jfactorial (u/jfactorial)

jfactorial commented on Evidence that AI is destroying jobs for young people derekthompson.org/p/the-e... · Posted by u/duck

le-mark · 6 months ago

> Haven't you noticed productivity gains by incorporating AI to your workflow?

Has anyone? Other than anecdotes here and there?

jfactorial · 6 months ago

In my experience with this question, whichever answer you want to find, you can find research useful in defending it.

* https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-research-is-there-into...

jfactorial commented on Evidence that AI is destroying jobs for young people derekthompson.org/p/the-e... · Posted by u/duck

echelon · 6 months ago

That and IRS section 174.

jfactorial · 6 months ago

TL;DR: recent changes in Section 174 IRC will _incentivize_ R&D spending, not cause layoffs of researchers and developers.

Section 174 allows businesses to deduct their domestic R&D expenses.

In 2017 Trump made businesses have to amortize these expenses over 5 years instead of deducting them, starting in 2022 (it is common for an administration to write laws that will only have a negative effect after they're gone). This move wrecked the R&D tax credit. Many US businesses stopped claiming R&D tax credits entirely as a result. Others had surprise tax bills.

Trump's second term work is now to undo the disaster he caused (S.O.P.). Congress has reversed the amortization rule and businesses can again deduct R&D expenses immediately.

This is a good thing rolling back a bad thing. The bad thing might have been responsible for layoffs a few years ago, but it will have only positive impact on 2025.

jfactorial commented on Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers apnews.com/article/trump-... · Posted by u/tedsanders

jfactorial · a year ago

A rat done bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_on_the_Moon

jfactorial · a year ago

A rat done bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon.

Her face and arms began to swell, and whitey's on the moon.

I can't pay no doctor bills, but whitey's on the moon.

Ten years from now I'll be payin' still, while whitey's on the moon.

The man just upped my rent last night, cause whitey's on the moon.

No hot water, no toilets, no lights, but whitey's on the moon.

I wonder why he's upping me? Cause whitey's on the moon?

Well I was already giving him fifty a week with whitey on the moon.

Taxes taking my whole damn check, junkies making me a nervous wreck,

the price of food is going up, and as if all that shit wasn't enough:

A rat done bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon.

Her face and arm began to swell, and whitey's on the moon.

Was all that money I made last year for whitey on the moon?

How come I ain't got no money here? Hmm! Whitey's on the moon.

Y'know I just 'bout had my fill of whitey on the moon.

I think I'll send these doctor bills

airmail special

to whitey on the moon.

—Gilbert Scott-Heron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DUxzAD6RZ0

jfactorial commented on Shifting Cyber Norms: Microsoft security POST-ing to you berthub.eu/articles/posts... · Posted by u/mschuster91

lexicality · a year ago

Users care much more about convenience than security. If you made a phone that wiped itself after 3 incorrect pin attempts then you'd have a lot of very angry users wearing gloves. "It's for your own security!" wouldn't appease them.

jfactorial · a year ago

But if we asked users "Choose one: the ideal convenience of being able to log in with just your username (but anyone who knows your username can login as you), or the inconvenience of having to enter username plus a secret password?" almost all users would choose the security over convenience, because they would understand the risk/reward. I think users care more about convenience than _theoretical_ security, and that we owe them education on how security impacts them directly.

jfactorial commented on Minecraft with object impermanence aiweirdness.com/minecraft... · Posted by u/sohkamyung

diggan · a year ago

> There is one where you need to look at time, look away and look again. The time will change or be in an impossible format if you're dreaming.

I did a bunch of lucid dreaming when I was younger (seems it was a lot easier then?), and even knowing things like that can end up making sense in the dream, you sometimes end up thinking "Well, it kind of makes sense the time went from 11:00 to 14:00 when I looked away, I did look away for quite a while".

For people who haven't lucid dreamed before, it might sound simple and almost stupid, but a lot harder when you're trying to look at your watch and everything makes sense but also not.

jfactorial · a year ago

The key to lucid dreaming for me is to question reality regularly, and as a result do things in waking life to test if I'm dreaming. About once a month I will legitimately wonder whether I'm dreaming and press my hand into a solid object expecting my hand to sink into it. This has helped me go lucid in a dream a few times. It's made me seem nutty a few more than that.

jfactorial commented on A marriage proposal spoken in office jargon mcsweeneys.net/articles/a... · Posted by u/ohjeez

chairmansteve · a year ago

Design is the right word. Architects design things. Buildings actually. Using the word at all in tech is pretentious.

jfactorial · a year ago

Eventually someone is going to have to be the first person in tech to be pretentious. ;)

jfactorial commented on Ask HN: Organize local communities without Facebook? · Posted by u/recvonline

bko · a year ago

Just leaving this there:

> Over 90% of political donations from employees at major tech companies like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google have gone to Democrats since 2004.

> In 2020, 90% of contributions from the internet industry went to Democrats, while only 9% went to Republicans.

> However, there are signs of a slight shift in recent years:

> In 2024, 15% of donations from employees at major tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta went to Republican causes, up from 5% in 2020 and 8% in 2018.

It sounds like your definition is "a few visible billionaires donated to someone I don't like"

> broadcasting Nazi ideology and making Nazi salutes.

Look, I get it. You have your politics and that's fine. But if you want to win hearts and minds, try another strategy. It's all just so exhausting and people check out.

jfactorial · a year ago

Elon Musk is actively supporting AfD, the current far-right nationalist German party whose members have been caught sharing Nazi memes on Facebook with one another and, well, just read about them. He interviewed their leader on X in which the two of them agreed to rewrite history by saying Hitler wasn't far-right and was a communist. He wrote an op-ed in support of them. He stood behind a podium with the Seal of the President of the United States on it and did a Nazi salute two times in a row.

> broadcasting Nazi ideology and making Nazi salutes

This is a fact, not a rhetorical device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany

jfactorial commented on Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers apnews.com/article/trump-... · Posted by u/tedsanders

aksss · a year ago

Easier: Trump likely committed that the federal agencies wouldn't slow roll regulatory approval (for power, for EIS, etc.).

Ellison stated explicitly that this would be "impossible" without Trump.

Masa stated that this (new investment level?) wouldn't be happening had Trump not won, and that the new investment level was decided yesterday.

I know everyone wants to see something nefarious here, but simplest explanation is that the federal government for next four years is expected to be significantly less hostile to private investment, and - shocker - that yields increased private investment.

jfactorial · a year ago

That is a better one. I don't know why three rich guys investing in a new company would result in a slowness that Trump could fix, though, and a promise to rush or sidestep regulatory approval still sounds nefarious.

jfactorial commented on Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers apnews.com/article/trump-... · Posted by u/tedsanders

ErgoPlease · a year ago

There's a good amount of irony in the results that AI have achieved, particularly if we reach AGI - they have improved individual worker efficiency by removing other workers from the system. Naming it Stargate implies a reckoning with the actual series itself - an accomplishment by humanity. Instead, what this pushes, is accomplishing the removal of humans from humanity. I like cool shiny tech, but I like useful tech that really helps humans more. Work on 3D-printing sustainable food, or something actually useful like that. Jenson doesn't need another 1B gallons of water under his belt.

jfactorial · a year ago

A rat done bit my sister Nell, with whitey on the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_on_the_Moon

jfactorial commented on Stargate Project: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, MGX to build data centers apnews.com/article/trump-... · Posted by u/tedsanders

skepticATX · a year ago

Why are corporations announcing business deals from the White House? There doesn’t seem to be any public ownership/benefit here, aside from potential job creation. Which could be significant. But the American public doesn’t seem to gain anything from this new company.

jfactorial · a year ago

This is my question too, but I haven't seen a journalist ask it yet. My baseless theory: Trump has promised them some kind of antitrust protections in the form of legislation to be written & passed at a later date.

An announcement of a public AI infrastructure program joined by multiple companies could have been a monumental announcement. This one just looks like three big companies getting permission to make one big one.