Hacker News: brg

New comment by brg in "AGI Is Here?"

brg — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:56:57 +0000

Usefulness is here, and has been for a while time. I have been consistent in my stance that AGI will be achieved in the demonstration of iterative, stable self improvement. This can be demonstrated in knowledge creation or skill acquisition.

New comment by brg in "Inside the 'self-driving' lab revolution"

brg — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 16:01:45 +0000

More automation may lead to more freedom in open ended exploration, stemming the dramatic decline that has happened in exploration. That would be a fantastic result.

And there is a distinct decline in open ended, personal exploration in academics. There are many reasons for this, but the syndrome is widespread throughout the West and throughout scientific disciplines. The first response to someone interested in recreating a published result or simply asking "What if?" is always "Who will pay for that?" Or more discretely, "Will it lead to a grant." Regardless if the cost is $100 in reagents and 8 hours of bench time in an idle lab, or $200 to machine a new reaction chamber the focus from administration is not enabling exploration but standing in line with your hand out.

New comment by brg in "'Project Hail Mary' Crosses $300M in Sales to Become Amazon/MGM's Highest-Gross"

brg — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 22:55:34 +0000

Its rot13 encoding to avoid spoilers.

New comment by brg in "HN is drowning in AI comments"

brg — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:10:48 +0000

To add to the collection of anecdata, your experience is similar to mine. I have been more exhausted recently by the complaints of AI submissions and pseudo analysis of AI comments than exhausted by the supposed AI generated comments themselves.

New comment by brg in "Two insider cases we've recently closed"

brg — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 02:55:16 +0000

A good reason to allow it is because people want to do it and it is as relatively harmful as many other normative human behaviors.. A better reason is that it provides a means of measure real attitudes and opinions. The revealed prices afforded by prediction markets is interesting at the least, and possibly the best source of information for many of topics.

New comment by brg in "Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems"

brg — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 17:51:39 +0000

I would argue that the success has more to do with DevDiv being the strongest technical organization at MS than its provenance.

New comment by brg in "Family Computing Interviews Jack Tramiel After Atari Purchase (1985)"

brg — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 23:34:23 +0000

This is how I learned to code as a young age. I typed in every single program they had. The most challenging was the hex-based music machine they printed, which was difficult as someone who both couldn't type and didn't understand the mechanics of what I was typing.

New comment by brg in "Viagrid – PCB template for rapid PCB prototyping with factory-made vias [video]"

brg — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 01:20:22 +0000

In the 90’s we ordered them from TX

New comment by brg in "Animals could easily be talking to us if we tried"

brg — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 03:48:03 +0000

My opinion is that we have little to no interest in what animals, plants, or even other people are thinking. The vast majority of it would be considered crude and offensive at best.

New comment by brg in "Microsoft is officially sending employees back to the office"

brg — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 02:47:05 +0000

In at least one case it wasn’t released by management because it was absurdly embarrassing. Productivity compared between 2019 and 2023 had statistics similar to the following; average yearly CLs decreased from approximately 70 to under 10, significant revisions pushed in comparable products changed from 26 to 4, meeting time increased by a multiple, email volume decreased similarity. All this with significant increases in seniority and pay among the average employee. Contrapositive scenarios argue that there is a huge opportunity cost to the tech efforts from WFH.

New comment by brg in "Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson"

brg — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 01:50:10 +0000

Since I saw Into The Spiderverse, I’ve been hoping for a Snow Crash with that animation style.

New comment by brg in "Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staffers $100M bonuses"

brg — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 18:27:48 +0000

Re: Mark. I agree. It surprised me to no end that he knew the staffing and open headcount of every team. I was a manager for most of my tenure, but his interactions with Lars, Chris and others were always insightful enlightening.

New comment by brg in "Ask HN: Is HN slowly starting to experience enshitification?"

brg — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 03:10:23 +0000

In my opinion yes. The quality of submissions and the top page is still high, but there has been a large shift from startups, tech and science to pop and politics.

The main change I have felt is in comment quality. While the amount of juvenile humor or AI assisted posts seems on par with Reddit, the quality feels to have the wrong derivative.

New comment by brg in "Programmers Will Be Replaced by People with Ideas"

brg — Wed, 14 May 2025 03:19:30 +0000

Every big tech company has tried to do this, replacing programmers and engineers with product management and designers. Depending on the company, the trajectory of growth and development inversely correlates with the ratio of engineering to non-engineering.

New comment by brg in "For Many of America's Aging Workers, 'Retirement Is a Distant Dream'"

brg — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 20:32:05 +0000

You should have talked to them instead of assuming it was out of necessity. My parents retired in n social security ten years ago. Most of their friends are doing fine with savings and retirement, but they get bored and take a job at Walmart or Applebees. For the most part they enjoy it.

New comment by brg in "What are non intelligent people like me supposed to do for money?"

brg — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 04:45:22 +0000

This is an answer most should try. My relative is mentally disabled, but functional. With help from his family he got a used truck, and started lawn care and junk removal. Over time he built a business, and was able to afford his own home. The self esteem he earned for himself and for his family is something I greatly respect.

New comment by brg in "My School Experimented with 'Education Equity.' It Failed"

brg — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 17:26:41 +0000

Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford were all autodidacts, and their contributions to society are beyond imagination.

You bring up a good point though, and the two directions in this thread are both important.

New comment by brg in "Javier Milei: "My contempt for the state is infinite""

brg — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 07:41:47 +0000

IMHO, Libertarianism fails not by collapse but by success. Any movement in the direction brings economic and social freedom, but in turn creates soft times in which a society's pendulum shift back to larger government is inevitable.

New comment by brg in "Supreme Court allows multibillion-dollar class action to proceed against Meta"

brg — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 06:06:38 +0000

Another reason is that the harm can often be quantified and remedy easily justified.

New comment by brg in "When the U.S. Forest Service's budget shrinks, who pumps campground toilets?"

brg — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 02:59:54 +0000

Corruption. It’s interesting how it happens across all human activity. There are mechanisms to reduce it, such as strict penalties (Singapore) or moving to a competitive for-profit model (USFS does rent out many park areas).