Hacker News: akharris

New comment by akharris in "Claude Cookbook"

akharris — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 15:54:27 +0000

They missed a great chance to call this "To Serve Man."

The Prophet Index: Ranking VCs by how good they are at predicting uprounds

akharris — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 19:17:58 +0000

Article URL: https://theventurecodex.com/trends/prophet-kingmaker-index

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47967014

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Missionary Accountants

akharris — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 18:29:08 +0000

Article URL: https://postround.substack.com/p/missionary-accountants

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195841

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by akharris in "Rocketships and Slingshots"

akharris — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 23:01:15 +0000

These are great.

I particularly like Waymo because of aggressively most of the media/talking heads wrote them off as "never going to beat Tesla" because google.

In the end, they took a fundamentally different approach at all levels of the product and won.

New comment by akharris in "Rocketships and Slingshots"

akharris — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:52:45 +0000

My list wasn't meant to exhaustive. Honestly not much of a list, just a few examples. SpaceX and Nvidia are both examples of deep technical moats, as are some of the others mentioned by commenters.

I agree with you that many moats are regulatory, but disagree that most moats are. Networks are powerful moats, customer lockin can work well, brand is a strong moat (at least for a time), speed and culture can function as moats.

Fwiw, I don't think any moat is ultimately perfect. Moats themselves are not meant to permanently stop an attacker - they are delaying tactics at best. Companies that stay ahead continuously re-invent and rebuild their differentiation and defenses.

New comment by akharris in "Rocketships and Slingshots"

akharris — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:05:45 +0000

Fair enough. I definitely should have added nvidia to the list.

Xero agrees to acquire Melio for $2.5B

akharris — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 11:00:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/australia-listed-xero-acquire-fintech-melio-over-25-billion-deal-2025-06-24/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44375832

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 22:57:23 +0000

Thank you.

What I love about that quote is that he knew that, some day, the cure rate would go even higher.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:35:29 +0000

Thank you. I've only ever had bad luck creating Wikipedia entries, though it's been a while.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 14:56:24 +0000

Thank you.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 11:25:45 +0000

Thank you so much. He was.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 11:25:00 +0000

Thank you.

My sister is an incredible write and he was a perfect subject.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:16:28 +0000

Thank you.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 20:29:35 +0000

I don't fully understand how he did it. I know he took a lot from the line in the Talmud that said "whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

My mom says that his baseline was incredibly high and that he was incredibly resilient. He also had a big rebellious streak, an analytical mind, and endless compassion.

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 20:25:40 +0000

Thanks for saying that.

Here's a bit more about him from the obituary my sister wrote: https://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/pnys1147090

New comment by akharris in "Childhood leukemia: how a deadly cancer became treatable"

akharris — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 16:24:21 +0000

My dad started his work as a Pediatric Hematologist Oncologist in the late 60s. He had a firm belief that cure rates could and would climb as a result of research and better clinical care. He spent his life pursuing both.

When people would ask him how he managed to stay so positive - he was one of the happiest people I’ve ever known - he’d reference the trends highlighted in this article.

That didn’t change how hard it was when he lost a patient, but I know he always had his eyes and his mind on the future.

This is an incredible example of science and medicine. Thanks OP for posting it.

Meta confirms $14.3B investment in Scale

akharris — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 12:39:53 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/technology/meta-scale-ai.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44267978

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Alex Wang's note on his move to Meta

akharris — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 12:38:29 +0000

Article URL: https://twitter.com/alexandr_wang/status/1933328165306577316/photo/1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44267974

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by akharris in "They Might Be Giants Flood EPK Promo (1990) [video]"

akharris — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 16:12:50 +0000

I was six when Flood came out. My brother had a bootleg copy, which I later "borrowed" and carried around with me in my walkman (also "borrowed"). It was so...different than anything any of my friends listened to, and I loved it.

But maybe the greatest thing about Flood was seeing Particle Man and Istanbul on Tiny Toons. It was as if all my favorite weird things in the world (at least for a kid) were part of the same pocket universe.

I still find myself humming different songs from Flood on the regular, unprompted. Thanks for posting this.

New comment by akharris in "Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting"

akharris — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:38:51 +0000

Much as I’d love to debate you about this here, I don’t think either of us will convince the other - or anyone else - in this format.

Always happy to have a real conversation about difficult issues.