OCR errors?
Looks like a semi-colon gone awry.
Readit Newsmattkrause commented on The theory and practice of selling the Aga cooker (1935) [pdf] comeadwithus.wordpress.co... · Posted by u/phpnode
Taking a pragmatic approach, I would say that if the AI accomplishes something that, for humans, requires reasoning, then we should say that the AI is reasoning. That way we can have rational discussions about what the AI can actually do, without diverting into endless discussions about philosophy.
Eh...
Suppose A solves a problem and writes the solution down. B reads the answer and repeats it. Is B reasoning, when asked the same question? What about one that sounds similar?
mattkrause commented on Why doctors hate their computers (2018) newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/mitchbob
Why would my care be better if a doctor goes through a paper folder instead of a digital one?
It’s not how the records are kept per se.
It’s that the paper-using doctor can spend more time on you, the patient, instead of fighting with a balky UI and inane business rules.
FWIW neither hoard nor ration imply anything about permanence of the thing to me. Whether you were rationed bread or you hoarded bread, the bread isn't going to be usable forever. At the same time whether you were rationed sugar or hoarded sugar, the sugar isn't going to expire (with good storage).
Rationed/hoarded do imply, to me, something different about how the quantity came to be though. Rationed being given or setting aside a fixed amount, hoarded being that you stockpiled/amassed it. Saying "you hoarded your rations" (whether they will expire) does feel more on the money than "you ration your rations" from that perspective.
I hope this doesn't come off too "well aktually", I've just been thinking about how I still realize different meanings/origins of common words later in life and the odd things that trigger me to think about it differently for the first time. A recent one for me was that "whoever" has the (fairly obvious) etymology of who+ever https://www.etymonline.com/word/whoever vs something like balloon, which has a comparatively more complex history https://www.etymonline.com/word/balloon
For me, the difference between ration and hoard is the uhh…rationality of the plan.
Rationing suggests a deliberate, calculated plan: we’ll eat this much at these particular times so our food lasts that long. Hoard seems more ad hoc and fear-driven: better keep yet another beat-up VGA cable, just in case.
mattkrause commented on Researchers value null results, but struggle to publish them nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/Bluestein
Journals are mainly interested in profit, not fixing anything.
That should be only sort of true.
Some of the very high-profile journals are run by non-profits, including: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), PNAS, (National Academy of Sciences), eLife (HHMI/Max Planck/Wellcome Trust). A slew of more specialized journals are run by societies too.
In theory, they should be willing to lead the charge. In practice, I think they are largely dependent on income from the journals for a lot of their operations and so are reluctant to rock the boat.
mattkrause commented on Never write your own date parsing library zachleat.com/web/adventur... · Posted by u/ulrischa
Even better, just make the user input dates using a calendar date picker widget instead of a text field. This gives you full control of the input.
I always find that a little annoying: it takes way too many clicks (esp. for a birth year) and then you've got to find the day of the week.
I'd hate it less if typing updated the widget.
mattkrause commented on Show HN: Apple Health MCP Server github.com/neiltron/apple... · Posted by u/_neil
it is wild to me that products like this don’t allow you to easily export all data into sqlite (or duckdb) natively. it’s 2025 and you frequently have to page through hundreds or thousands of API calls to get a trivial amount of data (or use 3p services)
I thought this was sort of deliberate for Apple Health.
People use it to track sensitive information, like reproductive and mental health data, that should only be exported very intentionally.
mattkrause commented on I'm Unsatisfied with Easing Functions davepagurek.com/blog/easi... · Posted by u/ndyg
Oh, you beat me to it, I see :)
Kudos.-
Great minds, etc!
mattkrause commented on I'm Unsatisfied with Easing Functions davepagurek.com/blog/easi... · Posted by u/ndyg
Author here -- kicking myself because this is way better lmao
Take it--it's all yours :-)
mattkrause commented on I'm Unsatisfied with Easing Functions davepagurek.com/blog/easi... · Posted by u/ndyg
I read the article as an unreasonably deep dive into something that few people care about as much as the author. I certainly don’t, but that’s what makes it good. That’s perfect for HN.
My only real beef with the article is that "Uneasy about easing functions" would have been a much better title.