good morning awful, I found you the first thing you’ll want to scream at today
palantir and others offering free addictions, all in the name of “productivity”
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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Another video on Honey ("The Honey Files Expose Major Fraud!") - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGT_CKGgFE
Shame he missed cyber monday by a couple weeks.
Also 16:35 haha ofc it's just json full of regexes.
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https://github.com/leanprover/lean4/blob/master/.claude/CLAUDE.md
Imagine if you had to tell people "now remember to actually look at the code before changing it." -- but I'm sure LLMs will replace us any day now.
Also lol this sounds frustrating:
Update prompting when the user is frustrated: If the user expresses frustration with you, stop and ask them to help update this .claude/CLAUDE.md file with missing guidance.
Edit: I might be misreading this but is this signs of someone working on an LLM driven release process? https://github.com/leanprover/lean4/blob/master/.claude/commands/release.md ??
Important Notes: NEVER merge PRs autonomously - always wait for the user to merge PRs themselves
Yes, they are trying to automate releases.
sidenote: I don't like how taking an approach of mediocre software engineering to mathematics is becoming more popular. Update your dependency (whose code you never read) to v0.4.5 for bug fixes! Why was it incorrect in the first place? Anyway, this blog post sets some good rules for reviewing computer proofs. The second-to-last comment tries to argue npm-ification is good actually. I can't tell if satire
I don’t like how taking an approach of mediocre software engineering to mathematics is becoming more popular
would you be willing to elaborate on this? i am just curious because i took the opposite approach (started as a mathematician now i write bad python scripts)
The flipside to that quote is that computer programs are useful tools for mathematicians. See the mersenne prime search, OEIS and its search engine, The L-function database, as well as the various python scripts and agda, rocq, lean proofs written to solve specific problems within papers. However, not everything is perfect: throwing more compute at the problem is a bad solution in general; the stereotypical python script hacked together to serve only a purpose has one-letter variable names and redundant expressions, making it hard to review. Throw in the vibe coding over it all, and that's pretty much the extent of what I mean.
I apologize if anything is confusing, I'm not great at communication. I also have yet to apply to a mathematics uni, so maybe this is all manageable in practice.
no need to apologize, i understand what you mean. my experience with mathematicians has been that this is really common. even the theoretical computer scientists (the "lemma, theorem, proof" kind) i have met do this kind of bullshit when they finally decide to write a line of code. hell, their pseudocode is often baffling
if you are literally unable to run the code through a machine, maybe focus on how it comes across to a human reader? nah, it's more important that i believe it is technically correct and that no one else is able to verify it.
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Lol "important notes" is this the new "I'm a sign, not a cop"?
If you have to use an LLM for this (which no one needs to), at least run it as an unprivileged user that spits out commands that you then need to approve not with full access to drop the production database and a "pretty please don't"
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Neom update:
Description:
A Lego set on the clearence shelf. It's an offroad truck that has Neom badges on it.
So Neom is one of those zany planned city ideas right?
Why... why do they need a racing team? Why does the racing team need a lego set? Who is buying it for 27 dollars? (Well apparently the answer to that last question is nobody).
Anyway a random thought I had about these sorts of silly city projects. Their website says:
NEOM is the building the foundations for a new future - unconstrained by legacy city infrastructure, powered by renewable energy and prioritizing the conservation of nature. We are committed to developing the region to the highest standards of sustainability and livability.
(emphasis mine)
This is a weird worldview. The idea that you can sweep existing problems under the rug and start new with a blank slate.
No pollution (but don't ask about how Saudi Arabia makes money), no existing costly "legacy" infrastructure to maintain (but don't ask about how those other cities are getting along), no undesirables (but don't worry they're "complying with international standards for resettlement practices"*).
They assumes there's some external means of supplying money, day workers, solar panels, fuel, food, etc. As long as their potemkin village is "sustainable" and "diverse" on the first order they don't have to think about that. Out of sight, out of mind. Pretty similar to the libertarian citadel fever dreams in a way.
* Actual quote from their website eurrgh, which even itself looks like a lie
NEOM is a laundry for money, religion, genocidal displacement, and the Saudi reputation among Muslims. NEOM is meant to replace Wahhabism, the Saudi family's uniquely violent fundamentalism, with a much more watered-down secularist vision of the House of Saud where the monarchs are generous with money, kind to women, and righteously uphold their obligations as keepers of Mecca. NEOM is not only The Line, the mirrored city; it is multiple different projects, each set up with the Potemkin-village pattern to assure investors that the money is not being misspent. In each project, the House of Saud has targeted various nomads and minority tribes, displacing indigenous peoples who are inconvenient for the Saudi ethnostate, with the excuse that those tribes are squatting on holy land which NEOM's shrines will further glorify.
They want you to look at the smoke and mirrors in the desert because otherwise you might see the blood of refugees and the bones of the indigenous. A racing team is one of the cheaper distractions.
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"Why… why do they need a racing team? Why does the racing team need a lego set? Who is buying it for 27 dollars? (Well apparently the answer to that last question is nobody)."
Apparently NEOM is sponsoring some McLaren Formula E teams. (Formula E being electric). Google Pixel, Tumi luggage, and the UK Ministry of Defence are other sponsors, but NEOM seems to be the major sponsor.
I assume the market for these is not so much NEOM fans but rather McLaren fans.
As to why NEOM is sponsoring it, I think it's a bit of Saudi boosterism or techwashing to help MBS move past the whole bone saw thing.
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OT: Did you guys know they give cats mirtazapine as an appetite stimulant? (My guy is recovering from pneumonia and hasn’t been eating, so I’m really hoping this works).
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