Hacker News: danfunk

New comment by danfunk in "The Relevance of BPMN in the Age of AI"

danfunk — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:21:40 +0000

Focused generally on communication, with BPMN being one tool among many. No one here gives a 1/2 damn about BPMN, but I think you will find the article worthy of the 5 minutes.

The Relevance of BPMN in the Age of AI

danfunk — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:21:40 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/spiffworkflow/the-relevance-of-bpmn-in-the-age-of-ai-1f28440440e5

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198111

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by danfunk in "Job Is to Give a Shit"

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:52:05 +0000

I love the story of Clever Hans, which says so much about humans and so little about horses - I get the point that it makes these experiments very difficult.

New comment by danfunk in "Job Is to Give a Shit"

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 20:49:25 +0000

my dad passed away within a year of retirement. I remember there being studies at the time saying this was common, but the research doesn't seem to hold this up as much any more.

But I agree that "purpose" is critical to life. I tend to think of it as having a meaningful role in our "community" - but there seems to be wide flexibility in what defines a community. I was certain for a very long time that we had to work to live meaningful lives, and I think I've drifted slightly away from that notion over the last year. We just need to be important to at least one other person. There is great deal of "work" involved in just doing that.

New comment by danfunk in "Job Is to Give a Shit"

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:29:31 +0000

Reminds me of the quote from A Princess Bride - Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something.

New comment by danfunk in "Job Is to Give a Shit"

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 03:12:32 +0000

Accountability is especially beautiful when self directed. It isn't us holding the cat accountable for the vase. That is pointless. The cat holding itself responsible, that is what makes our relationship with them possible.

New comment by danfunk in "Job Is to Give a Shit"

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 03:05:06 +0000

I work for a small start up. We often work with corporations. It does, from a distance, seem like giving a shit separates the two. I feel that. But you look inside big companies, and lots of folks inside care a great deal. I've also been through incubators and accelerators. And some of those people didn't give 1/2 a fuck.

Corporations aren't people. LLMs aren't people. Personification of these things is the source a great deal of trouble.

Job Is to Give a Shit

danfunk — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:45:03 +0000

I'm just drinking wine and working late, and it occurs to me that my job in this brave new world of LLMs is that I care. The ability to give a damn seems well outside an LLM's capabilities.

I care about the code and what it is like to read it three weeks from now. I care about the people using this software I'm working on, I want their lives to be spent doing less pointless stupid shit. I think, maybe, that's an ok outcome. Non dystopian. That it's maybe a better world if the people that can contribute the most, are the ones that have passion. That "care" becomes the most highly appreciated skill. That smells good to me. Maybe I sleep good tonight. Maybe it's the wine.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871449

Points: 14

# Comments: 11

New comment by danfunk in "The dead Internet is not a theory anymore"

danfunk — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 03:01:41 +0000

I love "small internet theory." Beautiful view of the future.

New comment by danfunk in "AI is to software as power tools are to woodworking"

danfunk — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 12:41:49 +0000

You may have said it better than I, in shorter words. An LLM in the hands of someone with expertise is life changing, and in the hands of someone without it - it's a bit dangerous, but also wonderfully empowering, even if they can't make a good chair on their first try.

AI is to software as power tools are to woodworking

danfunk — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 22:03:11 +0000

Power tools did not remove people. They make woodworking accessible to more people. They make more complex projects possible. They make furniture less expensive. We don't have less jobs because of power tools. And with power tools came a proliferation of hardware stores to support all the people suddenly empowered to try their hand.

To take the analogy further, agents are like factories. Yes the drill can do the work on it's own, when it's on an assembly line, getting exactly the right part at the right time at the right angle. But it is insanely hard and expensive to set up a factory, and when it is done, it produces one thing.

Shit will change. But that is exactly what I liked about this industry to begin with. And people are highly motivated by fear, so the manipulators and influencers peddle it for all they are worth. There is nothing to fear here. It's just a new kind of tool for you to pick up, if you have the courage and heart to do so.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47329343

Points: 6

# Comments: 10

New comment by danfunk in "US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February"

danfunk — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 04:41:21 +0000

Spent a delightful weekend in Quebec last month. Beautiful city, great culture, friendly people, best damn duck I have ever eaten in the a resteraunt they must having teleported from southern France

New comment by danfunk in "Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer"

danfunk — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:01:26 +0000

Great tool for a Makerspace - really appreciate the ability to use the same tool for laser cutting, 3d printing, and CNC. These are big jumps for people typically - having a familiar tool would help people transition from one area to another.

New comment by danfunk in "Douglas Adams on the English–American cultural divide over "heroes""

danfunk — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 03:04:45 +0000

What brings me back to hacker news are these posts that ask questions yanked unexpectedly directly from my own soul, in words more articulate than I could manage. And then somehow manages to answer those questions. Thank you.

New comment by danfunk in "I rebooted my social life"

danfunk — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:23:01 +0000

12 years ago I got divorsed. My wife and I had a company together, and she kept the company. I hadn't spent time with family in years, had few friends outside of work. I did independent contract work out of my house. Deeply isolated times, interspersed with part time custody of my son. I ended up starting a Makerspace , renting a building and setting up a 3d printer. That was all 11 years ago. We now have 6k square foot building, 8 different guilds, from pottery to black smithing. I count myself beyond lucky for the community. Like the author, I sent too many years discounting the most important part of life .. Our relationship with other humans.

New comment by danfunk in "Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help"

danfunk — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:33:51 +0000

Same experience with Google. I was setting up SSO for a new web application and set off some AI flag on a sub domain for our company website. For 2 weeks every visitor saw a warning that out site was a phishing scam. Nightmare. With no recourse. No number to call. No person to talk to. No actual explanation of the error (I still don't know exactly what I got wrong). I just took it down, waited, and prayed.

New comment by danfunk in "Transparent leadership beats servant leadership"

danfunk — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 23:48:39 +0000

All these comments are from the standpoint of being managed, with a derogatory view of someone who would stoop so low as to take a management role. I liked the article. Managing people is ass hard. Doing so is a way to make peoples working lives better, anf to tackle problems larger than a single person can accomplish. Thinking about how to do it better is good thing. It takes courage.

New comment by danfunk in "Murder Web Forms with BPMN Driven AI Agents"

danfunk — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:31:29 +0000

I hate web forms. You hate web forms. Especially when when they are long. Or one form follows another after another after another.

We have conversational LLM's that can make this feel much better, and there is this great BPMN diagramming tool that makes it easy to describe the flow of long, complex sessions like these. Together they can give everyone a far better experience.

There is a companion video and a working demo - where you can run the model, change it, and refine it to cover new topics or extend the conversation.

We are really excited about this technique and look forward to your feedback.

Murder Web Forms with BPMN Driven AI Agents

danfunk — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:31:29 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@danfunk/murder-web-forms-with-bpmn-driven-ai-agents-6741a01e1675

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45883085

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

New comment by danfunk in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (July 2025)"

danfunk — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 20:14:48 +0000

We are working on a workflow engine as well - picking up concepts from the past - not quite as far back as mainframes, but I respect looking back to the past for things that work well, and re-applying them to a new world. I'd be up for sharing notes. Our work is here https://github.com/sartography/spiff-arena -- live demo is here https://spiff.works/agent-demo