<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: benchaney</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=benchaney</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:39:04 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=benchaney" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Adversarial policies beat superhuman Go AIs (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's not the same rule set though. The rule set they evaluated the AI on isn't one of the ones that it supports.<p>Edit: This is confusing for some people because there are essentially two rule sets with the same name, but Tromp-Taylor rules as commonly implemented for actual play (including by Katago) involves dead stone removal, where as Tromp Taylor rules as defined for Computer Science research doesn't. One might argue that the latter is the "real" Tromp Taylor rules (whatever that means), but at that point it is obvious that you are rules lawyering with the engine authors rather than doing anything that could reasonably be considered adversarial policy research.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Dec 2024 15:25:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42509220</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42509220</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42509220</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Adversarial policies beat superhuman Go AIs (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No, it isn't related to superko. It has to do with Katago misidentifying the status of groups that are wrapped around an opposing group. I assume the name cyclic has to do with the fact that the groups look like circles. There are images in the paper, but it is a straight forward misread of the life and death status of groups that are unambiguously dead regardless of rule set.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Dec 2024 23:41:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505793</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505793</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505793</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Adversarial policies beat superhuman Go AIs (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There are two strategies described in this paper. The cyclic adversary, and the pass adversary. You are correct that the pass adversary is super dumb. It is essentially exploiting a loophole in a version of the rules that Katago doesn't actually support. This is such a silly attack that IMO the paper would be a lot more compelling if they had just left it out.<p>That said, the cyclic adversary is a legitimate weakness in Katago, and I found it quite impressive.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Dec 2024 22:08:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505283</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505283</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42505283</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "OpenSSH introduces options to penalize undesirable behavior"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> So instead of looking, like the author of these new options, for ways to make life for the bad guys harder we do nothing?<p>Random brute force attempts against SSH are already a 100% solved problem, so doing nothing beyond maintaining the status quo seems pretty reasonable IMO.<p>> I don't buy your argument nor all the variation on the same theme: "There's a minuscule risk of X, so we absolutely nothing but saying there's nothing to do and we let bad guys roam free!".<p>Setting this up by default (as is being proposed) would definitely break a lot of existing use cases. The only risk that is minuscule here is the risk from not making this change.<p>I don't see any particularly reason to applaud making software worse just because someone is "trying".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2024 20:08:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40612449</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40612449</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40612449</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Google scraps minimum wage, benefits rules for suppliers and staffing firms"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is essentially the Copenhagen interpretation of ethics. If you interact with a problem you become responsible for it. Improving someones situation is unethical while doing nothing isn't. This is because improving their situation makes you become responsible for it still not being good enough (according to the pundits who do nothing).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2024 20:02:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40091368</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40091368</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40091368</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Let's try to understand AI monosemanticity"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Can you be more specific about what particular anthropomorphizing you object to?  The only place the author uses the word want is in describing the wants of humans.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Nov 2023 01:06:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38440961</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38440961</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38440961</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "First malaria vaccine reduces early childhood mortality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That’s not how these kinds of trials work. The 13% figure comes from comparing the control and intervention groups, which were observed over the same period of time. The change in baseline mortality over time of the entire population isn’t relevant.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Oct 2023 16:10:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38014289</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38014289</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38014289</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As a result of how the doors were selected one of them is more likely to contain the prize. That is information.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Oct 2023 22:27:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37851137</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37851137</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37851137</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>When one door was opened it revealed information about the other two doors.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:31:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837854</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837854</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837854</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The best probability estimate you can make is constrained by the information you have available. The new person showing up has less information than the existing constant, so it makes sense that their best estimate would be less precise. Similarly, if someone with x-ray vision walked up in the middle of the game, they could pick the car 100% of the time, because they have access to more information than either of the existing contestants.<p>Your last paragraph isn't correct though, By switching you go from a 1/3 probability to a 2/3 probability. Based on the information the original contestant has, switching gets the car 2/3 of the time.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Oct 2023 20:26:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837002</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837002</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37837002</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Atlassian cripples’ Jira automation for all but enterprise customers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> I've been in countless meetings with countless executives where the Google Sheet is busted out featuring engineering cost and tool cost and where cost/benefit is aggressively decided.<p>That is the problem though. It isn't the engineering cost vs the tool cost. It is the engineering cost vs the tool cost PLUS the engineering cost of dealing with the tool once you buy it. Everything you have said so far leads me to believe you are missing this aspect of the cost of buying the tool.<p>You are right that there is a time and a place for buying over DIY, but in order to make those decisions reliably you need to know how much effort is going to go into dealing with the tool once you buy it. This isn't something you can figure out using Google sheets, because you have to actually evaluate the tool and get a sense of how dangerous the foot guns are.<p>You're probably right about scaling though. That sounds like an area where the ROI of paying someone else to do it is pretty good.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 22 Sep 2023 20:59:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37617717</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37617717</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37617717</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Atlassian cripples’ Jira automation for all but enterprise customers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> If a "crappy" tool costs $10k/mo for the team and doesn't require much or any devops time to setup and maintain, it's likely cheaper than the $0/mo opensource but requires part or full time management option.<p>This is a total fantasy. There is no reason to expect the crappy enterprise tool that costs money will save time relative to the open source tool. In my experience enterprise tools takes more time and average <i>and</i> cost money. This line of reasoning (frequently pushed by dishonest sales people) is seductive because it tricks you into ignore the time cost of dealing with enterprise, not because it is correct.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:44:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37604038</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37604038</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37604038</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "This code smells of desperation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well, interpreting the title in that way is incorrect, so it seems like GP kind of has a point then.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2023 14:42:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37022469</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37022469</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37022469</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "When wealthy adventurers take risks,who foots the bill for rescue attempts?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Of course they would. The coast guard saves thousands of people every year. Most of them aren't billionaires.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 25 Jun 2023 15:03:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36468916</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36468916</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36468916</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Silicon Valley Bank Failure [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I wasn't talking about you when I was saying that some people are blaming depositors. Some other commenters are really angry at the VCs that participated in the run. Their anger is understandable, but misplaced in this case IMO.<p>> What other model leads to instant death, damage to their entire customer base, and collateral damage to the broader system, when a certain number of customers decide to go elsewhere?<p>None of these things happened <i>because</i> some customers decided to go elsewhere. They were going to happen anyway. SVB was in really terrible shape and was already in the process of collapsing.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 12 Mar 2023 16:02:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121726</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121726</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121726</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Silicon Valley Bank Failure [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>SVB didn’t collapse because of the bank run. There was a bank run because they collapsed. It is true that the bank run may have accelerated the collapse slightly but they were in really bad shape before it started.<p>A lot of people want to blame depositor panic, but I don’t think that is really fair. In a properly managed bank, the assets exceed the liabilities, which means that if people want their money out, the bank can liquidate their assets to pay them and still have money left over. SVB’s assets are worth far less than their liabilities (to the tune of nearly $100B dollars by some estimates). Panicking depositors didn’t cause that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 12 Mar 2023 15:48:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121524</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121524</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35121524</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "The X-Y Problem"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Something that I think is pretty important to keep in mind is that when handling a possible XY problem, the key is communication. It is good to ask clarifying questions and questions about context when answering a question. It is good to provide context and be open to the possibility that your question is misguided when asking. Insisting that there isn't or isn't and XY problem and being condescending or combative is bad when asking/answering. I suspect part of the reason this link is so controversial is because the "hero" of the stories screws this up horribly.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2023 22:05:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34446334</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34446334</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34446334</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "New Go-playing trick defeats world-class Go AI–but loses to human amateurs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Not in Tromp Taylor rules. Basically, this paper is cheesing a win with a loophole in a rule set that no one actually uses. Kind of a shame that it is getting so much attention despite the fact that the result is so heavily exaggerated, and the actual accomplishment is pretty minimal.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:03:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33519016</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33519016</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33519016</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Less parking could mean more housing"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Everyone should pay for the resources they consume. Lower density requires massively more resources per person, so the people who want it should wind up paying more.<p>Nobody is advocating forcing everyone to live in dense housing. Our current political/legal system massively favors and subsidizes lower density. Removing that favoritism is not unfair at all.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jun 2022 21:11:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31674244</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31674244</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31674244</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by benchaney in "Jabra denies support for Elite 85t Bluetooth earbuds on computers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had that on the lowest setting already, it doesn't make a difference. I suspect that iOS already thinks its playing music quite softly and therefore won't know to down correct.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2022 01:36:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31392952</link><dc:creator>benchaney</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31392952</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31392952</guid></item></channel></rss>