoT Unravelled Part 1: It's a Mess but Then There's Home Assistant"

a4444f — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:19:11 +0000

I like stories like that (experienced this myself). Building complex system, because it scratches an itch, and not using it after completion. So what happened witch the itch, where is it. What was it all about? Why did it happen? Why this kind of system and not the other, etc. This kind if questioning. Was that because the dog was the only part of the environment, that was alive / uncontrollable?

New comment by a4444f in "Brexit can best be understood as a civil war within capitalism"

a4444f — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 13:26:29 +0000

I'd say Brexit is a change from one set of rules to the other, but I would not call EU or GB free markets or capitalist states, as major parts of economies are heavily regulated, including agricultural and money sector (central banking). I dislike decentralisation as war analogy, it is anything but war.