Hacker News: mattw1

New comment by mattw1 in "I'm going back to writing code by hand"

mattw1 — Mon, 11 May 2026 20:32:26 +0000

I read a bunch of Claude-Code-generated code last week and I was pretty impressed. It followed the established service class paradigm almost as exactly as we'd originally intended. The code was mostly very clean and had copious comments. A big step up from 2025 code.

For the record, I definitely don't immediately read the majority of code Claude writes these days. I just check on it periodicially. In terms of code quality it's as good as any human I know of.

Can be a bumbler at times. So can people.

New comment by mattw1 in "Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language"

mattw1 — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 13:28:50 +0000

Nope. They are pretty much all equivalent. Browsers render HTML. This is a quite-solved-problem. Is there a scenario that can't be handled by the tools we've had for years? The web just doesnt require another paradigm. There is way, way too much tooling for a not-that-complicated problem.

Also... if Marko 10 years old, where's the news part here?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34591625

Same post, in fact they are having the same argument we're having. At least the bloat is consistent.

New comment by mattw1 in "Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language"

mattw1 — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 03:09:44 +0000

Dear front end devs

Please chill w making new languages and frameworks that re-solve solved problems. The internet is working fine as it is.

Warmest regards, Matt

New comment by mattw1 in "Chomsky on what ChatGPT is good for (2023)"

mattw1 — Sun, 25 May 2025 18:12:09 +0000

That makes sense, and there's definitely an element of truth to that position. The trouble is, the response is to dissociate with the technology, which is really not a tenable position if you intend to have a meaningful part in like... anything in the future. What I see-- and this is just my personal experience-- is that leftists tend to want to pretend it isn't happening, or that it won't matter. When it fact nothing matters more.

The deepest of deep ironies: I talk to people all the time talking about ushering in an age of post-capitalism and ignoring AI. When I personally can't see how the AI of the next decade and capitalism can coexist, the latter being based on human labor and all. Like, AI is going to be the reason what you want is going to happen, so why ignore it?

New comment by mattw1 in "Chomsky on what ChatGPT is good for (2023)"

mattw1 — Sun, 25 May 2025 18:01:51 +0000

I have experienced this too. It's definitely part of the religion but I'm not sure why tbh. Maybe they equate it with like tech is bad mkay, which, looking at who leads a lot of the tech companies, is somewhat understandable, altho very myopic.

New comment by mattw1 in "Chomsky on what ChatGPT is good for (2023)"

mattw1 — Sun, 25 May 2025 17:59:26 +0000

In all seriousness tho, not much of anything he says is taken seriously in an academic sense any more. Univeral Grammar, Minimalism, etc. He's a very petty dude. The reason he doesn't engage with GPT is because it suggests that linguistic learning is unlike a theory he spent his whole life [unsuccessfully] promoting, but he's such a haughty know-it-all, that I guess dummies take that for intelligence? It strikes me as not dissimilar to Trump in a way, where arrogance is conflated with strength, intelligence, etc. Fake it til you make it, or like, forever, I guess.