Hacker News: andymasley

New comment by andymasley in "The AI water issue is fake"

andymasley — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 02:24:21 +0000

I based the data center numbers on the updated post, not the retracted post

New comment by andymasley in "The AI water issue is fake"

andymasley — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:39:17 +0000

Why then is there a general negative correlation between the cost of potable water and the population of an area in places where freshwater is plentiful? There's a lot of literature on water economics and this pattern usually holds.

New comment by andymasley in "The AI water issue is fake"

andymasley — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:34:21 +0000

Well that's why I cover things at the national, local, and personal level separately. I think if this were any other industry using 2% of a county's water you wouldn't have much of a reaction. In most countries only ~20% of the water is used by households, the rest goes to farms, industry, and commercial buildings

New comment by andymasley in "AGI fantasy is a blocker to actual engineering"

andymasley — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 04:36:08 +0000

Just as an example, Loudoun County has the most data center concentration in the world by a wide margin, and also has significantly lower water prices than the Virginia average. Seems like they've been able to build out huge new water capacity for data centers and that hasn't raised househould prices, or even kept them low. https://andymasley.substack.com/i/171855599/the-county-with-...

The AI water issue is fake

andymasley — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 19:43:28 +0000

Article URL: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/the-ai-water-issue-is-fake

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45561190

Points: 12

# Comments: 2

What a Data Center Is

andymasley — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:56:06 +0000

Article URL: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/what-a-data-center-is

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45519387

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Contra the UK government, don't delete your old photos and emails to save water

andymasley — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 19:09:35 +0000

Article URL: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/contra-the-uk-government-please-dont

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44916320

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:47:44 +0000

The dictionary definition of useful is “Able to be used for a practical purpose or in several ways.” How am I going against this definition?

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:18:33 +0000

This is all so strange. You're reading the exact opposite meanings into my really simple posts and comments. I don't know how anyone could read the post and come away thinking I believe anyone questioning chatbots thinks they're completely useless. I'm gonna bounce. Good luck.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:27:49 +0000

Basically everything I think is here, I think this is all pretty simple and straightforward: https://open.substack.com/pub/andymasley/p/ai-can-be-bad-ove...

If you bought a hammer and never used it, so it never actually improved yourself, would you say the hammer itself isn't "useful"?

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:13:39 +0000

I'm really confused about what you're reading into this. I don't "equate" nuclear weapons with video games, I say "here are two completely unrelated things that I'd consider net bad overall, but useful in specific places." Would you say I'm equating guns with balloons if I say they're both man-made? It's hard not to think you're intentionally misreading this.

Yes, it is possible for something to be useful in specific circumstances but still be bad overall.

We have disagreements about what counts as useful. If our definition is "This is only useful if it leads to longterm happiness" that seems way too specific and would exclude too much.

It's stupid to cheat, I agree and try to make that clear. What I'm saying is the claim "Students think they're learning when they cheat using AI" assumes students are so stupid that they think cheating off of a robot will help them learn as much as writing an essay themselves. That's obviously wrong.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:13:32 +0000

I think basically everyone using tobacco knows it's bad for them. They're not stupid. This is another example of people being basically aware of their situations.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:28:44 +0000

I'm not making a claim about whether they're good overall or not, I'm saying 1) Reasonable people can think they're bad overall. 2) It's not reasonable to say they're literally always useless.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:27:05 +0000

Sorry this is pretty straightforward. If I'm Kim Jong Un, a nuclear weapon is extremely useful to me. That doesn't mean I think overall a world where nuclear weapons exist is good. I'm confused why you think "useful" needs to have this additional meaning of "good overall"

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 05:14:45 +0000

I mean I say in the post I think it's bad that people are using LLMs to cheat.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 05:12:20 +0000

I think each are net bad and shouldn't exist yes, but I also think each is useful in specific contexts. Not sure why that's not relevant, it's a direct example of stuff that's useful but net bad.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 05:11:21 +0000

Sorry the energy comment is ridiculously out of context. I've written a deep dive on how small that number is. Do you complain when YouTube videos or video games use similar amounts of energy? Your laptop uses the same energy every 3 minutes. https://andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sheet-for-conversa...

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 21:20:21 +0000

There's a ton of stuff I think is useful in specific circumstances but can be bad overall.

-Video games: Provide fun, but probably overall bad for society bc people waste too much time on them.

-Alcohol: Most drinkers get a lot of value out of drinking, but alcoholism is so bad that on net alcohol's probably bad.

-Guns & nuclear weapons: Wish both didn't exist, but each provides a lot of use to the specific people who have them.

-TikTok: Overall causes too many people to believe misinformation, but for a lot of other people is fun or interesting.

It's possible to think AI chatbots are net bad because people use them to cheat, or they rely on them for information too much and believe false information, without believing that they are always useless in all circumstances. I can use ChatGPT to alphabetize a long list for me. That's useful, even if I think overall chatbots are net bad.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:48:50 +0000

I say in the post I lose respect for people who specifically claim that a billion people are using an app that adds absolutely nothing to their lives each week, not people who dislike chatbots for other reasons (hallucinations etc.). So I think a lot of people are getting a lot of misinformation from TikTok, and I think it’d be better if TikTok didn’t exist, but I’d consider anyone who said that TikTok is completely useless to its users to be pretty goofy. I feel the same about chatbots.

New comment by andymasley in "My "Are you presuming most people are stupid?" test"

andymasley — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:46:34 +0000