Hacker News: officehero

New comment by officehero in "Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min"

officehero — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:52:43 +0000

Like others have pointed out, there are other options in life than work at Meta. Would you have worked at Krupp or Mitsubishi during WW2 if they paid enough, compared to say cleaning toilets?

New comment by officehero in "Meta workers can opt out of being tracked at work up to 30 min"

officehero — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:47:09 +0000

I'd down vote this if I could.

New comment by officehero in "Good sleep, good learning, good life (2012)"

officehero — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:48:31 +0000

This is the type of hen-egg dialectic that takes me straight to evolutionary theory. My guess is that the 'standard human tribe', ~200 strong, needs some people to be up at night. But since we don't have dedicated day/night humans, we all get this shared mess of a genome 'you need to be up at night sometimes'.

New comment by officehero in "Michelangelo's first painting, created when he was 12 or 13"

officehero — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:26:38 +0000

Burden of proof is on the other party. In one sentence the opinion can be summarized as "if you want increased probability of child becoming a great artist you need great commitment." That's a null hypothesis.

New comment by officehero in "Michelangelo's first painting, created when he was 12 or 13"

officehero — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:27:54 +0000

Don't have a book but here's some quick thoughts: 1. Biographies on, e.g., Chinese pianist Lang Lang. When he was ~9 he 'retired' (it's an extreme case but telling, can recommend). 2. If you want formal/mathematical/CS perspective, study Reinforcement Learning (e.g. Rick Sutton).

New comment by officehero in "LLM Problems Observed in Humans"

officehero — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:08:51 +0000

You missed the point.

New comment by officehero in "Michelangelo's first painting, created when he was 12 or 13"

officehero — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:02:59 +0000

I'm surprised at how few parents understand what it takes to create a great artist. You need to start when they're 5 (or preferably younger), put them in a workshop with great artists/pedagogues etc. (costly!) where they work full time (forget school), evaluate potential and there is a tiny chance they themselves will become great. Annoyed by parents talking about their 5 year olds as "too young" or when they recommend their teenager to 'pursue their dream' when they don't provide a fraction of above. It's still possible but odds go down dramatically.

New comment by officehero in "Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?"

officehero — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 08:10:18 +0000

Funny because here's my solution: Step 1: Delete FB account.

New comment by officehero in "LLM Problems Observed in Humans"

officehero — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 17:30:16 +0000

Please define "confabulation" (for us stupid non-AI, non-native speakers)

New comment by officehero in "Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged"

officehero — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:37:58 +0000

> You turn up the heat

Agreed it's what they're doing but this looks more like "turning everyone against you". And you want your enemies to underestimate you (like Song or Kievan Rus' underestimated the Mongols) but the world doesn't underestimate Russia. Maybe it could have but WW2 and appeasement are still too fresh in memory.

New comment by officehero in "You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving"

officehero — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:28:39 +0000

This is a core reason for my own burnout - why should I work for a culture that seemingly promotes lazy/hypocritical behavior? Reminds me of "Idiocracy" or "burn after reading" the "league of morons"

New comment by officehero in "What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?"

officehero — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 19:51:14 +0000

On the institutional level there's grounds to believe it unfortunately (less welfare support, more military etc) Was thinking about the term "suicidal empathy" that some politicians have been bringing up lately (wrt migration policy). It's like a new derogatory jargon.

New comment by officehero in "We're losing our voice to LLMs"

officehero — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 19:42:10 +0000

It's more that people who historically didn't have a voice now have one. It's often stupid but sometimes also interesting and innovative. Saw a channel where a university professor "I" comes to the realization she's been left-leaning/biased for decades, that her recent male students no longer dare engage in debate because of shaming/gaslighting etc. Then I click channel description and turns out it's "100% original writing". Now if it hadn't said that it would be strawman propaganda. But now it does... Not sure how to put a finger on it, there's some nervous excitement when reading these days, not knowing who the sender is, getting these 'reveal' moments when finding out whole thing was made up by some highschool kid with AI or insane person.

New comment by officehero in "Denmark reportedly withdraws Chat Control proposal following controversy"

officehero — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 06:40:09 +0000

"...talking 5 minutes with the average voter" and all that. Ironically, lots of these people are meanwhile fine with "AI glasses" being used everywhere. They just haven't thought it through. What if a pedophile wears them?

New comment by officehero in "Space Elevator"

officehero — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:12:17 +0000

Yes (it's great) but it doesn't show distances. What I'm talking about is when you scroll on the phone and it never ends.

New comment by officehero in "Space Elevator"

officehero — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 07:33:32 +0000

Such a lost opportunity, was hoping for another "space is massive" experience like already done in similar interactive maps.

New comment by officehero in "Low Earth Orbit Visualization"

officehero — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 02:48:49 +0000

Yes and to be clear on what "practical" means here. If there's a mountain between origin-destination for a road trip it's relevant to highlight it. In the case of orbits the objects may be small but they're very fast and very dangerous.

New comment by officehero in "How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me"

officehero — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:48:41 +0000

This is obvious for us who believe in and spend time on writing good documentation, but there are a surprising amount of devs out there who don't. "The code speaks for itself" people. Never understood them (literally) it's like some cult from the middle ages.

New comment by officehero in "YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caused by ad blockers"

officehero — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:48:24 +0000

Hordes of people skipping ads is a reasonable price to pay for market monopoly.

New comment by officehero in "Life, Work, Death and the Peasant: Family Formation"

officehero — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 11:34:35 +0000

As a former history student I thought the ancient era was the most difficult because of the lack of good sources. It's easy to see why people fall victim to the tin-foils who propagate theories about alien pyramids etc. Pedagogues like Bret are a countermeasure but there's unfortunately not enough of them.