Hacker News: j7ake

New comment by j7ake in "What even is food authenticity? Why we guard carbonara, and flatten chicken rice"

j7ake — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 23:54:26 +0000

No it’s not. Chinese restaurant cuisine is not defined by home cuisine at all. They are almost orthogonal.

You go to a Chinese restaurant to eat something that cannot be made at home, almost by definition. The only exception might be breakfast food.

New comment by j7ake in "What even is food authenticity? Why we guard carbonara, and flatten chicken rice"

j7ake — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 23:42:31 +0000

Italian restaurant cuisine today is judged by whether it tastes like the way their particular Italian grandma made it.

Asian restaurant cuisine is judged by partly by how different (technique, taste, looks) the dish is from what they can make from home.

New comment by j7ake in "The computer science degree isn’t dead"

j7ake — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:52:59 +0000

It is better to be overworked than underworked

New comment by j7ake in "New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker"

j7ake — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:30:11 +0000

How is this different than telling people to do a PhD, then run your own research group as a professor, get tenure and get lifetime job security?

Or work in start up, get acquired, and chill after ?

New comment by j7ake in "WH proposes rules giving political appointees final approval on research grants"

j7ake — Sun, 31 May 2026 03:25:13 +0000

Check Physics and Chemistry Nobel prize of last 5 years, Google was involved in half of them.

New comment by j7ake in "Fields Medal Video: Maryna Viazovska (2022)"

j7ake — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:45:00 +0000

I think it technically means they have a permanent endowed position.

New comment by j7ake in "Swiss AI Initiative (2023)"

j7ake — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 04:43:19 +0000

Most researchers in Switzerland are non-Swiss, and many institutes have English as language of business

New comment by j7ake in "The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing"

j7ake — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:20:20 +0000

Essentially a PhD thesis style grilling to replace the current text slop

New comment by j7ake in "We asked 15k European devs about jobs, salaries, and AI [pdf]"

j7ake — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:07:58 +0000

It doesn’t matter honestly, 65k versus 80k after 42% tax on the extra 15k is about 800 euros a month. Not qualitatively different.

New comment by j7ake in "2025 Letter"

j7ake — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 03:16:26 +0000

I found it the right granularity. He talks about USA, China, and Europe: within each have considerable diversity in culture, history, and identity.

He mentions Europe without more nuance for the same reason he mentions China without more nuance: he’s talking big picture.

New comment by j7ake in "My role as a founder-CTO: year 8"

j7ake — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 17:25:23 +0000

At 9 figures I’m sure the founder can trickle down a few for everyone including employers after the sale.

New comment by j7ake in "My role as a founder-CTO: year 8"

j7ake — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 01:14:09 +0000

Do you have a family or people you need to take care of? Life is more than sustaining your own existence.

New comment by j7ake in "My role as a founder-CTO: year 8"

j7ake — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 01:10:04 +0000

You forgot to account for the 100+ employees. The liquidity event would have helped their families as well.

New comment by j7ake in "Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades"

j7ake — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:52:37 +0000

Can you imagine a singer who will continue singing even after getting 50 million ?

To some people, their careers are interesting in and of itself, beyond money.

This applies to many professions: scientists, CEOs, writers, painters.

New comment by j7ake in "Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class"

j7ake — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:32:56 +0000

Literature, music, art; they are all intertwined aren’t they? I find at their purest form they are striving for similar goals: pulling out from our collective unconscious a life affirming theme that can be viewed in a new perspective.

New comment by j7ake in "A quarter of US-trained scientists eventually leave"

j7ake — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:20 +0000

Are you suggesting science and innovation are distinct?

Scientific progress is largely driven by the “Steve Jobs” of sciences.

Only a tiny fraction of papers remain relevant. So that means the quality of the average paper doesn’t matter as much as the quality of the best paper.

New comment by j7ake in "A quarter of US-trained scientists eventually leave"

j7ake — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:58:01 +0000

I think a mix of the current system with more permanent researchers makes sense.

There is a lot of work in research that fits the permanent worker better than the fresh 22 year old. But having that fresh talent is really beneficial to science.

New comment by j7ake in "A quarter of US-trained scientists eventually leave"

j7ake — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:40:25 +0000

Your suggestion would have fewer fresh eyes to look at the problem. If the scientific enterprise were just about churning out widgets, then yes it’s better to have permanent staff.

But having a strong training pipeline for the globe is a huge plus for US prestige, and the top people are still offered jobs as faculty or industry within the country, so it still a net gain for USA. But it’s brutally competitive for the individual scientists

New comment by j7ake in "Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class"

j7ake — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 01:41:57 +0000

Literature is like classical music. One can argue Beethovens 9th symphony is one of the greatest pieces of music of all time, but that doesn’t mean we all have time to sit through 70 minutes a day listening to it.

I bet important people don’t even have time to sit and watch a full movie.

New comment by j7ake in "Will West Coast Jazz Get Some Respect?"

j7ake — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 23:38:38 +0000

The meme of dude standing in corner while everybody else dances as he utters an elitist thought to himself explains many jazz musicians, especially the protagonist in whiplash