Hacker News: conor_f

New comment by conor_f in "GitHub Stacked PRs"

conor_f — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:29:14 +0000

This is a perfect example that I've often seen in practice. There's nothing blocking in this workflow at all, and no reason these changes cannot be made in independent changes. e.g.

1) API implementation - Including tests and docs this should be perfectly acceptable to merge and review independently 2) UX implementation - Feature flagged, dummy API responses, easy to merge + review 3) One quick "glue" PR where the feature can be integration tested etc

This prevents awful merge conflicts, multiple rounds of increasingly complex stacked reviews, and a host of other annoyances.

Is there any reason that the stacked PR workflow is better that I'm ignoring or overlooking?

New comment by conor_f in "GitHub Stacked PRs"

conor_f — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:36:34 +0000

This just reeks to me of bad practice. Why use this as opposed to breaking your change into smaller PRs and merging them individually behind a feature flag or similar? With this, you have a marginally better UX for reviewing through the Github website, but the underlying issues are the same. The change being introduced is not sufficiently testable by itself, or it's (somehow) too tightly coupled to other parts of the UI/codebase that it can't be split. You still need to test for integration issues at every point of the stack, and some architecture issues or points of code reuse can't be seen from stacked changes like this.

Not for me, but I'm glad it fits other people's workflows. I just hope it doesn't encourage people to try make poorly reasoned changes!

New comment by conor_f in "Why You Should Be Using Git Worktrees"

conor_f — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:08:52 +0000

Super interesting, thanks! I didn't think about how this issue could easily point to a major improvement that could be made on the package manager level. Unfortunate that in Python land only Conda supports it though. It looks from the docs that uv may also support it? https://docs.astral.sh/uv/concepts/cache/#cache-directory

New comment by conor_f in "Why You Should Be Using Git Worktrees"

conor_f — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:49:32 +0000

A great point. However it's not a reasonable amount of infrastructure or overhead for many companies or an individual project in my opinion!

New comment by conor_f in "Why You Should Be Using Git Worktrees"

conor_f — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 07:57:29 +0000

Here's a quick blog post I wrote about the merit of git worktrees. Any thoughts or feedback let me know!

Why You Should Be Using Git Worktrees

conor_f — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 07:57:29 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.randombits.host/why-you-should-be-using-git-worktrees/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45602635

Points: 5

# Comments: 6

Ask HN: What Process/Applications Do You Use for Todo/Knowledge Management?

conor_f — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 23:56:23 +0000

Like many of you, I have spent more time trying out different applications in the todo list/knowledge management space without finding a solution that has stuck. I've tried aggressive calendar scheduling, todo.txt, Vikunja, a paper planner, Logseq, Notion, and likely others along the way! I now have the suspicion that the issue I'm having isn't the tooling, but the process. The solution I've stuck with the longest has been Vikunja, but I felt limited by it as it is strictly a todo application, and doesn't support any form of knowledge management (by design, which makes sense!)

So I'm wondering, what processes do people follow for their todo list management and knowledge management? What resources have you learned how to use your applications of choice?

My requirements (in rough priority order):

- Mobile + Desktop support (PWA, web UI, native application, all fine!)

- Searchable

- Allows me to keep track of todos with priority ordering and sublists

- Allows me to easily capture one-off ideas, as well as expand them into richer, more detailed concepts

- FOSS + Self-Hostable

The issues I've faced with previous solutions are:

- No integration between my todos and knowledge!

- Not being able to search

- Not being able to quickly capture ideas/notes/todos

- Not having a clean(-ish) UX to navigate between points of info/see what my next priorities are

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42661803

Points: 12

# Comments: 13

New comment by conor_f in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2024)"

conor_f — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:01:08 +0000

Location: Berlin, Germany

Remote: Preferred

Willing to Relocate: No

Technologies: Python (+ Frameworks), AWS, Linux, Docker, ...

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorjflynn/ | https://blog.randombits.host/resume (PDF Preview)

Email: hn@randombits.host

Hey, I'm Conor, a software engineer specializing in the backend, but capable of using whatever technologies required to get a problem solved. I have experience with large multinationals, but much prefer my time working with startups. I was the first hire in my current company, and am now looking for a new opportunity having helped the company find product/market fit, scale the solution, and reach a position of stability. Most of my details can be found on my LinkedIn, including links to my Github, Blog, and other technical works.

New comment by conor_f in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (October 2024)"

conor_f — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:00:36 +0000

SEEKING WORK | Berlin, Germany | Remote Preferred

I am a software engineer specializing in Python backends, but have demonstrated ability using whatever technology necessary to best solve the problem at hand. I have experience working with large multinationals, and startups, both in person and on a remote-only basis. My current role is fully remote, and involves software architecture/design decisions, PoC prototyping, DevOps, improving developer tooling, and general purpose programming.

The best place to see my professional experience is on LinkedIn, but feel free to reach out to me by any means you prefer so we can discuss opportunities.

Technologies: Python (+ Frameworks), AWS, Docker, Linux, ...

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorjflynn/

Résumé: https://blog.randombits.host/resume/ (PDF Preview)

Github: https://github.com/conor-f

Blog: https://blog.randombits.host

Email: hn@randombits.host

New comment by conor_f in "Show HN: Workout Tracker PWA"

conor_f — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 05:48:01 +0000

Another interesting thing in this space is Traindown[1]. It's simply Markdown for your exercises. As an example for those who need convincing to go to a link, this could be a simple workout:

  @ Mar 03 2024 08:00
  
  # Unit: kg
  # Bodyweight: 70
  
  Squat:
    40 12r
    65 8r 2s
    40 12r
  
  Assisted Pull Up:
    bw-20 12r
    bw-5 6r
    bw 2r

It's much more free-form than this, which is a bonus for me and allows me to track metadata such as weight, time of day I'm exercising at, or general mood/feeling about the workout. I can ultimately just take these plain markdown files from the app (I use a basic Android app that visualizes this Markdown[2]), import them and do whatever processing I like in Python.

Highly recommended!

[1] https://traindown.com/

[2]https://github.com/traindown/transponder

New comment by conor_f in "Show HN: Magentic – Use LLMs as simple Python functions"

conor_f — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 21:03:43 +0000

How so? What disadvantages does having strings as a first class Type have?

New comment by conor_f in "Show HN: Magentic – Use LLMs as simple Python functions"

conor_f — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 17:27:19 +0000

Looks super cool! A few questions:

1) Can you get the actual code output or will this end up calling OpenAI each function call? 2) What latency does it add? What about token usage? 3) Is the functionality deterministic?

ShowHN: Naming Variables Just Got Harder – Working with AI Models

conor_f — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:44:25 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.randombits.host/naming-variables-just-got-harder/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37577235

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by conor_f in "Ask HN: How to Keep Up with LLMs? [Linux, Self-Hosting, Info]"

conor_f — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 07:50:28 +0000

1) Some general use cases:

  - Getting familiar with new APIs

  - Bouncing general knowledge questions off it

  - Having "discussions" to interact with it in a Socratic style

  - Giving some "personality" to automated services by calling it as an API

2) Thanks for the pointers! Will check them out today!

New comment by conor_f in "Ask HN: How to Keep Up with LLMs? [Linux, Self-Hosting, Info]"

conor_f — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 07:44:55 +0000

Thanks, I will look into llama.cpp today :)

I don't have much interest in playing with the internals for now, but I generally like keeping my data personal and the services I use self-maintainable as much as reasonably possible! I also feel like I could find the token limits and price limiting with ChatGPT.

Ask HN: How to Keep Up with LLMs? [Linux, Self-Hosting, Info]

conor_f — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 21:46:21 +0000

I've accepted that LLMs are useful when taken with precautions. A few tools I've used recently have convinced me on this fact. Alongside this, I've heard first-hand anecdotal experience of LLMs providing great benefit, from asking about APIs all the way to practising languages or summarizing texts.

I'm now interested enough to try run one myself and see how it suits my personal workflow. So I have a few questions:

1) How can I set up a LLM locally with good effort/reward ratio? I don't want to spend hours setting up something unreliable that needs constant modification - moreso something I can just interact with easily from a web UI/CLI when I need to.

2) Is there an easy way to keep up to date with LLMs so I can update to newer models as they become popular to get the best results?

Note that I'm only looking for self hosted, Linux compatible solutions!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36992439

Points: 16

# Comments: 4

Dealing with Being Distrusting of HomeAssistant Notifications

conor_f — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:52:35 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.randombits.host/dealing-with-being-untrustworthy-with-homeassistant-automations/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36991698

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Vanity, Recognition and Fighting Perfectionism – Buildlog for Git Vain

conor_f — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 08:49:34 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.randombits.host/git-vain/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36824568

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Vanity, Recognition and Fighting Perfectionism – Buildlog for Git Vain

conor_f — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 11:03:49 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.randombits.host/git-vain/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36692774

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by conor_f in "Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?"

conor_f — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:10:41 +0000

https://blog.randombits.host

Try to write monthly about technical projects I've managed to complete. I'm beginning to mix it up to include more recently musings on non-technical topics now however!