<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: jdietrich</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jdietrich</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 23:45:05 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=jdietrich" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><i>>There are many, many psychedelics. They have sometimes radical differences.</i><p>Psilocybin is a more selective 5-HT2A agonist than LSD and is more rapidly metabolised. At normal recreational or clinical doses, they really aren't very different. LSD isn't quite as well-researched as psilocybin as a psychiatric drug, but the data we have suggests that it isn't meaningfully different in terms of risks or benefits.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:28:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189281</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189281</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189281</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The question posed is "Could psilocybin be <i>the key</i> to treating anorexia?". Psychedelics are effective in treating some psychiatric disorders - I've been clear about that - but they are (at best) only marginally more effective than most existing treatments. That's a good thing, it will help some patients, but it's a million miles from being <i>the key</i> treatment.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:17:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189138</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189138</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189138</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sorry, but the answer is almost certainly no. We now have good quality data on psylocybin as a treatment for depression; at best, it's slightly more effective than existing treatments, at the cost of a small but significant increased risk side-effects (primarily severe acute anxiety and psychosis, possibly HPPD). We have less data on other psychedelics and other conditions, but none of it looks spectacular when you take into account the usual biases affecting small trials of novel treatments.<p>Psychedelics are likely to be a <i>good</i> option for <i>some</i> patients, it's good to have another tool in the armamentarium, but the idea that they're a revolution in psychiatry is simply no longer credible.<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39627679/" rel="nofollow">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39627679/</a><p>Disclosure: I have participated in a clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and did not see any meaningful benefit.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:06:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183107</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183107</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49183107</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Claude Opus 5"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Living standards for ordinary people only started to improve <i>in any meaningful way</i> after the industrial revolution, a fact which is immediately obvious if you compare across generations. Technological progress gave us all of the things that distinguish the lives of 21st century Americans from the lives of medieval peasants. Central heating, indoor plumbing, electric lighting, general anaesthesia, antibiotics, automobiles, aircraft, limitless entertainment, food so abundant that poor people are obese. If you think that technological progress is intrinsically bad because it hasn't brought about a utopia of perfect equality, then I really don't know what to say to you.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:12:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49048837</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49048837</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49048837</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Count Binface"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nigel Farage is the incumbent Member of Parliament for Clacton and the de-facto leader of Reform UK, a populist right-wing party that has only a handful of MPs but is currently leading the polls. He is being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Committee over personal donations he accepted prior to becoming an MP. In response to this investigation, Farage stood down as MP, triggering a by-election (a special election held when an MP resigns, dies or is otherwise removed from their seat mid-term).<p>Farage announced his intention to stand in this by-election (which he is entitled to do), arguing that only his constituents had the right to decide whether he was fit to be a Member of Parliament. He argues that the Standards Committee is fundamentally illegitimate because he would be judged by his political rivals; in any case, the greatest sanction the committee could impose would be his expulsion from parliament, which would trigger a by-election that he would be entitled to stand in. The other major parties have all decided not to stand candidates against Farage in the Clacton by-election, creating this slightly farcical contest between the incumbent and a joke candidate.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 06:30:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48888669</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48888669</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48888669</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "You didn't vibe code it, you stole it from open source&enterprise-licensed code"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Has any group of workers ever "won" a long-term victory against a new technology? There are plenty of short-term concessions made in the face of powerful trade union opposition, but I can't think of any technology that was just stopped dead to appease workers with obsolete skills.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:20:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672934</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672934</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672934</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Thomann takes legal action against Fender"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ergonomics. Any solid-body guitar that's designed to be comfortable when played sitting or standing will converge on a strat-ish body shape. You can make a computer mouse in any shape, but the shape of a <i>comfortable</i> mouse is constrained by the shape of an average human palm.<p>The various curves and bevels on the Stratocaster aren't arbitrary aesthetic features, they're affordances to fit the human body. Change them too much and you get a guitar that won't balance on your knee or that pokes you in the ribs or that limits your access to the high frets.<p>Ola Strandberg set out to design the most ergonomic guitar possible. His design is both radical and basically derivative of the Strat, because Leo Fender happened to find something close to the perfect solution in 1954.<p><a href="https://strandbergguitars.com/en-GB/product/boden-essential-6-transformative-teal" rel="nofollow">https://strandbergguitars.com/en-GB/product/boden-essential-...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 20:45:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48665397</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48665397</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48665397</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Precisely this. Ticketmaster's <i>entire business model</i> is based around taking the blame. Artists don't want to set a face value for their tickets that represent a realistic market-clearing price, for fear of being seen as greedy; this leaves a lot of money on the table for scalpers. TM scrape as much of that value back for artists and venues, who get a cut of all the fees and charges and "authorized secondary resale". Selling tickets is the easy part; the secret sauce is selling tickets for as much as possible, while allowing the artists to pretend that they're being sold for a "fair" price.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:53:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449774</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449774</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449774</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As a Brit, it seems hilarious that a single person with an income of $97k would be on the poverty line. That's more than double the median income for all households in the UK. A lot of Americans don't seem to realise how fantastically wealthy they are compared to the rest of the world.<p><a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2024" rel="nofollow">https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personal...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 16 May 2026 19:53:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48163217</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48163217</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48163217</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "The Joy of Folding Bikes"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><i>>battery powered grinders that will cut any lock</i><p>Not any more. A new generation of locks have an abrasive-filled plastic layer that aggressively wears down angle grinder discs. They aren't completely immune to angle grinders, but the better locks will take 20 minutes and multiple cutting discs to defeat.<p><a href="https://www.cyclingweekly.com/group-tests/wrecked-and-rated-i-put-five-angle-grinder-resistant-bike-locks-to-the-ultimate-test" rel="nofollow">https://www.cyclingweekly.com/group-tests/wrecked-and-rated-...</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5tuFesVtAA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5tuFesVtAA</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:11:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909705</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909705</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909705</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Paraloid B-72"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><i>>Adhesives are a deep and interesting subject.</i><p>It's notable that adhesives are something that Chinese manufacturers still really struggle with. Companies like Henkel and 3M have a deep reservoir of trade secrets.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:47:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903176</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903176</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903176</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "This time is different"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The electrical telegraph was integral to the growth and consolidation of the British Empire. Britain acquired more colonies and held on to them for longer than the other European powers partly due to its naval might, but also due to far superior bureaucratic and communications technology.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:05:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177466</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177466</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47177466</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sammy Jankis – an autonomous agent by Jason Rohrer]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://sammyjankis.com/">https://sammyjankis.com/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022547">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022547</a></p>
<p>Points: 5</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 10:10:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://sammyjankis.com/</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022547</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022547</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Ode to the AA Battery"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If I had a dollar for every device that I've seen ruined by leaking alkaline cells, I could buy a palletload of lithium cells.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 23:04:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831179</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831179</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831179</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Ode to the AA Battery"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Lithium primary cells have a shallower discharge curve than alkaline, but not completely flat; measuring state-of-charge is essentially trivial for any competent design engineer. Medtronic specifically recommend FR6 lithium cells in their insulin pumps.<p><a href="https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf</a><p><a href="https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/sites/default/files/library/download-library/user-guides/MiniMed-780G-system-user-guide.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/sites/default/files/librar...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 23:02:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831162</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831162</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831162</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Ode to the AA Battery"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Eneloop Pro cells have a rated capacity of 2500mAh.<p>I can't think of any good applications for conventional NiMH cells any more - they're dominated by LSD NiMH cells in low-discharge applications, by lithium primary cells in ultra-low-discharge applications and by the various lithium secondary chemistries in high-discharge applications.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 22:54:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831090</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831090</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46831090</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Eat Real Food"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Unless you're doing something <i>blatantly</i> wrong or have a very specific disorder like coeliac, diet just doesn't have very much influence on health. There are a very wide range of diets that are more-or-less equally healthy, within a margin of error. Humans are highly adaptable omnivores that have evolved to survive and thrive on a broader range of foods than pretty much any other species. The data seems so mixed because the effect sizes of reasonable interventions are so small - a tiny signal drowned out by noise.<p>The entire problem is that most people in high- and middle-income countries are in fact doing something <i>blatantly</i> wrong - they are consistently eating vastly more calories than they use. Some of those people are ignorant of what 2000 to 2500 calories actually looks like, some are deluded, but a very large proportion know damned well that they're eating far too much and do it anyway.<p>The obesogenic environment that we now live in is partly due to the influence of the processed foods industry, but in large part it's simply a product of abundance. Before the late 20th century, it was simply inconceivable that poor people could <i>afford</i> to become morbidly obese. Agricultural productivity has improved beyond all recognition and the world is flooded with incredibly cheap food of all kinds.<p>We've spent the last few decades trying to push back against that with all manner of initiatives intended to endgender behavioural change, with very little success. It doesn't really matter what guidance we give people when they have shown a consistent inability or unwillingness to follow it.<p>If we're actually serious about the effects of diet on public health, I think there are only two credible options - extremely heavy-handed regulation, or the mass prescribing of GLP-1 receptor agonists. All of the other options are just permutations of "let's do more of the thing that hasn't worked".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:53:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532529</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532529</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532529</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China's nuclear city in the Gobi Desert"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Most things in the Chinese military system are numbered rather than named. Military units are numbered twice - a public cover designator and a private true unit designator, originally four and later five digits. Factories got a three digit number - 296 for the small arms factory in Jiangshe, 816 for the uranium enrichment plant in Fuling and so on. Everyone in and around Factory 404 would have known it as such, but the <i>mere existence</i> of Factory 404 was a state secret.<p>The existence of such a large and conspicuous secret might seem bizarre to the post-cold-war mind, but it was fairly common in the West too. For example, the British Telecom Tower in central London stands at 189 metres tall and had a revolving restaurant that was open to the public, but was also a designated site under the Official Secrets Act.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 28 Dec 2025 17:54:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412958</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412958</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412958</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Lessons from the PG&E outage"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ask any EMT or paramedic - an astonishingly large proportion of human drivers panic in the presence of an ambulance and just slam their brakes on.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2025 11:15:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46374575</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46374575</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46374575</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jdietrich in "Inside CECOT – 60 Minutes [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How valuable are those trophies compared to bribes, or the tacit bribes of cushy "consultancy" roles? How do you stop lobbyists from gutting those regulators - what use is a fiercely independent regulator that has no resources?<p>Good governance is <i>hard</i>.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:55:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367432</link><dc:creator>jdietrich</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367432</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367432</guid></item></channel></rss>