[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/perplexity_ai/comments/1orar1a/upda...

A lot of the early hype was driven by how liberally they were handing out free Pro memberships. For a while, every telco, bank, etc. was handing it out as a free promotional offer. I don't think anyone I know that raved about it ever gave them a single dime.

Their product was definitely cool for a few months, but they had zero moat to begin with (considering how quickly the frontier labs caught up), and the conversion rate on those free sign-ups must have been abysmal, especially after they nerfed the free Pro subscriptions on both quality and quantity dimensions, and their own "politically neutral" DeepSeek R1 distillation didn't pan out.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50359299

Points: 2

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Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50356797

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Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50356644

Points: 2

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Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50348537

Points: 2

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This tracks with British Columbia's secondary school math curriculum. [1] For Grades 10-12, where the grades actually do determine whether you graduate, you're given off-ramps if you can't handle the more difficult math courses. (Workplace mathematics where you'll learn practical applications of math, Foundations of Mathematics where you do Pre-Calc 11 over 2 years instead of 1 for Liberal Arts/Trades programs, and Pre-Calc 12/Calculus 12 for STEM). From Grades K-9, everyone is largely kept at the same level and completing it is largely unconditional (if you're not doing well, they may give you an Individual Education Plan to help you catch up).

[1]: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/mathematics

I noticed a more extreme version of this while traveling in mainland China. Takeout shops, especially bubble tea shiops, that were genuinely pleasant a decade ago now seem entirely beholden to delivery algorithms and their productivity targets, with walk-in customers reduced to an afterthought. I once waited a half hour in the rain for a bubble tea while delivery orders repeatedly jumped ahead throwing their QR codes in people's faces; the moment I requested a refund, my order was suddenly next. I don't particularly blame the staff, but they weren't apologetic and I was really bothered that algorithmic metrics were prioritized at the expense of basic social courtesy. Watching those incentives gradually erode everyday social norms was genuinely depressing.

I've been told that this is actually because Brazil has a very competitive local ecosystem of small ISPs competing with eachother on the regional scale.

[1]: https://bgp.he.net/report/world

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50278276

Points: 3

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In my bubble in undergrad, "policy case competitions" were all the rage. You're given a broad topic (often a wicked problem of some kind such as Housing Inaffordability or Climate Change, or something related to the sponsors field of interest), told to write a policy briefing note with no real constraints (money, resources, time) with recommendations to tackle the problem, and then evaluated by expert judges (typically think tankers, professors, senior government executives) who in a very well-meaning way, oftentimes have nothing significant to add or critique (because again, no constraints and they're nice because it's a learning environment), so they end up saying something along the lines of "have you looked at [vaguely related government program, non-profit initiative, etc.]? They used similar wording to your presentation."

I made the case to a competition organizer that we really ought to do away with this format and switch to something more grounded in systems mapping, because I don't really feel it's reasonable to ask undergrads to propose a policy that will somehow solve a wicked problem, or even a subdomain of one, in one fell swoop. I also don't think the format really encourages much original thinking. Most of the recommendations end up being paraphrases of existing proposed solutions, with little opportunity to meaningfully interrogate why those solutions might or might not work in the first place.

Systems mapping, or using a systems thinking lens, doesn't require you to propose a clear or obvious solution to something, but it does give people a chance to systematically examine problems through their own lenses. Having a student map out how they see the world, what they understand to be the root causes of a given problem, and how different actors and incentives interact could actually change some of our minds on how pervasive these problems are, where the feedback loops exist, and where changes might be most impactful. I think there's considerably more value in asking students to develop an interesting understanding of a problem that expands the domain of understanding than in asking them to come up with a superficially convincing solution to it.

[1]: https://www.skollcentre.org/map-system

[2]: https://www.mapthesystem.ca/2026

[3]: I'm aware that Ma constructed a literal map of entity relationships and did analysis based off of that, but it's still systems mapping informed by systems thinking, and an excellent example of that.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50224507

Points: 2

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The only reference to membership I see from the Commissioner for Lobbying states [1]:

> Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has two classes of members: ordinary members and voting members. Membership in CCLA shall be available to persons interested in furthering the Corporation's purposes and who have applied for and been accepted into membership in the Corporation by resolution of the board or in such other manner as may be determined by the board, in accordance with any membership criteria set by the board. Voting members are members who have been accepted as voting members by the board. A voting membership expires 12 months after the date of board acceptance, unless renewed by the board.

I don't see anything to this effect on the website, like a membership application form.

This is in contrast to the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association which just published the decision this week to have a flat $5 open membership.

[1]: https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/vwRg?cno=376...

Generally the Canadian Senate will propose amendments to the bill after its study (around a quarter of the time if I recall, not always), but the lower chamber has no obligation to agree, so it has some sway in that consultative sense. And the Senate has been more active in proposing amendments to legislation after independent senators became a thing.

At this point, I think the soft landing that privacy advocates can hope for are amendments that curtail the worst aspects of this legislation.