Hacker News: jamespropp

New comment by jamespropp in "Seventeen Camels and Where They Can Take You"

jamespropp — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:21:55 +0000

Thanks for catching this! I fixed the error.

New comment by jamespropp in "Seventeen Camels and Where They Can Take You"

jamespropp — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:20:59 +0000

I added a sentence: “(Warning: This is sort of a trick question, so don’t expect a textbook-style answer!)” I hope that this will prevent others from being similarly frustrated.

New comment by jamespropp in "\Begin{Proof} Declaration"

jamespropp — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:52:21 +0000

I plan to continue using AI tools, but to do so in a mindful way, to avoid becoming addicted to them, and to be prepared to back off if I don’t like the direction they take me in.

\Begin{Proof} Declaration

jamespropp — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:48:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.begin-proof.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48387222

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

What early exponential growth can't tell us about runaway processes

jamespropp — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 21:55:57 +0000

This is an essay about a simple but (I think) underappreciated point:

If a process follows a logistic curve, then early behavior is almost indistinguishable from exponential growth, which means you generally can’t infer its eventual carrying capacity from early data.

In other words, very different long-term outcomes can all be consistent with the same initial “runaway” phase, even with very good data.

I use Project Hail Mary as a framing device (basically mathematical fanfiction), but the real issues are inference and model choice.

Curious whether people think this is a fair critique, or whether I’m overstating how ill-conditioned such problems are in practice.

https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/sorry-mary

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47827979

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by jamespropp in "In Praise of Stupid Questions"

jamespropp — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:24:57 +0000

Perhaps an additional Moral is, if a calculation can be done in an afternoon, it's probably been done before. (I say this because it's been pointed out in the Comments section of my essay that Jon Lu asked and answered the same question back in 2016.)

New comment by jamespropp in "In Praise of Stupid Questions"

jamespropp — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:18:40 +0000

I'm not sure I understand your question. Given that it takes an infinite amount of time to write down the decimal expansion of pi, what might it mean to compute pi in finite time?

New comment by jamespropp in "In Praise of Stupid Questions"

jamespropp — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:09:42 +0000

Thanks for catching this! What was in my mind when I wrote the first of those two sentences was the entirety of my past experience using ChatGPT as a research tool, and all the times it made mistakes. (For a funny example, see my January 17, 2023 essay “Denominators and Doppelgängers” in which I describe ChatGPT's proof that .999... is less than 1.) But you're 100% right that the version of my essay that I posted last week didn't make this clear; I'll update it appropriately. I'll also add a brief description of ChatGPT's bibliographic blunder.