Hacker News: meristohm

New comment by meristohm in "Mathematicians issue warning as AI rapidly gains ground"

meristohm — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 04:56:48 +0000

If the clog involves toilet paper, I'd rather not put a brush in that. Here's how I use a plunger effectively: Submerge it and then angle it to swap out some air for liquid, so you have more mass to push into the pipe. Tip it back upright, then slowly push down, relax and let the bell fill back up with water, and repeat, finding a resonant frequency where the pushed water doesn't just jet out the sides (due to imperfect seal) but because there's a pressure-wave action the clog gets moved in and out repeatedly until it breaks down enough for water to scoot by. Then one more flush to clean the plunger.

New comment by meristohm in "Are people's bosses making them use AI tools?"

meristohm — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 06:32:58 +0000

Whatever I do for money isn't a huge part of my identity, so telling a boss (if/when I find myself in that situation) to stuff it with the AI nonsense isn't going to be difficult. Decoupling one's self-worth from the job makes it much easier to roll with being fired.

"Playing along" is a great way to be part of someone else's potentially-harmful project. Consider your values, and don't cross those lines. If the boss is upset about it, they have options. I don't do their work for them.

Collective action with your fellow workers against enshittification is a humanist way forward.

New comment by meristohm in "I Don't Like "AI""

meristohm — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 06:20:35 +0000

A poem I composed from the section headings:

It's Not "AI" Its Boosters Are Misanthropic The Hype Sucks And It’s Encroachingly Ubiquitous Its Obsequity Is Annoying And Its Prose Is Vapid Its Boosters Don’t Give A Shit About Consent So What Am I Even Fucking Doing Here

I Don't Like "AI"

meristohm — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 06:20:35 +0000

Article URL: https://ian.mccowan.space/2024/07/22/ai/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45080819

Points: 43

# Comments: 20

New comment by meristohm in "Where's Firefox going next?"

meristohm — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:39:04 +0000

"Surely, you have one job and that is to deliver tech that works—not to waste users' time by giving them irrelevant copy to read which has no functional value."

Microsoft has been doing this for years, with its messages during Windows setup, along the lines of "sit back and relax while we work our magic" which is at best annoying.

New comment by meristohm in "Bernie Sanders: If AI makes us so productive, we should get a 4-day work week"

meristohm — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:21:22 +0000

Sure, a four-day, twelve-hour-per-day work week.

New comment by meristohm in "Federal judge rules copyrighted books are fair use for AI training"

meristohm — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:14:55 +0000

Huh. Us meatbags are not just artificial intelligences, we're organic intelligences and thus more important than robots (who are not alive; even if we make golems and infuse them with "life", they are not human animals), and all of us are in training throughout our lives, so this means training on copyrighted material is fair use.

Edit: I see another commenter, presumably human, clarified: "legally-acquired copyrighted books" Even with the arguments about AI being potentially helpful to disabled humans, one healthier route is to help each other out directly instead of dividing and conquering with technology, in the name of helping. Feels like one of the aims of Capitalists is to put us each into our Matrix (1999 movie) battery capsules and bleed us dry while we're distracted.

New comment by meristohm in "California's Corporate Cover-Up Act Is a Privacy Nightmare"

meristohm — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:04:04 +0000

Perhaps part of the point is to stir action towards not accepting the status quo, harmful as it is? We can do better.

New comment by meristohm in "What Problems to Solve (1966)"

meristohm — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:53:03 +0000

In keeping with the list preceding "climate change", consider changing it to:

"...advance AI, change climate."

New comment by meristohm in "What Do College Students Do All Day? The Answer Isn't Studying"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 14:04:36 +0000

To what end, all that work? If ultimately to enrich Capitalists, that's not a train I want to ride or indoctrinate anyone else to ride (I'm a teacher). How much time does it take to meet our needs in a community living on healthy land, with access to clean air and water? That might well fill our days, but I'd consider bonding with others to be a basic need, something many college students do.

Also, this focus on STEM is harmful. Even STEAM isn't enough. History, Philosophy, Languages, learning about arts and cultures- these are as, if not more, important than learning how to convert minerals into tools, because they get at the Why.

New comment by meristohm in "Brian Eno's Theory of Democracy"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 13:49:22 +0000

I appreciated your question. I don't really know the answer, and I grew up in the USA. Maybe someone took it as a rhetorical question?

New comment by meristohm in "Brian Eno's Theory of Democracy"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 13:41:08 +0000

Capitalism (control of land, labor, and money) has been on the rise since the 1600s[0]; to what degree has this economic model shaped Democracy?

[0] according to Invisible Doctrine, a history of capitalism by Monbiot and Hutchison (2024)

New comment by meristohm in "Ask HN: What Problem Would You Solve with Unlimited Resources? [May 2025]"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 13:22:13 +0000

Having read Mutual Aid by Dean Spade I understand better what you're saying, namely that solidarity amongst people outside the dominant paradigm of capitalism (owning land, renting, working for scraps while the Capitalist's boats are lifted higher) can be quite strong, and that they have extensive freedoms while also not having the luxuries I grew up with (hot water, food when I'm hungry, a quiet and relatively secure place to sleep, lots of stuff and room to store it, health insurance, ...). If we in the US decoupled health care from employment that would be a huge step in caring for people here. Capitalists (if anything I'm a small-c capitalist because I sometimes "own" land but I'm against owning more than the property I live on, and I buy/use things produced by the enslaved labor of others- this hand-me-down mobile computer, for one) would be with less leverage in that case, though.

Edit to add: if I wasn't a parent and didn't have support from my spouse I might be homeless or at least "highly mobile". I'd probably live with family or friends first, and hopefully find again meaningful work (teaching, probably, but the list is longer now), but I'm not interested in amassing wealth to survive whatever apocalypse. I choose to survive in community with other humans, a far richer experience.

Also, I didn't include education on the list of luxuries because I consider the dominant form of schooling in the US to be akin to the "kill the indian, save the man" residential schools. We could all be indigenous to the land we grow up on, even as children of immigrants without deep roots, but so much nonsense gets in the way.

New comment by meristohm in "Ask HN: Sold my company, parents passed away – feeling lost. What now?"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 13:07:08 +0000

Like others have said, it is healthy to grieve. In some cultures there is a specific amount of time where everyone understands the bereaved won't be doing much other than honoring the dead by paring away all distractions and just existing. That sounds difficult as a US-ian raised on distractions, but I gave it a try several years ago when my dog died. Ended up sharing a good cry with an older lonely neighbor who was also closely bonded with their aging dog, and later I was there for them after their dog passed on- thanks to embracing grief and vulnerability we were less alone in our suffering, but not wallowing either; it felt healthy.

It took me many months before the waves of sadness and loss subsided, and a year or two to where the dominant memories are joy, love, adventure.

All that to say- especially given your fortune, I wouldn't be concerned with what's next at the expense of what's now.

New comment by meristohm in "Ask HN: Sold my company, parents passed away – feeling lost. What now?"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 02:49:16 +0000

Charities- yes, and: consider the concept of mutual aid as well. In-the-mix helping others, and being helped reciprocally (but not transactionally) is potentially more meaningful than helping through charitable giving, though given our dominant paradigm of capitalism, charity is certainly helpful too.

New comment by meristohm in "Ask HN: What's a good system to remember to wear my reading glasses at my desk?"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 02:39:43 +0000

If you go this route, I've found it easier to walk around the house if I look at my upraised hand and navigate peripherally- hand is in focus, and the rest is expectedly not, rather than everything in front of me being blurry.

New comment by meristohm in "Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 01:42:04 +0000

A decade on from my teacher certification, and not currently teaching classes (only parenting), and Vygotsky's ZPD is still a touchstone for me.

New comment by meristohm in "US EPA plans to cut staff to 1980s levels, dissolve research office"

meristohm — Sun, 04 May 2025 01:38:23 +0000

If only we had the collective right of recall, like the Haudenosaunee government that the US is in part based on, rather than having to wait years.

Edit: "if only", ha. If only it were that simple.

New comment by meristohm in "Ask HN: How do I get over my fear of launching my product?"

meristohm — Sat, 03 May 2025 23:41:58 +0000

For doing things that are uncomfortable, I've found a habit of cold showers first thing in the morning to be helpful. I've heard this also as "eat the frog (and the rest is easier)", but I'm not that desperate, and we've done enough damage to amphibians.

Dean Spade's Love in a F*cked-up World is also helpful; starting with loving oneself and forgiving missteps/mistakes/failures might help you break through the barriers.

New comment by meristohm in "Warren Buffett shocks shareholders by announcing his intention to retire"

meristohm — Sat, 03 May 2025 23:37:22 +0000

How is it shocking that an elderly man decides to stop doing a thing that he's been doing for decades?

Headline might as well be "Shareholders shocked at the prospect that someone is nearing the final chapter of their life and will eventually die".