Hacker News: jacobkg

New comment by jacobkg in "My writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a teaching moment"

jacobkg — Sun, 10 May 2026 17:54:27 +0000

This article incredibly well written (by a writing teacher). Some choice quotes

Writing isn’t just the production of sentences – it’s the training of endurance by way of sustained attention. It’s a way of learning what one thinks by attempting to say it

AI’s prose is perfectly mediocre, producing the sort of inert gloss that reads like a Frankensteinian amalgam of MFA-workshopped writing, an unintentional parody of the style it mimics. The resultant stories and essays are simulacra of thought, generated via pattern recognition learned from millions of human-penned words, rooted in no particular experience by no particular person

By contrast, student-written fiction is gloriously flawed, a struggle on the page between what the author is trying to say and what’s actually being said. The prose stumbles in a way reminiscent of a foal learning how to walk: even in their trembling legs I see hints of future grace. Such clumsiness is necessary; its absence would be proof of the foal never having learned to walk

New comment by jacobkg in "AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals"

jacobkg — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:04:01 +0000

Reinforcement Learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement_learning

New comment by jacobkg in "Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Hits $1T Valuation on Wall Street"

jacobkg — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:03:34 +0000

The first non-tech company to reach this milestone. Joins Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Hits $1T Valuation on Wall Street

jacobkg — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:04 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/28/berkshire-hathaway-valuation-warren-buffett

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41380969

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by jacobkg in "The Quiet Magic of Middle Managers"

jacobkg — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:23:41 +0000

I don’t think I have ever read something as wholesome as this in the opinion section of the NY Times. I’m guessing that is it heavily aspirational rather than based on data but it paints a very sweet portrait.

The Quiet Magic of Middle Managers

jacobkg — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:23:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/opinion/middle-managers-business-society.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40011765

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by jacobkg in "How to delete your data from data brokers"

jacobkg — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 17:47:09 +0000

Does this work for commercial data brokers? E.g will it stop the steady stream of phone calls from recruiters?

New comment by jacobkg in "The Subscription Trap"

jacobkg — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 17:43:31 +0000

Ah yes it does. Which I guess is another benefit of this setup. I don’t need to know which countries are included with the base plan as they only charge extra for the countries that aren’t

New comment by jacobkg in "The Subscription Trap"

jacobkg — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 17:18:35 +0000

The one service I have that works this way is AT&T mobile International Calling and Data. I pay $10 USD for any day that I use the service outside the US and Canada. It is always “on” so I don’t have to worry about enabling it before trips or canceling it when trips end.

I agree it would be great if more services were like this.

New comment by jacobkg in "Generation Junk"

jacobkg — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:37:42 +0000

Wirecutter is definitely hit and miss but I will say that their upgrade pick for towels (Riley Home) are phenomenal and have held up to everyday use for 3 years and counting:

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bath-towel/

New comment by jacobkg in "With 1 Sentence, Patagonia Just Gave a Masterclass on How to Treat Your People"

jacobkg — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:00:31 +0000

Our company also closes this week. The best thing about it is that you get back and Slack hasn’t piled up in your absence so it’s as close to a true break as you can get.

New comment by jacobkg in "GM halts sales of its new Chevy Blazer EV amid reports of software issues"

jacobkg — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 04:31:24 +0000

Curious what you mean that Mazda is failing

New comment by jacobkg in "Ask HN: What other good forums are out there?"

jacobkg — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 16:19:22 +0000

Bogleheads Forum has been going strong for 15+ years. Straight-laced investing talk: buy and hold, index funds, etc.

https://www.bogleheads.org/

New comment by jacobkg in "Launched Playtoob, a simple YouTube companion, because my 5yo daughter loves it"

jacobkg — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 07:19:45 +0000

Nice idea! Does it play through the user’s logged-in account? Or in other words, will it use my YouTube Premium account to play the videos without ads?

New comment by jacobkg in "California employers must reimburse remote workers for all necessary expenses"

jacobkg — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:36:22 +0000

Sorry about that! I updated the title

New comment by jacobkg in "California employers must reimburse remote workers for all necessary expenses"

jacobkg — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:25:10 +0000

Unclear. I first learned about this law in an article about employees potentially losing benefits by moving out of state:

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-10-31/remote-wor...

New comment by jacobkg in "California employers must reimburse remote workers for all necessary expenses"

jacobkg — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:23:56 +0000

I was reading an article on California worker protections and came across a reference to this. For some reason I had never heard about this law in spite of living and working remotely in CA for years.

Note that it may only apply if the employee lives in CA.

California employers must reimburse remote workers for all necessary expenses

jacobkg — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:22:22 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/working-from-home-in-california-does-my-employer-have-to-reimburse-me-for-utilities-or-other-expenses.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38085289

Points: 251

# Comments: 442

New comment by jacobkg in "Laid-off masses have a message for Zuckerberg, Benioff: We'll never come back"

jacobkg — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 21:08:29 +0000

Would love to see statistics on how many and which software jobs are moving from US to other countries now that these roles are 100% remote. Anyone know where to find this data?

New comment by jacobkg in "Sublime Merge – Git Client from the Makers of Sublime Text"

jacobkg — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 17:13:54 +0000

Like many I have moved on from Sublime Text to VSCode but as someone who cannot live without a Git Client UI, Sublime Merge continues to be my favorite. It has the same Sublime Text ethos around speed and is generally a joy to use