<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: erlich</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=erlich</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2026 18:25:18 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=erlich" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Authorization terminology is a mess: Let's fix it"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What is missing is a graph of all the data and its relationships. Then its just a matter of grouping things together appropriately for humans to understand.<p>It's funny how a graph underlies absolutely everything but no one seems to use them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 10:13:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49562629</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49562629</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49562629</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> I do appreciate this conversation<p>Me too :)<p>I like discussions like these because its always an opportunity to absorb more information.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 07:29:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546963</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546963</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546963</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We are just talking past each other now.<p>> not how most psychiatric conditions are diagnosed<p>Psychiatry as a whole is questionable. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatry#Controversy_and_criticism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatry#Controversy_and_cri...</a><p>Read about the history of the DSM regarding ADHD. You can look at all the versions/volumes and how and why it evolved over time. Ask yourself if you think it is actually good science.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:12:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540980</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540980</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540980</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Why should 6 symptoms constitute ADHD while 5 don't?<p>The person with only 5 doesn't have it?<p>This is not science.<p>Change the diagnostic criteria to a blood test or brain scan and then we are in the realm of proper science. But until then the burden of proof should be on the ADHD community not on those trying to dispute it. It's like having to use proper science to disprove something that is not conclusively proved in science.<p>It's fine to publish all this science and evidence, but it all comes back to the diagnostic criteria which is so wishy washy. The diagnostic criteria has evolved from a completely arbitrary definition. There is no reason the DSM stuff should be used at all, and trying to find science to support a diagnostic criteria that was arbitrary to begin with is silly.<p>That's why, after all this, the main point I make is that the boundary between ADHD and non-ADHD is arbitrary and will always be and its more about having a disorder to point to to be able to prescribe stimulants to "people it would help".<p>Mark my words: there will never be a biomarker or test used to diagnose this condition because it would only reduce the number of people who can access treatment.<p>It's an elaborate exercise on how to be allowed to use a scheduled medication as treatment. If the government didn't ban drugs then all this ADHD diagnosis stuff wouldn't exist at all. It would be the reverse exercise: which people should not be allowed it because they abuse it and it negatively impacts them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:22:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533828</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533828</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49533828</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Everything I have said is explained with citations here: <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9189308/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9189308/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:47:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49528702</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49528702</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49528702</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Amphetamine used to be legal.<p>As an example, President JFK received regular injections containing high doses of amphetamines from his personal physician.<p>Then the risk of abuse and side-effects in the population were observed and it was banned.<p>Did JFK have ADHD? No, it just helped him with energy levels. Like it would anyone.<p>There are no conclusive bio-markers for ADHD. Therefore its not possible to say who doesn't have it and should not get stimulant medication.<p>The only commonality is that there is an impairment. It's not possible to say: this person has difficulty focusing and has ADHD but this person has difficulty focusing but doesn't have ADHD.<p>The board of psychiatrists who decide what symptoms constitute it just essentially make it up.<p>The only thing that is real and measurable is the level of impairment to someone's life.<p>Stimulant medications works, but it would work for anyone regardless of an ADHD cause. ADHD is like a catch-all for people who can't focus that doesn't match any other condition that could be resolved differently.<p>Stimulant medication definitely carries risks and health impacts. This is black and white.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:53:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522778</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522778</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522778</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>People are way too happy when they find out that the treatment is taking speed every day for their whole life, as if this isn't going to take its toll on the body and that the brain is not going to adapt to this.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:37:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49521869</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49521869</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49521869</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The biggest risk for ADHD treatment is that most diagnosed people are told: "you brain doesn't make enough dopamine" which makes it feel safe for you and why they say non-ADHD people cannot take it.<p>But for your specific brain it does make enough and it will fight to maintain that via homeostasis (usually by creating more dopamine vacuums/re-uptakes that stick around a long time...there is good science on this).<p>So you become dependent on the medication and tolerance can occur making your situation worse than it was in the end.<p>ADHD-as-a-diagnosis is just a clever way to make the government okay with prescribing stimulant medication to "people who it can help" and having someone safely monitor its usage, and to assure the government that we won't end up with too large of percentage of the population taking it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:17:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49520054</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49520054</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49520054</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Reverse engineering my ADHD test"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>ChatGPT's take was that 10 ADHD people/animals would go exploring and if one produced a new source of food then it would be advantageous for the group, but the other 9 could fail and be completely useless. A bit like venture capital funds haha.<p>So there is still room for complete failure in life, and maybe its a lot of luck/environment that some ADHD people succeed naturally.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:31:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519818</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519818</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519818</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "That's a Lot of YAML"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I actually like the SQL example.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:12:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49476214</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49476214</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49476214</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "How Europe is killing makers and micro-entrepreneurs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Australia has 28M people and isn't part of any supranational union. Same with many other countries.<p>Why are Europeans so obsessed with this integration?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:35:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49432911</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49432911</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49432911</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Bun 1.4"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> "whatever Jarred feels like should be in there"<p>This is the main draw. Everything he implemented was fast and minimalist and he usually implements a standardized api (web apis, esbuild bundler api).<p>The opinionated stuff is usually very common sense.<p>Most of the libraries OC mentions are things you would just like to be as fast as possible above all else.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:58:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375581</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375581</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375581</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "PostgreSQL for Everything"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's more "what one tool can do everything", not that its ideal. Like why people use Microsoft Teams even though its terrible.<p>The relational model and sql force us to simplify our data models too much by eliminating relationships or just not dealing with them.<p>Think about a nested json blob from some web service api and storing it in SQL in normalized tables. No one is going to do that. Everything just becomes a denormalized mess and everything is hacked around it.<p>Instead of modeling things in the proper way, most of the world's data is modeled in a way so that we don't have join explosions in sql queries because they look scary. Data pipelines become these scary batch transformations where data is dumped somewhere else without anyway to trace back where it came from.<p>I encounter so many end-user applications and systems where you wonder: "why couldn't they allow a list of items here instead of a single box" or "why can't this reference this other thing".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:24:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362067</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362067</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362067</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Why I don't discuss politics with friends"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Political discussions for me are like programming. I enjoy them because I like finding bugs in people's logic like I do in programming.<p>I find a lot of people's political arguments wouldn't compile because of basic logic errors, and I try to point this out. But not many people are interested in this kind of analysis, they instead prefer the tribalist point-scoring like the OP mentions.<p>I dream of a world where political debates can be syntax-checked. I'm sure you could do it with AI today.<p>But in the end its all about feelings.<p>I can't describe how many times I will just go along with someone's passionate ranting on something I disagree with and egg them along because its makes them happy. This is tribalism. I will disagree with the group, and if you saw me you'd think I was the strongest supporter, but I actually vehemently disagree with everything.<p>There are very few people it's worth having a real discussion with these days.<p>I don't change my opinion of people for what they think, but it's very rare to find people who reciprocate this.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:56:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43575302</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43575302</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43575302</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Why I don't discuss politics with friends"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> to realize fundamentally different visions of the world, based on fundamentally different values<p>I think your use of the word "world" is telling.<p>Trump, the Republicans, and the global right are focused on their citizens.<p>The Democrats and the global left are more focused on the world and their role in it.<p>It's no longer just two approaches on how we can have the strongest economy. Each party has a weighting for how much to consider every issue across the world.<p>For example, there are people who would be happy with less growth, lower income, but more action on climate change.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:25:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574933</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574933</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43574933</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ask HN: How is the Spotify app so bad?]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The library tree view is so terrible.<p>- You cannot shift+click select to easily add playlists into a folder.<p>- Any podcasts you follow cannot be moved into folders to tidy things up. They just clutter the sidebar.<p>- You have to click on a tiny arrow to expand a folder. Clicking on the folder navigates inside the folder.<p>The fact that podcasts are in the same Spotify mega-app is terrible too. And the podcast experience is a complete mess.<p>I listened to an interview with the head of Spotify product, and he talked about how great it was to have everything in this mega app. I just feel the opposite of everything he said.<p>It's one of the most popular services in the world, but has one of the worst user experiences of all the apps I use.<p>And they actually think they are doing a good job at it.</p>
<hr>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39775011">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39775011</a></p>
<p>Points: 73</p>
<p># Comments: 81</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2024 05:06:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39775011</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39775011</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39775011</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Ask HN: Is Lisp Simple?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks! Lisp is so damn cool.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Aug 2023 09:58:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37220599</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37220599</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37220599</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Ask HN: Is Lisp Simple?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>So are these "specials" being parsed by a grammar?<p>Would be interesting to see how the interpreter works actually...<p>I would guess it checks what `defun` is, which is a macro...then expands it, and the expansion should ultimately result in an s-expression, which is then parses? Is this right?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:23:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212598</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212598</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212598</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by erlich in "Ask HN: Is Lisp Simple?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>CLOS looks really interesting. So many good ideas. A lot that I have been thinking about for a while.<p><a href="https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/clos.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/clos.html</a>:<p>> arguably one of the most powerful object systems available in any language.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Lisp_Object_System" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Lisp_Object_System</a>:<p>> Another unusual feature is that methods do not "belong" to classes; classes do not provide a namespace for generic functions or methods. Methods are defined separately from classes, and they have no special access (e.g. "this", "self", or "protected") to class slots.<p>Love this.<p>And the multiple dispatch.<p>> :before, :after, and :around<p>Guess these are similar to aspect-oriented programming. Maybe useful for plugin systems.<p>> change-class<p>This looks pretty cool for GUI apps. So many times you want to change a component to something else.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:12:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212426</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212426</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37212426</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ask HN: Is Lisp Simple?]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I thought Lisp was suppose to be simple in that: it's all just lists.<p>I thought everything would just be s-expressions, and be consistent, so it would be easy to read to figure out what is going on.<p>But it seems like there are so many special constructs and macros, that make it hard to read. And behind the scenes of these macros it gets really complicated. Whereas in other languages its readable the whole way down.<p>E.g. How am I suppose to read this? How does it de-construct to s-expressions...and does it even? What is implemented natively in the interpreter? Does that language have built-in keywords?<p>I thought everything was suppose to be like: `(left . (left . right) )`.<p><pre><code>    (loop for i in '(1 2 3)
        when (> i 1)
        return i)
</code></pre>
It seems as if there are actually a ton more special case primitives I need to know, when I could get away with a lot less syntax in other languages to be productive.<p>Like maybe there is some simplicity at the very bottom, but that doesn't seem to matter in day-to-day programming.<p>Another example, the first think I see when I look at the language basics of how to make a function:<p>https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/functions.html:<p><pre><code>    (defun <name> (list of arguments)
      "docstring"
      (function body))
</code></pre>
How do I read this as an s-expression?</p>
<hr>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209654">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209654</a></p>
<p>Points: 7</p>
<p># Comments: 17</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 21 Aug 2023 13:59:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209654</link><dc:creator>erlich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209654</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37209654</guid></item></channel></rss>