Hacker News: timtas

New comment by timtas in "Tell HN: I'm 60 years old. Claude Code has re-ignited a passion"

timtas — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:47:25 +0000

I’m 62. Same. The huge productivity jump is exciting. But the real gold is removing all the mechanical pain of typing, navigating files, grinding through library docs and many other grunt level tasks. Now I can stay in higher cerebral plane.

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:25:35 +0000

Some might say that optimization (how quickly and efficiently people are killed) is THE thing about war. I mean, aren't nukes the ultimate optimization?

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:22:47 +0000

Wait, you think these autonomous killer robots will only fight each other? Are you kidding?

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:20:27 +0000

Can anyone see how autonomous robot armies are different than nukes in their deterrent potential?

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:14:50 +0000

Imagine thinking this would go any different under any Harris or whoever. The war party gets its way.

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:12:10 +0000

Search: [ Altman 0/0 ]

New comment by timtas in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

timtas — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:09:13 +0000

TL;DR - Sam Altman gets to build the mass surveillance distillers and autonomous killer robots.

New comment by timtas in "Surely the crash of the US economy has to be soon"

timtas — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:44:58 +0000

The petroyuan faces a big problem, which is lack of trust in the CCP to preserve its value.

As mentioned, there’s also mounting dissatisfaction and distrust in the petrodollar, but the devil you know…

New comment by timtas in "Your app subscription is now my weekend project"

timtas — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:01:29 +0000

If you’re paying more to get it cheaper, then prima facie, you were not being exploited. You were being offered convenience.

New comment by timtas in "The highest quality codebase"

timtas — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 16:42:26 +0000

This reinforces my standard explanation of Claude Code: Claude is exactly like a junior engineer who is simultaneously brilliant and retarded.

It can do great things but needs close supervision. Claude doesn’t write code, Claude recommends code.

New comment by timtas in "Claude Code for VSCode"

timtas — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:38:39 +0000

> how soon before we start designing codebases for LLM agents to navigate more cleanly?

In my (so far limited) experience, the best thing you can do is establish and consistently follow patterns in you handwritten code.

I find Claude does really well with “follow existing conventions and patterns” or pointing to some specific part of the app and saying “do it that way.”

I prompt Claude the same way I would a junior dev, and that seems to work really well so far.

New comment by timtas in "Ask HN: AI Replacing Engineers – Firsthand Stories?"

timtas — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 22:35:43 +0000

Yes. No one knows where the top is in term of demand for software engineering. Software continues to eat the world with no end in sight.

New comment by timtas in "Ask HN: AI Replacing Engineers – Firsthand Stories?"

timtas — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 22:32:20 +0000

Excellent breakdown. Software engineering will be automated end-to-end around the same time as doctors and lawyers.

New comment by timtas in "What if we made advertising illegal?"

timtas — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 05:04:06 +0000

This is the exact type of thinking, this type of casual totalitarian social engineering, that led to the invention on the guillotine.

New comment by timtas in "The average college student today"

timtas — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 16:26:17 +0000

A big part of this is that too many kids are going to college. Less than 2/3 who begin a 4-year degree program will graduate.

We’re pushing kids who are not suited to higher education into it because of credential inflation. As more kids get a certain level of credential, others are forced to seek those credentials to keep up. It’s a tragically wasteful way to signal fitness to employers.

This has been spurred on by government loan guarantees and other means of assistance, which create demand, which drives prices up. The universities don’t escape blame here. The author is getting these ludicrous pep talks from administration because they must play the charade to keep business booming. Nothing more. They’re selling a crap product to people who don’t benefit from it.

New comment by timtas in "The average college student today"

timtas — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 16:10:53 +0000

Then what a tragic misuse of societal resources. A simple IQ test would be a better signal to employers than a massively overpriced four year charade.

New comment by timtas in "They Might Be Giants Flood EPK Promo (1990) [video]"

timtas — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:35:00 +0000

I saw their Flood tour. Variety Playhouse Atlanta 1990.

No band, just the two of them. Plus the metronome, and some prerecorded backup here and there.

New comment by timtas in "A Letter to the American People"

timtas — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:02:16 +0000

“18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated.”

Witness how “this type of work” is actually done. You’ve been claiming to “do this type of work,” yet even in this most earnest appeal “to the American people” you don’t bother to cite one single accomplishment that might make we the people sympathetic.

Thumb twiddling whiners. Good riddance.

New comment by timtas in "Exercise may be the 'most potent medical intervention ever known'"

timtas — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:28:56 +0000

You can eat as much meat and tropical fats as it takes to satisfy, and you WILL lose weight and regain metabolic health. The catch is, you gotta ditch most of the carbs.

New comment by timtas in "Exercise may be the 'most potent medical intervention ever known'"

timtas — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:25:20 +0000

No one ever knew this until government TV told us! Thanks!

Government TV goes MAHA!