corry (u/corry) - Readit News

corry commented on How Much Wealth an AI Stock Market Crash Could Destroy economist.com/interactive... · Posted by u/skx001

corry · 6 days ago

Some of this analysis seems a bit lazy for the Economist.

Apple is in the "AI-related companies in the SP500" group? Microsoft too? Tesla too? Amazon too? But... if these companies' AI efforts fail, 95%+ of their revenues would be unaffected. So big stretch to paint them with that brush.

Nvidia, OK that one is obvious. Meta, Alphabet, OK.

But MOST of the companies listed in that chart are only "AI companies" in the sense that EVERY tech company building peripheral AI into their products is an AI company.

Case in point: if Apple stock goes 'on sale' as part of an AI-bubble sell-off, are you really deciding whether or not to buy based on their AI-ness?

corry commented on Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros about.netflix.com/en/news... · Posted by u/meetpateltech

dzink · 11 days ago

In 2009 a Turner Broadcasting executive stood in front of employees and said they are not worried about Online streaming because it only covered 15 minutes of watching time among consumers. TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, HBO, Time Inc were all under the same ownership umbrella along with the entire MGM catalog Ted Turner had acquired at the cost of losing control of his company. There were executives who knew what they were doing but some were performative - using buzz words and bravado to hide that they had no idea. Many were trying to extract as much as possible from both ends - 50% of revenue from consumers and 50% from advertisers. Even when those two were in direct conflict with each-other’s interests. They believed content was king and so they invested in content, instead of distribution. They hoarded their back catalog for years.

In the mean time Netflix started with 3 CDs per month plans and when they began streaming on 2007 we didn’t use it at start because we assumed that it would cut out of the 3 movies allotment. So we were scared to use it for a while. Yet we used it regularly - because unlike the cable service, streaming didn’t have ads. And ads were massive massive abuse and waste of time for consumers. You can benchmark the level of abuse by the types of ads in the super bowl: Alcohol, crypto, gambling, cars…

The reality is that cable was a paid premium service, unlike broadcast TV, which was free and littered with ads. Mix the two and you lose the golden goose.

That said, the bravado of that executive stuck with me since then.

corry · 11 days ago

Tales as old as time, especially in tech: rich monopolistic incumbents not seeing the writing on the wall of a new paradigm shift; seemingly invincible execs brazenly displaying their (incorrect) hot-takes; and the inevitable enshittification of the new paradigm as it turns from revolutionary movement to ruling-class incentives.

corry commented on Reverse engineering a $1B Legal AI tool exposed 100k+ confidential files alexschapiro.com/security... · Posted by u/bearsyankees

me_again · 13 days ago

I don't think we have enough information to conclude exactly what happened. But my read is the researcher was looking for demo.filevine.com and found margolis.filevine.com instead. The implication is that many other customers may have been vulnerable in the same way.

corry · 12 days ago

Ah, I see now that I read too quickly - the "open demo environment" was clearly referencing the idea that the vendor (Filevine) would have a live demo, NOT that each client wanted an open playground demo account that is linked to a subset of their data (which would be utterly insane).

corry commented on Reverse engineering a $1B Legal AI tool exposed 100k+ confidential files alexschapiro.com/security... · Posted by u/bearsyankees

corry · 13 days ago

"Companies often have a demo environment that is open" - huh?

And... Margolis allowed this open demo environment to connect to their ENTIRE Box drive of millions of super sensitive documents?

HUH???!

Before you get to the terrible security practices of the vendor, you have to place a massive amount of blame on the IT team of Margolis for allowing the above.

No amount of AI hype excuses that kind of professional misjudgement.

corry commented on AI is a front for consolidation of resources and power chrbutler.com/what-ai-is-... · Posted by u/delaugust

corry · a month ago

"The best case scenario is that AI is just not as valuable as those who invest in it, make it, and sell it believe."

This is the crux of the OP's argument, adding in that (in the meantime) the incumbents and/or bad actors will use it as a path to intensify their political and economic power.

But to me the article fails to:

(1) actually make the case that AI's not going to be 'valuable enough' which is a sweeping and bold claim (especially in light of its speed), and;

(2) quantify AI's true value versus the crazy overhyped valuation, which is admittedly hard to do - but matters if we're talking 10% of 100x overvalued.

If all of my direct evidence (from my own work and life) is that AI is absolutely transformative and multiplies my output substantially, AND I see that that trend seems to be continuing - then it's going to be a hard argument for me to agree with #1 just because image generation isn't great (and OP really cares about that).

Higher Ed is in crisis; VC has bet their entire asset class on AI; non-trivial amounts of code are being written by AI at every startup; tech co's are paying crazy amounts for top AI talents... in other words, just because it can't one-shot some complex visual design workflow does not mean (a) it's limited in its potential, or (b) that we fully understand how valuable it will become given the rate of change.

As for #2 - well, that's the whole rub isn't it? Knowing how much something is overvalued or undervalued is the whole game. If you believe it's waaaay overvalued with only a limited time before the music stop, then go make your fortune! "The Big Short 2: The AI Boogaloo".

corry commented on The peaceful transfer of power in open source projects shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/... · Posted by u/edent

purple_turtle · a month ago

> I'm begging project leaders everywhere - please read up on the social contract and the consent of the governed.

I do not need consent as I am not governing anyone like king or president governs.

If someone is using my project they are also not really entitled to anything, beyond what stated in license and similar documents if any.

If they dislike it, they can fork my project and go away.

If someone wants to be entitled to anything, they are free to make a contract and pay for service they desire. But while many are happy to demand nearly noone is willing to help. Or even fork project. Instead they make entitled demand and treat open source developers as servants or slaves or their pets.

No, you are not entitled to your preferred governance model to be used in my software project.

corry · a month ago

You've got your finger on the pulse of something that open source has always represented to me: freedom of the creator and others to just... do what they want with it (subject to the license of course).

Don't like what the main developer is doing with it? You're free to fork and continue on your way if they don't see it your way. If you lack the skills or time to do that, that's your problem - you're not entitled to the maintainers' labor.

The freedom cuts both ways, and by adding in elements of social contracts and other overlays onto the otherwise relatively pure freedom represented by OSS, you end up with the worst of both worlds.

THAT ALL SAID - there's an important distinction between a given piece of software that's open source versus a "true project", which is larger-scale, more contributors involved, might be part of mission-critical systems, etc, where the social dynamics DO need to careful thought and management.

But even that seems to be more a question of specific types of OSS business models which is related but not the same as the licenses and overall social dynamics around OSS projects.

corry commented on Are you stuck in movie logic? usefulfictions.substack.c... · Posted by u/eatitraw

gota · a month ago

> Or: Good Will Hunting. The entire movie feels like it could’ve been skipped if literally any emotionally intelligent person said to Matt Damon’s character: “I feel like you have a tremendous amount of intellectual potential that you’re wasting here — why are you getting in fights rather than trying to do something interesting?”

This person did not watch Good Will Hunting. I'm not a fan of the film, I just know for a fact several characters do this at several times. That is, y'know, the plot.

I haven't read further enough to discern whether this is AI slop, but it doesn't look promising.

corry · a month ago

In fact, the entire movie's point is that simply HEARING others tell you those things doesn't do anything! The inner journey of the character getting to a place where he believes it himself -- or rather believes himself to be worthy of a greater path -- is THE crucial part.

So the example is exactly opposite the author's intent.

That said, I liked the article and agree with its point. In fact, I'd guess that effective leaders all have learned techniques and ability to remain calm/comfortable in having these blunt conversations that cut to the chase (but still value and hear people).

corry commented on Operating Margins fi-le.net/margin/... · Posted by u/fi-le

corry · a month ago

Every other type of business I come across or analyze makes me think "Man, there really is nothing as good as SaaS" and I thank my lucky stars I was here for it.

High 80%+ gross margins; high retention/recurring revenues (if you're doing it right); easily metric'd (CAC, LTV, conv%, etc); capital specialized for deploying into it (most VC of the last decade); alignment with clients w.r.t. value/impact (or they don't renew); straightforward lining up of 'value to customer' and pricing; common benchmarks and shorthands for valuation multiples; etc.

Simple business to understand / run / grow, assuming you have a good product in a good market.

It really is quite the business model.

corry commented on Claude Memory anthropic.com/news/memory... · Posted by u/doppp

cainxinth · 2 months ago

I don't use any of these type of LLM tools which basically amount to just a prompt you leave in place. They make it harder to refine my prompts and keep track of what is causing what in the outputs. I write very precise prompts every time.

Also, I try not work out a problem over the course of several prompts back and forth. The first response is always the best and I try to one shot it every time. If I don't get what I want, I adjust the prompt and try again.

corry · 2 months ago

Strong agree. For every time that I'd get a better answer if the LLM had a bit more context on me (that I didn't think to provide, but it 'knew') there seems to be a multiple of that where the 'memory' was either actually confounding or possibly confounding the best response.

I'm sure OpenAI and Antropic look at the data, and I'm sure it says that for new / unsophisticated users who don't know how to prompt, that this is a handy crutch (even if it's bad here and there) to make sure they get SOMETHING useable.

But for the HN crowd in particular, I think most of us have a feeling like making the blackbox even more black -- i.e. even more inscrutable in terms of how it operates and what inputs it's using -- isn't something to celebrate or want.

corry commented on I only use Google Sheets mayberay.bearblog.dev/why... · Posted by u/mugamuga

corry · 3 months ago

Always overlooked point in these pro/anti-spreadsheet discussions:

A spreadsheet gives you a DB, a quickly and easily customized UI, and iterative / easy-to-debug data processing all in a package that everyone in the working world already understands. AND with a freedom that allows the creator to do it however they want. AND it's fairly portable.

You can build incredible things in spreadsheets. I remain convinced that it's the most creative and powerful piece of software we have available, especially so for people who can't code.

With that power and freedom comes downsides, sure; and we can debate the merits of it being online, or whether this or that vendor is preferable; but my deep appreciation for spreadsheets remains undiminished by these mere trifles.

It's the best authoring tool we've ever devised.

EDIT TO ADD: the only other thing that seems to 'rhyme' with spreadsheets in the same way is: HyperCard. Flexible workbench that let you stitch together applications, data, UX, etc. RIP HyperCard, may you be never forgotten.