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smallvariance commented on Why do RSS readers look like email clients?   terrygodier.com/phantom-o... · Posted by u/jasonpeacock
sublinear · 2 months ago
I agree, but what's the alternative for some people?

What if most of these cases of AI usage is a matter of accessibility, not malice or bot spam, and the reason we suddenly see so much AI usage is because all these people never had a voice in english before?

smallvariance · 2 months ago
To be clear, I assume the author here is well-intentioned, and I certainly don't see this as spam or malice.

That said, I'm sure that what I read now has more noise and less signal than it did a couple of years ago, which I find very sad. More and more of the writing I read daily is clearly AI generated, and it seems that a large proportion of it comes from people with a clear "quantity over quality" mindset. Even reading messages from people I know (who speak English well), I find it's frequently AI generated - I assume because they don't want to summon the effort to write it themselves, and find AI generated text "good enough".

smallvariance commented on Why do RSS readers look like email clients?   terrygodier.com/phantom-o... · Posted by u/jasonpeacock
smallvariance · 2 months ago
This article feels off to me. It's such a human topic, but written in an entirely AI voice. I've been noticing this more frequently lately, and it makes things I read feel inauthentic.

It feels like some of our human-ness is being taken away. Writing is such a beautiful technology that carries ideas from one persons head into another. But now we put AI in the middle and I worry how much of the message is being corrupted.

smallvariance commented on Bose has released API docs and opened the API for its EoL SoundTouch speakers   arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/rayrey
smallvariance · 2 months ago
Great move Bose! I hope this trend continues - it's really nice to see a vibrant market for used/vintage electronic products in some categories (e.g. old iPods) rather than them just contributing to more e-waste.
smallvariance commented on AWS raises GPU prices 15% on a Saturday, hopes you weren't paying attention   theregister.com/2026/01/0... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar
smallvariance · 2 months ago
I wonder how far we are down the track of enshittification of cloud providers... and how much more is to come.
smallvariance commented on JavaScript Rising Stars 2025 – 10th Edition   risingstars.js.org/2025/e... · Posted by u/michaelrambeau
smallvariance · 2 months ago
Thank you! I find this really helpful for identifying tools I can learn from, or that might be useful in my upcoming projects.
smallvariance commented on Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”   office.com... · Posted by u/LeoPanthera
smallvariance · 2 months ago
Microsoft Office was a very strong brand, with decades of brand recognition and an enormous amount of value. This feels very much like throwing out the baby with the bathwater here ... while I can see the reasons for doing it, it very much seems like they're losing a lot from this name change.
smallvariance commented on Ask HN: How do you use 5–10 minute gaps productively?    · Posted by u/pea
smallvariance · 2 months ago
I find my brain needs 5-10 minute gaps to learn/remember things properly, and to be able to focus.

If I try to fill that time with more (podcasts, reading, etc.) it just makes me more on edge and degrades the value of other things I do during the day.

Probably the best use of those gams in my day is to look back through things I've already written down earlier in the day. Things like meeting notes, my todo list, random thoughts, etc. I keep a notebook in my pocket and pens/paper on my desk for exactly this.

u/smallvariance

KarmaCake day27December 18, 2025View Original