Hacker News: in_a_hole

New comment by in_a_hole in "Illusions of understanding in the sciences"

in_a_hole — Sun, 17 May 2026 08:26:03 +0000

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New comment by in_a_hole in "Niche Museums"

in_a_hole — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:40:26 +0000

I am green with envy, that sounds amazing.

Do you remember any exhibits from that time that aren't in place today?

New comment by in_a_hole in "Niche Museums"

in_a_hole — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:19:43 +0000

I would like to signal boost The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles.

https://www.mjt.org/

I've never been anywhere quite like it. My friend once described it as "an art piece that uses museum curation as its medium" and that's the best description I've come across. To get an idea of what that means, understand that it's fully laid out as a museum with exhibits featuring various objects and artifacts and expositions thereof but these exhibits wildly vary between truth and fantasy. Some are showcases of real, if niche, cultural practices and some are histories of entirely fictional figures that are nevertheless compelling and beautiful.

The creator was awarded a McArthur grant in 2001 and I feel it was more than deserved.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Has quantum advantage been achieved?"

in_a_hole — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:20:43 +0000

The linked document is a copy edited version of a 3 part blog post series which you can read here:

1) https://quantumfrontiers.com/2026/01/06/has-quantum-advantag...

2) https://quantumfrontiers.com/2026/01/25/has-quantum-advantag...

3) https://quantumfrontiers.com/2026/02/28/what-is-next-in-quan...

Has quantum advantage been achieved?

in_a_hole — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:20:42 +0000

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09901

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47334174

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by in_a_hole in "Show HN: uBlock filter list to blur all Instagram Reels"

in_a_hole — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 20:36:14 +0000

On the mobile app you can tap the Instagram logo and there's an option to show only posts from your follows. It's not sticky, unfortunately.

Also if you're on android I recommend:

distractionfreeapps.com/

They make a bootleg version of the app with the ability to remove certain feeds, e.g. reels, discover, stories

New comment by in_a_hole in "The next steps for Airbus' big bet on open rotor engines"

in_a_hole — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:49:23 +0000

I had a sharp intake of breath after reading this and then clicking through to see the header image of the article.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores"

in_a_hole — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:25:12 +0000

A.I. = Actually Indians

New comment by in_a_hole in "Do dyslexia fonts work? (2022)"

in_a_hole — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 23:54:46 +0000

> "Contrary to popular belief, the core problem in dyslexia is not reversing letters (although it can be an indicator),” she writes. The difficulty lies in identifying the discrete units of sound that make up words and “matching those individual sounds to the letters and combinations of letters in order to read and spell.”

The more I hear about dyslexia the more it sounds like the result of not being taught to read properly rather than any kind of neurological issue.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Scientists create ultra fast memory using light"

in_a_hole — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:28:36 +0000

Is it possible that this is actually just a very common writing pattern used by actual humans and that's the reason AI uses it so much?

New comment by in_a_hole in "What happens when even college students can't do math anymore?"

in_a_hole — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:36:24 +0000

To be fair, the ÷ symbol for division must be abolished.

New comment by in_a_hole in "What happens when even college students can't do math anymore?"

in_a_hole — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:31:45 +0000

As a brit, yawn.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Winamp clone in Swift for macOS"

in_a_hole — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 01:46:30 +0000

Swinsian was the only Mac music player I could find that could come close to replicating my old MusicBee setup. The license fee was annoying but I paid it anyway and have no regrets.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 10:38:01 +0000

I haven't had a chance to really dig into your resource yet but I am definitely going to do so. Perhaps I'll wait a few days until the change you mentioned is implemented.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:22:42 +0000

> And to get back to what I assume is your real conundrum (why do we extremize something to begin with), I just don't think there's any true answer as to why nature behaves this way.

Having read about some of the history of this idea, it seems to have been originally built on philosophical grounds, the idea that nature chooses the most harmonious path, as opposed to Newton's laws which seem to come from intuition based on observation of the world. If you keep asking "why?" in either framework you will eventually run up against an epistomological barrier which is unlikely to ever be crossed but in the case of Newton's laws, their basis in physical intuition makes them much easier (for me at least) to accept as given and take as a starting point for constructing a world model. With this being the case I think an acceptable result for me would be to find a proof of equivalence between the Newtonian and Lagrangian pictures. From my reading it seems like the derivation from D'Alambert's principle may be part of the journey.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:04:23 +0000

This seems promising, I'll dig into this later.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:02:01 +0000

I believe translation symmetry gives you momentum conservation, energy conservation will probably arise from a symmetry concerning time.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:54:04 +0000

Do you know any references that discuss this in detail? I'm interested in the history of these developments. Who noticed this? Who asked this question?

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:52:14 +0000

I had heard about this book and that quote makes me want to read it. Thank you.

New comment by in_a_hole in "Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics (2014)"

in_a_hole — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:49:59 +0000

I recently got hold of a copy of that. I started Hand & Finch - Analytical Mechanics but their woolly discussion of virtual work and virtual displacement was very frustrating and unenlightening. Perhaps I'll have a better time with L&L.