Hacker News: paulorlando

New comment by paulorlando in "Show HN: I Derived a Pancake"

paulorlando — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 02:40:46 +0000

Nice... Would be interesting to connect this to pancakebot.com

Engineers vs. Psychiatrists (C. P. Snow)

paulorlando — Sat, 23 May 2026 04:47:37 +0000

Article URL: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/engineers-vs-psychiatrists-c-p-snow/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48244770

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by paulorlando in "Hindenburg’s Smoking Room"

paulorlando — Sun, 17 May 2026 16:29:17 +0000

I remember years ago movie theaters in Hong Kong allowed smoking. If I remember right, it wasn't in the back, like on planes, but the seats to the one side of the center aisle.

New comment by paulorlando in "Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks"

paulorlando — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:47:09 +0000

The Casual form of Goodhart's Law... https://unintendedconsequenc.es/new-morality-of-attainment-g...

New comment by paulorlando in "The AI Zombification of Universities"

paulorlando — Thu, 14 May 2026 22:42:42 +0000

That is fascinating to me. Especially in English composition. The flip side is if it's an adjunct prof making $4k per class (English typically pays poorly) then she's doing the hourly rate calculation and thinking that AI is going to help her with the students. So, a potential solution to this is for the universities to have the willingness to pay their professors and ask for no AI (at least in this type of class) in exchange.

New comment by paulorlando in "The AI zombification of universities"

paulorlando — Thu, 14 May 2026 20:32:03 +0000

Profs can push back on this if they want. Not all of them want to (or want to justify pushback given their pay).

For me when I teach, no laptops or phones in class along with in-class handwritten paper quizzes on course readings and concepts has helped a lot.

New comment by paulorlando in "GitHub's fake star economy"

paulorlando — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:29:15 +0000

> the bar for signal quality is just really low During the Covid-era when money was flowing more readily I worked with a series A startup founder on improving their unit economics. They were spending a lot on customer acquisition but after my analysis I realized that they were losing money on each customer. It didn't matter how long you ran the timeline, with churn they never broke even on new customers. When I recommended cutting marketing spend, they told me that they needed to show topline growth -- because that's what investors were looking for. And they knew from experience that the investors didn't dig into the numbers enough to realize they were growing themselves broke.

New comment by paulorlando in "College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work"

paulorlando — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 01:10:28 +0000

Sorry to say you can't take my class.

New comment by paulorlando in "College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work"

paulorlando — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:50:15 +0000

I like this. Related, this semester I've been using handwritten quizzes in class. A simple change that's been one of the best things as it changed students' expectations of class prep. Kind of do the readings and sort of prep and you can coast in class. But if you need to write out quiz answers you're forced to know the material better as well as maintain the ability to express yourself.

I also use low-point bonus questions to test general knowledge (huge variation on subjects I thought everyone knew).

They Lie So

paulorlando — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:30:04 +0000

Article URL: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/they-lie-so-truly/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47788669

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by paulorlando in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

paulorlando — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 21:31:49 +0000

Yes. I while back I posted an initial list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M_UjOPxpbKMYes5CcWRW...) but have gone way beyond this now.

For me this is an example of when you become aware of something you see it all around.

I'll writeup a fuller list and what I learned along the way.

New comment by paulorlando in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

paulorlando — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:31:30 +0000

I'm researching Luddite-style examples from around the world. That is, examples of when people rebel against new technology that they see as harming their livelihoods.

New comment by paulorlando in "AI Will Be Met with Violence, and Nothing Good Will Come of It"

paulorlando — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 16:52:53 +0000

I've been research Luddite movements around the world. Agreed that the topic is timely.

A closer comparison to Sam Altman might be Edmund Cartwright (inventor of the power loom that automated weaving). The Horsfall and Altman situations differ in that Horsfall was a factory owner but didn't create or organize the teams that built the stocking frames. There was also an attempt on Cartwright's life as he was out riding. But like Altman and unlike Horsfall, he wasn't killed.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Grading

paulorlando — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 01:15:10 +0000

Article URL: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-grading/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581653

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

A Visit to the Library

paulorlando — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:52:31 +0000

Article URL: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/a-visit-to-the-library/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47458949

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

The Self-Defeating Prophecy (and How It Works)

paulorlando — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 01:23:26 +0000

Article URL: https://unintendedconsequenc.es/the-self-defeating-prophecy/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47407443

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by paulorlando in "Ask HN: How to be alone?"

paulorlando — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:10:38 +0000

Yes, that's right. You work your way up to bigger and bigger potential rejections all while realizing that maybe you're asking too little.

New comment by paulorlando in "Ask HN: How to be alone?"

paulorlando — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 01:32:54 +0000

Forgive me because I'm maybe reading in too much, but it doesn't seem like you're asking how to be alone. It sounds like you might be asking how to deal with your new situation, which must be very difficult. If that's not out of bounds, one suggestion is to try what's called "rejection therapy." That is, make it a daily goal to go out and get rejected at something. It shifts something mentally and I hope it might be helpful for you.

New comment by paulorlando in "The Misuses of the University"

paulorlando — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:20:54 +0000

"Giant donations, he’s come to realize, often increase the university’s bills, generating new operating expenses for projects that may have only tenuous links to the university’s core mission. The new fixed costs cannibalize existing funding streams, increasing pressure to grow revenue."

New comment by paulorlando in "Communities are not fungible"

paulorlando — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:38:50 +0000

Best quote: "When Alice doesn't need "a neighbour" but needs that neighbour, the one who watched her kids that time, the one who knows she's allergic to peanuts. The relationship is specific, and specificity is the enemy of fungibility."

The memory of what the community was or had eventually vanishes. Jane Jacobs (referenced in the article) was the reason that I learned that the sidewalks in NYC's West Village weren't always so narrow. They were made narrow to accommodate more cars, which in some ways don't help geographic community strength.