Hacker News: heyjamesknight

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Gemini 4 Argon"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:24:05 +0000

In my personal testing, Argon is exceptional at writing tasks. After a few simple eval loops of you correcting things into your own voice you can have it sound almost exactly like you.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Gemini 4 Argon"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:21:49 +0000

I think the rollout was phased. I couldn't see Argon in Antigravity on my personal AI Pro account until late last night.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Gemini 4 Argon"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:22:33 +0000

No way to run OAI on a machine with monorepo access even if you wanted to. Claude runs on Vertex so it's not leaving Google infrastructure.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Muse: Meta's personal AI agent, features and capabilities"

heyjamesknight — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:02:57 +0000

Posts about Meta must bring up general distrust of the company and its leadership. Posts about Google have to mention them sunsetting products often.

It's just tradition at this point.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "GPT-6 Astra"

heyjamesknight — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:04:48 +0000

I think our AI systems are essentially massive Central Executive Networks. But novel ideas (creativity) come from the Default Mode Network.

These are the difference in what Kahneman called System 2&1 thinking and what the ancients called the Ratio and the Intellect.

LLMs are all ratio. They depend on our intellect for guidance.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:37:56 +0000

Gemini 4 pre training is underway: https://x.com/OfficialLoganK/status/2079594867161022817

My guess is we skip 3.5 and go straight to 4 Pro. With the monthly Flash releases, releasing 4.0 Flash and Pro in 6-8 weeks would be a nice buildup.

(I work at Google but don't know anything that isn't already public)

New comment by heyjamesknight in "What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:44:00 +0000

A question I've often wondered: is the "cost" of bad recycling higher or lower than the cost of not recycling?

We've moved a few times over the years and it's often surprising what is and isn't recyclable in different jurisdictions. This means I often find myself putting something into the recycle that isn't recyclable in my current jurisdiction.

Is this worse than just not recycling, let's say on a per unit basis? I.e. is one unit of recyclable material in the landfill more or less bad than one unit of trash in the recycling pipeline?

Not sure there's an answer, but it's a question I've pondered often.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down"

heyjamesknight — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 05:16:51 +0000

The US is objectively one of the most liberal states in the world in all three of those metrics, especially abortion. Who are you comparing us to?

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Azulejo"

heyjamesknight — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:38:54 +0000

Arab Orthodox Christians have been saying "inshallah" longer than Muslims have been around.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"

heyjamesknight — Fri, 29 May 2026 13:27:12 +0000

No, welfare is when you're given money for value you're not providing. It's a net drain on the system.

This is a government entity procuring a product they need from a private entity.

You can dislike it, but it's not a handout. Words have meaning.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "DuckDuckGo search saw 28% more visits after Google said people love AI mode"

heyjamesknight — Thu, 28 May 2026 13:47:52 +0000

The Department of War is a customer, there's no handout here.

The government does procure services from private firms, this isn't new or special.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

heyjamesknight — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 23:24:07 +0000

No, I have the feeling that “feeling safe” is “unhealthy” because these online communities children get access to are full of predators who wish them harm.

The online communities in question do more damage than good. They encourage isolation and spread social contagion.

We should do more as a society, absolutely! But these places are not “stop gaps” because they’re NOT helping.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

heyjamesknight — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:50:57 +0000

But that's the problem: they're NOT safe in those communities.

We've created these unhealthy gardens where young people feel safe, removing any reason for them to engage in the real world. They don't thrive in these places, they slowly withdraw.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Sergey Brin's Unretirement"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:14:32 +0000

You've cherry-picked a situation where there is an obvious social norm being broken. A better example would be going to the park and sitting on the bench you used to sit on with your ex. I agree with GP that this is healthier than lying despondent in bed.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Sergey Brin's Unretirement"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:42:11 +0000

Coping mechanisms are complex and diverse. The individual in question lost a major source of meaning-making in their life and was struggling to cope with that loss. I don't believe this is any less healthy than other common responses, which range from societal withdrawal to substance abuse.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Sergey Brin's Unretirement"

heyjamesknight — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 13:44:07 +0000

A mentally healthy person wants to be helpful. They want to be seen as helpful and they expect others around them to be helpful as well. This is the foundation of "pro-social" behavior: I benefit the group as much or more than the group benefits me.

Tying your identity to the place where you're helpful and where that help is appreciated and acknowledged isn't mental illness.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving"

heyjamesknight — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 13:54:45 +0000

In Positive Psychology, the science of meaning in life (not of life) breaks meaning down into three dimensions: coherence, significance, and purpose. If your job isn’t affording you significance (because your actions don’t “matter” in your organization) then your ability to find meaning in that work is threatened.

Your work may have coherence and purpose, but if it doesn’t have significance then it isn’t the source of meaning you thought it was.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving"

heyjamesknight — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 13:47:02 +0000

I love your “clean source of sustainable energy” metaphor. This is a great example of “eudaimonic” well-being, or the idea of “doing well.”

New comment by heyjamesknight in "You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving"

heyjamesknight — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:18:27 +0000

Hedonic treadmill only applies to hedonia, not the eudaimonia that meaningful work typically brings. “Doing well” doesn’t have the same elastic snap back that “being well” does, and there’s some evidence it can provide a buffer on the hedonic treadmill effect.

New comment by heyjamesknight in "Autism's confusing cousins"

heyjamesknight — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 15:31:34 +0000

The center of the normal ditribution is “normal” or “normative.” That’s where the term comes from.

It’s like saying we shouldn’t call immigrants “aliens” because that conjures images of space. Where do you think the term comes from?