robcohen (u/robcohen)

robcohen commented on Real-time estimates of animals consumed by humans worldwide humanconsumption.live/... · Posted by u/speckx

mmooss · 7 days ago

We don't need uncited, selective data. It would be relatively easy to directly measure the relationship between vegetarianism and height.

Also, height is determined early in life. Many people become vegetarian in adulthood. Becoming vegetarian at 30 won't affect your height, I'm pretty sure.

robcohen · 3 days ago

So you think the data is wrong?

robcohen commented on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026) · Posted by u/david927

robcohen · 4 days ago

https://github.com/rustledger/rustledger I'm building a Rust implementation of Beancount, the double-entry bookkeeping language. It covers the full Beancount syntax, all the booking methods, a BQL query engine, plugins (including rust and python). It works as both a CLI tool and a Rust library, and it compiles to WebAssembly too.

https://github.com/rustledger/rustfava This is a fork of Fava, the web UI that Beancount users know and love, but with the Python parser swapped out for rustledger running as WebAssembly. I packaged it up as a native desktop app using Tauri, so you just double-click to open your ledger files with no terminal or Python needed. It also works via Docker, PyPI, and Nix if that's more your thing.

https://github.com/rustledger/pta-standards I started this project to create proper formal specifications for plain text accounting formats, covering Beancount, Ledger, and hledger. It includes EBNF/ABNF grammars, JSON Schema and Protobuf AST definitions, tree-sitter grammars, Alloy models for invariants, and conformance test suites. The idea is to make it possible for anyone to build a correct, interoperable PTA implementation without reverse-engineering existing tools.

https://github.com/robcohen/peervault This is an Obsidian plugin that lets you sync your vaults directly between your devices over P2P connections, no central server involved. Has S3 fallback if you want. It uses Loro CRDTs so concurrent edits merge cleanly, and Iroh compiled to WASM handles the networking with NAT traversal and end-to-end encryption. Until iroh-docs or iroh-willow comes out with WASM support, this seems to be the best solution for obsidian syncing.

robcohen commented on Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders printableclassics.com... · Posted by u/bookman10

robcohen · 4 days ago

Interesting. I like the idea of reprinting classics to all look identical as a way of designing a library. Would be interesting to select a set of books for your kid, have them printed, and just put them in their room. I wonder if any startups are doing this.

robcohen commented on I was right about ATProto key management notes.nora.codes/atproto-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

direwolf20 · 19 days ago

Should I create 1 million accounts with bots that scroll endlessly to harvest microtransactions?

robcohen · 10 days ago

Ah yes, the sybil attack. This is why establishing an identity is useful, and worthwhile. An identity with no proof is likely not a real person, and therefore has little value in being advertised to.

If you're a real person, then yes, it is valuable to show you things.

Want to know how I'm right? Because fingerprinting browsers and tracking people is how we establish that they are real in the current advertising world. Advertisers pay for that. Thus it has value.

robcohen commented on Real-time estimates of animals consumed by humans worldwide humanconsumption.live/... · Posted by u/speckx

gruez · 15 days ago

>Would you want your kids to be shorter and physically weaker than you are?

As someone who eats meat, that's probably one of the worse arguments against vegetarianism/veganism I've heard. If eating animals is immoral, sure why not? If pillaging your neighbors makes your society better off, do you think a good objection to "maybe we shouldn't pillage our neighbors" is "Would you want your kids to be shorter and physically weaker than you are"?

robcohen · 11 days ago

The logical entailment is eventually your lineage will be wiped out on some timescale if they cannot compete. I guess this argument in null and void if you believe violence is obsolete.

robcohen commented on Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/JumpCrisscross

bandofthehawk · 12 days ago

This seems weird to me, maybe it's a generational thing. Is it really that bad to share a car with someone? You don't have to talk to them the whole time.

robcohen · 12 days ago

Personally, I find it odd to have interactions with anyone just based of transactionality. I want to interact with people because I have relationships with them. I've always found it hard to figure out exactly how nice to be with someone you don't know. I don't think this is a maladjustment on my part, I think you probably shouldn't be overly nice to people before you establish trust with them... and that takes time.

robcohen commented on Real-time estimates of animals consumed by humans worldwide humanconsumption.live/... · Posted by u/speckx

mmooss · 15 days ago

'What if' is pointless. What if vegetarianism makes you stronger than eating meat? What if it increases your IQ by 20 points or makes you live 200 years? What if you can code faster drinking rare pygmy tree sap or the blood of certain albino poison toads?

> you can't prove that it's actually healthier, because the current state of dietary science is pretty poor.

Almost every decision in life must be made without proof, but with evidence and judgment. We know a lot about nutrition, and a lot of evidence points toward health benefits in eating more vegetables and less meat. We can also see lots of vegetarians in our communities and they don't seem sickly or shorter, etc. - we also see elite athletes in public who are vegetarians.

> a diet consisting of vegetables

Vegetarianim is much more than vegetables; it's everything but meat - legumes (generally beans), vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts - plus eggs and cheese. Vegans cut out the latter two items.

> What if being vegetarian makes you smaller and weaker physically (perhaps the case in some vegetarian countries now).

Where?

> evolutionary problems that could come from some humans going vegetarian while others don't.

What problems? How does diet affect evolution? We'll lose our hunting muscles over the next 500,000 years? Remember humans haven't changed much biologically in 200,000+ years.

robcohen · 12 days ago

India — 20-30% vegetarian — 167 cm avg male height

Taiwan — 12-13% vegetarian — 174 cm avg male height

Mexico — 10-19% vegetarian — 170 cm avg male height

Italy — ~10% vegetarian — 174 cm avg male height

Brazil — 8-14% vegetarian — 176 cm avg male height

UK — ~7% vegetarian — 178 cm avg male height

Australia — 5-6% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height

Switzerland — 5-9% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height

Austria — 5-9% vegetarian — 179 cm avg male height

Germany — 4-8% vegetarian — 180 cm avg male height

I mean, if you think height doesn't matter for men, I think you may want to think about it.

robcohen commented on Real-time estimates of animals consumed by humans worldwide humanconsumption.live/... · Posted by u/speckx

hshdhdhj4444 · 15 days ago

Animals do a whole bunch of things to other animals we wouldn’t consider acceptable.

Cannibalism, eating your young, rape, etc.

I’m not sure why killing for food is the one place we should choose to define our values and ethics based on what animals in the wild do.

robcohen · 15 days ago

The problem I have with being vegetarian is that you can't prove that it's actually healthier, because the current state of dietary science is pretty poor.

Even if you could, you would also need to explain all of the evolutionary problems that could come from some humans going vegetarian while others don't.

What if being vegetarian makes you smaller and weaker physically (perhaps the case in some vegetarian countries now). If you had the answer, and it was clear a diet consisting of vegetables causes reduction in physical size, then I have to ask:

Would you want your kids to be shorter and physically weaker than you are?

robcohen commented on I was right about ATProto key management notes.nora.codes/atproto-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

bccdee · 18 days ago

> If a spammer wants to pay me $20 to see their message, I am happy to see it.

Yeah, but I'm not. It's spam. And the people whose messages I do want to see are overwhelmingly not going to pay $20 to show it to me.

This is a system that selects exclusively for advertisements. Nobody would want this.

robcohen · 17 days ago

Would you be willing to see an ad for $1000? A million? Sure no one would pay it, but you can set whatever limit you want.

No one would want this? Again I don't think you understand what I am proposing.

It isn't a a system that selects exclusively for ads. It selects for people you know, then people they know, and so on, and fades out how often posts show up the further away you get. If someone pays more, then more people will see their message in their network as it compensates people for their attention, starting with the people who value their attention the least.

No one would want this? You think people don't want to get paid for their attention? This is essentially what a job is.

robcohen commented on I was right about ATProto key management notes.nora.codes/atproto-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

bccdee · 19 days ago

Twitter is thronging with blue-check spambots. This idea has been comprehensively disproven. People will pay to spam you.

In fact, judging by the Exodus of non-scammers, only scammers will pay to send you their messages—which makes sense, since they're the ones who expect to turn a profit.

robcohen · 19 days ago

You did not understand what my original post suggested. I'm not suggesting people pay to be certified. If a spammer wants to pay me $20 to see their message, I am happy to see it.