Hacker News: apeescape

New comment by apeescape in "A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)"

apeescape — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 09:43:33 +0000

I'm interested in learning more about this! As a Finn I love Poland and have been there multiple times (most recently just two weeks ago). I don't know the language, but details like honorifics reveal interesting tidbits of the culture and society. I guess I should prompt an LLM about it.

New comment by apeescape in "A Emoji Reverse Polish Notation Calculator Written in COBOL"

apeescape — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 07:01:39 +0000

Why not?

New comment by apeescape in "Price of rice in Japan falls below ¥4k per 5kg"

apeescape — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 22:46:07 +0000

Isn't Japanese rice pretty different to Costco rice? Genuine question.

New comment by apeescape in "Sam Altman's Lies About ChatGPT Are Growing Bolder"

apeescape — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 08:17:22 +0000

At least some of the anti-nuclear movement back then was directed against old and unsafe nuclear plants, and for good reason. These activists achieved their goal, as modern plants are very safe.

AFAICT, modern day anti-nuclear movement is a bit different to that.

New comment by apeescape in "The David Lynch Collection"

apeescape — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:55:29 +0000

What's wrong with maximizing profit anyway?

New comment by apeescape in "The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)"

apeescape — Sat, 03 May 2025 15:52:59 +0000

Yeah fair point.

However, curious of what you base your claim "France and the USSR had far more success" on?

New comment by apeescape in "The language brain matters more for programming than the math brain? (2020)"

apeescape — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:15:15 +0000

Finland tried teaching maths to children using Group Theory in the 70s [1], but the results weren't that good; it proved to be too abstract for young kids.

Ultimately, I believe basic algebra and geometry are the most important takeaways from math classes for most people.

[1]: https://www.hs.fi/tiede/art-2000004823594.html (sorry, it's in Finnish and behind a paywall)

New comment by apeescape in "Show HN: I made a free tool that analyzes SEC filings and posts detailed reports"

apeescape — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:15:15 +0000

Change could go to negative though, so even though 0% is included in the chart, the true possible bottom value of the chart is -100%.

New comment by apeescape in "Tesla sales drop 35% in San Diego County"

apeescape — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:33:49 +0000

It's about the separation of powers. Law-making, adjudication, and execution should be separate branches so that no one branch gets too much power, as that will lead to dictatorship. When Trump and Musk are ignoring judges' orders and going ahead with their sledgehammering, it sets a dangerous precedent for what the POTUS can get away with.

Ofc there's more to this story than just DOGE too.

New comment by apeescape in "The Frontend Treadmill"

apeescape — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:52:17 +0000

It depends on what you want to build. If you want to build impressive B2C software, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I've worked with many backend engineers masquerading as full stack engineers who couldn't carbon copy a simple mockup design into a working UI if their life depended on it. Yet they never seem to notice how bad their implementation is, sometimes not even if you point it out to them even if the end users would notice; I think these engs are so enamored with their work they're in some kind of denial about the shortcomings. And that's just the visual parts. There's also skill required to take accessibility and conformance with web standards into account (HTML/CSS/JS stack is devious in that it lets you do things in ways that are "wrong"), which you can't easily fix later on by tweaking a bit here and there. So without this understanding, you end up with a crappy UI that's overengineered for what it is. Of course that all won't be an issue if you're building software you can sell even if the UI makes its users depressed.

Not saying your typical frontend engineer is flawless either. It's probably true that they're, on average, not as skilled sw architects as backend engineers, simply because a lot of their work focuses on details instead of architecting, and, again, the HTML/CSS/JS stack is incredibly flexible, in good and bad.

New comment by apeescape in "The Frontend Treadmill"

apeescape — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:33:16 +0000

His style is very much brain rot-like though. It's way more "entertainment" (though it isn't very entertaining to me) than informational content.

New comment by apeescape in "Breaking Up with On-Call"

apeescape — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:21:31 +0000

Fair point about the importance of storytelling, but I wouldn't say "engineering rarely matters" in the tech industry. Compelling vision can mask those problems for a long while, but at some point the wheels will fall off if engineers can't deliver.

New comment by apeescape in "Breaking Up with On-Call"

apeescape — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 11:41:39 +0000

Well, did those startups succeed? If not, I think it means the author was spot on in saying startups can't _afford_ that.

New comment by apeescape in "Ask HN: How do you have effective 1:1s with your manager?"

apeescape — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:59:36 +0000

As a remote worker, 1:1s have been a great way for me to get to know my managers and make friends with them (well, friends who have the power to fire you, but anyhow). I've loved picking their brain on various topics, not limited to things related to work.

Then again, if you dislike your manager, the meetings can be pretty jarring. Sometimes you just don't have that chemistry with them. And some managers try too hard to make 1:1s "useful" according to their taste, which really makes them just another reporting session you want to avoid.

New comment by apeescape in "Go European: Discover European products and services"

apeescape — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:06:46 +0000

Are you seriously asking why? If you've paid any attention to the news in the past few weeks, you couldn't have missed the daily efforts by Trump and his cabinet to isolate the USA from its allies. In the past, European countries have trusted that the common values shared by the Western countries will ensure mutual cooperation now and in the future. Now this thinking has proven naive, as Trump has threatened Europe with, e.g., shutting down technological services if it's in his interest to do so. It doesn't seem to matter whether Europe pays for these services or not. Therefore, it's paramount for Europe to not vendor-lock themselves in American companies, as they can't be trusted anymore. It's sad and shocking, but Europe has been backed into the corner with this one.

New comment by apeescape in "Poland says it may need alternative to Musk’s Starlink in Ukraine"

apeescape — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 21:03:10 +0000

It's not only about the money either. The even bigger blow is the whole 180 the US government has made, now actively aiding Russia instead of Europe. If it was just about the money, it would be a bit easier to understand (though still a big blow to the mutual understanding of what is worth defending in the world). If it was about the money, the US would happily _sell_ equipment to Ukraine and let the EU foot the bill. That doesn't seem to be the case though.

New comment by apeescape in "Poland says it may need alternative to Musk’s Starlink in Ukraine"

apeescape — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 20:15:43 +0000

Imagine if Russia decided it wanted Alaska, and there'd be a stalemate meat grinder conflict in that area, and your European allies, who've been your closest supporters, were like "just give Putin what he wants bro. Who even cares about a little bit of Alaska? We're tired of supporting you and just want you to make peace, and will coordinate with Russia to knock some sense in you. All this talk of you wanting to 'defeat Russia' is just silly, gl with that"

New comment by apeescape in "Poland says it may need alternative to Musk’s Starlink in Ukraine"

apeescape — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 19:49:49 +0000

It's really hard to look away when the collective West is crumbling right in front of our eyes. USAs new regime pulling its support of Europe and making friends with Russia is the biggest existential crisis Europe has faced in my lifetime.

New comment by apeescape in "US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s"

apeescape — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 16:30:14 +0000

Who knows what the next American civil war would look like.

New comment by apeescape in "US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s"

apeescape — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 12:11:42 +0000

But would Russia's friendship be more useful than Europe's? I can see the logic behind strengthening ties with Russia to keep them from aligning with China, but Russia has proven itself an unreliable partner in the past, so you have to assume that as soon as Russia sees more benefit in fraternizing with China than the US, they'll turn their coats. The EU has been a pretty loyal vassal, even when disgruntled. But I think we've gone over the tipping point now. The US has shown it can't be trusted upon.