Hacker News: abstractanimal

New comment by abstractanimal in "Ask HN: What was your "oh shit" moment with GenAI?"

abstractanimal — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:25:27 +0000

When I realized that an LLM can process all the traffic in Slack that overwhelms me daily and give me a manageable digest. How long until they intermediate most of our social interactions? Sooner than we can possibly adapt, I think.

New comment by abstractanimal in "Ask HN: Any Microsoft employees/devs here? What's happening to Microsoft?"

abstractanimal — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 15:00:19 +0000

My elderly dad is suffering from cognitive decline but likes to play computer games.

I realize he can't even open Steam without getting bombarded by ads from MSN in the start menu.

I'm angry at Microsoft for this. Instead of being good stewards of "computing", they provide an environment that's poorly designed and exploitative.

Shame on the people at Microsoft responsible.

New comment by abstractanimal in "Spatial intelligence is AI’s next frontier"

abstractanimal — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:22:47 +0000

What you're describing is what's known as an "end to end" model that takes in image pixels and outputs steering and throttle commands. What happens in an AV is that a bunch of ML models produce input for software written by human engineers, and so the output doesn't come from an entirely ML system, it's a mix of engineered and trained components for various identifiable tasks (perception, planning, prediction, controls).

New comment by abstractanimal in "The Decline of the U.S. Machine-Tool Industry and Prospects for Recovery (1994)"

abstractanimal — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 13:45:22 +0000

This is a pretty old idea that goes back to debates over David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage in the early 1800s.

> “Free trade is God’s diplomacy. There is no other certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace than by the bonds of interest.” - Richard Cobden

New comment by abstractanimal in "America Chose Not to Beat Sputnik into Space"

abstractanimal — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 06:15:24 +0000

This topic is covered in the book "Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest" by Gerard Degroot.

As I remember it, the author says that Eisenhower was focused on strategic value of investments into space, and he felt that the US had a large lead in areas that mattered (ICBM technology) and chose not to invest in what might be considered vanity projects.

I believe he also claims that letting the Soviets be first to launch a satellite was intentional, since it allowed the Soviets to establish the precedent in international law that it was OK to send satellites over your neighbors, and if the US had been first the USSR might have protested.

New comment by abstractanimal in "China leads world in 57 of 64 critical technologies; up from 3 just 20 years ago"

abstractanimal — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 06:31:16 +0000

I guess there is a "that which is seen vs. that which is not seen" (Bastiat) argument to be made, but government investment into engineering research seems to be a pretty good deal.

I saw a quote the other day I liked: "If the rest of the world wants to emulate the US model, they should do as the United States actually did, not as they say they did".

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entrepreneurial_State

New comment by abstractanimal in "Ask HN: Co-founder doesn't produce work, is unrealiable, doesn't want to leave"

abstractanimal — Tue, 14 May 2024 16:29:19 +0000

This sounds like a great way to get sued for minority shareholder oppression.