Hacker News: gbjcantab

New comment by gbjcantab in "Octane – React’s programming model, compiled"

gbjcantab — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:36:52 +0000

It’s especially grating in this case because Dominic Gannaway, the creator of Octane, is the real deal (creator of Inferno, former React core team member, former Svelte core team member); so the project landing page looks like generic 2026 slopcoded abandonware, but it is in fact a real project made by someone who’s one of the great minds of frontend framework development (with heavy Claude use apparently, to be clear).

New comment by gbjcantab in "Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?"

gbjcantab — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:44:32 +0000

I’m not quite who you asked; I’m a native English speaker but I’ve read much more Homer in Greek than in English. (Say, I’ve read a little more than half the Odyssey in Greek.) Honestly none of the English translations really capture the magic, at least for me. Skimming through a bit, I’d say Fagles is the closest.

But it’s like saying: “Any Texans who ate BBQ growing up, can you share your favorite fast food places? Prefer McDonald’s or BK as being closer to the original?”

(Emily Wilson’s version is great but doesn’t feel like Homer at all, when I read it.)

New comment by gbjcantab in "Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?"

gbjcantab — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:35:30 +0000

There are at least two possible meanings of “faithful,” which are “translates the literal meaning most accurately” and “evokes the same feeling most poetically.” Given that it’s Homer and not Aristotle, the vibes-based approach is probably the right criterion. It’s a bit hard to express but, having read a lot of Homer in Greek, I can say that some of these translations absolutely fail to translate Homer even if there’s nothing inaccurate per se.

New comment by gbjcantab in "Astrophysicists Puzzle over Webb’s New Universe"

gbjcantab — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 10:34:57 +0000

This is one of my favorite phenomena: again in again, across various fields of study, breakthroughs in discovery allow us to go from relative ignorance to a level of knowledge and understanding that enables clear and clean conceptual models; then, as we learn even more, we realize how much more complex and weird and multifaceted reality really is.

It’s like a Dunning-Kruger effect on a field-wide scale, but in a good way. Rather than an example of hubris, it’s an opportunity for awe.

New comment by gbjcantab in "OpenUI: Open Standard for Generative UI"

gbjcantab — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 10:06:19 +0000

The link submitted is to the front page of their website, which reads: “Cross-platform - One spec renders natively to React, React Native, Vue, and more.”