Hacker News: questionableans

New comment by questionableans in "Why I Left Google DeepMind"

questionableans — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:52:59 +0000

Third option: realize the effect of the policy is undesirable and change it.

New comment by questionableans in "Why I Left Google DeepMind"

questionableans — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:43:40 +0000

Real police are trained not to stand in front of or reach into vehicles.

New comment by questionableans in "Why I Left Google DeepMind"

questionableans — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:42:16 +0000

What a mess.

New comment by questionableans in "Why I Left Google DeepMind"

questionableans — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:30:03 +0000

There is something fishy about where someone happened to be born (or looks/sounds like they’re from), where they are, and the relationships between different government blowhards having a bigger impact on their life than just being a decent person trying to get by.

New comment by questionableans in "Why I Left Google DeepMind"

questionableans — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:14:28 +0000

It’s because the way it’s being done in the US is unnecessarily brutal and arbitrarily discriminates more against people from certain countries.

New comment by questionableans in "I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a better overall programmer"

questionableans — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:52:53 +0000

Are bubble sort and quick sort the same algorithm?

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

questionableans — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:46:50 +0000

I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but neither do you. Students at universities ranked similarly to Michigan absolutely do spend a significant amount of time studying on the weekends, especially if they’re not business majors. And MIT has parties and pranks, too.

New comment by questionableans in "Say No to Palantir in the NHS"

questionableans — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 08:13:59 +0000

I’ve heard Foundry is not only insanely expensive, but to actually accomplish something comparable to the demos in your domain requires a huge amount of integration work to build it out in a way that locks you in.

New comment by questionableans in "Say No to Palantir in the NHS"

questionableans — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 08:11:25 +0000

This got me thinking. In any country or ethnic group, it’s so important to differentiate between the average person trying to get by and the aggressors who claim to be their leaders. When we look at the world through the lens of political and military leaders, we miss so much of the humanity of everyday people.

New comment by questionableans in "Fabrice Bellard: Biography (2009) [pdf]"

questionableans — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 20:43:34 +0000

In technically deep domains like Bellard works in, Staff+ roles bias more towards technical expertise, and managers also tend to be more technical and able to more completely address technical coordination tasks. Sometimes we like to assume that if someone is good at one thing, they’ll be bad at something more mundane (to make ourselves feel better), but I sincerely doubt he would have any trouble in such a role.

New comment by questionableans in "AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is"

questionableans — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 04:27:00 +0000

I 100% agree.

New comment by questionableans in "AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is"

questionableans — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 03:41:43 +0000

It’s definitely specific.

70% Advancing the state of the art in my areas of expertise + 30% Enabling experts in other areas I care about to advance the state of the art by making all the problems related to my expertise just go away

New comment by questionableans in "AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is"

questionableans — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 02:54:28 +0000

As I mentioned, this is a privileged position, but I see work as an opportunity to do something I and others find meaningful and useful. I’m paid so that I can afford to focus my time on that work without worrying about money. I seek out employers and co-workers with whom my goals are aligned, and we go our separate ways if that ever ceases to be the case.

New comment by questionableans in "AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is"

questionableans — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 23:32:58 +0000

Yeah, it is shockingly bad. I’m assuming you’re using “talent” euphemistically here.

For a recent job opening I was looking to fill, HR sent us all of the applications rather than doing their own filtering (they did first round calls with people engineering highlighted).

The level of resume spam is absolutely staggering. So many applicants to jobs that have no obvious connection to their stated skills & experience, with job application questions filled out by LLMs. I’m not saying they’re all bad people, but all of these people who don’t know what they’re looking for other than an income is really disheartening.

New comment by questionableans in "AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is"

questionableans — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:54:58 +0000

Admittedly privileged counterpoint: I want to work with the best co-workers in the world. Most candidates I’ve interviewed both in the US and in other countries aren’t anywhere near that level. If just anybody will do for a job, I’ll probably get bored and frustrated by it.

High pay has been a mixed blessing for the tech field. For every aspiring top mathematician or physicist who’s been tempted by the pay and relevant new problems, I often feel like we’ve gotten 10x as many people who would otherwise have been uninspired doctors and lawyers or top business majors.

New comment by questionableans in "Why Your Best Engineers Are Interviewing Elsewhere, CodeGood"

questionableans — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 05:48:39 +0000

That’s unfortunate.

New comment by questionableans in "OpenAI asks U.S. for loan guarantees to fund $1T AI expansion"

questionableans — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 04:23:26 +0000

I’m guessing the grandparent poster would agree with you.

New comment by questionableans in "Why Your Best Engineers Are Interviewing Elsewhere, CodeGood"

questionableans — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 02:36:39 +0000

Just wondering, was there ever any discussion about trying a quick prototype with a 3rd party auth solution before trying to go off and build one?

New comment by questionableans in "Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)"

questionableans — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:50:13 +0000

It’s different for different people, but IMO, knowing something significant about everything is easier than knowing everything about something significant.

And if you understand the organizational dynamics, being in a position to fix (or recommend the cancellation of) projects that aren’t working gives you more control over your destiny than being just another person trapped in a dysfunctional org.

So I’m not saying higher level roles are easier for everyone, but I am saying lower level roles can actually be harder for someone who has mastered higher level roles.

New comment by questionableans in "Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)"

questionableans — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:42:00 +0000

Authoring and reviewing PRs when no one person owns them individually sure sounds like influencing the direction of the team without any authority to make a unilateral decision to me.

You’re right about politics, but I think the part where people may vary is the definition of authority. Does being consistently influential make someone an authority? It depends on what that means. They will be believed more often (they have soft power) but they don’t have hard power to command someone to do something. What makes it a gray area is they almost surely have influence with someone else who does have hard power.