Hacker News: kj4211cash

New comment by kj4211cash in "Simulacrum of Knowledge Work"

kj4211cash — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:30:30 +0000

"Verifying the correctness of solutions is often much easier than finding correct solutions yourself."

Honestly, this has not been my experience at all. Defining what a good solution looks like is most of the battle in Operational Research. But, trying to be constructive, maybe we have identified a sort of diving line between areas where AI is more vs. less helpful.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Simulacrum of Knowledge Work"

kj4211cash — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:27:51 +0000

There is this belief that in 2-3 years AI will be much better and all the gripes people have with AI use today will be solved. Honestly, personally, I think that optimism will age poorly. But to say it out loud at work or post publicly probably hurts my career prospects.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The buns in McDonald's Japan's burger photos are all slightly askew"

kj4211cash — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:14:28 +0000

Yea, fair enough. This is a great point. My experience has definitely been that company size is inversely correlated with ... functionality of engineering org.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Why Japan has such good railways"

kj4211cash — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:08:45 +0000

Here's a bill that repealed a previous bill that slowed/delayed the project: https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/4653

I can't find the laws it's repealing immediately, but they must exist.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Why Japan has such good railways"

kj4211cash — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:36:45 +0000

The tunneling in that area is done now so we can see what happened. It was slightly more expensive and slower to tunnel in that area due to the tar sands and methane. But what was really expensive and time consuming was the NIMBY lawsuits and actual laws passed that used the methane as an excuse to try to stop the project.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Why Japan has such good railways"

kj4211cash — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 03:31:19 +0000

The per mile costs are definitely high in America, for a lot of reasons, often related to laws and policies, but that's not really the issue. At the end of 2025, nearly 20 years since California voters passed Prop 1A, we have spent under $15 Billion on California High Speed Rail. As a point of contrast, the cost of 2025's tax cut extensions is estimated to be $4 Trillion. The fact is that we don't have quality intercity passenger rail in this country because politicians aren't willing to support it and fund it as reasonable levels. Seattle light rail is an interesting example because politicians there are willing to support it and so ... we are building it, despite the relatively high per mile costs. LA Metro is interesting right because the voters passed sales taxes that funded various light rail projects. So LA is building better rail. But the political process means that every district supervisor gets their own rail project and so we have light rail to Pomona but are struggling to get a subway down Wilshire where it's obviously more needed. Anyways, all this is to say, politics is a big part of the reason why we don't have better rail in America. And blaming "grift" is a right-wing political talking point that probably doesn't help.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The buns in McDonald's Japan's burger photos are all slightly askew"

kj4211cash — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:10:15 +0000

As someone who works there, as a Data Scientist, I can't scroll past this without expressing my disagreement. I've never seen a worse eng org. Coming from Uber, it was and is shocking how dysfunctional Walmart tech is. Maybe my standards are too high.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

kj4211cash — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:01:00 +0000

Just wanted to say I really like this idea.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The revenge of the data scientist"

kj4211cash — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 03:14:28 +0000

You recognize that you haven't really needed strong mathematical (or coding) skills to create models for some time. Data Scientists add value by knowing how to translate business speak into XGBoost type model and interesting XGBoost model results into business speak. And, frankly, often by being some of the smartest people in the room. The math is occasionally helpful for speaking the language of the XGBoost model. And picking only people who are decent at math (and coding) helps ensure the smart factor. How much of that will really change with AI? I've also seen Business stakeholders try to use the chatbot to bypass the Data Scientist. Typically it's not long before there is a design decision or an interesting result the Business stakeholders don't understand. That's why I think there will be demand for Data Scientists. Not exactly evaluation and monitoring. And definitely not gatekeeping building of LLM solutions. Often the opposite, called in to explain and debug the Business stakeholders' slop.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Ask HN: Do You Enjoy Your Career in Tech Nowadays?"

kj4211cash — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 02:21:09 +0000

I've spent 20 years working and 8 in the industry. Definitely feel jaded and looking for an exit. The push to use AI whenever possible, the repetition of the work, the cluelessness of leadership, the rounds of layoffs, and the Return To Office even if it reduces productivity have all worn on me. The high compensation has kept me here longer than I probably should have stayed. A lot of my "issues" would be noticeably better if I worked at a startup instead of a megacorp, but then the compensation wouldn't be as good. Also ... just staring at a screen all day. I daydream about being in nature and find a lot of my senior coworkers do as well. Maybe a year off would help.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule"

kj4211cash — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 13:31:53 +0000

If they have said anything against the regime on social media, they would be wise not to visit. I personally know many Persian expats who meet family in Turkey and have been anxious about going back.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The happiest I've ever been"

kj4211cash — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 13:27:13 +0000

So interesting. I also found work in tech, as a DS, more gratifying than teaching. But part of that was finding remote work freeing. Office work is Kafkaesque. I can easily work 40 hours a week or produce more than the equivalent amount of progress on assigned tickets, but I just can't fake being a good officemate for 8 hours a day straight. Plus progress seems so slow in the office. So many distractions and interruptions. With no opportunity to decompress.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst"

kj4211cash — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:21:09 +0000

I didn't lie. Did you read the article? Apparently the point is to break you down, to see how strongly you challenge the interviewer, and assorted other things which are not about telling the truth.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst"

kj4211cash — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:51:42 +0000

This is so interesting. I guess I was a dipshit in this scenario? Because I just accepted that the reviewer thought I was lying. Began to question my own memory. And just gave up on the idea of working at that place. In hindsight, I should have protested and not given up. But I was a meek 21 year old and didn't know anything. Seems like a strange filter to apply.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst"

kj4211cash — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:48:02 +0000

This rings so true and I only ever took one polygraph test. I was a nerdy 21 year old and they told me I had failed on the marijuana use question and encouraged me to think about it and come back and retry. I remember being very confused. I withdrew my application and never went back. I wonder how many others gave up on a job opportunity because it was drug abuse Wednesday or whatever.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The End of the Office"

kj4211cash — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 02:28:14 +0000

Bubble will have burst. Tech co stocks will be way down and job market will be rough but starting to improve. Overall employment in tech jobs will be down slightly but starting to improve. Employment in other job functions will be more or less unchanged by AI. Let's see!

New comment by kj4211cash in "The End of the Office"

kj4211cash — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 02:26:01 +0000

It sounds like you are an Operations Researcher. I am too friend. The talks I've seen on people using AI for Operations Research have been ... underwhelming. I wonder if the vast majority of us are just in niches narrow enough that AI just isn't that helpful.

New comment by kj4211cash in "The End of the Office"

kj4211cash — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 01:22:37 +0000

Just commenting so I can come back in 12-18 months and laugh at this. Or, you know, reflect on why I didn't believe him in the unlikely event that he's correct.

New comment by kj4211cash in "Surely the crash of the US economy has to be soon"

kj4211cash — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 05:14:01 +0000

Wait. Do you really think that or are you being sarcastic?

New comment by kj4211cash in "Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica"

kj4211cash — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 04:46:14 +0000

It's interesting how polarized this comments section is. Lots of people claiming a human driver would definitely have been driving slower. Lots of people claiming statistics show that human drivers do worse in this scenario aggregate. Of course neither side presenting convincing evidence.