Hacker News: perfunctory

New comment by perfunctory in "Czechia moves to ban mobile phones in schools from September 2027"

perfunctory — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:27:24 +0000

Forcing kids to go to school is already limiting their freedom

New comment by perfunctory in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

perfunctory — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:11:05 +0000

> because they deal with different aspects of the human condition which haven't changed significantly. they also give a different and valid intepretation / perspective

so do the other literary traditions I guess. What's so special about Russian. It seems as if the interest in Russian literature comes at the expense of the others.

New comment by perfunctory in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

perfunctory — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:16:42 +0000

I am genuinely curious why Russian literature is so popular in non-Russian speaking world. How do you wake up one day and decide to read Crime and Punishment? How do you find out about Russian literature in the first place? Recommendation from a friend, marketing in your favorite book store, school? Could somebody shed some light

New comment by perfunctory in "Nobody Reviews Compiler Output"

perfunctory — Thu, 07 May 2026 20:06:52 +0000

yep. "Formal specification layers " aka code.

New comment by perfunctory in "The West forgot how to make things, now it’s forgetting how to code"

perfunctory — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:24:28 +0000

> obviously AI-generated article

how can you tell?

New comment by perfunctory in "Dear friend, you have built a Kubernetes (2024)"

perfunctory — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 18:07:20 +0000

I somehow feel that it's actually the opposite. It should be "Dear kubernetes user, you have just built a shell".

New comment by perfunctory in "Rip language. Compiles to ES2022. Built-in reactivity"

perfunctory — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:20:41 +0000

How can you tell?

New comment by perfunctory in "All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027"

perfunctory — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:31:24 +0000

> At the very least we'd need to see some data that shows that most people replace batteries when it is possible to do so.

I don’t understand. If we want to see the data we do need to make batteries replaceable.

Rip language. Compiles to ES2022. Built-in reactivity

perfunctory — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:29:57 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/shreeve/rip-lang

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47834913

Points: 28

# Comments: 16

New comment by perfunctory in "Saying goodbye to Agile"

perfunctory — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 07:14:29 +0000

> One unambiguously positive development that's followed is that software professionals are writing specs again. LLMs - like many of us - do not perform well with ambiguity, and specifying problems is proving to be an effective tool for generating correct code.

Replace "LLM" with "compiler", "specs" with "code" and "correct code" with "correct machine code" and we are back to square one.

New comment by perfunctory in "Foreign visits into the U.S. fell off a cliff in March"

perfunctory — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:18:15 +0000

So this period last year the visits went up 300K, and this year they are down 200K. So compared to the two year ago it's still up 100K? Am I missing anything? It would be interesting to see the data over a multi-year period.

edit: they actually even say that the data "go back for 3 years", but only show 1 year of data.

Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains

perfunctory — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 11:12:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03453-1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42930939

Points: 20

# Comments: 1

New comment by perfunctory in "Timemap.org – Interactive Map of History"

perfunctory — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 13:38:56 +0000

Could you give an example? Like a specific year when the map is not accurate?

New comment by perfunctory in "Sanding UI"

perfunctory — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 14:40:36 +0000

Alan Kay was right classifying most software engineering as pop culture. It's 2024 and we are still fiddling with spaces around radio buttons, a problem that should have been solved decades ago.

Delving into "Delve"

perfunctory — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:16:30 +0000

Article URL: https://pshapira.net/2024/03/31/delving-into-delve/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41589688

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

Bootstrappable Builds

perfunctory — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 15:46:02 +0000

Article URL: https://bootstrappable.org

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41368835

Points: 59

# Comments: 17

New record daily global average temperature reached in July 2024

perfunctory — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:57:20 +0000

Article URL: https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-record-daily-global-average-temperature-reached-july-2024

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41055646

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Google, Harvard Researchers Create Largest 3D Map of Human Brain Connectivity

perfunctory — Fri, 10 May 2024 12:31:34 +0000

Article URL: https://braintomorrow.com/google-ai-harvard-3d-map-brain/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40318188

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Map of Neural Connections Produced in a Fragment of the Human Brain

perfunctory — Fri, 10 May 2024 10:39:26 +0000

Article URL: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/map-of-neural-connections-produced-in-a-fragment-of-the-human-brain-386621

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40317311

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by perfunctory in "Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it"

perfunctory — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:28:47 +0000

I personally first tried 4-day workweek about 10 years ago and still love it. That was one of the best decisions I made in my life.

Especially in software industry, it's not that hard to arrange I believe. Even easier if we do it collectively. And when more and more people do it and it becomes a norm, the income will just readjust and return to the current levels.

But even today, when it's still not a norm, and I have a reduced income compared to my fulltime working peers, I still consider it a bargain. Extra free day is totally worth it. I am basically paying for some extra happiness.