Hacker News: robg

New comment by robg in "The militarization of Silicon Valley"

robg — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:16:00 +0000

Wasn’t the birth of Silicon Valley funded by military resources?

The human brain doesn't learn, think or recall like AI. Embrace the difference

robg — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 14:16:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-07-09/human-brain-artificial-intelligence-model

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44694251

Points: 4

# Comments: 3

Why Can't Americans Sleep?

robg — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 01:40:56 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/insomnia-health-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/683257/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44429766

Points: 11

# Comments: 2

Clergy taking Psilocybin

robg — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 23:21:32 +0000

Article URL: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/this-is-your-priest-on-drugs

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44294270

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by robg in "The Problem with Teens Isn't Smartphones–It's Their Families"

robg — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:01:29 +0000

I’ve been looking at our school district’s data (top 10 by size in the country, almost 200k kids) and kids aren’t sleeping enough, and tech use is likely a big driver. Less than 20% of our 12th graders report getting 7 or more hours a night of sleep. The pediatric recommendation is 8-10 hours for those 12-18 years old (9-12 hours for ages 6-12). Sleep deprivation is well-documented as linked to mental health concerns like ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Sleep is how the brain washes away gunk (see also the glymphatic nervous system).

That said I have little doubt that less aware families are not enforcing sleep times as much as they used to. The moral panics on TVs and video games came with the advent of the tech then hung around for decades. People knew that kids awake late at night was bad for them. With phones, how many high schoolers have them in their rooms next to their beds? How many of us do?

The Dropout Curriculum

robg — Fri, 16 May 2025 11:48:19 +0000

Article URL: https://engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-dropout-curriculum

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44004230

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by robg in "They Paid $3,500 for Apple's Vision Pro. A Year Later, It Still Hurts"

robg — Thu, 15 May 2025 15:22:12 +0000

The cameras they use for MLB look exceptional. I’m really surprised they haven’t done more in this direction. Sports get better ad revenues than scripted TV.

New comment by robg in "They Paid $3,500 for Apple's Vision Pro. A Year Later, It Still Hurts"

robg — Thu, 15 May 2025 15:20:33 +0000

This. I know TVs don’t have great margins. But OLED plus a great UX would seem to generate better margins in Apple loyalists than those folks buying Samsung or LG or Sony.

New comment by robg in "We quit our Big Tech jobs after hitting #1 on HN and Product Hunt"

robg — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 23:55:14 +0000

Have you considered scrapping HN, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc posts? I used to play with semantic algorithms and it’s pretty cool how quickly you can show someone’s voice and content vectors and how they relate to others.

New comment by robg in "Show HN: I built a tool to manage and compare credit card rewards"

robg — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 23:43:20 +0000

Please don’t make me login to see a simple comparison of existing cards. My thought process:

1. Seems interesting, ok, I’ll try to search

2. Login

3. Nope

Is San Francisco a Failed State?

robg — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 17:16:12 +0000

Article URL: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pYFRCh1YjWv3CwlZjlYtb

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42822954

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

People who only need five hours' sleep

robg — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:00:08 +0000

Article URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/wellbeing/sleep/the-people-who-only-need-five-hours-sleep/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42772981

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Glove and mitten protection in extreme cold weather: an Antarctic study (2016)

robg — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 15:36:36 +0000

Article URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27836019/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42769708

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Philosophy Eats AI

robg — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 18:49:51 +0000

Article URL: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/philosophy-eats-ai/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42760210

Points: 67

# Comments: 55

New comment by robg in "Scientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep"

robg — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 23:09:11 +0000

Nedergaard (lab head here and main findings of this effect since 2012) is going to win the Nobel for this line of research. When I got my Ph.D. 20 years ago in cognitive neuroscience we knew three main deficits to a lack of sleep but couldn’t connect them mechanistically: 1) loss of daily performance metrics 2) increased risks of mental health concerns 3) increased risks of cognitive declines

The glymphatic nervous system, like any great scientific theory, unites disparate findings under a common mechanism. Not getting enough sleep is akin to not running your dishwasher or washing machine long enough, the gunk accumulates.

And for all the parents out there, pediatric recommendation is 10-12 hours a night for kids 6-12 years old and 8-10 hours a night for kids 13-18 years old.

AI and Stress

robg — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 20:51:18 +0000

Article URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aEdTE-B6CSPPeUWYD-IgNVQVZM25f7MF-u9qn5KJJvo/mobilebasic

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42597590

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by robg in "Dumb TVs deserve a comeback"

robg — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 20:25:19 +0000

Just turn off the privacy invading features. LG’s options are pretty great, I’ve seen little bloat, and get the native apps for streaming services just fine.

New comment by robg in "Ilya Sutskever NeurIPS talk [video]"

robg — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 13:28:38 +0000

The ones that stand out to me are industries like pharmaceuticals and energy exploration, where the data silos are the point of their (assumed) competitive advantages. Why even the playing by opening up those datasets when keeping them closed locks in potential discoveries? Open data is the basis of the Internet. But whole industries are based on keeping discoveries closely guarded for decades.

California can't use all its solar power. That's a problem

robg — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 23:21:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/california-solar-power-oversupply-problem-19953942.php

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42301458

Points: 9

# Comments: 10

New comment by robg in "Managing High Performers"

robg — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 18:48:25 +0000

Even the best performers need structure and guidance - a coach. Without coaching, high performers can meet all sorts of suboptimal fates…

Why don’t tech companies generally employ coaches? Yes you can get an “executive” coach, but not widely and really depends on the culture for the perceived purpose. Coaches aren’t widely available for helping people using (and not abusing) their brain’s gifts every day.