Hacker News: samaltmanfried

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Oil at $150 will trigger global recession, says boss of financial BlackRock"

samaltmanfried — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:37:11 +0000

> Like buying off Trump, which probably had a lot to do with us starting the Iran war...

Oil companies have actually not benefited from America's middle-eastern wars. America's regime-change wars have made the region less profitable for US oil companies. Why invest in infrastructure in countries with unstable regimes, or risk of infrastructure becoming a target?

If anything, energy companies would benefit from the sanctions on Iran being lifted, so they could invest in infrastructure there, or buy gas from Iran.

I hope one day this silly 'war for oil' meme will disappear.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)"

samaltmanfried — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 01:47:33 +0000

> perogies

Do you mean "pierogi," the Polish dumplings?

> halupschi

I have no idea what this is. Are you talking about галушка? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halu%C5%A1ky)

> Didn't speak any language other than English and his parents were 2nd generation Canadians, who also spoke nothing but English.

> Never spoke Ukrainian or heard any word of Ukrainian except for the names of the food & of some of my older relatives.

This insanely non-self-aware post perfectly illustrates my point.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "OpenAI, the US government and Persona built an identity surveillance machine"

samaltmanfried — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 01:39:11 +0000

My employer isn't particularly bad for society, but let's pretend they are. My company is a large employer of foreign workers. I already live in fear of being priced out by foreign bodyshop firms. If I decided what we were doing was immoral, and dug my heels in. I'd just be replaced by a H-1B worker. If everyone else in my company decided they wouldn't build the torment nexus, we'd all just be replaced by H-1B workers. It'd be a minor inconvenience to the company, but they'd weather it just fine. Under this system, any kind of collective bargaining becomes impossible, moral, financial, or otherwise.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)"

samaltmanfried — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 01:32:37 +0000

It wouldn't be. But they never do it, so I don't have to worry about it.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)"

samaltmanfried — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 01:31:58 +0000

Like many Americans, I am from a European immigrant background. For what it's worth, I have spent a lot of time in x-land, and I speak x-ish. But I am an American. My ethnicity is mixed. I grew up in America. You would never know my heritage unless I told you, which I probably never would. Because I hate hearing the "Me too! I'm x-ish too!" spiel from another American who can't even pronounce their own surname correctly.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)"

samaltmanfried — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:29:49 +0000

It irks me because it usually manifests as embracing cartoonish stereotypes of the most superficial aspects of the culture: "I'm 1/64th Italian, so I like pizza. I'm 1/16th German, so I like beer. etc."

It doesn't keep me up at night, but I think it's tacky and vulgar.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)"

samaltmanfried — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:15:55 +0000

I'm so glad someone brought this up. It irks me when I hear Americans detail every minor fraction of their genetic makeup: 1/4 Italian, 1/8 German, 1/16... etc. But they don't speak any of these languages, they've never even visited these countries. It's such a matter of pride for a lot of Americans, but it's just a costume.

A quote I found here on HN, that I really liked: "Americans will say they are Italian because their great grandma ate spaghetti once, but God forbid someone is American because he was born there" - mvieira38 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43930642)

New comment by samaltmanfried in "André Gorz predicted the revolt against meaningless work (2023)"

samaltmanfried — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:12:43 +0000

Some people's jobs might be 'meaningless', but we're on the verge of lots of people's jobs being outright 'useless'. Anyone who's worked in a large corporation knows how small some people's useful output is already.

I've been wondering whether increased automation is going to cause some kind of employment crisis in western countries. It's possible we're on the verge of a "second industrial revolution" because of AI. I'll confess that I totally underestimated AI, and figured that by the time AI was writing decent code society would have formulated a plan for what to do when white-collar workers start becoming redundant. This obviously isn't what happened. What is going to happen to the swarms of Uber Eats riders on ebikes? Or all of the new immigrant truckers? Western governments have been keeping immigration relatively high to keep the service sector packed with unskilled, lowly paid service workers. What are we going to do with them all if drones replace Uber Eats riders, or self-driving trucks take over logistics? What I'm seeing now makes me doubt that we're going to look after all these people.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Evaluating the impact of AI on the labor market: Current state of affairs"

samaltmanfried — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 22:07:28 +0000

AI might not have much actual impact on software engineering, but AI (Actually Indians) has. Companies are using AI as a justification for layoffs, and then just replacing those roles with cheaper engineers employed by bodyshop companies.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Palantir gets $10B contract from U.S. Army"

samaltmanfried — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:46:55 +0000

The laundering of data on US citizens into the private sector, and overseas, through this company is truly horrifying. Especially how fast it happened, and how little say we had.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites"

samaltmanfried — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:43:43 +0000

I don't care about his opinion on America. Tell us about his policy on nuclear weapons.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "U.S. bombs Iranian nuclear sites"

samaltmanfried — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:42:28 +0000

Assuming this claim were true, which it isn't, the modern Israelis have genetically nothing in common with the Jews of the old testament. They don't have the same culture, religion, language or genetics.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "U.S. has bombed Fordo nuclear plant in attack on Iran"

samaltmanfried — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 02:07:41 +0000

> Do what he says he would do with them?

Like what? Declare a fatwa against them?

When you answer, please provide sources for your claims. I'll be eagerly awaiting your response.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "New urinal designs"

samaltmanfried — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 02:20:10 +0000

Anyone else here appreciate that this article appeared in a journal called 'PNAS Nexus'?

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Ozempic and Wegovy are selected for Medicare's price negotiations"

samaltmanfried — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:01:46 +0000

I find something really gross and dystopian about the idea of Ozempic. Developing the willpower to resist short-term gratification, and the ability to make long-term decisions about your diet and health are some of the most important ingredients to living a good life. The idea of letting a drug do the thinking for you because you just can't trust yourself really horrifies me.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Ozempic and Wegovy are selected for Medicare's price negotiations"

samaltmanfried — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 19:57:00 +0000

> obesity actually is an adaptation

Obesity is not an adaptation. It's a total aberration. Storing energy in the form of fat is an adaptation. Becoming obese is overloading your entire system.

> why isn't everyone obese

Well... they sure are trying...

New comment by samaltmanfried in "1 in 5 online job postings are either fake or never filled, study finds"

samaltmanfried — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 19:46:41 +0000

If the role was advertised on LinkedIn, out of those hundreds of applicants there's probably only a small minority that have appropriate experience and right to work.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease attributable to sugar beverages"

samaltmanfried — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 20:10:48 +0000

It's really tragic that lots of Americans think this kind of garbage is a healthier alternative to other kinds of breakfast. It may actually have less sugar than pancakes drenched in some disgusting syrup, but it's still garbage. There's a real problem with nutritional literacy in this country. The manufacturers of these products really aren't helping here either. Cheerios have a big 'CAN LOWER CHOLERSTEROL' plastered on the front of the pack, but the contents are still literally 24% added sugar.

New comment by samaltmanfried in "London's 850-year-old food markets to close"

samaltmanfried — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 21:43:22 +0000

I just searched for modern images of Smithfield market, and what on earth is that ghastly awning they've bolted onto that beautiful historic (presumably Victorian) facade?

For example: https://dm1igrl0afsra.cloudfront.net/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/...

New comment by samaltmanfried in "Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad"

samaltmanfried — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 21:31:57 +0000

Agreed. It's clear that most people don't understand basic nutrition, and most people have a very distorted view of what the human body should actually look like. The average American is very overweight. If you raise your arm above your head in front of the mirror, you should see your ribs, and you should see the clear outline of your latissimus dorsi. If you can't see these two things clearly, you are overweight.