Hacker News: zemvpferreira

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Stress disrupts hippocampal integration of overlapping events, memory inference"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:57:57 +0000

I don’t think we should miss the forest for the trees. If you incentivize people to publish as much as possible, and institutions to apply as little oversight as possible, and peers to positively review and cite as much as possible, you end up with a system that produces a huge volume of the easiest “science” to produce over quality, meaningful work. Modern academia is mostly a ponzi scheme and that’s that.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Ferrari Luce"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 26 May 2026 11:59:36 +0000

Couldn't agree more. Jobs' advice to say no to a hundred things sounds easy in a vacuum, but to actually go against the powerful people around you and gatekeep the quality and essence of your business over decades is incredibly hard, foolish and brave.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Greg Brockman interview [video]"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 24 May 2026 12:08:09 +0000

Not a fan of Altman but the devil you know is a powerful argument. If you believe a CEO/Founder to be a grifter-position at its core (fake it till you make it etc etc), retaining the best grifter you can find is the optimal play.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:23:01 +0000

What he actually wanted was a straw-man to burn. Glad it's out in the open now.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:22:11 +0000

Yep, the Time Machine minus the fear, the cannibalism, the suffering, the apathy, the reduced capacity for engagement etc are essentially the best-case scenario, which takes us out of HG Wells enough for it not to matter much as a cautionary tale.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:12:20 +0000

I don't think you need to worry yourself so much on my account friend. You asked, I told. Let's keep it at that. Also feel free to keep the name-calling to yourself.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Eric Schmidt speech about AI booed during graduation"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:05:05 +0000

Sure. The machine gods are benevolent gods who care deeply for their creator-species. We are freed from labour and troubles into a paradise, to eat peaches and cream and make love under the sun. Rich or poor, we'll all be emperors of our domain, free to do as we please. Our lives keep getting better and better with technological progress, at least in the scope of our social-capitalist system. They will only get better until they end.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "The Biochemical Beauty of Retatrutide: How GLP-1s Work"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 14 May 2026 22:12:37 +0000

Sorry to hear that. As a counterpoint for the peanut gallery I've been on tirzepatide for 5 months and lost 15 kg in the first 3 months, never going past a 1.25mg dose. I've only creeped up to 3mg since and keep losing around 0.3 kg per week. No side effects except for super mild nausea every now and then. I plan to stay at a similar or lower dose for the next couple of years.

I had the good fortune of responding well and being at a great starting point: despite being 40% body fat I exercised a lot and had great labs to begin with. Anecdotally I've found starting metabolic health to make a huge difference in dose response.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Mythical Man Month"

zemvpferreira — Sat, 09 May 2026 07:50:29 +0000

You mean the price of software, as well as the cost. The value (to the user) is the same if not more.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:24:12 +0000

I would earnestly suggest reading Apple In China:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-China-Capture-Greatest-Company/...

It both captures Tim's genius and the genius of the person much geniuser than him: Xi Jinping.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "The Importance of Being Idle"

zemvpferreira — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:18:59 +0000

Paranoia as in fear of losing sovereignty. The average Swiss is not a cleverer or more productive person than the average European. However like you said they make outstanding communal decisions because they at their core believe Switzerland must stay strong to stay independent. To the point of paranoia. No one does bunkers like the Swiss. EU does not do bunkers. Or much of anything material for itself these days.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "The Importance of Being Idle"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:22:10 +0000

European who has travelled/lived extensively in China and the US. I don't believe our problem is idleness. It's instead a pernicious belief in peace. There's no sense of geopolitical competition in society at large. We generate a lot of wealth in those 36 hours, but an immense amount of it is syphoned into areas that don't help us get ahead. We are too invested in tides that lift all boats. Being well-rested is not the issue.

Edit: I’ve recently started spending a lot of time in Switzerland and the contrast in mindset (and wealth) with the EU is staggering. There is a healthy amount of communal paranoia. They don’t work any harder either, if anything it’s the contrary.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:58:26 +0000

Not to beat my own dead horse but at the heat stress needed to cause an adaptation there’s nothing pleasant about the experience. If it’s not causing nausea and palpitations, it’s not hot enough.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:09:20 +0000

Have you tried submerging yourself in moderately hot water, I wonder? And have you spent some time pondering the difference in heat transfer between convection and conduction?

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:55:56 +0000

Yes, if by hot bath you mean submerging yourself to neck level in 40ºC or above water for 20-30 minutes. There's no reason to believe any "heat therapy" modality is superior to another as long as you suffer equal heat stress.

For the record, if you're not acclimated, intense heat exposure is a lot more agonising than 30 minutes of exercise for less benefit. If you haven't experienced a properly tuned sauna in your life you are in for a ride. What's being studied in the literature is nothing like your standard hotel experience.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Samsung Magician disk utility takes 18 steps and two reboots to uninstall"

zemvpferreira — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:28:03 +0000

PartitionMagic was one of the first programs to make me feel like I was in control of my computer. I don't think about it much but looking back it was an important part of my development as a technologist. You made a difference in lots of lives I'm sure!

New comment by zemvpferreira in "SpaceX files to go public"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:42:51 +0000

So we are now hypothesising fully-developed multi-planetary civilisations to justify an IPO price in 2026? By the same leap of logic Coca-Cola is worth 1 trillion times its current price since it's poised to be the galaxy's drink of choice. And I'm being reasonable with my estimate here, how many galaxies could we actually be talking about in potential?

New comment by zemvpferreira in "The SpaceX IPO: retail investor notes"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:42:22 +0000

You can praise the technological achievements while still thinking the underlying business is trash. Plenty of horrible companies have generated great advances, but your money in them before mine thank you very much.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Padel Chess – tactical simulator for padel"

zemvpferreira — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 18:33:06 +0000

I don't mean to nitpick but really the only thing they have in common is a)rackets b)being played in pairs and c) being very popular at the moment. Padel is orders of magnitude richer and more complex than pickleball. Pickle is a lot of fun though.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)"

zemvpferreira — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:41:49 +0000

That's perfectly nice idea but still doesn't make for a good movie. Making a good movie comes before a nice idea, if a movie is what you're making.