Hacker News: m_fayer

New comment by m_fayer in "On Being an Engineer in 2026"

m_fayer — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 22:50:43 +0000

Sure. But you're taking my metaphor farther than I intended. Most people understand the basics of furniture, and still prefer to pay Ikea rather than a carpenter. In the case of custom ("bespoke", ugh) software, we'll have to both define and communicate a new category of service. And the customers are likely to be the same sorts of people who will pay a personal trainer or get a private tutor for their kids - and I think that includes a lot more people than are willing to pay for custom furniture. But generally I do agree, this vision is far more hand-wavy than concrete at this point. It is, though, a good time for hand-waving right now.

New comment by m_fayer in "On Being an Engineer in 2026"

m_fayer — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 21:06:25 +0000

I’m planning out my 2030 career in idle moments these days. I think it’ll be something akin to a carpenter who builds custom furniture.

I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of what software can do if it’s completely custom built, specifically for individuals or small businesses who could’ve never afforded it, pre-ai. Home automation, health and disease management, all sorts of administration, conversational ai over your life’s data - most people have no clue what’s possible once it’s custom built. With close attention, good design, creativity, and without giving away privacy or independence.

In my limited spare time I’m building up this tapestry of custom services for myself and my loved ones, and having a great time doing it, while trying to learn how I can offer this as a service.

Judging by the reactions I get when showing people what I can do with my phone, and no that’s not available on Google play, I think the demand will be there.

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power"

m_fayer — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 21:24:40 +0000

Eventually?

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power"

m_fayer — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 20:09:32 +0000

I haven't liked much tv sci-fi other than TNG and DS9. In recent times, The Expanse was a huge standout for me. It's also full of characters trying to effectively handle extremely difficult situations, and striving to be good people within their context.

It's very different from TNG in most ways, but it does share the emphasis on retaining humanity, dignity, and ethics within ambiguity and hardship. Very interesting to think about them side-by-side.

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power"

m_fayer — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 19:59:29 +0000

He was also a good example for us budding nerds. His intellectualism was not arrogant or apologetic - so it showed us authenticity and self-respect. His intellectualism also did not give him license to dismiss effective communication, leadership, compassion, or humility. So he showed us how to avoid our worst tendencies.

New comment by m_fayer in "Through Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart taught us the measure of a man"

m_fayer — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:21:42 +0000

Great thought. I think Sisko is Picard in a much more difficult, fallen, and true to life world. The utopia is receding, the man of principal faces trauma and angry traumatized people, terrible decisions to make under pressure. He’s a sadder character in a piece of culture with less room for optimism. I quite like him, and think he was a harbinger.

New comment by m_fayer in "Through Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart taught us the measure of a man"

m_fayer — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:15:57 +0000

I thought Kira was very much stuck in one note. Jadzia Dax had very little personality. But many were indeed excellent.

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart has died"

m_fayer — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 21:32:05 +0000

Same here

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart has died"

m_fayer — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 21:30:59 +0000

Great points. I often ask myself why genuine optimism, hope, or nobility (that’s not also cloying cliche) seems impossible in pop culture today.

New comment by m_fayer in "Patrick Stewart has died"

m_fayer — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 13:11:21 +0000

Emotional maturity too. People knew how to be part of a team, resolve differences, when to stand on principle, how to live with disappointment, and own their mistakes. Compelling indeed.

New comment by m_fayer in "New iPad mini"

m_fayer — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 14:28:43 +0000

Agentic coding has slowly but surely allowed me to enhance many aspects of my life, big and small, with self-made software and automation. These systems are just for myself and my loved ones.

I left the mess of Android years ago in favor of iOS. The restrictive distribution system always irked me but never affected me personally. Now though, having to jump hoops and resort to PWAs for many different things I want to do with my devices, iOS truly feels maliciously crippled. I’m in the market for exactly this kind of tablet, if only they’d let me run my own code in peace maybe I’d buy it.

New comment by m_fayer in "Dessa: Conversation Model trained only on speech"

m_fayer — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 14:26:46 +0000

But you’d never be able to get the timing to work such that the conversational timing stays this good. And if you degrade that, you’ve kinda defeated the point.

New comment by m_fayer in "Dessa: Conversation Model trained only on speech"

m_fayer — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 22:34:30 +0000

Most recent voice-related tech is using voice as an interface or interaction mode. It’s a means to an and, and the end is the value provided by the reasoning system on the other side of the voice.

This model is clearly not so smart. So the voice is the whole point, there’s not much value beyond it, at least on its own.

What that adds up to is, impersonation. That’s what this is for, impersonating humans.

New comment by m_fayer in "Code is clay now"

m_fayer — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 21:52:11 +0000

I’ve noticed this too. Opus 5.5 has changed how I work almost as much as the introduction of the first agent-capable models.

New comment by m_fayer in "My old job feels distant now"

m_fayer — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 15:47:56 +0000

I’m sure it can go both ways. For young me, I always found the outcome itself and sense of accomplishment to be sufficient motivation to persevere. Perseverance itself was the trait I ended up fostering.

New comment by m_fayer in "My old job feels distant now"

m_fayer — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:11:08 +0000

Well said. I’ve often noticed how I have a huge tolerance for frustration and ability to persist compared to many people around me, and this is how I acquired these traits. They’ve turned out to be hugely useful, also beyond just coding. It’ll be a shame for our profession to lose them.

New comment by m_fayer in "Kids turned low-traffic NPR Spotify comments into a secret group chat"

m_fayer — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:49:59 +0000

We need to get to work figuring out a digital version of booze to offer the coming AGI, it’s the humane thing to do.

New comment by m_fayer in "California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops"

m_fayer — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:37:12 +0000

People are more neurotic now because of ubiquitous gamification and scoring. Health and aging and looks are scored, alcohol will cost you. Appearing controlled and on brand is a game, alcohol throws the game off. We’ve chosen a dry panopticon.

New comment by m_fayer in "AI companies in race to demonstrate their model most threatening to humanity"

m_fayer — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:03:59 +0000

I really struggle with the contrast between what seems to me to be a formidable and ground-breaking technology, and the deep unseriousness of the leadership of the leading companies developing that technology. If the behavior was coming from, say, uber - I’d be less surprised.

New comment by m_fayer in "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe"

m_fayer — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 22:17:26 +0000

In Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children Of Time", there's a generation ship wandering space that's a marvel of human engineering, whose inhabitants are getting dumber every generation and losing the capacity to maintain or even respect the incredible environment into which they were born. Certainly rings a bell.