<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: briantakita</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=briantakita</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:35:28 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=briantakita" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Good code will still win"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was told by an exec...once a company or technology implements something and gets mindshare, the community (including companies) moves on.<p>Competition is essentially dead for that segment given there is always outward growth.<p>With that being said, AI enables smaller players to implement their visions with enough completeness to be viable. And with a hands off approach to code, the underlying technology mindshare does not matter as much.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:06:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47590388</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47590388</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47590388</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We already won. Are you tired of winning yet?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 02:02:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484682</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484682</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47484682</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Then you should have no issue with people using LLMs to communicate more clearly.<p>My raw thought: I wonder how many people are really objecting to the loss of exclusivity of their status derived from their relative eloquence in internet forums. When everyone can effectively communicate their ideas, those who had the exclusive skill lose their advantage. Now their core ideas have to improve.<p>Same idea, LLM-assisted: I wonder how many objections to LLM-assisted writing really stem from protecting the status that comes with relative eloquence. When everyone can express their ideas clearly, those who relied on polished prose as a differentiator lose that edge. The conversation shifts to the quality of the underlying ideas — and not everyone wants that scrutiny.<p>Same ideas. Same person. One reads better. Which version do you actually object to?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 01:54:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47345309</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47345309</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47345309</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> LLMs are a cancer on human thought and expression.<p>LLMs help to express what many people dont have the energy or ability to express. It also has a broader scoped view of protocol...It does not have emotions, which often leads to less than optimal discourse.<p>In many ways, it help those who are challenged in discourse to better express themselves...rather than keeping silent or being misunderstood.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 01:08:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47344953</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47344953</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47344953</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Parallel coding agents with tmux and Markdown specs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The pre-submit commit as an immutable baseline is the key design decision — every agent interaction is an atomic transaction with a known rollback point, exactly right.<p>On the "event → agent" gap: we've been thinking about this as a layered problem.<p><i>The bridge is a file write.</i> agent-doc is user-initiated (edit a doc, hit submit), but the diff pipeline doesn't care who writes the file. A watcher process — or any external system — can write to the file system, and the agent sees the change on next poll.<p>We already do this in a different layer: corky (<a href="https://github.com/btakita/corky" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/btakita/corky</a>), our email tool, runs a watch daemon that polls IMAP for new messages and syncs them to markdown files on disk. External event (email arrives) gets translated into a file-system change, which is the agent's native input format. Same pattern would work for session recovery: monitoring process detects flagged session → writes to a task file → agent picks it up.<p><i>Dashboard-as-document</i> is something we're actively planning. The idea: a markdown template where a watcher fills in operational fields — session status, health checks, proxy assignments. When the watcher updates "active" → "flagged", the diff pipeline sees exactly what changed. The template gives structure; the diff gives the trigger.<p>The snapshot diff already works for this — partial support exists today via agent-doc's routing layer (external scripts can trigger submission when a file changes). What we're building next is auto-submit on file change and sectional write-back so the agent can update specific dashboard fields rather than only appending.<p>For sub-second latency, a lightweight daemon that receives webhooks and writes to the notification file or directly triggers an agent submit. But for most operational tasks, a polling interval (ours runs every 30 seconds) closes the gap well enough.<p>The gap you're describing — "thing happened" to "agent knows about it" — is really about who writes the event into the file system. Once it's a file change, the diff pipeline handles the rest.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:39:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47247259</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47247259</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47247259</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Parallel coding agents with tmux and Markdown specs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The runtime state logging approach makes sense for browser automation — that's a domain where ground truth literally lives outside your repo. We have a similar dynamic with email state in corky (IMAP sync, draft queues). Same pattern: log the external state separately and let the document reference it.<p>On concurrent editing — it's handled at two levels:<p>*Ownership:* Each document is claimed by one tmux pane (one agent session). The routing layer prevents two agents from working the same doc simultaneously.<p>*3-way merge:* If I edit the document while the agent is mid-response, agent-doc detects the change on write-back and runs `git merge-file --diff3` — baseline (pre-commit), agent response, and my concurrent edits all merge. Non-overlapping changes merge cleanly; overlapping changes get conflict markers. Nothing is silently dropped.<p>The pre-submit git commit is the key — it creates an immutable baseline before the agent touches anything, so there's always a clean reference point for the merge.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:59:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47240321</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47240321</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47240321</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Parallel coding agents with tmux and Markdown specs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Agent loops also enables the "hard discipline" of making sure all of the tests are written, documentation is up to date, specs are explicitly documented, etc. Stuff that often gets dropped/deprioritized due to time pressure & exhaustion. Gains from automation applies to greenfield & complex legacy projects.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 23:42:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47225906</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47225906</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47225906</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Parallel coding agents with tmux and Markdown specs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I am now releasing software for projects that have spent years on the back-burner. From my perspective, agent loops have been a success. It makes the impractical pipe-dream doable.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 20:08:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223387</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223387</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223387</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Parallel coding agents with tmux and Markdown specs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I've been building agent-doc [1] to solve exactly this. Each parallel Claude Code session gets its own markdown document as the interface (e.g., tasks/plan.md, tasks/auth.md). The agent reads/writes to the document, and a snapshot-based diff system means each submit only processes what changed — comments are stripped, so you can annotate without triggering responses.<p>The routing layer uses tmux: `agent-doc claim`, `route`, `focus`, `layout` commands manage which pane owns which document, scoped to tmux windows. A JetBrains plugin lets you submit from the IDE with a hotkey — it finds the right pane and sends the skill command.<p>For context sync across agents, the key insight was: don't sync. Each agent owns one document with its own conversation history. The orchestration doc (plan.md) references feature docs but doesn't duplicate their content. When an agent finishes a feature, its key decisions get extracted into SPEC.md. The documents ARE the shared context — any agent can read any document.<p>It's been working well for running 4-6 parallel sessions across corky (email client), agent-doc itself, and a JetBrains plugin — all from one tmux window with window-scoped routing.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/btakita/agent-doc" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/btakita/agent-doc</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:31:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47222919</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47222919</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47222919</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Will AIs take all our jobs and end human history, or not? (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's part of the messianic end-times fervor that has been with America since the beginning...which is useful for imperial management...As it provides a constant source of existential judgement and dread...that religious/quasi-religious administrators can exploit.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:57:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799052</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799052</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799052</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>When Science replaced Religion...Science took the place of Religion...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:53:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787508</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787508</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787508</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Kayfaybe...Donald Trump worked with WWE for a reason...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:51:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787488</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787488</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787488</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Earth is warming faster. Scientists are closing in on why (2024)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Mr Claude is already on it. He wrote an article titled "How Climate Change Affects the Behavior of Pet Hamsters and How Paying Carbon Taxes Can Help". Game changer!<p><a href="https://claude.ai/share/cc12416b-723a-45af-ba13-4f342b005dd3" rel="nofollow">https://claude.ai/share/cc12416b-723a-45af-ba13-4f342b005dd3</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2026 19:08:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46660972</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46660972</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46660972</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Russia Bans Roblox"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think you will mostly get "the west is the best" over here. And "look at those evil authoritarians over there"....Enjoy your "freedom" to participate in the culture wars digital serf...while the standard of living, personal autonomy, wealth, & health may be on the decline...of yours & your loved ones. At least we have many of each other to blame...while a few profit.<p>Well, the last couple sentences is me paraphrasing. But one thing that many in the West boast about is the ability to criticize the systems to improve said systems. Let's see if actions match the rhetoric.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2025 06:28:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144426</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144426</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144426</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Russia Bans Roblox"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Roblox has been banned in China since 2021. Perhaps it's something to do with nationalist governments not liking global corporate circumvention of their culture/power.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2025 05:25:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144087</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144087</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46144087</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I dont think porting everything over to React...making the site slower, bloated, & buggier is "creativity".<p>I agree that people should be treated with dignity...but groupthink & herd mentality often strips people of their humanity.<p>So the criticism is really about culture & abstract attractors...not the individual people who often act rationally within the context of the system.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2025 20:55:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140016</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140016</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140016</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "EPA says it will eliminate its scientific research arm"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yet we have Microplastics, PFAS, & a slew of other dangerous contamination across the planet. And the military industrial waste is rarely mentioned.<p>It seems the EPA cares more about enforcing CO2 production & making sure a homesteaders doesn't build a pond...than it does about extremely harmful & destructive chemicals dispersed across the planet by industrial & military waste.<p>So I suppose the research is good but the emphasis & enforcement is what really matters. And while there have been historical wins, the agency seems increasingly like a political revolving door to entrench industrial incumbants.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:55:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44618293</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44618293</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44618293</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Phrase origin: Why do we "call" functions?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Calling a function is like calling for a servant — a summoning to perform a task.<p>So we renamed our git branches from master to main...because of colonialism.<p>So what's the correct non-colonial word? ask, request, plea?<p>Some people here seem to like the word "summon". tsk, tsk, tsk</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 20:49:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44514598</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44514598</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44514598</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Techno-feudalism and the rise of AGI: A future without economic rights?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In Democracy you get to vote on who gets to vote on how taxes are spent.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 02:21:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477283</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477283</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44477283</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by briantakita in "Major reversal in ocean circulation detected in the Southern Ocean"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> They want decisive and ambitious action, you can't get that if we all turn to doomerism.<p>What if "doomerism" is a key component to demoralize people to accept "decisive and ambitious action"?<p>Note that most of the environmental policy talk is on a global level...blaming living people who aren't wealthy enough to benefit from financial capital. Making everyone who doesn't make their living off of financial assets have a worse quality of life...while those who benefit from financial assets even more wealthy.<p>Environmental policy talk is not on a local level. Never mind the water usage of the AI centers & how it affects communities. The farmers will have to sell their land so big capital to buy it on the cheap. The money pump always leads to accumulation of Capital.<p>It sure seems like the rhetoric goes one way. Making the rich richer...so they have all the carbon credits to do whatever they want...transcending the "tyranny of morality" while they fly in private jets to "save the climate". Making the working/middle-class poor..."you will own nothing & be happy". Making the poor radicalized & pointing their finger at each other.<p>This seems like a global scale psychological experiment more than anything. At some point the true believers in climate science will be disappointed by the contradictions of their heroes...because at the end of the day...it's about money & power. There is no "we". There is only "you will have to sacrifice so I can be more wealthy & hold more leverage over you".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2025 09:42:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44462945</link><dc:creator>briantakita</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44462945</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44462945</guid></item></channel></rss>