Hacker News: dudul

New comment by dudul in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

dudul — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 22:20:21 +0000

How do you live 6 years in a country without reaching B1?

New comment by dudul in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

dudul — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:56:25 +0000

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would get call for a quick chat with HR if I walked around the office with Mein Kampf under my arm as well.

Schools, prisons, etc are institutions that can decide what is appropriate for their audience and how they want to spend their shelf space. A real banned book is a book that gets you in legal trouble if you're caught with it.

New comment by dudul in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

dudul — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:51:28 +0000

The irony of discussing the "new meaning" of a word on a thread about books/bookstore. Then say "canceled".

New comment by dudul in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

dudul — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:49:36 +0000

And there are always people who think they are clever by saying that a library deciding to not have a book on their shelves means the book is BANNED. OK, it's banned in that library, so what? This is not the government sending you to prison if they find you with this book in your pocket, it's a library deciding to use the shelf space for something else and thinking the book is not appropriate for their target audience.

New comment by dudul in "Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal"

dudul — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:18:19 +0000

> In some cases, the author has paid for their words with their life.”

Are there examples of these?

The few examples mentioned in the article are easy to buy, at least in the US. Is there a full manifest somewhere?

New comment by dudul in "Africans Are Turning to Starlink"

dudul — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 23:07:14 +0000

How is it not safer to have access to information and be able to contact people from your remote location?

Does it make you absolutely 100% safe? No. Does it suddenly nullify any potential risky scenario? No. But it is pretty idiotic to say that it doesn't change the risk. It very clearly changes the risk and reduces it drastically.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:07:05 +0000

Oh I think I understand the source of the confusion: you think that whoever is in the White House makes the decisions, I don't. I know: "ooh conspiracy theory blaba!" yeah. The thing is I think people who've been in place for 20/30 years in core power positions actually have more power than people who are elected and replaced every 4 to 5 years.

ACA didn't happen because of Obama for example.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:14:58 +0000

"We wouldn't have attacked Iran" How do you back that up with data? The US have been swamped in that part of the world for decades and decades, it didn't start with Trump.

As of today, the EU has not done anything concrete and real to be more military independent. Yes they have created "institutions" and "programs" and enacted "regulatory changes" (things they love to do in Europe), but concretely their military capabilities have not moved at all. These are just the thing the EU has been doing for a long time with never any result.

Again, do you have actual data to predict what the US position vis a vis Taiwan/China would be with a different administration?

What I will give you is that yes, Trump is way more disruptive than the previous tag team game the blues and the reds were playing before. I still don't think it will change much. Trump has not done anything truly radical.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 23:43:22 +0000

Absolutely false. 25 years ago people were absolutely bullish about what was ahead. I wasn't around in the 70s but data suggests that people were indeed happier than in the recent decades despite inflation and political issues. As for the 1920s, if we only look at America people were on a freaking cloud after the end of WW1: cars, radios, massive economic boost after the end of the war.

Yeah there was poverty, and social issues and blabla, but we're talking average and trends here.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 23:38:37 +0000

This reads like it was written by someone visiting from a completely different timeline...

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 23:37:37 +0000

If there's one thing we can be sure about it's that people starving in Africa are not starving because an American got themselves a new lawn mower. This type of discourse may have worked 30 years ago, but not anymore.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 23:30:26 +0000

You're being fooled by the public platforms and the communication stunts. Yes the world stage would be pretty much the same with a different administration.

The parties are basically lighting rods at this point. They claim that they're for this or against that, they would do this, we should do that, and if only we... blablabla. But in the end, nothing concrete ever changes. Sure there are adjustments here or there that quickly get canceled by the next administration, but nothing systemic is ever really changing.

New comment by dudul in "Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?"

dudul — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:52:07 +0000

The title and the description ask two different questions.

I do not think people are optimistic about the future. Back in the late 90's/early 2000s yes, people were very optimistic. Everyone was so thrilled to get to the 21st century. Now, people seem clinically depressed, technology is no longer something designed to make you happy, or make your life easier. It is just a battle to control your attention and sell you garbage.

Will people be happier in the future? Honestly I don't know. Anyone can "decide" to be happy to some degree. As a large group/society, no I don't think people will be happy.

New comment by dudul in "Shall we play a game? My AI nuclear simulation"

dudul — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:21:05 +0000

First link was written by an intern, let's be serious. The second seems to have more legitimacy, ok, so we have this one guy, but the article is very weak. He doubts that tactical nuclear weapons would help control escalation. OK. I don't think that's the center of the argument here. I also think using tactical nukes would lead to escalation, so what? Doesn't change the fact that tactical and strategic nukes are different things.

New comment by dudul in "Shall we play a game? My AI nuclear simulation"

dudul — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:49:43 +0000

Who are these "scholars" exactly? The only reference I could find is Jim Mattis, and the context was very specific when he said that.

Furthermore, this is a "what if" scenario since tactical nukes have never been used. Of course it would make escalation likely during an open conflict, so what? Doesn't change the fact that there is a material difference between a tactical nuke and a strategic one.

New comment by dudul in "Shall we play a game? My AI nuclear simulation"

dudul — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:45:44 +0000

Nuclear vs conventional and tactical vs strategic are 2 very different things. There absolutely are tactical nuclear bombs.

New comment by dudul in "Brexit Ten Years On: The Economy"

dudul — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:02:05 +0000

OK, so I'm right. They are specifically talking about the contribution to the EU budget that would remain at home. They did not talk about the economy as a whole. There is no "heavily implied".

Other replies are hilarious, focusing on "muh! The BUS!!!". I don't care about the bus, I'm focusing on the broader point. "The economy" was never at the forefront of the arguments put forward by Leave.

New comment by dudul in "Brexit Ten Years On: The Economy"

dudul — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:50:53 +0000

Reading is hard I guess. I'm saying Brexit was not sold as being positive for the economy. Yes the bus probably existed, and as I said, the argument was made that the excess in EU contribution would be spent domestically instead. But improving the economy was not the main argument of the Leave. They always mostly acknowledged that it would be a bit unknown, but whatever happened would be worth it if it meant more sovereignty.

New comment by dudul in "Brexit Ten Years On: The Economy"

dudul — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:37:53 +0000

This is incorrect, the official Vote Leave campaign focused very heavily on immigration and overall sovereignty. Remain was the campaign highlighting risks for the economy.

Of course the argument was made re: EU contributions staying "home" to be allocated domestically, but the economy was always shrugged away as a "necessary unknown to take back control"

New comment by dudul in "New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker"

dudul — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:05:59 +0000

I like posts like this one because they are completely reasonable, perfectly accurate and easy to prove with links to articles, etc, and yet get downvoted because they dare to question TheMessage. HN resisted a long time compared to Reddit&Co but it eventually fell to the echo chamber syndrom.