Hacker News: gnarcoregrizz

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "I wanted to build vertical SaaS for pest control, so I took a technician job"

gnarcoregrizz — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:52:00 +0000

yeah. there absolutely are lots of very smart and capable people outside of tech. as someone who has seen the blue collar world "up close" (family businesses), its a different breed... the culture and attitude gap is enormous. shockingly so. most tech workers I know couldn't hang (don't hustle as hard, risk averse, liberal), but some skills may transfer, like problem solving and diagnosis, i.e. debugging.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?"

gnarcoregrizz — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 07:33:54 +0000

Technical: release a simple, focused product. AI makes it easy to spam things out that look good. I would be psyched if something catches just a little bit of attention. I feel like my main limit is creativity now. Mine has been stifled by 15 years of rote web dev.

Non technical: I made a conscious decision to push career and technical things aside to spend more time living life (hobbies, family). I’ve since fallen behind in my career, but I’ve had more interesting life experiences I suppose. I do get jealous of people’s titles and promotions sometimes, but I don’t want their jobs. The competition to make others rich right now is enormous. Fucked labor market. Seems like a loser’s game (I just tell myself that since I can’t compete)

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Graphite is joining Cursor"

gnarcoregrizz — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:30:42 +0000

I agree. I did most of my work in vim/cli (still often do), but the tight agent integrations in the IDEs are hard to beat. I'm able to see more in cursor (entire diffs), and it shows me all of the terminal output, whereas Claude Code hides things from you by default, by only showing you a few pieces and summaries of what it did. I do prefer to use CC for cli usage though (e.g. using aws cli, Kubernetes, etc). The tab-autocomplete is also excellent.

I also like how cursor is model-agnostic. I prefer codex for first drafts (it's more precise and produces less code), for Claude when less precision or planning is required, and other, faster models when possible.

Also, one of cursor's best features is rollback. I know people have some funky ways to do it in CC with git work trees etc, but it's built into cursor.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Tips for stroke-surviving software engineers"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 07:43:09 +0000

Good tips. Not a stroke survivor but I developed epilepsy as a young adult… Not sure if work/stress had anything to do with it, but stress certainly triggers it!

I’m still able to work as a software engineer, and my career has progressed, but the condition has held me back in a lot of ways.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Rivian's TM-B electric bike"

gnarcoregrizz — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:31:28 +0000

you can get a high quality 4khw 20kw electric dirt bike for $4500... oh right, maybe not the best for commuting. they were fun before the cops caught on.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Rivian's TM-B electric bike"

gnarcoregrizz — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:01:29 +0000

agreed. regen does nothing on my e-moto. i'll drop 5000 feet in elevation and the battery percentage doesn't go up.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "American Prairie unlocks another 70k acres in Montana"

gnarcoregrizz — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 19:20:43 +0000

Yeah same thing happens around here. A dude here bought some land which surrounded an old popular access road to Cleveland national forest (socal), and promptly put a gate up... For a while it was the only convenient way to drive into the mountains from riverside county. Alternative routes were either closed from fires, closed to vehicles, or located on the other side of the mountain range. Lots of Facebook drama between this guy and people in the area trying to access the national forest. He has a camera pointed at the gate and regularly posts altercations and threatens to shoot people.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "The quality of AI-assisted software depends on unit of work management"

gnarcoregrizz — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 17:54:29 +0000

I've found it to be insanely productive when doing framework-based web development (currently working with Django), I would say it's an easy 5-10x improvement in productivity there, but I still need to keep a somewhat close eye on it. It's not nearly as productive in my home grown stuff, it can be kind of annoying actually.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked"

gnarcoregrizz — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:29:10 +0000

Been there. It’s a hazard of biking in general. I love riding though.

There are fatal car crashes all the time.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:07:48 +0000

I should restate - mine definitely did not feel better post-surgery, the ORIF pain was worse than the break, but it felt good to have my bones secure with my shoulder in its anatomically correct place, and not have any more crepitus.

My plate was extremely uncomfortable, it was a "hook plate" which held my collar bone to my scapula. I couldn't raise my arm above shoulder height with it installed, it had to be removed after 6mo.

Plate removal was a bit tougher than anticipated (short term). I read accounts of it being a 'relief' but I was in quite bit of pain.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:04:38 +0000

Shattered mine mountain biking as well (6 pieces). Ortho took one look at it and scheduled surgery for the next day. It wasn't a 'standard' break since it included my AC joint and coracoclavicular ligaments which needed a special type of plate. Ultimately it took 2 surgeries (ORIF, then plate removal). Total recovery was 9 months. My arm/shoulder is as strong as it was before, and it looks anatomically correct.

My shoulder immediately felt "better" after ORIF. I would suggest it if it's way out of whack... mine was drooping probably 2". I can't imagine how much it would suck if the bones healed that way.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Reviving the joy and honor of working with your hands (2015)"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:13:38 +0000

Shit's tough though. Most tradespeople have lots of injuries... smashed hands, bad joints, have to breathe in toxic shit all day, bad hearing. My 35yo friend can hardly stand from back pain. And, it can be _very_ skilled. Business/shop owners can and do make quite a bit more than the standard software engineer.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "A room temperature Li2O-based lithium-air battery enabled by a solid electrolyte"

gnarcoregrizz — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 18:17:55 +0000

I thought the problem with all of these metal air batteries is the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction at the air cathode. It just seems too slow for a high power density - need high surface area. The air cathode in this experiment is a gas diffusion layer embedded with trimolybdenum phosphide nanoparticle (seems common with these, others use platinum and iridium), with a current density of 0.1 mA/cm2. Need 1m2 of air cathode for 10 amps. I wonder how that ORR can be sped up or use smaller surface area. Could some kind of forced induction supercharger type thing work for these? I'm not a chemist.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Ask HN: Has anyone successfully pivoted from web dev to AI/ML development?"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 18:02:40 +0000

Yes, AI team was created in our company to bring it in house, and I was invited mainly to integrate it into the web app, and to do some ops work. A year later and I'm fine tuning models, building datasets, working with PyTorch. Much different than webdev, not as rewarding sometimes, more unknowns, longer feedback cycles. The main issue is getting enough data quality and quantity, which can be a grind. Happy to have taken this opportunity though. Endless things to learn.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Spudguns: Potato Cannon Guide"

gnarcoregrizz — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 20:01:02 +0000

I made few of these when I was a kid. My pièce de résistance was a 10' 'coaxial piston launcher'. It scared the bejeezus out of most people... I usually shot ice slugs, which would throw a hole in a piece of plywood at 50 psi.

A golf ball with a chipped off shell fits perfectly in a 2" PVC barrel. The problem with chipping off the shell (along with an unrifled barrel) is that it makes it like a knuckleball - you have no idea where it's going to go. They would curve violently in any direction. One of the few times I shot one of these, it curved directly upwards, and I'm guessing landed a half a mile or so away. Hopefully it didn't hit anyone or anything. That was the last time I shot it.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less (2014)"

gnarcoregrizz — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 20:01:06 +0000

I'm in that basket. I can't reliably commute due to a neurological disability that prevents me from driving. I've been WFH since 2015. It's harder to find WFH jobs that pay as well. I also rely on expensive drugs to manage the condition. I absolutely cannot take the risk of being without health insurance. It definitely makes it a lot harder. I can't really tell prospective employers about the disability, it will just scare them off.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?"

gnarcoregrizz — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 23:33:49 +0000

It's still more of an idea/crude experiment than a project right now. There are some neat videos of DIYers with similar projects though - small homemade metal air batteries and materials experimentation. Aluminum air seems to attract the most attention. There is also a lot of available research.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Ask HN: What rabbit hole(s) did you dive into recently?"

gnarcoregrizz — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 21:18:17 +0000

Metal-air batteries/fuel cells. Made a mini aluminum air battery (you can easily DIY one with household items). It seems that most people consider metal-air batteries to be a dead-end, since they aren't green and are generally non-rechargeable, and air cathodes are tricky (sluggish, exotic materials, expensive catalysts). I dove into "alternative" battery and fuel cell research after looking into how to extend the range of my electric motorcycle. I love the electric drivetrain, especially on motorcycles, but lithium ion isn't up to the task as far as capacity for anything beyond an hour or two of high performance fun. If I could get a compact metal air battery or hydrogen fuel cell to output just 1kw for a hybrid drivetrain, range issues could be solved.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "Devin: AI Software Engineer"

gnarcoregrizz — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:59:56 +0000

Yet again, bad time to be on the labor side of the equation, great time to be a capitalist. For us laborers, if I had to choose from a list of fields to go into, anything creative would be low on the list. 'Prompt Engineer' will be the only one left.

UBI is a pipe dream... it's not happening. The wealth and means of production won't be shared in any meaningful capacity. Wealth inequality can get a whole lot worse.

New comment by gnarcoregrizz in "The story of titanium"

gnarcoregrizz — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 05:20:45 +0000

I have one too. It’s not my favorite to wear because it has zero heft. It’s unsubstantial and has a strange plasticky somewhat sticky feel. I plan on replacing it with gold. I can’t complain about the price though - they came in a box of 3.