Hacker News: abnry

New comment by abnry in "'AI' Is Not a Tool by Rich Hickey"

abnry — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 01:09:43 +0000

Is ffmpeg a tool? When the incantation is so obscure, are you really wielding it?

New comment by abnry in "'AI' Is Not a Tool by Rich Hickey"

abnry — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 01:07:56 +0000

I guess according to his logic they would be tools for interacting with an automation. Like the button on a car wash kiosk. You could just as well holler and the man turns it on.

New comment by abnry in "100+ reactions to 100+ solutions"

abnry — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:28:07 +0000

The funny thing about people comparing mathematical research in the days of LLMs to playing chess in the days of Stockfish is that it identifies the competitive nature, and hence status seeking attitude, of the mathematical research community. Chess is, of course, a competitive game with a winner and a loser. You "win" mathematical research by solving a longstanding unsolved problem.

There is this idea of advancing human knowledge and adding to the record of what people know in mathematical research that breaks the analogy down, somewhat. But most people aren't Perelman. They would happily take the million dollar prize. And it is out of the question to do anything other than put your name on the published paper.

New comment by abnry in "Nearly 200 people under observation after Irkutsk lab worker dies from plague"

abnry — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 02:59:10 +0000

How often does this sort of thing happen? I'm guessing more than we think, either because we forget the news stories we read or because it isn't reported.

New comment by abnry in "I'm the mom in that viral Giants clip. Let me tell you about my husband"

abnry — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 17:17:11 +0000

That man has found a treasure of a woman!

New comment by abnry in "Feeling Sad about AI"

abnry — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:18:34 +0000

I did well in school and the praise I received for excelling in my math degree did shape my life and impact my motivations. I do like praise.

But outside of social reasons, it's understanding I crave. Thoroughly understanding a topic is awesome. I remember the feeling of acing my qualifier exam in grad school.

Those LLMs change nothing fundamentally about this motivation and need and capability. I can't type a prompt, hazily skim the wall of text, and come to comprehensive understanding. I still have to work.

What I like about LLMs is that they can increase my understanding by helping me learn more efficiently. What I don't like is the temptation to turn off my brain.

New comment by abnry in "Bhartrhari's Paradox"

abnry — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:33:06 +0000

I suppose if the number of nameable things is countable (because humans can only enumerate, and it is humans who name), then it trivially follows that some real numbers are unnameable. Which proves the existence of such entities.

This reminds me of a YouTube video I watched this week titled "A counting argument for why mind comes before matter": https://youtu.be/AtduNjJV-6E?is=nBZ9ztZsyeoVhCj1

The argument is something like the set of possible thoughts about physical objects is larger than the physical objects themselves. It feels similar in flavor to the idea of unameable objects.

There's something special about a name. The name of the God of the Bible is special. Christians are to call upon _the name_ of the Lord. We pray, hallowed by _thy name_. It is somehow denotes the summary essence of the thing being named, even if it doesn't give specific details of its characteristics.

New comment by abnry in "GPS and the Lost Art of Getting Lost"

abnry — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:40:52 +0000

Getting lost when you have time and a full tank of gas is fun.

Getting lost when you need to be someone on time is awful.

We can love the former and hate the latter.

New comment by abnry in "How to read more books"

abnry — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 20:13:24 +0000

I don't think serious reader is a cringe term. Reading is a skill like any other and we use terms like "serious golfer" or "serious painter". The flip side of serious is causal. It's okay to structure your life so that reading is a big part of it.

New comment by abnry in "Offline tool to stabilize TV volume using IR control and spike detection"

abnry — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 13:58:08 +0000

I need something like this for when my AC unit, which can only be right next to the TV, cycles on for a bit. It's sort of the inverse problem. When total noise gets louder I need the TV also to get louder.

New comment by abnry in "Show HN: Zanagrams"

abnry — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 20:41:59 +0000

Very nice! I solved them all in the backyard on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

New comment by abnry in "Genuinely, my all-time favourite image: Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis"

abnry — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:00:07 +0000

How can an animal even have a neck that long? Was it clear from the fossils that it is this long because I am skeptical.

New comment by abnry in "How many of the 170k English words do you know?"

abnry — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 03:40:19 +0000

This is where I got the link from.

New comment by abnry in "How many of the 170k English words do you know?"

abnry — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 03:37:58 +0000

I knew Flibbertigibbet from the sound of music:

MARGARETTA: How do you find a word that means Maria?

BERTHE: A flibberti gibbet!

SOPHIA: A willo' the wisp!

MARGARETTA: A clown!

How many of the 170k English words do you know?

abnry — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 13:51:36 +0000

Article URL: https://vocabowl-870366514258.us-west1.run.app/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48598586

Points: 501

# Comments: 555

New comment by abnry in "Taxonomy of the Occlupanida (parasitoids on bread bag tags)"

abnry — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 03:11:40 +0000

When I was a child, I remember going to the nearby children's museum and seeing an exhibit with 1 million bread tags. It was supposed to help conceptualize the number.

New comment by abnry in "Taking a walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, study finds (2014)"

abnry — Tue, 26 May 2026 13:15:33 +0000

Are you carrying a lot of stress when you were walking 10 min mid-day? I think the wandering, creative mind is the goal and walking often facilitates that, but if some stronger force is keeping you away then it may not work.

New comment by abnry in "Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial"

abnry — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 02:44:06 +0000

Europeans are shocked by the portion sizes in America. But they feel normal in the US. Frogs often don't know they are being boiled.

New comment by abnry in "Some Things Just Take Time"

abnry — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 16:15:01 +0000

The guiding analogy of the piece is that of planting a tree and waiting for it to mature.

The reason we need to wait is that it takes time for some things to mature.

New comment by abnry in "The Shape of Inequalities"

abnry — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:45:07 +0000

Which IIRC are all a consequence of Jensen's inequality.