Hacker News: varjag

New comment by varjag in "Vulgar Materialism"

varjag — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 16:35:43 +0000

I think it's best to show how exactly it's similar first. It's not even clear what's your angle here. That employment is unironically a form of slavery? Or that advertisement is akin to privateering?

New comment by varjag in "Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school"

varjag — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 06:49:09 +0000

It's very unlikely he's Norwegian because he has no clue how education works here.

New comment by varjag in "Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school"

varjag — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 06:43:00 +0000

OK so you can consider it was noticed.

New comment by varjag in "Norway greenlights first full-scale ship tunnel"

varjag — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 18:37:37 +0000

It's tricky. Lotsa nerds in Norway who are interested but not that many available Lispers who are in Bergen area. And our work more or less requires physical presence. We're considering now to hire someone generally good and retrain, although it makes for quite a bit longer onboarding.

New comment by varjag in "Norway greenlights first full-scale ship tunnel"

varjag — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 16:02:33 +0000

I think if you drive just the Bergen-Voss-Nordheimsund-Bergen circuit (some 200km?) that alone is 60 tunnels, and many of them are longer than what most countries have.

New comment by varjag in "Norway greenlights first full-scale ship tunnel"

varjag — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:43:39 +0000

Most of the Norway's Western coast (basically the extent of the country) is mountainous so building infrastructure there inevitably involves blasting the rock. At the same time the country is huge, bigger than Germany or the UK. So naturally a lot of tunnels.

This one a bit special: most of the boat traffic through it are meant to be ferries so it is to be commissioned and managed by the National Road Authority. At the same time it's quite unique if only due to enormous cross-section and can't share many usual national design solutions for the tunnels. For instance my company was asked a quotation for a PA system for it and it's really a challenge. So it's no wonder that it's delayed so much: it requires a lot of bespoke solutions.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:45:44 +0000

I'm not giving up the career. And I certainly don't feel left behind: I'm good at programming, and I still have a substantial edge over non-programmers here in meaningfully using agents (as of June 2026). The terrible cost refers to sucking all the joy of the process as the mechanized activity makes the actual intellectual part of the work redundant, if you can understand.

Software development is now another fake job.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:37:42 +0000

You're the second person itt using an expression "typing in code". Guys I understand your excitement now that you too finally can make computers do what you want but it's not how programming worked at all.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:35:27 +0000

It just shows you haven't programmed computers much so your opinion is largely speculative.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:20:48 +0000

Yes, the easy part is still there.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:49:27 +0000

Yes you have to understand when the log stuck in CNC machine, if you want to put the carpentry analogy to its extreme.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:39:53 +0000

Honestly conflating coding with typing tells me your idea of coding is very different to what I used to do.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:14:26 +0000

That "only" part used to be the hardest. Getting the ideas was never the hard part. I think someone here even wrote an essay on that.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:01:48 +0000

Carpenters would have cried if all their work was reduced to shoving the logs into CNC machines.

Yes there is still human input but it requires comparatively no skill or depth and it gets easier by the month. If I were lobotimized today I'd still be able to function as half-assed architect to AIs anyway.

When was the last time you read fighting distractions/getting "in the zone"/complaint about open space offices thread or comment? They used to be a weekly feature on HN frontpage.

New comment by varjag in "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle"

varjag — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:13:18 +0000

It's bittersweet, isn't it. Software is solved, but at a terrible cost.

New comment by varjag in "GPT‑NL: a sovereign language model for the Netherlands"

varjag — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:29:08 +0000

My impression is the talent pool for core model development in SV isn't huge and is already grabbed by the usual suspects. Everyone else sloshing in the vague broader AIsphere are application bros whose value in the supply chain is minimal.

New comment by varjag in "The Last Surviving Japanese Porsche 912 Police Car"

varjag — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 07:13:48 +0000

Really dig that side mounted siren. Peak mid century aesthetics.

New comment by varjag in "Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5"

varjag — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:19:25 +0000

I have tons of opinions but only a finite amount of money. Which are invested in the most boring way into long positions that am decidedly not liquidating on Monday in an attempt to time the crooks to impress an internet nobody.

New comment by varjag in "Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5"

varjag — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:58:51 +0000

Look I’m free to hold low opinion of Donald Trump supporters. While you/them don’t like it I don’t really care. Are we clear?

New comment by varjag in "Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5"

varjag — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:13:14 +0000

Notice how you ignored my question. I’m not sure if it’s malice or comprehension issue. Either way it’s not adding to the strength of your argument.