Hacker News: psb5

New comment by psb5 in "Google officially announces that ads will be included in AI Mode search results"

psb5 — Thu, 21 May 2026 11:26:20 +0000

Fwiw I just run kiwix/zeal locally which has old school search index of all articles in wiki/stackoverflow etc. That seems enough for most of my day to day use.

New comment by psb5 in "OpenAI Is Preparing to File for an IPO Soon"

psb5 — Thu, 21 May 2026 06:09:01 +0000

All that is a side show. What would you have done with the cash if you were right? Thats always the real story.

My Aunt runs an accounting firm and is constantly moaning about the number of people who have over accumulated cash from IPOs and have no clue what to do with it all.

New comment by psb5 in "Archaeologists find Egyptian mummy buried with the 'Iliad'"

psb5 — Thu, 21 May 2026 03:00:42 +0000

Sounds like an Order of Battle that armies publish these days after a war which documents the entire list of units, unit size, commander, equipment, experience etc etc

New comment by psb5 in "An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry"

psb5 — Thu, 21 May 2026 02:50:49 +0000

Check out Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety

New comment by psb5 in "India's hottest district shuts at 10 am as mercury breaches 48 C mark"

psb5 — Wed, 20 May 2026 06:31:21 +0000

Well the article is saying transformers are overheating. That means the entire distribution network is probably not rated for such high tempratures and god knows how that is going to be solved even if you change the power plant.

New comment by psb5 in "India's hottest district shuts at 10 am as mercury breaches 48 C mark"

psb5 — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:57:54 +0000

"Pouring water over transformers". Does this actually do anything?

New comment by psb5 in "El Niño is coming. The last time ocean temp. looked like this, millions died"

psb5 — Wed, 20 May 2026 02:35:55 +0000

Well I was just thinking about how much time and energy it takes to warm a large building. This system is warming things up for thousands of miles. It probably makes what the entire grid consumes look microscopic.

New comment by psb5 in "El Niño is coming. The last time ocean temp. looked like this, millions died"

psb5 — Wed, 20 May 2026 01:24:43 +0000

Just imagine how much energy is required to produce that band at planetary scale.

New comment by psb5 in "StanChart CEO: AI to Replace "Lower-Value Human Capital""

psb5 — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:40:51 +0000

Interest bearing CBDCs can replace many banks today. No AI required.

New comment by psb5 in "Meta Reassigns 7k Employees to Focus on A.I"

psb5 — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:34:55 +0000

Meta will keep oscillating. Its an example of too much cash chasing too few ideas. Tomorrow Zuck will say solving quantum field equations are the future, and since they wont find more than 8 people on the planet with the skills, execs will start running around furiously producing all kinds of fake activty to validate the "vision". When the system turns into a money printer the 3 inch chimp brain looses all grounding. Humility is the first trait that evaporates. The Attention Economy has zero mechanisms of humility generation. Its a runaway halucination engine. And Meta will keep oscillating till that is fixed.

New comment by psb5 in "Reese Witherspoon encouraging moms to try AI"

psb5 — Mon, 18 May 2026 17:41:45 +0000

There is no reason to focus on them is the point. Social media attention capture is all temporary not long term. People outside the twitterverse dont really focus on these people.

New comment by psb5 in "Reese Witherspoon encouraging moms to try AI"

psb5 — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:16:58 +0000

Well few years back my Boss thought it was a bright idea to buy all the women on the team, Sandbergs book for womans day. End of the day I am walking with him to the parking lot past the trash area, and we see a small hill of lean in books. So I wouldnt worry about the Sandbergs of the world.

New comment by psb5 in "Ask HN: What's the minimum needed tech to sustain modern civilization?"

psb5 — Sun, 17 May 2026 10:44:51 +0000

According to Ashbys Law of Requiste Variety systems that survive a wide range of ever changing issues must display a wide range of responses. If variety in response is low system becomes fragile.

Variety not simplicity or efficiency or optimization is what saves the chimp troupe from every growing complexity in an ever changing environment.

New comment by psb5 in "We've made the world too complicated"

psb5 — Sun, 17 May 2026 02:44:08 +0000

Think about what friction means. If there is no frictiom how do you walk? How do you turn? How do you brake?

In systems theory Friction is a requirement for stability, controlability and predictability.

Take any system around you and reduce friction all kinds of x files will start getting reported and pile up. This is all well known(Goodharts Law, Bounded Rationality,Explore-Exploit tradeoff etc) to people who work on system stability not just optimization.