2
points
jampa
Joined 1,343 karma
Hello there!
hn [at] jampa [dot] dev https://jampa.dev
- I've used it in some repos. It doesn't catch all code review issues, especially around product requirements and logic simplification, and occasionally produces irrelevant comments (suggesting a temporary model downgrade).
But it's well worth it. It has saved me some considerable time. I let it run first, even before my own final self-review (so if others do the same, the article's data might be biased). It's particularly good at identifying dead code and logical issues. If you tune it with its own custom rules (like Claude.md), you can also cut a lot of noise.
- I wrote about this recently. You need to prompt better if you don't want AI to flatten your original tone into corporate speak:
https://jampauchoa.substack.com/p/writing-with-ai-without-th...
TL;DR: Ask for a line edit, "Line edit this Slack message / HN comment." It goes beyond fixing grammar (because it improves flow) without killing your meaning or adding AI-isms.
- I recently got a Samsung device for testing, and the experience was terrible. It took three hours to get the device into a usable state.
First, it essentially forces you to create both a Samsung account and a Google account, with numerous shady prompts for "improving services" and "allowing targeted ads."
Then it required nine system updates (apparently, it can only update incrementally), and worst of all, after a while, it automatically started downloading bloatware like "Kawai" and other questionable apps, and you cannot cancel the downloads.
I wonder how much Samsung gets paid to preinstall all that crap. The phone wasn't cheap, either. The company seems penny wise and pound foolish.
- While I think there's significant AI "offloading" in writing, the article's methodology relies on "AI-detectors," which reads like PR for Pangram. I don't need to explain why AI detectors are mostly bullshit and harmful for people who have never used LLMs. [1]
1: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- Me neither, but I remember that when searching for hotels and Airbnbs, I only filter for hotels that are 8+/10 domestically and 9+/10 internationally, which filters out many of the hotels that have those kinds of issues (and score doesn't affect budget much).
- In the beginning of Android / iOS, just installing an app and registering was enough for the company to get your device's MAC address and thus your indoor location with accurate precision.
They could access your Wi-Fi network's BSSID (whose location is often public due to wardriving databases), and in public places, they had partner companies (malls, airports, etc.) whose routers would triangulate your position based on Wi-Fi signal strength and share information like "John is in the food court near McDonald's."
All of this happened without you even needing to connect to their Wi-Fi, because your phone used to broadcast its MAC address if the Wi-Fi was simply on. But now your MAC is now randomized, but it took a lot of time for Google / Apple to this.
- I've worked as an EM at four different companies, from large enterprises to small startups, and I think "the role of engineering manager" is a myth. Your role varies wildly from one company to another. In every company I've worked at, my job has never been the same:
In the end, engineering management basically requires you to counter-balance whichever of the four pillars your team needs most: Product, Process, People, and Programming.
- Too few people? You'll work on scope to make the deliverables meet reality. Since there's not much communication overhead, you'll be able to program.
- No PM? You now own the product pillar entirely. This takes a lot of your time: You'll need to validate features, prioritize the roadmap, and even talk directly with clients. None of the rest matters if your team is shipping features with no user value.
- Too many people in the team/company? Say goodbye to programming. You'll be responsible for careers, making everyone work cohesively, and navigating the org to get the right resources and support for your team.
- Reporting close to the CEO? You'll handle the bridge between sales, operations, client communications, and other functions.
The common thread is that your focus constantly shifts based on where your team's bottlenecks are. The key is identifying which pillar needs attention and adapting accordingly.
- I used them. Compression is an issue in other protocols (sending via WhatsApp, for example). Another benefit is that photos sent by Airdrop get automatically backed up. It also works well in areas with poor internet connectivity. For example, some beaches have weak cellphone signals due to their surroundings, so when meeting friends, we generally use Airdrop.
- There are few examples of this as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1fqjaxy/contex...
- Apple seems to be running out of steam. Xiaomi, "the Apple clone," is now releasing cars and XR devices. Meanwhile, it has been a while since Apple released a new product line. The last one was the Apple Vision Pro. With Apple Intelligence, they have shown that they can't "think different" anymore.
Sure, Apple will remain a trillion-dollar company for a long time, partly because its competition keeps shooting itself in the foot. Windows and Android are hostile towards power users and bloat the system with pre-installed apps, and they are both stepping on the gas.
But the real question is: how long can brand loyalty alone sustain the hype of new Apple products? And when will Apple stop being considered a "growth" company?
- I think OpenAI is screwed long-term, and their leadership knows it. Their most significant advantage was their employees, most of whom have now left for other companies. They're getting boxed in across every segment where they were previously the leader:
- Multimodality (browser use, video): To compete here, they need to take on Google, which owns the two biggest platforms and can easily integrate AI into them (Chrome and YouTube).
- Pricing: Chinese companies are catching up fast. It feels like a new Chinese AI company appears every day, slowly creeping up the SOTA benchmarks (and now they have multimodality, too).
- Coding and productivity tools: Anthropic is now king, with both the most popular coding tool and model for coding.
- Social: Meta is a behemoth here, but it's surprising how far they've fallen (where is Llama at?). This is OpenAI's most likely path to success with Sora, but history tells us AI content trends tend to fade quickly (remember the "AI Presidents" wave?).
OpenAI knows that if AGI arrives, it won't be through them. Otherwise, why would they be pushing for an IPO so soon?
It makes sense to cash out while we're still in "the bubble." Big Tech profits are at an all-time high, and there's speculation about a crash late next year.
If they want to cash out, now is the time.
- 2 points
- LLMs are architected to aim toward the center of the bell curve of their training data. You shouldn't expect them to produce innovative ideas, but the upside is they also won't produce terrible ones.
The same applies to design. Most of the time, you get something that "doesn't suck", which is perfectly fine for projects where using a designer isn't worth it, like internal corporate pages. But consumer-facing pages require nuance to understand the client and their branding (which clients often struggle to articulate themselves), and that's not something current models can capture.
- Not a benchmark per se, but there is a "Not x, but y" Slop Leaderboard:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1lv2t7n/not_x_b...
51% US
5% United Kingdom
4% Germany
3% Australia, Canada, India
The rest are primarily European countries, with Sweden, Denmark, France, and Spain leading the way.
* Most people here use ad blockers. I imagine this data is incomplete and would reflect the mobile portion of the users. I don't log IP addresses.