Hacker News: layman51

New comment by layman51 in "AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)"

layman51 — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 20:21:32 +0000

In one case, I could tell because the tone of the piece sounded exactly like the kind of stuff I would read after prompting an LLM and I had never heard of the author before, but I knew that they were like an intern or a new college grad and for some reason their piece was trying to persuade employees in a certain field about how they had to use AI itself. It just rubbed me the wrong way because if they did use AI, then they didn't even bother to rewrite the repetitive instances of "it's not X; it's y", and also "This isn't X".

New comment by layman51 in "Text AI watermarks will always be trivial to remove"

layman51 — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:20:35 +0000

That sounds like an interesting idea, but I think there's always weird edge cases. Like what if I pressed the keys to write an essay that was actually generated by an LLM. It would be hardware-attested, but I just transcribed most of my sentences from an LLM and maybe I even introduce my own typos or sentences because I am half-assing the transcription.

New comment by layman51 in "US hires over 2k video gamers as air traffic controllers"

layman51 — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:30:00 +0000

Yes, from what I understand, their heart rate is really high during competition, they are sweating a lot, and then their necks have to be strong.

I was curious about your point and it turns out that the gamer beat the F1 driver but they were both in a VUHL 05 which is a road-legal supercar. It seems like they were on a mountain road track too.

New comment by layman51 in "US hires over 2k video gamers as air traffic controllers"

layman51 — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:27:37 +0000

That's cool, but sim racing enthusiasts typically have gaming peripherals like steering wheels, pedals, and gear shifters that bring them closer to the experience of a real race car driver. For FPS games, they might be realistic in terms of detail, but how would most video games capture the physical stamina needed to carry around equipment, or maybe even aiming and maintaining the sights, equipment, etc.

New comment by layman51 in "In Japan, 'calf hair harassment' exposes gender-based appearance conflicts"

layman51 — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:52:07 +0000

I don’t have experience in Japan, but I think part of this must have to do with a double-standard in their office culture. Like maybe the women are socially required to wear pants or tights, or shave their leg hair. I get the feeling that gender norms in Japan are way more entrenched than in western countries.

New comment by layman51 in "U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war"

layman51 — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 19:59:24 +0000

I was thinking about this too because some years ago, there was a ranking article that’s now unavailable by the U.S. News and World Report (more famous for its college and university rankings) that had listed Russia as the strongest military.[1] A lot of people were questioning or poking fun at the ranking because of how Russia was struggling with Ukraine. Also, a lot of people seem to confuse analysis with endorsement or validation. But really it’s important to note that a lot of stuff also has to do with how information is very sensitive and can influence a lot of people. If mainstream media can be believed, the U.S. is also struggling a lot with Iran right now, but you might not realize that if you mainly used Trump’s Truth social posts as your only source of info.

[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20220313151414/https://www.usnew...

New comment by layman51 in "The infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial Calif. law passes"

layman51 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 01:30:05 +0000

I have always hated infinite scroll because it becomes way more difficult to understand the index of a search result or piece of content. For example, if I know that each page of results contains 25 hits, then it is easy for me to see which one is the 25th hit, and then which one is the 26th one (first one on the next page).

I don't mind that the order of search results might be shifted around over time, and I understand that there is some profit motive to inserting tangentially relevant or sponsored hits, but I really wish that there were an easy way of knowing what index each result has.

This grew out of a funny little habit I sometimes have where I like to pick a random number and see what search hit that corresponds to. It becomes too tedious with infinite scroll.

New comment by layman51 in "Learning to code is still worthwhile"

layman51 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 03:50:23 +0000

Well LLMs also spout a lot of bullshit sometimes. I had a conversation with one just recently where it couldn’t do arithmetic too well with a challenge involving coins of a foreign currency. I think maybe it got tripped up because the convo got a bit too long or maybe it didn’t like that I was using the dollar sign.

You can also make LLMs agree with your own biases for some reason. For example, the people who use them to plan shady stuff.

New comment by layman51 in "How little exercise can you get away with?"

layman51 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:50:20 +0000

Overdoing it is a real risk, I learned recently. If you work out too hard, you actually produce free radicals. The tricky thing is that some people can get used to higher heart rate so it doesn’t matter if they are working out hard consistently because they are used to it.

New comment by layman51 in "Learning to code is still worthwhile"

layman51 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:15:27 +0000

I have actually thought something similar but more in terms of divination. There’s some people who might compare LLMs to something like Tarot or automatic writing (think Ouija) because there’s a sense of randomness with LLMs too.

Both LLMs and divination methods also have the danger that someone could kind of drive themselves into madness with it. I don’t know too much about what how or why people can drive themselves crazy by chatting with an LLM, but with divination, I heard it can cause distress to ask the same questions about yourself many too frequently and also they ask about outcomes instead of methods.

New comment by layman51 in "Is sunscreen the new margarine? (2019)"

layman51 — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 22:28:40 +0000

There’s also UV exposure stickers. I haven’t used them, but the idea is that you put a small sticker on your skin, and apply sunscreen normally and over the sticker. Then when the sticker on you turns purple, you know that you have to reapply.

New comment by layman51 in "Is sunscreen the new margarine? (2019)"

layman51 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:56:06 +0000

I have heard that some Asian or European sunscreens have some UV blockers that are much more stable than the ones that are mainly used in sunscreens available in the USA. So if you’re using one of these, the need to reapply isn’t as much of a concern. The only thing is that they aren’t FDA approved.

Some examples I have heard of are “ethylhexyl triazone”, “diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate”, and “bemotrizinol”.

EDIT: The last chemical on my list was actually approved by the FDA this month (June 2026).

New comment by layman51 in "Is sunscreen the new margarine? (2019)"

layman51 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:42:22 +0000

Those drivers don't even need to have the window rolled down as far as I know. That's because most door auto glass lets UVA rays through and that's what causes premature aging. If you want to block those UVA rays, you would need to apply some kind of additional film to the side window.

New comment by layman51 in "Is sunscreen the new margarine? (2019)"

layman51 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:41:02 +0000

Does anyone know whether UVA or UVB is more conducive to producing vitamin D naturally? A quick search shows me that it is mainly UVB that's responsible for that, but unfortunately, this is what gets blocked out by glass windows and sunscreen. On the other hand, UVA is what causes early aging.

So this is just an unfortunate situation because I don't think there's a way of just getting UVB into you in a safe way.

New comment by layman51 in "Political bias in AI: Where the AI models stand"

layman51 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 23:07:30 +0000

The chart in the original post is also throwing me off because it shows Barack Obama as a reference point in the libertarian and left quadrant. But if you look at the official Political Compass site, Obama was in the upper right quadrant (though closer to the origin than others).

The Political Compass person even explained it as something about how in the USA, the Democratic Party is seen as “left-wing” but it is actually “right-wing” if you analyze their positions and actions from the lens of a neutral observer who is able to consider the political environment of many different countries.

You can see for yourself: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008

And: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2012

New comment by layman51 in "I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling"

layman51 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:45:29 +0000

> Any for-profit initiative (ed-tech) will not be incentivized to improve learning outcomes. There's no money in it.

I think a point to keep in mind is that even if some team cracked the ed-tech challenge and created a software that was wildly effective at getting students to learn, it would actually still be very difficult to get public schools to actually adopt it, unless they have some incentives like it being heavily subsidized, or free. And even then, it might not be free forever. That's part of the reason why ed-tech (even when it is proven to work) doesn't really make money.

New comment by layman51 in "I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling"

layman51 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:30:02 +0000

It might have worked in the very distant past. I learned that there was once a monitorial system of education where a single teacher might be in charge of many students, but only because the teacher would get a lot of help from skilled students who would teach what they had learned to other students in their charge.

New comment by layman51 in "Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot"

layman51 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:05:23 +0000

I have some athletic shoes that come undone so easily and I think this knot will help me out a lot.

New comment by layman51 in "Investigating how prompt politeness affects LLM accuracy (2025)"

layman51 — Thu, 28 May 2026 05:55:40 +0000

I also remember reading a long time ago someone who wrote that they wanted to be polite to an LLM because after they prompted it to learn about whether politeness was good for improving accuracy of responses, they got a message that led them to conclude that politeness could probably help. It seems a bit odd then because I have heard so much about how people use LLMs' responses about themselves to learn about LLMs themselves, but that seems like it is a suspicious approach.

New comment by layman51 in "Ferrari shares fall after launch of first EV as Jony Ive design proves divisive"

layman51 — Tue, 26 May 2026 17:38:04 +0000

To me, it kind of reminds me of a Lucid Motors car.