Hacker News: digbybk

New comment by digbybk in "System Card: Claude Mythos Preview [pdf]"

digbybk — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:51:09 +0000

I would argue that Opus 4.6 lived up to the hype. My work changed completely a couple months ago, and most other coders I talk to say the same.

New comment by digbybk in "The Waymo World Model"

digbybk — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 02:18:47 +0000

> everyone with sense avoids the whole thing

Or the majority of the residents of New York City on their daily commute? I like to think I have sense, and I happily use public transport most days. I prefer it to sitting in traffic, isolated in a car. At least I can read a book. If you work too hard to insulate yourself from the world, the spaces you'll feel comfortable in will get more and more narrow. I think that's a bad thing.

New comment by digbybk in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

digbybk — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:40:39 +0000

We're not disagreeing that exercise is good. I also happen to be very pro-exercise. What I'm trying to do here is reckon with the fact that, as you say "exercise, athleticism, sports are celebrated everywhere and anywhere you turn", and yet the obesity epidemic only got worse. And providing the same kinds of answers for the loneliness epidemic will show similar results. It's possible that this disagreement is rooted in differing understandings of what "social infrastructure" means.

New comment by digbybk in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

digbybk — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:32:51 +0000

Maybe it's a bad idea, but it is an idea. "People should get out more" is _not even wrong_

New comment by digbybk in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

digbybk — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:39:51 +0000

I’m not sure what you’re advocating for. Is “pro-exercise propaganda” hinting that you’re against exercise? I think it’s cheap and easy to dismiss large scale social problems as the individual’s responsibility. We badgered people to exercise and change their diets while the obesity problem got worse and worse. The first time we saw an improvement was with the introduction of GLP-1s.

If your goal is to feel self righteous, keep believing the problem can be solved if people just get stop being lazy and join a club already. That’ll work for some people, but what I’m saying is it’s not a solution to the problem.

New comment by digbybk in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

digbybk — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:43:58 +0000

> I guess we need to delete the internet and tv from existence.

If only. My preferred solution is a 4 year national service. College is a key place to form a friend network, but not everyone gets to go.

New comment by digbybk in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

digbybk — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:25:08 +0000

This is good advice for your friends and family, but a bad answer to the question. "How can we solve the obesity epidemic? Stop eating so much and get some exercise." Well sure, but this misses the big picture. We built a social infrastructure that encourages a sedentary, solitary life. We shouldn't be confused by physical and emotional health implications. We can expect some people to be proactive about it, but we can't expect that of everyone.

New comment by digbybk in "Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now"

digbybk — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:48:53 +0000

I guarantee that once we do know people will start appending the word “just” to the explanation. Complex behaviors emerge from simple components. Knowing that doesn’t make the emergence any more incredible.

New comment by digbybk in "Gemini 3"

digbybk — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 16:25:54 +0000

Ironically, OpenAI was conceived as a way to balance Google's dominance in AI.

New comment by digbybk in "Carlo Rovelli’s radical perspective on reality"

digbybk — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:14:28 +0000

Maybe someone can help me wrap my head around this. Let's say you have a box of gas in a low entropy state: all the particles are on one side of the box. A moment later, the particles will have spread to the other side of the box, so the entropy is lower. But to say "a moment later", we're assuming a quantity called time. I'm confused how you can see this in reverse: "because the particles spread to the other side of the box, a moment passes".

New comment by digbybk in "The new science of “emergent misalignment”"

digbybk — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 15:54:12 +0000

What were the deeper patterns that don't exist?

New comment by digbybk in "Why are there so many rationalist cults?"

digbybk — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 17:52:03 +0000

I disagree, but we'd be arguing semantics. In any case, the point still stands: you can just as easily argue that these rationalist offshoots aren't really Rationalist.

New comment by digbybk in "Why are there so many rationalist cults?"

digbybk — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 16:07:02 +0000

When I was looking for a group in my area to meditate with, it was tough finding one that didn't appear to be a cult. And yet I think Buddhist meditation is the best tool for personal growth humanity has ever devised. Maybe the proliferation of cults is a sign that Yudkowsky was on to something.

New comment by digbybk in ""The Illusion of Thinking" – Thoughts on This Important Paper"

digbybk — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 09:39:14 +0000

I think it’s the “just” that they are taking issue with. We are “just” neurons. But we demonstrate interesting emergent behaviors that, in principle, can be reduced to firing neurons but in practice we don’t understand and shouldn’t diminish with the word “just”.

New comment by digbybk in "Changes since congestion pricing started in New York"

digbybk — Wed, 14 May 2025 15:14:32 +0000

Also excellent for those public transport riders who can't afford car ownership.

New comment by digbybk in "Evolving OpenAI's Structure"

digbybk — Tue, 06 May 2025 11:34:01 +0000

> I'd really love to talk to someone that both really believes this to be true, and has a hands-on experience with building and using generative AI.

Any of the signatories here match your criteria? https://safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk#signatories

Or if you’re talking more about everyday engineers working in the field, I suspect the people soldering vacuum tubes to the ENIAC would not necessarily have been the same people with the clearest vision for the future of the computer.

New comment by digbybk in "NYC home prices rise 10% in early 2025"

digbybk — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:18:09 +0000

Changing human pride, greed and envy is hard. We know how to build housing. Or we used to.

New comment by digbybk in "Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders"

digbybk — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:52:54 +0000

I agree with you but addressing that wouldn't be a goal of this particular policy.

New comment by digbybk in "Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders"

digbybk — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 13:40:21 +0000

Cars are the leading cause of death of children in the US. More than cancer. Maybe you're right, I don't know, but it's not the "obvious goal".

New comment by digbybk in "I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs"

digbybk — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 13:00:01 +0000

I’m having a hard time believing power chords only account for 5.8% of chords in metal.