Hacker News: squirrel

New comment by squirrel in "The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing"

squirrel — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:47:51 +0000

The article is well-written and makes cogent points about why we need "centaurs", human/computer hybrids who combine silicon- and carbon-based reasoning.

Interestingly, the text has a number of AI-like writing artifacts, e.g. frequent use of the pattern "The problem isn't X. The problem is Y." Unlike much of the typical slop I see, I read it to the end and found it insightful.

I think that's because the author worked with an AI exactly as he advocates, providing the deep thinking and leaving some of the routine exposition to the bot.

Latour, Anthrax, and Standups

squirrel — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 07:58:13 +0000

Article URL: http://www.exampler.com/blog/2007/11/06/latour-3-anthrax-and-standups/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422878

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Citcon: AI – Helsinki

squirrel — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 07:57:01 +0000

Article URL: https://citconf.com/helsinki2026/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422870

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Some relationships deepen when you tell the truth and some end

squirrel — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 09:02:24 +0000

Article URL: https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/going-your-own-way

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47333235

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by squirrel in "Procedural Tron"

squirrel — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 22:31:03 +0000

Drone view is so high it's unusable. How about an inside-the-blimp view?

Rural areas are trivially easy. May not be anything to do about that.

how about labelling famous locations like Times Square or the Louvre?

Anomaly is misspelt on home page.

Failure Work

squirrel — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:29:51 +0000

Article URL: https://alanweiss.com/failure-work-2/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46733659

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Stevey's Birthday Blog

squirrel — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:00:28 +0000

Article URL: https://steve-yegge.medium.com/steveys-birthday-blog-34f437139cb5

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711498

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

Cow Uses Tools

squirrel — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 20:02:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0n127y74go

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46697040

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

Bags and the Creator Economy

squirrel — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 23:02:18 +0000

Article URL: https://steve-yegge.medium.com/bags-and-the-creator-economy-249b924a621a

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673081

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by squirrel in "I canceled my book deal"

squirrel — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:26:11 +0000

This is not true for business books like mine. It's vital to write a proposal first in that world; publishers want to influence the content (as in the OP article).

I think the same is true for tech books but I don't know as I haven't written one.

A novel or other fiction is the opposite; there you do have to write the whole thing first.

New comment by squirrel in "Researchers discover molecular difference in autistic brains"

squirrel — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:03:00 +0000

Certainly, we're at the "bash it with a hammer" stage not ready for anything nuanced. I just wouldn't want to assume that the right outcome is "less autism"; I suspect most people could do with at least a little more!

New comment by squirrel in "Researchers discover molecular difference in autistic brains"

squirrel — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:35:52 +0000

As I commented in another thread, there's no a priori reason to believe that the "average" glutamate receptor level is the "right" one. Isn't it possible that there are:

1. "Normal" people with a level of glutamate receptors at 10, say, on a scale I'm inventing for this example

2. "Autistic" (according to the DSM) people with a level of, say, 5, who are hindered by the effects of being at this level

3. "A little bit autistic" people at a level of, say, 8, who aren't hindered and don't meet the DSM criteria, but in fact actually benefit from the effects of being at this level

Some "normals" might then want to inhibit their glutamate receptors somewhat to get the benefits of being at an 8 or a 9 on my made-up scale.

New comment by squirrel in "Researchers discover molecular difference in autistic brains"

squirrel — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:25:02 +0000

It seems you are assuming that because the majority of people have a certain quantity of glutamate receptors, that they are the healthy ones and that we should be trying to bring autistic people up to that level. Is that right?

Why not consider the opposite, that the most beneficial quantity of glutamate receptors could be somewhere below the typical amount? If that were true, then we could try to help others reduce their glutamate receptor level to become healthier and more successful (and a little more autistic).

If we found, say, an association between a lower level of neurological characteristic X and concert-level piano skill, then those who aspire to play that instrument at an elite level might try to decrease X. The fact that most of us are rubbish piano players would not be evidence that lower levels of X are harmful, but very much the opposite.

New comment by squirrel in "Trains cancelled over fake bridge collapse image"

squirrel — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 16:17:06 +0000

Amazingly, no one seems to have actually checked that this picture was really "circulating on social media". I've been investigating for the past hour or so and can't locate a single public post or reference anywhere other than reposts of the BBC article.

Typically, postings that gain traction have many many reposts and though some may be deleted, there's a long tail of reverberation left behind. I can't find that at all here.

I wonder if the hoaxer just emailed it to Network Rail directly?