Hacker News Reader

Esophagus4on CoreWeave bond yield tops 16% as AI credit stress rises

Matt Levine once noticed that Microsoft’s bonds were actually cheaper than Treasuries (during a time of Trump-instigated turbulence).

His point was that Microsoft has an interest in maximizing its credit worthiness which necessitated the corporate governance etc, while the administration had an interest in maximizing… other stuff (?) which did not necessitate the same things.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/why-microsoft-has-lowe...

Esophagus4on OpenAI raises $11B at a $1.25T valuation

Wut?

They’re raising at $1T, which makes them one of the planet’s largest companies and they’ve only been around for a short time, comparatively.

Yes, there was noise about possibly higher valuations still, but the [edit: private] market definitely thinks there is a $1T business model here.

Esophagus4on Tesla to wind down Cybertruck production

No more flat primer gray cars.

That’s a platform we can all get behind.

Esophagus4on AI delivers 'zero financial payoff' to most companies, Apollo economist says

That is such a malicious mischaracterization of my statement.

Come on, you know better.

Esophagus4on AI delivers 'zero financial payoff' to most companies, Apollo economist says

This is laughable.

To call Claude Code not a world defining product is so absurd it’s genuinely laughable.

I guess that’s why they’re a $2T company within like 5 years of founding with or without your support.

Now you’re just being obstinate.

Esophagus4on AI delivers 'zero financial payoff' to most companies, Apollo economist says

Is it?

Most of the claims I’ve seen are around productivity (bottom line).

And while it’s hard to say “we would’ve had to hire more devs to be this productive without Claude” it kind of feels like the case, doesn’t it?

Esophagus4on AI delivers 'zero financial payoff' to most companies, Apollo economist says

Maybe?

But I also think:

- there are a lot of companies that don’t need to be 5 9s[1]

- I have a feeling it’s possible to ship fast without drastic quality drops

[1] Claude code is 99.85% available and is one of the world’s most important products

Esophagus4on AI delivers 'zero financial payoff' to most companies, Apollo economist says

Unfortunately not everything will cleanly show up in PnL, which is a function of the entire company’s processes.

If developers are shipping more code (and most of the enablement is in software right now) does that show up in top line? Maybe… if sales and marketing are also selling more, and product people are building the right thing, and…

It’s not a straight line from AI -> $$$

Esophagus4on I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LAh8HryVaeY&pp=ygUOVHJpZ2dlciB...

At what point is it no longer the same car if you’ve replaced all the parts ;)

Esophagus4on I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy

Land rover’s customer base probably doesn’t care much about maintainability.

most are leased.

Esophagus4on The Importance of Limitations for Creativity and Learning (2023)

Touché

Esophagus4on The Importance of Limitations for Creativity and Learning (2023)

Seems like someone just read https://davidepstein.com/inside-the-box/

Esophagus4on Airbnb bans making guests do dishes and take out the trash

I thought the point was (at least initially) that you’re not paying hotel rates

Esophagus4on BMW Spider-Man in-car advertising

Same energy as when airlines make a gate announcement that they’ve got too many bags and they’re offering free baggage check for anyone willing…

Esophagus4on BMW Spider-Man in-car advertising

The ads in Apple Wallet for their credit card drive me insane. So invasive.

Esophagus4on What AI did to stackoverflow in a graph

I could see SO being helpful for more niche questions where one guy somewhere knows the answer from experience or he wrote the framework.

But then over time, those will be absorbed into LLMs anyway, so…

Esophagus4on What AI did to stackoverflow in a graph

This seems like the most likely answer to me - though we all have our grievances with SO, the culture likely didn’t contribute to its decline as much as simply AI being a better tool.

Esophagus4on My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

Similar with lifted trucks.

Lifts are bad for driveshafts, suspension, tires, etc

Esophagus4on Ask HN: Add flag for AI-generated articles

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_bit

Esophagus4on New York City to ban deceptive subscription practices

> When the Biden administration introduced a junk fee rule in 2024, the US Chamber of Commerce argued it was “an attempt to micromanage businesses’ pricing structures”, and apartment fees were cut from that federal rule after lobbying by the real-estate industry.

This drives me nuts to read, because it’s usually the same pattern.

Rule -> lobbyists descend -> politicians cave -> carve out that takes away the whole point of the rule -> everyone declares victory

Esophagus4on Interview with Mitchell Hashimoto about Ghostty and Zig

> How can we push terminals harder?

> I don’t support pushing terminals to the extreme…

Reminds me of what Warp has become these days

Esophagus4on Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

[if the article’s analysis is true] cost controls would reduce the supply of ambulances, since the article claims Medicare actually is a loss.

You have claimed it isn’t, but you haven’t really provided much evidence other than “there’s no way that’s true, trust me, I used to work somewhere in healthcare finance”

Esophagus4on Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

Ambulance.ai

(Shudders)

Esophagus4on Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

Some of them are volunteers who do it because it’s about the calling to help their communities, not pay.

Some do it because they actually want to be firefighters but it’s helpful to be an EMT as well.

Others do it because it’s an easy entry point (in the US you only need a 3 month night course to be an EMT) in their medical career on their way to better paying jobs like MD and RN.

And yes, others are grizzled and burnt out making little money.

But mostly people do it because they want to help.

Esophagus4on Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

He covered that in the article fairly thoroughly. Did you read it?

The anecdote illustrates the issue then he dives into the analysis.

Esophagus4on Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

Thank you for the original.

Given that, the pattern I saw in my head was that Zuck sees a new toy, get excited and thinks it will change everything, invests in it, then admit he’s wrong, but at least we have an ads business to keep this whole thing rolling along. Rinse and repeat.

Reminds me a lot of crypto payments, metaverse / VR / AR.

A man trying to predict the future and being mostly incorrect while not really facing any consequences of being wrong. Always searching for the next big thing. Classic Silicon Valley tale.

Esophagus4on Zuckerberg 'Admits' Meta's Layoffs Were Ineffective

A percentage of our 10x engineers just left.

Morale problems can be just enough to make your best people pick up the phone when recruiters call.

Esophagus4on A retrospective of my time on the internet

Not another one of these.

The connected, small community internet still exists.

The article comes off as kind of a curmudgeonly old man yelling at clouds.

More nostalgia bait… I hope one day I get downvote privileges for posts.

Esophagus4on I used Claude Code to get a second opinion on my MRI

En, I think you’re just trying to justify your pre-existing position that this can’t work.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-026-02619-0

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-025-00007-8?fromPaywa...

Different prompt approaches and training doctors to use LLMs can improve accuracy of LLM-assisted diagnosis. It’s pretty reasonable to hypothesize that LLM “peer review” could improve that as well.

Esophagus4on I used Claude Code to get a second opinion on my MRI

I dunno, I could see it working.

I do something similar with reviewing code: I have one agent write the code and another reviews it, then they go back and forth for a bit improving the code. Seems to yield better results than one agent alone.

Seems like a similar principle.