Hacker News: snikeris

New comment by snikeris in "Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40"

snikeris — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:13:56 +0000

This is my favorite alternative form of Magic:

https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/the-danger-room/

"I have a feeling that roughly 25% of games are decided by a player drawing too few lands, 25% of games are decided by a player drawing too many lands, 25% of games are decided by a player having a legitimate bomb not get answered immediately, and the last 25% of games are the ones that everybody hopes for where there is a ton of back-and-forth on both sides. I wanted to create a format that eliminated those unpleasant 75% of games that are unfulfilling and foster a format where ALL of the games were as interactive as possible."

New comment by snikeris in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

snikeris — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 18:47:21 +0000

I know that it is now commonly defined that way, so I explicitly called out that I was referring back to an the older definition:

> usury (loans made for unproductive purposes)

New comment by snikeris in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

snikeris — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:36:20 +0000

Yeah it was redefined to that at some point. See Belloc’s essay on usury if you’re interested.

New comment by snikeris in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

snikeris — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:33:16 +0000

It’s not about the interest rate. It’s the availability of loans for unproductive purposes on a societal level. It raises the price even if you choose not to partake in said loans.

When the money being lended is digital and not backed by anything it’s even worse.

New comment by snikeris in "If America's so rich, how'd it get so sad?"

snikeris — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:18:25 +0000

Houses got expensive because of usury (loans made for unproductive purposes). It destroys civilizations over time. That is why it was encoded into ancient religious traditions.

Housing, education, and cars, all typically financed via loans, all exorbitantly expensive.

New comment by snikeris in "Show HN: I rebuilt a 2000s browser strategy game on Cloudflare's edge"

snikeris — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:12:47 +0000

All good, I'm in!

New comment by snikeris in "Show HN: I rebuilt a 2000s browser strategy game on Cloudflare's edge"

snikeris — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:26:42 +0000

After I log in, but before I confirm my email address I'm taken to a page in German. I'm guessing it is telling me that my email is not yet confirmed.

New comment by snikeris in "France pulls last gold held in US for $15B gain"

snikeris — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:51:47 +0000

https://www.helleniscope.com/2025/07/31/august-1971-the-day-...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/august-15-1971_b_4284327

New comment by snikeris in "The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI"

snikeris — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:01:34 +0000

You don't have to read the whole thing to upvote it.

New comment by snikeris in "Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar"

snikeris — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:46:49 +0000

Taking the time to craft a well-formed message requires a degree of empathy. The golden rule suggests that we write messages in a way that dignifies the recipient. The Global Elite may lack these traits and sensibilities.

New comment by snikeris in "Anthropic drops flagship safety pledge"

snikeris — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:29:47 +0000

Science and engineering didn't begin with the Industrial Revolution. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza

New comment by snikeris in "ShannonMax: A Library to Optimize Emacs Keybindings with Information Theory"

snikeris — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:35:23 +0000

This is cool.

While we're discussing optimizing emacs keybindings...I've found it key to have my bindings set up such that my thumbs operate the control modifier key.

New comment by snikeris in "Privilege is bad grammar"

snikeris — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:54:46 +0000

This is a good point. Perhaps the poor attempt at grammar indicates a lack of empathy, which is a trait the Epstein-adjacent share.

New comment by snikeris in "The US is flirting with its first-ever population decline"

snikeris — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:51:32 +0000

It's a tale as old as life itself. Some organisms succeed in coping with the environment they find themselves in. The genes and culture of these organisms gets passed on to the next generation.

New comment by snikeris in "The US is flirting with its first-ever population decline"

snikeris — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:38:17 +0000

If you planted an apple tree and it never produced apples, you might start to wonder what's wrong with the tree. Maybe there's something wrong with the soil?

How do you know if an organism is thriving in its environment? You count the offspring over generations.

New comment by snikeris in "De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance? (2025)"

snikeris — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:53:16 +0000

Joe Biden.

New comment by snikeris in "The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence"

snikeris — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:18:05 +0000

Nearly 2 in 5 Americans are covered by Medicare or Medicaid. TANSTAAFL. The other 3 bear the burden. At some point Atlas shrugs and decides welfare is a better deal.

New comment by snikeris in "Editing Code in Emacs"

snikeris — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 19:11:06 +0000

I've found it crucial to have Control mapped to the keys immediately next to and on both sides of the spacebar. Thumbs are stronger than pinkies for modifying keypresses.

New comment by snikeris in "You are how you act"

snikeris — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 16:23:23 +0000

"It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright."

- Benjamin Franklin

New comment by snikeris in "Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)"

snikeris — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:53:02 +0000

> If you wish to not get stuck, seek to perceive what you have not yet perceived

This may seem like impractical advice. How does one increase the scope of perception? Personally, I’ve found that a meditation practice leads to this.