bwestergard

6 ms·

1.
by bwestergard 23d ago
"The contemporary rate of extinction is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the natural background extinction rate—the typical rate of species loss through natural evolutionary processes." https://en.wikipedia.o
2.
by bwestergard 1mo ago
"People weren't their strongest even when most did manual labor." Is there good historical data on some measure of strength across representative populations over time in the modern era? I'm doubtful. We do know that the
3.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
The worse the experience of working life gets, the more important an idealized family life becomes for many downwardly mobile or precarious people. Most people's family lives cannot actually live up to this fantasy, so scapegoats - gen
4.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
It is remarkable that we cannot figure out how to organize ourselves politically in a manner that would ensure everyone had access to this ordinary abundance. Instead, our institutions largely focus on new goods and services for those who a
5.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
I'm not sure the extended imaginary friend metaphor will catch on with professionals.
6.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology studies wild birds.
7.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
"the overall strategy of undercutting American frontier labs’ profit margins" I don't doubt that's an unregretted side-effect for political leaders in China. But the major motivation is to accelerate diffusion within the
8.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
A counter argument: A strong distinction between "intelligence" (understanding what is) and "values/principles" (understanding what ought to be) was characteristic of much early modern European philosophy from Desca
9.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
All good advice. I'm a unionized software engineer (CWA at National Public Radio) in a unit with all my tech worker colleagues. Happy to answer questions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832370#48837175
10.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
I don't understand how the throttle and RPM can be modified independently. Surely the RPM depends on the throttle?
11.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
About $153k a year gross take home pay, or around $180k total compensation (including retirement contributions, healthcare, etc). You can see the wage brackets in our collective bargaining agreement here: https://tinyurl.com&#x2F
12.
by bwestergard 2mo ago
I'm a unionized software developer, and have been part of two separate organizing campaigns at two different employers. Happy to answer questions about how it all works - there are only about ~6000 dev/product/design/qa
13.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Git annex is a remarkable piece of software and I've been inspired by lead developer joeyh's approach to both FOSS and life. For example: https://joeyh.name/offgrid/
14.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
This made my day. These workers will be better stewards of Wikipedia than management.
15.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Former BLS officials still believe the numbers are reliable, because the methodology is public and there are lots of ways for well-financed actors (e.g. wall street traders) to spot manipulation. https://www.npr.org/2025&#x2
16.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
To go by the numbers, it's pretty good. Not as good as the truly anomalous post-pandemic peak of hiring. But still good compared to almost every other occupational group. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources&#x2
17.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I think many of these problems still arise if inference is effectively free in monetary terms to the end user. In many economic processes, time to getting the final and correct answer is the major driver of profitability.
18.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I could only laugh out loud at this. I'm no expert in European religious history, but it is an interest of mine and I've read a fair bit more than the typical American about it. I am certain that every church father and major theo
19.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
"There’s a lot of boring work AI can automate with minimal risk. There’s also the potential to decrease risk with AI too, including ensembles of different AIs modals and AI + human." I think the trouble, economically speaking, is
20.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Birding is also a great way to discover interesting environments in your home locale.
21.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Why prove the Pythagorean theorem rather than just prove 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2? For any practical application, you are only interested in finite set of concrete identities, so anything beyond that is surplus to requirements, surely?
22.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Seems right, ship it.
23.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
I am very sympathetic to your situation, and fear something similar happening to me. But the article is addressed to investors, who are interested in aggregate labor demand declines. "A chart showing “total number of jobs” is not mea
24.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
They do track median and 25th/75th percentiles.
25.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
The decline in junior hiring began before ChatGPT had wide adoption, so AI is not a likely cause. https://www.employamerica.org/labor-market-analysis/dont-bla... The New York Fed has also released some research suggest
26.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
Not really a question of linear versus non-linear change when we see, in aggregates, almost no change at all.
27.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
The shift toward healthcare employment is a very long running trend driven by the greying of the Baby Boom generation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES6562000101
28.
by bwestergard 3mo ago
"It will end up a cheap commodity that is basically free to produce." Wouldn't this just mean that hardware manufacturers capture the profits, not hyperscalers?
29.
Where is the AI jobs crisis?(apollo.com)
163 points by bwestergard 3mo ago|269 comments
30.
by bwestergard 4mo ago
This is a really cool idea. I'm trying to envision the attacks and countermeasures for this approach. I suppose what I would do to fake this is write a program that takes text and the desired output histogram of edit timings and random

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