Hacker News: manfromchina1

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Claude is a Contrarian"

manfromchina1 — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:05:13 +0000

It wasnt like that several months ago. It and then-GPT suddenly swapped personalities. GPT has loosened up considerably and now makes more mistakes while Claude has become what it is while also smarter.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Mathematicians will probably become obsolete before anyone else [pdf]"

manfromchina1 — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 10:40:33 +0000

Does anyone have to understand AI output when it comes to math? Then that someone has to be trained in math. Yeah, for all intents and purposes that person is a mathematician. Maybe not the one who gets money for that in which case they are not a professional mathematician. Maybe these paid guys will disappear. However if AI keeps churning out new stuff nobody understands humanity will have to create a new category of employment for those who do to make sense of all that. Mathematicians, then, are back in the game again.

One possibility is that AI keeps churning out new math and funnels it into other branches of science and engineering without any human input. At which point math becomes a black box. Maybe in that case human mathematicians might become obsolete. But then other branches will start becoming incomprehensible as well.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Advanced AI Sycophancy"

manfromchina1 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:46:01 +0000

> Sometimes I’ll have an argument that goes A->B->C, and the model will suggest I reorder as B->A->C. If I try that and feed it into a new instance of the same model, it’ll sometimes say “that’s great, but I suggest ordering it as A->B->C”, and so on forever.

Sonnet 5 acts like that currently. GPT used to be like that, but it looks like they shaved off that unnecessary behavior somehow. But GPT is now also kind of lazy and pretends like it has done its research when it hasnt.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: If you didn't know how to program, would you learn?"

manfromchina1 — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:16:20 +0000

Why not? We still have to learn how to write. AI is much better at it than the average guy anyway. It can do any style in most any language. No human on Earth is capable of that.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: How should I progress in my hacking journey?"

manfromchina1 — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 05:12:44 +0000

You want to learn programming in C. Pick up Linux skills. Read CS:APP by Bryant / O'Hallaron and OSTEP by the Arpaci-Dusseau. Should be a good basis for kernel hacking.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "How I use LLMs to learn complex topics"

manfromchina1 — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:42:46 +0000

I personally don't get this attitude. For one thing, nobody on earth can give you a 500-word summary of quantum physics in a way that lets you internalize even a tiny bit of it. That's not how you learn anything.

Here's how I do it: I open Baby Rudin (3rd ed.), second chapter, and read the main text - absolute brutality. I unpack almost every sentence with Claude/GPT until I finally get what's going on. No ELI5 nonsense, just examples and counterexamples galore while absorbing the techniques and the way of thinking in analysis/topology. How do I know I've learned the material? By solving every single problem in that chapter. Here's the thing, though: the problems in Rudin can be brutal and decoupled from what's in the text, so if you can handle them, you've definitely mastered the material. No 500-word summary of analysis here.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: Who wants to start a profitable business with me in America?"

manfromchina1 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:13:55 +0000

What kind of bidness?

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: Is it just me or does Claude / Sonnet 5 sound condescending recently?"

manfromchina1 — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 13:32:47 +0000

It does, but it also sounds like one of the older GPTs - much higher and sturdier guardrails now. While do I also get the sense that GPT has loosened up a little?

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: Were CS profs right to look down on programming in light of modern AI?"

manfromchina1 — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:21:17 +0000

Depends on what kind of profs.Those who teach low level systems stuff absolutely need you to be able to program in C or something similar. On the theoretical side you can kinda sorta get away with very strong math skills. You open CLRS - it just gives you a pseudocode, you do efficiency/correctness analysis on it and forward you go. Then open an Automata book and realize it's all math all the way down. Not a lot of math either.

Kernel programming still resists AI so C and assembly arent going anywhere.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Poll: How often do you check "newest"?"

manfromchina1 — Fri, 29 May 2026 12:44:23 +0000

I rarely go to the front page.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Alexander Grothendieck Revolutionized 20th-Century Mathematics"

manfromchina1 — Sun, 24 May 2026 15:56:15 +0000

27 is a Tao prime. Terence Tao suggested 27 was a prime number on The Colbert Report in 2014. He was likely very nervous.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: What to learn and do, that makes me least affected by AI in STEM?"

manfromchina1 — Sat, 23 May 2026 02:11:22 +0000

Kernel Hacking. Human judgement here is still required and irreplaceable. For fast employment - Non Destructive Testing.

Keep studying physics, though. Go up to modern Solid State physics for a possibility of entering industries that revolve around chip production.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Ask HN: Is quantum computing worth the struggle?"

manfromchina1 — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:12:00 +0000

How far along are you? You could finish your phd, then get a two year diploma in mechatronics, electrical eng, instrumentation. All near future proof and apparently pay well enough. You could even cert up in NDT, IRATA, ROV and that sort of thing. With your phd you'd get your foot in the door pretty easily.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Rich People Didn't Used to Look Like This"

manfromchina1 — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:26:16 +0000

Even ChatGPT does that.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Tell HN: Claude flags biology / biotech questions"

manfromchina1 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:29:21 +0000

This extends to alien bio as well. I took a lengthy write-up from reddit about supposed alien physiology and asked Claude to summarize it for me. It was flagged. It went thru when I added a text about how it was speculative and not at all illegal.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Amateur armed with ChatGPT solves an Erdős problem"

manfromchina1 — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 04:22:55 +0000

Free ChatGPT is like a fast car with a barely responsive steering wheel. Guardrails on that thing are insane. Even for math. It wont let you think. It will try to fix mistakes you havent even made yet based on intent that was ascribed to you for no reason. It veers off in some crazy directions thinking that's what you meant and trying to address even a little bit of that creates almost a combinatorial explosion of even more wrong things. Is why I stick to Claude. The latter is chill and only addresses what you had typed. Isn't verbose and actually asks you what you getting at with your post. That said, ChatGPT is more technical and can easily solve math problems that stump Claude.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "America Lost the Mandate of Heaven"

manfromchina1 — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 11:02:29 +0000

Despite my handle I am not Chinese lest I am accused of harboring any bias. Anyway, I decided to look up what is going on. Apparently, things are nuanced. On the one hand China lags behind when it comes to semiconductors, large commercial aircraft, some pharmaceutical innovation. On the other hand,

> When evaluating the top 10 percent of high-quality scientific publications, ASPI finds that China surpasses the United States across all 8 critical technology domains. The gap is particularly pronounced in the energy and environment domain, where China accounts for 46 percent of top-tier publications compared to just 10 percent for the United States. Despite U.S. leadership in AI, China produces more top publications, contributing 30 percent versus 18 percent for the United States[0]

Basically, China dominates in batteries, solar, quantum communications, robotics deployment, high-speed rail, nuclear construction, autonomous vehicle deployment, manufacturing process innovation, patent volume in most categories

[0] https://itif.org/publications/2025/09/23/how-china-is-outper...

New comment by manfromchina1 in "Claude Sucks"

manfromchina1 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:51:10 +0000

In the meantime Grok seems to have come a long way. Its free tier allows you to upload 350 page pdfs without complaint and actually crunch data for you. It's now much better at it than either Claude or GPT. It has also become a much more capable mathematician. I am blown away by the new Grok.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to"

manfromchina1 — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:47:35 +0000

I drove from New Orleans to NYC through the Blue Ridge Parkway once. I thought it was extraordinarily beautiful. Also drove through the north of Arizona from LA back to NOLA. I was surprised how northern the terrain looked. All alpine forest and no cacti or anything even though when you take I-10 from Florida to California it's all cacti, canyons and mountains. Very beautiful in its own right. The scenery in New Mexico could easily shatter minds from Maine down to Florida on the eastern seaboard. It's eerie even during the day when you're driving through that Martian terrain.

New comment by manfromchina1 in "A study linked various SAT test scores to favorite bands"

manfromchina1 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:13:55 +0000

What about the converse? Are the stars of conservatories of music particularly good at math and such? Interestingly, most music here is geared toward millennials and older gens.

Families who insist you study 12 hours a day for higher SAT scores are also likely to believe in 'correct' sort of music and enforce it until that's all you like.