Hacker News: coef2

New comment by coef2 in "Owed a billion dollars in Nvidia stock"

coef2 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:39:44 +0000

When I worked at a startup, I didn't care about my stock option at all. My expectation is really low for any early stage companies. I understand why something like this could happen.

The author would have sold the shares before Nvidia stock skyrocketed even if he had received them. So, the actual loss might not be as large as a billion dollars in reality.

New comment by coef2 in "US Military had close call after using AI for hallucinated intelligence report"

coef2 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 19:42:06 +0000

It casually apologies to me after I point out its hallucinations and sometimes scares me. I can't imagine fully trusting AI for making critical decisions about military operations without having a thorough review process. One twist might be that it could be better than human overall, considering we also make mistakes. The same can be said for other applications of AI like medical diagnosis.

New comment by coef2 in "A controversial Alzheimer's surgery is said to reverse symptoms"

coef2 — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 01:17:19 +0000

I wish medicine were more like theoretical physics. I understand that it’d be difficult to come up with theories that could fully explain complex brain functions and diseases like Alzheimer’s. It’s also difficult to test those theories safely without crossing ethical boundaries. Being either overly cautious or overly optimistic could lead to bad outcomes. It seems like we need a reasonable balance.

New comment by coef2 in "A controversial Alzheimer's surgery is said to reverse symptoms"

coef2 — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:07:33 +0000

As an ML engineer, I improve models through trial and error. Sometimes a change improves my metrics, and other times it makes them worse, and I just revert it and try something else. It's scary to think about neurological surgery making progress in a similar way. We may not have a good theoretical understanding of why a procedure works, but we observe positive outcomes in a small number of patients and then start looking into expanding its use. It reminds me of procedures where doctors sever connections between the two hemispheres of the brain to reduce seizures. I've heard they can reduce symptoms, but disrupting connections in the brain can also have unexpected consequences. I hope we can do better than essentially throwing spaghetti at the wall.

New comment by coef2 in "The AI backlash is only getting started"

coef2 — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:07:53 +0000

Ironically, developers may turn out to be easier to replace than taxi drivers. We've seen technological progress replaced workers or made certain roles obsolete, and this may become another example. I hope governments and public institutions take a more active role in supporting people going through the transition.

New comment by coef2 in "Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)"

coef2 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:32:10 +0000

It sounds like a fun project. I worked on a vision based biometric system that used near infrared light as its light source. NIR was supposed to be more stable than natural light but we still experienced issues similar to yours. We found that certain problems appeared at different times of day, and the system also struggled to handle the diversity of people.

New comment by coef2 in "Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)"

coef2 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:36:43 +0000

People use their laptops under various lighting conditions. I can imagine it would be difficult (or likely impossible) to bring this PoC to a solid production level technology. It looks like a fun project though.

New comment by coef2 in "Project Euler"

coef2 — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 21:14:44 +0000

I agree with you. About a decade ago, I got really tired of coding interview prep. I somehow ended up getting into Project Euler and worked through the first 100 problems. It was a great way to learn a bit of number theory and regain my interest in programming.

New comment by coef2 in "Orcas are bringing humans gifts"

coef2 — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 15:20:37 +0000

I found the news hilarious. Orcas used to wear salmon hats back in the 80s, then the trend disappeared, only to make a comeback in recent years. It really feels like they have their own version of human fashion trends or group behavior. The funniest part is that their fashion statement is a dead salmon instead of clothes.

https://web.archive.org/web/20251001135117/https://www.natio...

New comment by coef2 in "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025"

coef2 — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 13:56:51 +0000

His name could be interpreted as "aspiring to be a scholar". I guess he's done an exceptional job living up to it.

New comment by coef2 in "Writing is thinking"

coef2 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 23:00:26 +0000

> To add: Reading is also thinking (ideally).

I've heard that some philosophers like Schopenhauer argue that reading can become a passive process, where we simply follow another person's thoughts without engaging our own critical thinking. It's interesting to consider that it's not just LLMs but we too would become like stochastic parrots under certain circumstances.

New comment by coef2 in "Facebook is asking to use Meta AI on photos you haven’t yet shared"

coef2 — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 01:56:49 +0000

I miss the old days when Facebook was simply a fun way to reconnect with friend and family who lived far away. Unfortunately, those days are gone. It feels like an over engineered attention-hogging system that collects a large amount of data and risks people's mental health along the way.

New comment by coef2 in "Gödel's theorem debunks the most important AI myth – Roger Penrose [video]"

coef2 — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 03:45:38 +0000

It's sad to see the interviewer wasting the opportunity to interview Penrose. I found Lex Fridman does a much better job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXgqik6HXc0

New comment by coef2 in "Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam"

coef2 — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 14:47:06 +0000

We should thank Meta for laying off a talented engineer.

New comment by coef2 in "Ask HN: SWEs how do you future-proof your career in light of LLMs?"

coef2 — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 07:20:11 +0000

I recently used an LLM to translate an algorithm from Go to Python at my work. The translation was quite accurate, and it made me think tasks involving obvious one-to-one correspondence like code translation might be easier for LLMs compared to other tasks. I can see the potential for offloading such tasks to LLMs. But the main challenge I faced was trusting the output. I ended up writing my own version and compared them to verify the correctness of the translation.

New comment by coef2 in "Show HN: LlamaPReview – AI GitHub PR reviewer that learns your codebase"

coef2 — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:47:53 +0000

I have a conundrum about this. If an LLM can learn our codebase and generate reasonable reviews, does this imply it could perform the work independently without us? Perhaps generating code and conducting code reviews are distinct tasks. Another related question is: for complex tasks that generative AI can't solve, could this service still provide somewhat meaningful reviews? Maybe it could be partially useful for certain subtasks like catching off-by-one errors.

New comment by coef2 in "iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount"

coef2 — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 01:20:03 +0000

I’m the same way. I bought 12 and 13 minis and stopped upgrading my phone since then. I’d love to have a mini version with a good optical zoom camera.

New comment by coef2 in "After AI beat them, professional Go players got better and more creative"

coef2 — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 21:33:05 +0000

So the progress of human proficiency in Go and our collective advancement over time is hindered by dogmatic rules introduced over time. These rules predispose players toward specific strategies and consequently limit the scope of our creative potential within the game. In contrast, AI algorithms operate without such biases offer a unique advantage in overcoming these limitations. They essentially inspire us to get out of established patterns (or local minima) of play and broaden the range of our strategic moves.

New comment by coef2 in "Understanding Deep Learning"

coef2 — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 23:57:10 +0000

I started my journey in machine learning fifteen years ago. Ironically, at that time, my professor told me that neural networks were outdated and trying them wouldn't result in publishable research. SVMs were popular and emphasized in my coursework. I concur that SVMs don't hold as much practical significance today. But the progress in AI and ML is generally unpredictable, and no one knows what theory leads to the next leap in the field.

New comment by coef2 in "Norton's Dome"

coef2 — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 06:53:08 +0000

This is a relevant thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28191408