Hacker News: kemiller

New comment by kemiller in "Nobody Is Coming to Save Your Career"

kemiller — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:08:55 +0000

Yeah. I think most orgs have no idea what they are missing.

New comment by kemiller in "Nobody is coming to save your career"

kemiller — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:24:22 +0000

I gave a lot of shit about my employees the first time I was a manager. It burned me out, but it made for an amazing team.

New comment by kemiller in "The bespoke software revolution? I'm not buying it"

kemiller — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 16:14:24 +0000

I don’t mean specific features, I mean specific verticals. I.e. one app that nails a specific type of business and replaces a dozen disconnected tools.

New comment by kemiller in "The bespoke software revolution? I'm not buying it"

kemiller — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 21:01:35 +0000

100%. Saas isn’t going away, but the economics are changing drastically and that’s bad for one-size-fits-all tools, and excellent for niche solutions. But it’s still saas, just more specific.

New comment by kemiller in "Adoption of EVs tied to real-world reductions in air pollution: study"

kemiller — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 03:17:29 +0000

Even if you power a typical EV from 100% coal, it pencils out as about equivalent to a late model Prius. And any improvements in the energy mix take it further.

New comment by kemiller in "Europe wants to end its dangerous reliance on US internet technology"

kemiller — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:27:50 +0000

Ironically, Russia probing defenses in Europe is functioning like Chaos Monkey — revealing vulnerabilities and triggering hardening.

New comment by kemiller in "Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?"

kemiller — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:54:08 +0000

Either scientist or chef

New comment by kemiller in "Structured outputs create false confidence"

kemiller — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 17:33:10 +0000

That is more or less what BAML does

New comment by kemiller in "In the Beginning was the Command Line (1999)"

kemiller — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:33:10 +0000

BeOS was so amazing; I ran it for a while on x86 hardware. Ahead of its time. But I always loved NeXT. (I'd go down to the local university computer store to drool over them. The staff all knew me by name.) And now, I carry one around with me everywhere I go. Living in the future...

New comment by kemiller in "Tesla Model Y named worst car for reliability in Germany's major TÜV report"

kemiller — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:43:36 +0000

Suspension bushings because of design flaw that dumps rainwater on them regularly afaik

New comment by kemiller in "Beginner-friendly, unofficial documentation for Helix text editor"

kemiller — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 21:42:40 +0000

I really would love to move to helix but they can be… stubborn about what gets into the core. And if you start having to go to a plugin (which isn’t even possible last I looked) to get table stakes features in, it kind of defeats the purpose of a modern batteries included modal editor. But it’s still a cool thing I’m glad exists.

New comment by kemiller in "The Rapper 50 Cent, Adjusted for Inflation"

kemiller — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 23:16:07 +0000

You should extend it into the past. Hapenny hit hard.

New comment by kemiller in "Anthropic's Prompt Engineering Tutorial (2024)"

kemiller — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 15:46:47 +0000

Have you ever tried to get an average human to do that? It’s a mixed bag. Computers til now were highly repeatable relative to humans, once programmed, but hopeless at “fuzzy” or associative tasks. Now they have a new trick, that lets them grapple with ambiguity, but the cost is losing that repeatability. The best, most reliable humans were not born that way, it took years or decades of education, and even then it can take a lot of talking to transfer your idea into their brain.

New comment by kemiller in "Claude says “You're absolutely right!” about everything"

kemiller — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:36:19 +0000

Yes this is strikingly similar to humans, too. “Not” is kind of an abstract concept. Anyone who has ever trained a dog will understand.

New comment by kemiller in "Backyard Coffee and Jazz in Kyoto"

kemiller — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:47:20 +0000

Ah, I heard about it, but the timing never worked out to try it. Good to have some confirmation!

New comment by kemiller in "Backyard Coffee and Jazz in Kyoto"

kemiller — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 19:43:46 +0000

YMMV I guess, but I found the best coffee at kissatens, and I hate dark roasts. Lots of great, sometimes super tiny, third-wave pourover types, too. But I guess Japanese coffee culture is more about evening consumption since there were many that were open at 10PM or later, but very few open before 10AM.

New comment by kemiller in "Duolingo CEO tries to walk back AI-first comments, fails"

kemiller — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:10:26 +0000

I 100% get this, but I will say that the gamification has meant I've stuck with it for a while. I don't know if it's out there, but I'd love something with better teaching methods, but just enough gamification to keep me going.

New comment by kemiller in "On loyalty to your employer (2018)"

kemiller — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 15:40:28 +0000

I was leaving a company recently and the fresh grads, with whom I had a good relationship, asked if I had any advice.

I said, “Always remember that the company is not your friend. I don’t mean your boss or your coworkers, they might well be or become your friend. I mean the company itself. If all is well, it may be an excellent ally, but the company can and sometimes will turn on you in an instant if its goals change. Your boss’s job, even if they are your friend, is ultimately to serve the company.

Go out there, work hard, have fun, but put your needs first in the bigger picture.”

New comment by kemiller in "The 2005 Sony Bravia ad"

kemiller — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 18:00:09 +0000

Things got significantly darker after 9/11.

New comment by kemiller in "Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting"

kemiller — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:24:49 +0000

Trump doesn't understand soft power, nor how much he has destroyed in such a short span. I have hope that a some future point we can repair these relationships, but they will never be like they were. So stupid. Such a waste.