<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: pfisherman</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pfisherman</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:18:18 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=pfisherman" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Training mRNA Language Models Across 25 Species for $165"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nice work!  Here is an article you may find helpful if you have not already come across it.[0]. You may also want to consider benchmarking against some non ML methods.[1]<p>0. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35318324/" rel="nofollow">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35318324/</a><p>1. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06127-z" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06127-z</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 20:11:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642889</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642889</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642889</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "I quit. The clankers won"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is going to catch some heat, but what if the most important professional “developer skill” to learn or improve is how to effectively use coding agents?<p>I saw something similar in ML when neural nets came around. The whole “stack moar layerz” thing is a meme, but it was a real sentiment about newer entrants into the field not learning anything about ML theory or best practices. As it turns out, neural nets “won” and using them effectively required development and acquisition of some new domain knowledge and best practices.  And the kids are ok.  The people who scoffed at neural nets and never got up to speed not so much.<p>Edit: as an aside, I have learned plenty from reviewing coding agent generated implementations of various algorithms or methods.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:31:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47600625</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47600625</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47600625</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Vatican Rebukes Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures in Rome"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think Peter Thiel is smart, but exhibiting one of smart people’s most common modes of failure, overestimating one’s ability while not maintaining a healthy sense of skepticism about the correctness of one’s own beliefs.<p>Put simply, he (and many other tech bros) have galaxy brained themselves into some very stupid stuff.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 14:41:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478008</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478008</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478008</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Elite Overproduction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yeah, you are not wrong.  The topic is a bit like troll bait for me.  Probably because I have a first hand view of how the current strain of anti intellectualism and resulting policy in the US is destroying jobs and eroding competitive advantage.  My observation is that this type of rhetoric tends to be produced and consumed by “elites”, and is often used to advocate for policy that limits socioeconomic mobility.<p>The irony is that in limiting mobility and competition from the “non elite” out-groups to preserve status, they end up shrinking the overall size of the pie.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:58:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274972</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274972</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274972</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Elite Overproduction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yes, and they are currently cleaning our clock when it comes to global competition in science and technology.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:30:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274668</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274668</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274668</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Elite Overproduction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We live in a globalized economy. Rapid transport of people, goods, and information necessitates it. The high paying STEM jobs will go to wherever there is an abundance of talent, and the network effects are quite significant.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:28:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274646</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274646</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274646</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Elite Overproduction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I associate this phrase with losers and people trying to sabotage the US.  You know who is not wringing their hands about “elite overproduction”? China, who are pumping out tons of smart and capable STEM PhDs, and have in a relatively short time caught up to and in some cases surpassed the US in production of scientific output and technology.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 12:52:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274362</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274362</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274362</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies’"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is very easy to explain.  Anthropic outlines some limitations in their terms of service. Palantir accepted those terms.  The DoD did not.<p>OpenAI claims their terms of service for DoD contain the same limitations as Anthropics proposed service agreement. Anthropic claims that this is untrue.<p>Now given that (a) the DoD terminated their deal with Anthropic, (b) stated that they terminated because Anthropic refused modify their terms of service, and (c) then signed a deal with openAI; I am inclined to believe that there is in fact a substantial difference between the terms of service offered by Anthropic and OpenAI.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 01:22:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47256265</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47256265</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47256265</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Switch to Claude without starting over"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Would this actually return memories and context?  How could you know if parts or all of it were hallucinated?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 08:59:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204983</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204983</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204983</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Switch to Claude without starting over"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I can see how being able to bring your chats with you would be appealing.  But the truth is that context rot is real, context management is everything, and more often than not stating from a blank slate yields the best results.<p>That being said, if you have a library of images or some other collection artifacts / assets indexed on their servers that is a different story.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 08:56:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204971</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204971</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204971</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Switch to Claude without starting over"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Why not use Claude Code from the cli and follow along in your IDE?  I did not quite believe when people were telling me or understand what I was missing until I tried it, but after trying that set up I am convinced that it is superior.  I don’t have any hard data to back it up, but it feels much more capable that way.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 08:44:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204904</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204904</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47204904</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Genetic underpinnings of chills from art and music"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Looks like the statistical geneticists have jumped the shark with this one.  This big problem here is that their endpoint (chills) is poorly defined, reported by subjects (and thus highly subjective), and not measured using any type of validated instrument.  So I question whether they might be fitting a model to noise here.<p>In the land of drug development patient reported outcomes, even when captured with meticulously designed instruments in prospectively designed clinical trails, are notorious for being noisy and confounded by the placebo effect.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:19:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136785</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136785</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136785</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "FDA intends to take action against non-FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>FDA regulates the marketing of drugs and medical devices.  This is a case of Hims and Hers (and other compounding pharmacies) marketing drugs without having been granted approval.<p>There is an abbreviated application for new drug approval (ANDA) pathway meant for generics, but it does not seem like H&H has gone this route. It does require you to open your supply chain up to inspections and to provide evidence that your generic version basically works the same as the brand name.<p>In my opinion there two things going on here that I strongly feel are true.<p>1. Something is systemically wrong in the US when we are cutting off people’s access to meds, like GLP-1s, which have profound health benefits.<p>2. Hims and Hers are also in the wrong. The rules and laws are there for a good reason. It is not just for us to arbitrarily pick and choose when to enforce them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Feb 2026 23:04:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46929211</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46929211</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46929211</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Amazon plunge continues $1T wipeout as AI bubble fears ignite sell-off"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Oh boy, are you going to be in for a rude awakening.  Might I ask what is your exposure?  Because this does not line up with what I am witnessing day to day at all.<p>This type of commentary reminds me of the people during the dot com boom who were adamant that e-commerce was all film flam and would never take off.<p>Consider that it is possible that both (1) we are in an investment bubble and (2) we are underestimating the long term impact of LLMs and perhaps mispredicting where they will land.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2026 15:00:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913632</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913632</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Prism"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That is such a bummer.  At the time, it was annoying and I groused and grumbled about it; but in hindsight my reviewers pointed me toward some good articles, and I am better for having read them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:34:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787228</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787228</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46787228</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "UK House of Lords Votes to Extend Age Verification to VPNs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Hotels are not platforms. No network effects at play.  The idea of ban is to push teen DAUs below the critical mass necessary for self sustaining retention and growth.<p>Sure teens will still figure out a way to access when they really want to, but they won’t be be the same level of peer pressure.<p>I feel like this is the strongest argument in favor of the bans.  I am not sure it will be effective or is the most effective way to go about it.  I am curious to see the data that comes out of Australia in a few years.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:09:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764237</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764237</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764237</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "U.S. Formally Withdraws from World Health Organization"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don’t know what this comment is, but it is totally missing and underselling Chinese capability in biotech.  They are not coming to push TCM.  They are coming to dominate high end drug discovery and development.  Perhaps they are looking to dominate both the high end and the low end bro science segments of the health market…</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:27:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734392</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734392</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46734392</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "U.S. Formally Withdraws from World Health Organization"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They are currently eating our biotech lunch.  Between cuts to NIH, chaos at FDA and CDC, and China’s intensive investment and buildout of their biomedical infrastructure the US is going to be getting lapped soon.  Ask a biotech VC about it.<p>But who knows, maybe if we keep the tariffs for another 10 years we can host the chemical manufacturing facilities that produce the drugs their biotechs sell to us after ours are no longer competitive.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:52:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46732474</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46732474</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46732474</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Douglas Adams on the English–American cultural divide over "heroes""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Counterpoint: Charlie Brown<p>A big part of what makes Charlie Brown so endearing is his undying earnestness and optimism in the face of near constant bad luck and disappointment.<p>He is exactly the lovable loser archetype that this piece says Americans do not dig. Yet the Peanuts comics and cartoons and an American pop cultural institution.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:15:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46719506</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46719506</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46719506</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by pfisherman in "Claude's new constitution"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Some biomedical research will definitely run up against guardrails.  I have had LLMs refuse queries because they thought I was trying to make a bioweapon or something.<p>For example, modify this transfection protocol to work in primary human Y cells.  Could it be someone making a bioweapon?  Maybe.  Could it be a professional researcher working to cure a disease? Probably.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:50:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46715452</link><dc:creator>pfisherman</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46715452</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46715452</guid></item></channel></rss>