Hacker News: tengbretson

New comment by tengbretson in "Most people prefer traditional architecture"

tengbretson — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 20:14:12 +0000

If, after 75 years of trying to sell cars, people _still_ would prefer a faster horse, then Henry Ford would have been just as wrong.

New comment by tengbretson in "Most people prefer traditional architecture"

tengbretson — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:10:25 +0000

"they just don't know what they actually need"

Classic butt-guy response.

New comment by tengbretson in "Most people prefer traditional architecture"

tengbretson — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:31:49 +0000

> Because they study architecture.

If the architecture they're studying is divorced from the preferences and needs of the uneducated masses then who cares? They may as well be studying their own butts.

New comment by tengbretson in "AI researchers debate how close we are to recursive self-improvement"

tengbretson — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 04:31:52 +0000

No, but I would a computer.

New comment by tengbretson in "AI researchers debate how close we are to recursive self-improvement"

tengbretson — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 04:09:02 +0000

> true optimal

True optimal what? Optimal intelligence? What would that be?

New comment by tengbretson in "AI researchers debate how close we are to recursive self-improvement"

tengbretson — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 02:10:31 +0000

If a self improving model can't produce enough value to pay the electric bill then who cares? Unplug it.

New comment by tengbretson in "Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables"

tengbretson — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 03:47:30 +0000

Obviously I'm going to keep the box, but the real question is how many hundreds of NEMA C13 cables should I keep?

New comment by tengbretson in "What will our economic future look like?"

tengbretson — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:40:30 +0000

> AI can't be allowed to be a decision maker of any kind in healthcare.

It will, except it will be snuck in through the back door. It won't be some kind of robo-doctor making care decisions, it will come in the form of insurance eligibility steering the approved care plans, which absolutely will be decided by AI. The doctors will remain to act as liability sinks, but functionally they will probably join the ranks of the meat proxies.

New comment by tengbretson in "Dyson Launches Toothbrush"

tengbretson — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:18:42 +0000

Not really excited for a $500 toothbrush, but this should have an awesome impact on the rest of the market.

Putting the word "camera" in the name seems pretty dumb, but who knows? Maybe I'm the dumb one.

New comment by tengbretson in "Show HN: The load-bearing vocabulary of Claude"

tengbretson — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:31:14 +0000

I don't understand. Does the metaphor "load-bearing assumption" not actually mean anything to you?

New comment by tengbretson in "Show HN: The load-bearing vocabulary of Claude"

tengbretson — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:14:02 +0000

Why are people getting so hung up on the "load-bearing assumption" turn of phrase that Claude uses? I get that it becomes cliche, but it is also a rather semantically dense way to communicate an idea that a lot of people run into.

New comment by tengbretson in "OpenLogi"

tengbretson — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:08:45 +0000

Easily yes. Developing an open source project is a free time activity. I can easily think of a year's worth of projects I'd rather do in my free time than write website copy.

New comment by tengbretson in "Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit"

tengbretson — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 20:33:24 +0000

> But, this is the kind of information I'm worried about when a vendor sells my data. If Google wanted to sell a product to the airlines that offered to keep annoying people like me from purchasing flights

How can I help them accomplish this goal?

New comment by tengbretson in "AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them"

tengbretson — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:14:08 +0000

String theory is a great example of a dead end kept alive by ego and sunk cost fallacy. An AI would have declared it dead and moved on 10 years earlier.

New comment by tengbretson in "Dear people who work at the airport"

tengbretson — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:10:37 +0000

> we passengers are trying our best

100% disagree.

New comment by tengbretson in "US President hid in catering cart for secret flight in Turkey amid Iran threat"

tengbretson — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 03:46:19 +0000

Was it serving oreja de cerdo?

New comment by tengbretson in "The "Disability Dongle": Why Silicon Valley Hates Me and You"

tengbretson — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:09:40 +0000

The author's definition of a "Disability Dongle" perfectly describes the early versions of motorized wheelchairs. Why is it such an obvious conclusion that we need remake the world to be compatible with the previous generation of disability dongle instead of building the next? At the very least, couldn't we do both?

New comment by tengbretson in "Premier league bans gambling sponsors"

tengbretson — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 13:14:19 +0000

I think about that every time I walk into a bank with an elaborate building or a ton of staff hanging around.

New comment by tengbretson in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

tengbretson — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:06:44 +0000

The quality of your local nerd has also likely decreased substantially. Being a nerd used to be a lot more work. Now, if you're having a face-to-face interaction with a local aficionado there's a high chance you're just interacting with a walking TTS version of Reddit.

New comment by tengbretson in "The Economic Benefit of Refactoring"

tengbretson — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:32:13 +0000

It's totally worth doing. Especially since it only takes one or two manual improvements before you can just say "ok, replicate this new pattern throughout the codebase. Go."