Hacker News: gabaix

New comment by gabaix in "Spain orders blocks on Archive.today and its mirrors"

gabaix — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 11:29:00 +0000

France has blocked Polymarket since the World Cup in June.

This was requested by the state gaming license authority, which sanction the betting business in France. Most of the business benefits the “Federation française des jeux”, the state gaming company.

Officially this was done out of concern for the safety of the French citizens.

New comment by gabaix in "Chopping up books when they're physically too big"

gabaix — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:41:58 +0000

Note that voluntarism can equally help or hurt.

When it fits, it may bring high achievement and self realization.

When misplaced, it may bring suffering and disillusionment.

One has to develop a grasp at when to use it.

New comment by gabaix in "The UK's war on anonymity has come to America"

gabaix — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:30:30 +0000

You will be prosecuted in some cases in France. This is a law named “insult to a representative of public authority”

If you shout insults at Macron, you will be prosecuted. If you display insults about Macron, you will be prosecuted.

https://www.rue89strasbourg.com/insulte-macron-selestat-mani...

https://www.ouest-france.fr/societe/justice/un-homme-de-77-a...

New comment by gabaix in "French firefighters face 'pyrocumulonimbus' for first time"

gabaix — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:49:56 +0000

I grew up there. I used to bike along stretches of firebreaks between plots. These firebreaks are nowhere nearly enough. Trees are young, pine needles spread everywhere, and ground is sandy.

The forest is a giant tinderbox.

New comment by gabaix in "Third Drone Shot Down in Three Days in Romanian Territory"

gabaix — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:23:05 +0000

It is also not possible as there is censorship in some cases. The European Union has blocked rt.com.

New comment by gabaix in "Mathematicians issue warning as AI rapidly gains ground"

gabaix — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:20:26 +0000

Constant recreation may be the ultimate purpose of humanity.

New comment by gabaix in "How to talk to anyone and why you should"

gabaix — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:12:56 +0000

Learn the social cues. People won’t say when they are busy. They might not ask you questions back, or keep doing what they do.

New comment by gabaix in "Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app"

gabaix — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:26:33 +0000

They are not allowing other marketplaces, or creators themselves, to run apps on Apple devices directly.

New comment by gabaix in "Palantir has no place in UK public services"

gabaix — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 07:22:15 +0000

Karp is a philosopher by training that has fallen into ideological blindness. He claims that he is on the right side of history. Democracies need Palantir badly.

He preaches his views to his employees. No one in his flock seems to wonder what would happen if their tools were to be used against democracy.

New comment by gabaix in "Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B"

gabaix — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 04:07:12 +0000

Liquidation preferences may have multiples. A 3x liquidation preference would have erased most gains for anyone who didn’t raise in the last round, employees and founders included.

New comment by gabaix in "AI Destroys Institutions"

gabaix — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:27:04 +0000

True. I myself try to read articles without looking up the authors.

It is hard though. When someone makes an extraordinary claim I feel the urge to look them up. It is a shortcut to some legitimacy to that claim.

New comment by gabaix in "OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI"

gabaix — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 07:59:01 +0000

Nagel's point is that he could not know what it was like to be a bat.

New comment by gabaix in "What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality"

gabaix — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 09:43:42 +0000

It takes fresh minds not to think about the collective impact of their actions.

New comment by gabaix in "Scientists may have found a way to eliminate chromosome linked to Down syndrome"

gabaix — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 04:30:19 +0000

What policies post World War II have had eugenic effects on the population?

New comment by gabaix in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

gabaix — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 09:59:35 +0000

The issues are two-fold

1- the territorial split between gendarmerie/police within the French territory

2- the fact the gendarmes for police work report to the Ministry of Defense.

If one had to design the police system from crash, they would likely merge police and gendarmes for police work.

New comment by gabaix in "Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests"

gabaix — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:34:30 +0000

I have always found confusing the existence of the gendarmes. They are indeed a vestigial force of the XIXth century, and should be transformed into a regular police force.

New comment by gabaix in "GitHub Copilot Coding Agent"

gabaix — Tue, 20 May 2025 06:07:12 +0000

What if Tim was the coding agent?

New comment by gabaix in "Key principles on in-game virtual currencies in the EU"

gabaix — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 22:08:49 +0000

Cannot come soon enough. Companies like Voodoo Games have made a killing scamming gullible people with no oversight.

New comment by gabaix in "Boycott IETF 127"

gabaix — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 06:28:08 +0000

> Some have been tortured.

Is there any evidence of this?

New comment by gabaix in "The Origins of Wokeness"

gabaix — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:03:18 +0000

Depending on the number of applicants and job posts, it may be hard to prove that the person in company A discriminates.