Hacker News: betenoire

New comment by betenoire in "Over-editing refers to a model modifying code beyond what is necessary"

betenoire — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:26:09 +0000

I think you are misunderstanding the term "deterministic". Running on deterministic hardware does not mean an algorithm is deterministic.

Create a program that reads from /dev/random (not urandom). It's not determistic.

New comment by betenoire in "Over-editing refers to a model modifying code beyond what is necessary"

betenoire — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:14:38 +0000

just text !== syntactically correct code that solves a defined problem

There is a world of difference between translation and generation. It's even in the name: generative AI. I didn't say anything about magic.

New comment by betenoire in "Over-editing refers to a model modifying code beyond what is necessary"

betenoire — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:59:03 +0000

Said another way, compilers are a translation of existing formal code. Compilers don't add features, they don't create algorithms (unrolling, etc., notwithstanding), they are another expression of the same encoded solution.

LLMs are nothing like that

New comment by betenoire in "The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)"

betenoire — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:33:15 +0000

I was thinking of our natural reluctance to adopt newer and better tools because of our comfort and expertise with old ones.

I know I should have experimented with LLMs sooner, but leaned into my instinctive "VIM has gotten me this far" attitude.

New comment by betenoire in "The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)"

betenoire — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:56:13 +0000

> arrested development is the dark side of strengths in the sense of Positive Psychology

I see some correlation here to hesitancy in adopting LLMs for coding.

New comment by betenoire in "I'm not worried about AI job loss"

betenoire — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:18:53 +0000

Right, it doesn't help pay the bills to be right in the long run if you are discarded in the present.

There exists some fact about the true value of AI, and then there is the capitalist reaction to new things. I'm more wary of a lemming effect by leaders than I am of AI itself.

Which is pretty much true of everything I guess. It's the short sighted and greedy humans that screw us over, not the tech itself.

New comment by betenoire in "LLMs Bring New Nature of Abstraction"

betenoire — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 18:15:37 +0000

I understand there are probabilities and shortcuts in weather forecasts.... but what part is non-deterministic?

New comment by betenoire in "YouTube's new anti-adblock measures"

betenoire — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:43:59 +0000

what? I don't see ads unless the creator themselves are doing it, and even then it's two clicks on the right arrow button and we move on

New comment by betenoire in "Human coders are still better than LLMs"

betenoire — Thu, 29 May 2025 18:34:12 +0000

I'm with you, I enjoy the craftsmanship of my trade. I'm not relieved that I may not have to do it in the future, I'm bummed that it feels like something I'm good at, and is/was worth something, is being taken away.

I realize how lucky I am to even have a job that I thoroughly enjoy, do well, and get paid well for. So I'm not going to say "It's not fair!", but ... I'm bummed.

New comment by betenoire in "Claude's system prompt is over 24k tokens with tools"

betenoire — Wed, 07 May 2025 22:25:21 +0000

In my experience, it's xml-ish and HTML can be described the same way. The relevant strength here is the forgiving nature of parsing tag-delimited content. The XML is usually relatively shallow, and doesn't take advantage of any true XML features, that I know of.

New comment by betenoire in "The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything"

betenoire — Tue, 06 May 2025 16:22:51 +0000

counterpoint, and I know it's not apples to apples, but have you ever used an old terminal app? Buffering the key strokes and then applying them _once_ the menu was ready was awesome. You could move so fast through an app

New comment by betenoire in "I just want to code (2023)"

betenoire — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 17:16:09 +0000

I do both of those, it's a constant battle in my own head. I'm always reminding myself that it's ok to make music just for my own enjoyment, and that don't need a potential monetary angle for some hobby.

I'm not justifying this mindset, which preceded LinkedIn. I don't like it.

New comment by betenoire in "Writing "/etc/hosts" breaks the Substack editor"

betenoire — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:29:34 +0000

"magic quotes" have entered the chat :D

New comment by betenoire in "Functional Programming Lessons Conclusion"

betenoire — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 21:27:14 +0000

I think they understand that, and are referring to more nuanced side effects. Logging, for an example, is a side effect, same with even using a date function. Hitting an API endpoint without cache may be functional if the response never changes, but do you want that? Usually we want a cache, which is skirting idempotency. The closer you look, the more side effects you see

New comment by betenoire in "Supervisors often prefer rule breakers, up to a point"

betenoire — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 18:58:20 +0000

Really? You don't think there is a middle ground? Are the cops watching this fight or hearing about or later?

New comment by betenoire in "Stoicism's Appeal to the Rich and Powerful (2019)"

betenoire — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:00:38 +0000

almost is the key term here, yes, it depends on the situation causing the panic.

New comment by betenoire in "Stoicism's Appeal to the Rich and Powerful (2019)"

betenoire — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:59:55 +0000

you can't think of an example where it doesn't? I can. I'm not saying there is any virtue to it, but panic can subside without having had negative side effects on anything other than your mood

New comment by betenoire in "Stoicism's Appeal to the Rich and Powerful (2019)"

betenoire — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:14:57 +0000

both "screwed up" and "perfect" are judgements calls/perspectives, and panicking isn't going to change things (panic doesn't necessarily make something worse either)

New comment by betenoire in "Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)"

betenoire — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:56:15 +0000

"perfect" is a weird word to use in stoicism, but I do think it can be used to justify that things "are the way they are" and shrug it off with some visualization.

New comment by betenoire in "Insurers Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts"

betenoire — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 16:57:37 +0000

agreeing to change and agreeing how to change aren't the same thing at all though