zenkat

8 ms·

1.
by zenkat 1y ago
Check out Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" for an interesting take on this dynamic for nation-states and political economies. His core thesis is that dominant powers rise as new players leverage new tec
2.
by zenkat 3y ago
I was fascinated by "At Home In The Universe" back in the 90s. But this seems like a rehashing of the same ideas, without new evidence or theory. Anything new here?
3.
by zenkat 3y ago
Yes, really wanted an "About" page. Cool viz, but what is it showing?
4.
by zenkat 3y ago
Housing is cheap in West Virginia because it's currently experiencing the largest population exodus in the US. https://apnews.com/article/al-state-wire-west-virginia-lifes...
5.
by zenkat 3y ago
Does anyone have a similar compendium specifically for software engineering disasters? Not of nasty bugs like the F-22 -- those are fun stories, but they don't really illustrate the systemic failures that led to the bug being deployed
6.
by zenkat 3y ago
"And yet, here we are in 2023 and self driving cars still don’t work." LOL. Someone should tell the California CPUC that: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/10/23827790/waymo-cruise-cpu...
7.
by zenkat 3y ago
One of the safety training stories at the lab I used to work at was about a chemist who set his lunchtime hamburger on the shelf in the fume hood while running reactions with a potent methylating agent. Slow painful death over the course o
8.
by zenkat 3y ago
Pop-culture tangent: Does anyone know if Slotin's story was the inspiration for Dr. Manhattan's orgin story in _The Watchmen_? Many resonances between the two.
9.
by zenkat 3y ago
Interesting perspective, considering ad revenue is down nearly 60% y/y. If they are "working hard at becoming profitable", it doesn't seem to be working.
10.
by zenkat 3y ago
LOL. Copernicus & Galileo didn't "doubt" the geocentric model, they provided scientific evidence that it was incorrect. You see how that's different, right? "I'm not trying to question climate change, I&#x
11.
by zenkat 3y ago
There's plenty of easy-to-find evidence out there that shows that the speed and magnitude of these changes are not only unprecedented in human history, but geologic time scales as well. It's also crystal clear that these changes
12.
by zenkat 3y ago
The post goes into this in some detail. In human languages, the embeddings for specific concepts seem to follow very similar geometric relationships no matter what language. If that holds across species, then you could use geometric simil
13.
by zenkat 3y ago
So the Outer Richmond is a "wealthy hyper-gentrifed neighborhood" now? Or the Mission? The Sunset? SOMA? Dogpatch? Sure, I mean if you're able to afford to live in those neighborhoods, then you're doing OK. But it&#
14.
by zenkat 3y ago
Sorry if it came across that way, wasn't my intent. I live in the city, and travel through all parts -- including the less desirable parts. I ride down Market every day. I go to the central library at Civic Center. I do bike loops t
15.
by zenkat 3y ago
I think that says more about Hacker News than SF. There's a level of hate for the city here that I don't understand. Feels a bit like a vendetta sometimes.
16.
by zenkat 3y ago
I've lived in SF for almost 30 years. I agree 100%. Sure, there's a lot more sad/ugly homelessness in the post-covid era. The shantytowns out by Candlestick are depressing. The Tenderloin continues to be a mess. But do I
17.
by zenkat 3y ago
I love the concept! Modern interrupt-driven workflows are horrible if you want to get real work done, designing for focus time is a great idea. How is it with privacy, PII, and sensitive data? Is all processing done locally, or is data up
18.
by zenkat 4y ago
Radar data at 7:40pm shows flurries over the East Bay and Santa Cruz hills.
19.
by zenkat 4y ago
I would definitely ask ChatGPT what the best keyboards are, summarizing their strengths/weaknesses, and then use that as the starting point of my search. Comparison shopping is a major PITA with current sites, clicking back-and-forth b
20.
by zenkat 4y ago
Projection. It's always projection.
21.
by zenkat 4y ago
What is the trick for making them work? I tried a few times and gave up -- just couldn't get even close enough to iterate & improve.
22.
by zenkat 4y ago
Honest-to-goodness, real, face-to-face, unmediated human connection. So much of social/media tech has become a poor substitute for this basic human need. Friends. Family. Community. Live music jam sessions is currently how I'm
23.
by zenkat 4y ago
100% this. The former President was caught red-handed hiding top secret documents at his freakin' vacation home, with probable intent to commit espionage against the United States , including disclosure of sensitive human intelligence
24.
by zenkat 4y ago
For me, the primary concern isn't about Art as an economic activity. It's about what happens to human society when communication becomes divorced from human meaning. The original purpose of art (and language) was to communicate t
25.
by zenkat 5y ago
Wow, people on the internet really will argue about anything. @kqr, thank you for your insights. While it's not exactly relevant to my problem domain (self-driving cars - lots of essential complexity there!), it's still generally
26.
by zenkat 5y ago
OP here. Thank you for all of the great suggestions! I've compiled all the references into this spreadsheet: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kgFSWp7rM3ZegweXAoMN... > From my perspective, th
27.
Ask HN: Best books on managing software complexity?
253 points by zenkat 5y ago|124 comments
28.
by zenkat 5y ago
100% this. I casually read a huge amount of interesting technical/business info on the web. But when I want to use that knowledge later (say in a business presentation or technical design), it's nearly impossible to find the ori
29.
by zenkat 5y ago
But Google indexes the whole web . I want a search that works just over the articles I've read. "What was that article I read a few months back that talked about why you should be able to explain why a fence exists before tearin
30.
by zenkat 5y ago
What's even more hilarious is that "Web 3.0" has already been used for another (failed) evolution of the Internet -- the much-hyped switch to the "Semantic Web" of the 2010s.

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