<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: abhaynayar</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=abhaynayar</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:43:40 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=abhaynayar" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "How to talk to anyone and why you should"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting, because I've been thinking about group sizes and their effects on social dynamics.<p>However, I guess it depends on the goal? Like in medium audiences, WHY be the facilitator for others? I mean it's a good thing to do if there's such a person or maybe if you're the host, etc. But in my opinion in most cases the point is to contribute to the conversation.<p>For large/presentations-  fact versus emotion thing seems arbitrary. In most "social" situations emotions triumph regardless of size. But again there are factors other than size that would factor more into this. I don't disagree with anything- more like all of it could go either way and it's fine.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:29:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221087</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221087</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221087</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "The happiest I've ever been"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's great to do what he's doing, but I just had a qualm with pinning this on AI- based on my experience repeatedly trying to make AI work every time a new model comes out, what I've realized is it requires a huge amount of pre-existing knowledge and context/harness engineering to get useful outputs consistently over a long time. Even then it's not like AI is replacing you more like it kinda helps a bit if you put a lot of effort into covering all its mistakes. I do agree there's a huge benefit in using AI as an alternative to search, research, prototyping though.<p>Even after adding all that up maybe you save some time. 10%-20%? Maybe? You do save a lot of cognitive load as well and it feels good but a lot of the times you pay the price later when you don't understand the code/project as it gets more complex and you need to debug it when the AI can't anymore. The point is there's just not enough to replace and even if the research angle saves you some time or cognitive-bandwidth why not just use that time to do something else? Like more work or more life.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 11:33:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47205801</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47205801</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47205801</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "The only moat left is money?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's funny because the post is so baseless and emotions-driven, however these kind of common-denominator (bike-shedded) articles (by definition) touch humans more deeply and evoke more emotional responses. But again one can't be against "shallow" stuff because in the end everything is about how it makes you feel.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:30:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47090171</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47090171</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47090171</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "I guess I kinda get why people hate AI"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There are em-dashes, but the writing feels nice and unlike the default ChatGPT style, so even if AI, (which it might not be, cause people do use em-dashes), I don't mind.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:22:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038308</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038308</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038308</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "I guess I kinda get why people hate AI"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> students rob themselves of the opportunity to learn, so they can… I dunno, hit the vape and watch Clavicular get framemogged<p>Hahah, this guy Gen-Zs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:19:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038277</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038277</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038277</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Oneplus phone update introduces hardware anti-rollback"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Damn, I just saw that update yesterday on my phone and did not update it for no reason. Turned off auto-update right now until I figure out what to do.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:21:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46760196</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46760196</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46760196</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>maybe not the recruiter but the hiring manager or prospective colleagues who'll interview you later?<p>not the number of stars, but I like looking what people have done online ie GitHub/blog. I feel like it is a nice thing to talk about.<p>I know it's an unpopular opinion these days cause everyone wants work life balance and not work beyond the office but it's always nice to see projects you've worked on it does show some interest. also while one can fake GitHub activity it's hard to fake well thought out and cared for projects.<p>it's easier to fake metrics from your previous jobs like I saved X amount of money for the company or had Y efficiency gains.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:51:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327960</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327960</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327960</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "GPT-5.2"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Gemini voice recognition is trash compared to chatgpt and that is a deal breaker for me. I wonder how many ppl do OCR versus use voice.<p>And how has chatgpt lost when ure not comparing the chatgpt that just came out to the Gemini that just came out? Gemini is just annoying to use.<p>and Google just benchmaxxed I didn't see any significant difference (paying for both) and the same benchmaxxing probably happening for chatgpt now as well, so in terms of core capabilities I feel stuff has plateaued. more bout overall experience now where Gemini suxx.<p>I really don't get how "search integration" is a "strength"?? can you give any examples of places where you searched for current info and chatgpt was worse? even so I really don't get how it's a moat enough to say chatgpt has lost. would've understood if you said something like tpu versus GPU moat.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:05:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239189</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239189</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239189</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Maybe you’re not trying"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have some qualm with "agency is important" type thinking because when I was in a good situation in life with "moderate" difficulty which I overcame I called it me being agentic. However, when I was in situations in life which were bad and totally out of my control and to the best of my ability I couldn't come out of them, I realized it's pretty much all just luck and circumstance.<p>Just because you're not emotionally ready to do something doesn't mean you're not trying enough. I feel like we tend to downplay the role of luck in emotions and mind. Like "of course you could be more confident, agentic, assertive, etc. YOU are not doing enough of that". But if you physiologically or materialistically go through a bad patch with respect to health or resources people "get it". If you are not physically gifted to play a certain sport people "get it". But if you're not mentally gifted to be "agentic" it's YOUR responsibility. Don't know why this expectation was set. Same way how mental health has been a stigma and still somewhat is, but if you have a physiological disease it's OK, not your fault.<p>We all just write advice looking backwards. People who are lucky enough to have the perfect combination of circumstance and mindset to think that agency is all you need write that way.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 16 Nov 2025 18:03:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947031</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947031</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947031</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Well written by GPT?<p>My first thought while reading the article was relief that I'm finally reading something not written by ChatGPT. As someone who is super tired of reading AI slop these days, this was not it. (IMHO). And even if it was, it was definitely not annoying to me like the default setting of ChatGPT i.e. the "It's just not X. It's XXX!" format. I liked the cadence, the only thing I did not like was the verbosity. Ultimately there <i>is</i> going to be a pattern or a so called "voice" even in human writing. So as long as it's got good taste, whatever.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:56:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882499</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882499</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882499</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Why aren't smart people happier?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'd heard "happiness is reality minus expectations" before but never thought much of it. I had high expectations of myself in certain areas of life and worked hard towards them and I thought that they were realistic, so despite not having achieved them I still had hope.<p>And now over time reality has caught up to me and I've become sadder because I've realized that my expectations were indeed higher than my circumstances. I was just a naive oblivious idiot and life has now shown me that. It's sad but I now have just let go. I still am working towards stuff just playing to my strengths and inclinations instead of my wants.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:40:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841919</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841919</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841919</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "China has added forest the size of Texas since 1990"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How many football fields is that though?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:33:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45754995</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45754995</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45754995</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The most appalling thing in this whole post is that people are still using Threads (TM).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:52:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45735362</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45735362</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45735362</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Talent"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Everything's luck, or lack thereof.<p>Free will does not exist, but I suppose it's handy for society at large to pretend that it does.<p>I don't know why, but I let myself believe for so long that I was the captain of my ship. Now that I embody the fact that everything's out of my control, I have become so much more relaxed and content with life. I do not compare myself with people that are better (or worse) off than me. They lucked into their lives as well.<p>I am very grateful for everything I have been given. Even the fact that I exist and get to experience this beautiful thing called consciousness. I do not complain much anymore. I work hard to give back. Not that I am rich. But I am strongly inclined to produce more and consume less, perhaps that is because I wish to show appreciation for the gift of the present that I have been given.<p>And my reaction isn't positive based on only good luck. I've had my fair share of bad luck, and I have been deeply disadvantaged in certain areas of life. But even for those areas, I do not blame myself. Since I believe that it was 100% the role of luck in shaping everything.<p>I know some people can react to the lack of free will in a negative way, but that has not been the case for me. Would be interesting to dive deeper into why. This realization has also not taken my agency, or my will to live and take action. I know that sounds contradictory, but it's true.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:42:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45611987</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45611987</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45611987</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Profit Paradox [video]]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zssAsg9ZY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zssAsg9ZY</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45599077">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45599077</a></p>
<p>Points: 3</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 22:28:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1zssAsg9ZY</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45599077</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45599077</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Smartphones and being present"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have a similar great+simple system for curbing consumptive screen-time, i.e. I don't keep any of those apps on the phone, I block all of those websites on phone/laptop web-browser using an extension like Leech-Block and Un-Hook (YT). Some things that I allow are - YT long-form videos from subscriptions only, Hacker-News, and Linked-In.<p>THE biggest impediment for me has been stuff like getting sick. When I am sick, I just cannot lie there and do nothing. And it is TOO difficult to do stuff like read books or go out and talk to people or whatnot, it's too much effort. I HAVE to get back on consumptive screen-time. And then it devolves into something uglier - an ugly spiral, of gluttony & consumption, and I keep at it even beyond getting better.<p>Then it takes days or weeks of laziness and excuses to get back on track. And not just sickness but anything of that level. Anything that just kinda derails my life for a bit. I really need to find a middle-ground solution for the worst-case scenarios. I'm still working on it. I think I should be able to figure it out. It took me a while to figure out my best-case system as well.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2025 16:32:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45570311</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45570311</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45570311</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I legit wish some of my harder daily habit heatmaps looked as good and for as long  as his negative comments ones.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 19:58:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45532314</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45532314</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45532314</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "An opinionated critique of Duolingo"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Actually, I take back quitting French. I will keep consuming it like a snack, with perhaps short (or long) bursts of more than a snack intensity in between, when I get the time/motivation. But would also ideally like to join a language-class when I get time.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2025 21:56:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45456084</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45456084</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45456084</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "An opinionated critique of Duolingo"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Finally a good critique of Duolingo, couldn't have written it better myself. A fresh take separate from the cliche everywhere on the internet that you can't learn an entire language on Duolingo itself which I've heard a thousand times at this point. (Currently "learning" French on it, but going to quit cause have been guilty of cheat-streaking myself).<p>Yes, the social aspect is trash. The "path" is trash. The leagues/incentives don't make sense. It's just a bad app. This blog made me realize that it could possibly be better in concrete terms. And without even going against their bottom-line. Like, it could still be gamified and what-not, but BETTER. But it isn't. It is just a poor design. YES, language-learning takes effort and many different sources, and YES Duolingo-like apps can only hope to be like a SNACK, but they could still be much better, ugh.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:41:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45437000</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45437000</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45437000</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by abhaynayar in "Notion 3.0"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I really like the web experience of Notion. (In terms of looks and feels). And it's probably the only note-taking app I like that syncs across everything automagically.<p>It would've really helped if they worked on improving their subpar mobile apps, but instead they are focusing on AI features.<p>(Which, I don't see much incremental benefit in paying for separately, if I already pay for other AI subs like chatgpt).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:13:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45344219</link><dc:creator>abhaynayar</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45344219</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45344219</guid></item></channel></rss>