Hacker News: dabbledash

New comment by dabbledash in "'Staggering' number of people believe unproven health claims"

dabbledash — Mon, 04 May 2026 21:34:51 +0000

One thing that would help, and that I don't see addressed here is "avoid taking public positions on divisive issues that are not absolutely clear and directly linked to your area of expertise."

Avoid politics like Codex avoids goblins.

New comment by dabbledash in "Less human AI agents, please"

dabbledash — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:22:04 +0000

I have only seen "go do X" result in CC adding "TODO: X" to the working file on one occasion. When it happened, I noticed that the file contained a very similar todo for a similar action already. My guess is that because the agent had the whole file in context, that influenced it to produce output similar to what was already there.

New comment by dabbledash in "Less human AI agents, please"

dabbledash — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 03:12:44 +0000

I wonder if it has to do with how often TODOs appear in the existing code.

New comment by dabbledash in "AI singer now occupies eleven spots on iTunes singles chart"

dabbledash — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:17:50 +0000

If you value art as communication with another human soul, then it matters whether a human was involved.

"Who cares if that 'I love you' voicemail is really from your mother. As long as it sounds like your mother, it should give you the same warm feeling."

New comment by dabbledash in "AI toys for children misread emotions and respond inappropriately"

dabbledash — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:31:03 +0000

'When one five-year-old said, "I love you," to the toy, it replied: "As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed."'

I'll take this over "I love you too!" What kind of person is giving an AI toy to a toddler?

New comment by dabbledash in "Left Behind: Futurist Fetishists, Prepping and the Abandonment of Earth (2019)"

dabbledash — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 23:34:31 +0000

I think belief in the rapture is pretty rare among denominations that practice infant baptism.

New comment by dabbledash in "Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not"

dabbledash — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:45:32 +0000

They should bear in mind that someone they consider an authoritarian will inevitably be elected.

New comment by dabbledash in "EVs are depreciating faster than gas-powered cars"

dabbledash — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:48:45 +0000

Because people prefer their objects to lose value more slowly?

Not sure why this would be hard to understand.

New comment by dabbledash in "Ending our third party fact-checking program and moving to Community Notes model"

dabbledash — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 01:22:55 +0000

I don't think any of these are ambiguous. My point is that sometimes right wingers take the nonsense position and sometimes left wingers take the nonsense position. Neither side reliably follows the evidence or "believes the science" so glib lines like "reality has a liberal bias" are shallow and silly.

New comment by dabbledash in "Ending our third party fact-checking program and moving to Community Notes model"

dabbledash — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 23:03:46 +0000

I guess it depends

Is climate change driven by human activity? Do males have a natural advantage in sports? Do vaccines cause autism? Does rent control make housing more available?

The major political tribes are full of BS, because politics mostly isn't driven by disagreements about facts but by conflicting material interests. Partisans believe whats convenient.

New comment by dabbledash in "School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study"

dabbledash — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 00:38:27 +0000

No. Because it's inappropriate to treat adults like children.

New comment by dabbledash in "The hikikomori in Asia: A life within four walls"

dabbledash — Sat, 25 May 2024 17:16:57 +0000

Yes, that's true. For most of human history we feared starvation, not bankruptcy.

New comment by dabbledash in "The Age of Rage: Why Are People Are So Angry?"

dabbledash — Sun, 12 May 2024 18:57:57 +0000

The actual numbers are surprising though. 1. Most of the decrease in the middle class was driven by MC people moving to the upper class So 2. The ratio of lower class to upper class is actually lower than in the 70s.

New comment by dabbledash in "The Age of Rage: Why Are People Are So Angry?"

dabbledash — Sun, 12 May 2024 18:51:19 +0000

Sure. The poorest people in the world are as poor as always (starving), while the richest people are richer than our ancestors could have imagined.

New comment by dabbledash in "The California man who hid for 6 months in a secret room inside Circuit City"

dabbledash — Thu, 02 May 2024 13:32:08 +0000

It's popular with middle class suburban families. So, snobs (who don't realize that's what they are) like to sneer at it to demonstrate their sophistication.

New comment by dabbledash in "Flock Safety is the biggest player in a city-by-city scramble for surveillance"

dabbledash — Thu, 02 May 2024 01:24:08 +0000

Can data be reviewed retroactively to track someone that wasn't a suspect at the time the image was captured. E.g., "we now suspect john doe was involved in a series pf bank robberies. Tell me everywhere his car allowed up in the last 30 days."

New comment by dabbledash in "Flock Safety is the biggest player in a city-by-city scramble for surveillance"

dabbledash — Thu, 02 May 2024 01:18:21 +0000

Call me old fashioned, but I think the constant monitoring of citizen's movements is bad even (especially?) when the state does it. If we're going to live in 1984, the involvement of corporations seems like the least of our troubles.

Good on you though, for actually going after this information and sharing it with your community. People absolutely have the right to know if they're being subjected to this.

New comment by dabbledash in "All Cars Sold in the US Will Soon Have to Be Able to Automatically Avoid a Crash"

dabbledash — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 22:06:37 +0000

But they would also decrease the utility of the cars.

New comment by dabbledash in "A former slave who became a cowboy, a rancher, and a Texas legend"

dabbledash — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:25:11 +0000

You probably spent a lot more time on the details of TX history than they did in Mass

New comment by dabbledash in "Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, report finds"

dabbledash — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:48:19 +0000

I don't know that it's relevant in this case, but I think sugar is often added to make packaged food last longer.