Hacker News: zo7

New comment by zo7 in "Slow breathing modulates brain function and risk behavior"

zo7 — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:00:40 +0000

It's possible to train your breathing patterns, look up Buteyko breathing.

New comment by zo7 in "Slow breathing modulates brain function and risk behavior"

zo7 — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 02:52:51 +0000

Awareness of breathing does not mean controlling your breathing, it just means noticing the sensations associated with it. Breathing can be incredibly pleasant!

New comment by zo7 in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026)"

zo7 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:54:04 +0000

  Location: SF Bay Area
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Machine Learning, LLMs, Audio/DSP, Edge ML; Python, C/C++; PyTorch, TensorFlow, Lightning, ONNX, TensorRT, Pandas/Polars; Kubernetes, Dask, Prefect, Docker, AWS, GCP; ARM, Hexagon DSP, Nvidia Jetson  
  Résumé/CV: https://drive.proton.me/urls/CK4FED6FQW#vGllUr7m7VwW
  Email: flynn.hn@proton.me

Open to contract work.

Machine learning engineer with 8 years of startup experience building production systems for audio, robotic perception, and edge deployment. Specialties in deep learning for audio/DSP, distributed training infrastructure, and shipping models to embedded hardware.

Currently exploring LLMs/RAG/agents through side projects, and interested in more work in that space.

New comment by zo7 in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2026)"

zo7 — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:09:05 +0000

  Location: SF Bay Area
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes to LA, NYC, or Berlin
  Technologies: Machine Learning, Audio/DSP, Edge ML; Python, C/C++; PyTorch, TensorFlow, Lightning, ONNX, TensorRT, Pandas/Polars; Kubernetes, Dask, Prefect, Docker, AWS, GCP; ARM, Hexagon DSP, Nvidia Jetson  
  Résumé/CV: https://drive.proton.me/urls/WWV395Z7YW#pwIJb0u3HxFs
  Email: flynn.hn@proton.me

Open to contract work or potentially full-time roles for the right fit.

Currently exploring LLM and agent tooling through side projects, and open to roles that combine that with my core background.

New comment by zo7 in "The dance floor is disappearing in a sea of phones"

zo7 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:03:08 +0000

It's becoming more common in SF and LA too, although it's usually done by the promoter and not the venue.

New comment by zo7 in "Fasting and the Dangers of Silicon Valley’s Trendy Diets"

zo7 — Sat, 15 May 2021 22:11:47 +0000

> There are startups that deliver food to other startups, printing revenue numbers using the same VC’s entire portfolio of companies, therefore sloshing around the exact same dollars in order to get an attractive revenue multiple and exit.

Wow, I hadn't realized that. I looked up the catering company one of my previous employers used and perhaps unsurprisingly they share investors.

New comment by zo7 in "Ask HN: How to build empathy?"

zo7 — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 16:44:36 +0000

Adding to this, there is a specific kind of meditation you could try called metta (aka loving-kindness) where you focus on cultivating benevolence towards yourself and all things. During a session you follow a similar sequence: first focus on cultivating loving-kindness towards yourself (since this is the base from where empathy grows) then you gradually extend it to people you love out to people who you have difficulty with. If mindfulness is an exercise to train your mind to observe itself, metta trains your mind to observe other minds.

Also second Rosenberg's book. It can come across as condescending if applied too heavily but it's a great analysis on language during conflict.

New comment by zo7 in "McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu"

zo7 — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 21:32:23 +0000

What about the processing in the veggie salami/bologna turns you off? Their meat counterparts are also heavily processed and are known to be carcinogenic.

New comment by zo7 in "Pandemic sparked European cycling revolution"

zo7 — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 21:13:58 +0000

Are these conflicting interests? Better bike infrastructure would mean that those who can bike would be off the road, which would mean less congested streets and highways for those who need to drive.

Commuting is also only one occasion you need transportation for. Many local errands (like grocery shopping) could be done on bike and would be cheaper than using your vehicle.

New comment by zo7 in "Spotify CEO: musicians can no longer release music only “once every 3-4 years”"

zo7 — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 20:51:20 +0000

> Be more iterative, experimental, and user driven

My heart has fallen at the thought of agile software development invading the creative process

New comment by zo7 in "We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)"

zo7 — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:34:08 +0000

> I dropped out, started a few companies, and made enough to pay for my education.

Don't bother with GPA then, this sounds like something you could focus on instead. GPA is only relevant for new grads without any real experience.

New comment by zo7 in "Richest 1% on target to own two-thirds of all wealth by 2030"

zo7 — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 19:44:49 +0000

The troubling aspect of it aside, a policy like that would result in a net negative for everyone else. Global industries rely on poverty to guarantee an abundance of low-paid (or not paid at all) workers. In their absence, they'd either need to be replaced by bringing wealthy people into poverty, or we'd have to brace for an economic upheaval as traditional industries are disrupted (which would likely also create poverty).

New comment by zo7 in "Problems coming for online publishing"

zo7 — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 20:14:49 +0000

> (b) There's one big difference between Facebook and generic advertising technology: the New York Times doesn't require you to sign up.

> (c) Ad tracking knows which websites I visit. Facebook knows which nude parties I attended in 2005

Facebook tracks you off the site and has been known to build shadow profiles of non-users.

New comment by zo7 in "Making music using new sounds generated with machine learning"

zo7 — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:16:13 +0000

Does the hardware do anything interesting, or does it only process midi input and provide an interface to mix between generated sounds? From their instructions on creating new sounds, it looks like they're pre-computing the generated sounds: https://github.com/googlecreativelab/open-nsynth-super/tree/...

New comment by zo7 in "Machine Learning 101 slidedeck: 2 years of headbanging, so you don't have to"

zo7 — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 01:46:19 +0000

Given the number of plugs for Google products/projects/research (especially near the end) it's probably intended to be more of an ad for Google.

New comment by zo7 in "Deep image prior 'learns' on just one image"

zo7 — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 02:33:20 +0000

I feel like this is related to the information bottleneck idea that's been floating around for some time [1]. I only really understand both of these at a superficial level, but from what I think I understand one thing that they observed is that there are two phases when training a deep learning model: a phase which maximizes the mutual information (?) between the input and the output, and a compression phase which compresses the learned representation. In that light this work makes sense, since artifacts are essentially noise that the network would filter out in the fitting process.

Very cool work though.

[1]: https://youtu.be/bLqJHjXihK8

New comment by zo7 in "Unit Testing Doesn’t Affect Codebases the Way You Would Think"

zo7 — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:53:38 +0000

The author mentions that they only analyzed the collection of C# repositories that they used in their study on Singletons, but I would expect the results to be different depending on the language used.

In my experience with Python, unit testing is essential to catch careless errors (typos, bad ducks, etc. that can't be caught by a linter) that would cause your program to crash at runtime, so there's a slightly different motivation for writing unit tests. It's a less restrictive language so you don't have the issues with private methods like the author mentioned, and is (at least to me) a bit less of a strain to write tests. Unit testing might correlate more with good hygiene for a Python codebase because testing is vital to check correctness and there are fewer situations where you have to mangle your code for the tests, whereas it may not in C# because you get guarantees from the type system that makes testing less vital and writing tests is more of a nuisance.

New comment by zo7 in "Unit Testing Doesn’t Affect Codebases the Way You Would Think"

zo7 — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:17:40 +0000

> A far better way to write tests is within your production code. Validate every parameter and every assumption. Raise errors when possible, log everything else.

> It runs when you testers, and customers use the applications.

Do you rely on any sort of automated testing to catch errors before it gets to your customers? From a business standpoint it doesn't feel right to offload testing to your users, especially in more critical systems.

New comment by zo7 in "Ask HN: Is it possible to publish research work in CS without any affiliation?"

zo7 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 07:44:06 +0000

I feel it's pretty arrogant to think that you can contribute to research entirely on your own. You really need to be around other researchers who are smarter and more experienced than you to share ideas with and learn from, you simply do not have the insight needed to make progress in your field on your own. If you were that wunderkind who could do it, you honestly wouldn't be asking.

If you truly want to get into research, grad school should sound like a dream (at any school with a decent program, not just top schools). You'd be surrounded by likeminded people, get to do crazy science stuff all day, and you'd push the frontier of knowledge a little bit. It's really the best and most effective way to immerse yourself in the material and become a good researcher.

New comment by zo7 in "How do you manage / plan your life?"

zo7 — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 21:24:58 +0000

You could strike out on your own only to find out there's not enough of a market to support yourself with your skills and you have to get a job again. You could set a goal to save money to travel the world and have it all be depleted recovering from a medical emergency that leaves you disabled. You could invest all of your money for retirement only to see it vanish in an economic crisis.

These are more realistic but there's still an element of chance that could wrestle control away from you. If you use goals to give purpose to your life, what will you do if you discover that you absolutely cannot meet them? If it was the source of your drive, will you be able to laugh it off? What if you get there and discover that meeting your goal was not something that you even wanted at all?

My point was that you could instead focus on things immediately under your control: you could learn skills and network which may help you become your own boss, but it may also help you get a better job or start a new career if you'd rather. You could save money which would allow you to possibly travel the world one day, or it might allow you to indulge in some other nice experience or simply help reduce stress in your life. You maintain control over your life and can seize opportunities as they come, but you're not constrained by stuff outside your control, or even your past self who was setting the goals to begin with.