FeloniousHam

> Something I don't think is well understood on HN is how driven by ideals many folks at Anthropic are, even if the company is pragmatic about achieving their goals.

Jonah Goldberg (speaking of foreign policy): "you've got to be idealistic about the ends and ruthlessly realistic about means."

I distinctly remember one Christmas in the mid-70s where my grandfather and uncles all got these ash trays shaped like a house (when you set your pipe/cigarette/cigar down the smoke coiled out the chimney). Everyone was smoking indoors, despite my grandmother was quite fussy and tidy about pretty much everything.

For that matter, my childhood art classes almost always included making an ashtray.

I spent two weeks in Caracas in 2000, and was shocked by the amount car exhaust. It probably wasn't excessive, but compared the US city I lived in it was always noticable.

I enjoyed Megan Mcardle's take on Hoover:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/forget-the...

I'd been a casual user for a while (very sporadically in illegal days, regularly once legalized). I happened to going through a fairly traumatic breakup, and felt that if it didn't actually help me get to sleep, it at least made the insomnia tolerable.

My life settled down, but I continued to smoke a tiny bit. One puff really, before bed pretty much every night. When things were crazy and awful, I didn't care about feeling mossy the next day, but as normal life resumed, it definitely started to affect my attention.

Then, the "intrusive thoughts" started. It's like having an edge lord in your head. Whatever you think about, the idea gets lensed(?) from the worst/most extreme possible viewpoint/conclusion. It's hard to describe, but it was very distracting, and often just depressing. And of course, waking up at 3am every night, this is what I had to look forward to. And sometimes, I'd take a little toke in the hopes I'd get back to sleep.

Here's the punchline: I quit smoking and it went away in two days and hasn't returned.

Even if the acceleration numbers were equivalent, the S is roomier, the seats are more comfortable, the dash screen is helpful, the ride is plush and quiet.

I have it set to the "Gork" personality, which is occasionally correct and useful, but is very often genuinely funny. It's like a Spicoli-with-a-PhD that answers your query when it "feels like it".

> It's not perfect,

Probably about 90% perfect! Obviously we don't agree on the definition.

I don't want minimize the efforts of other manufacturers (I'm sure they'll all have Tesla's features in the next generation), but: my wife has a Subaru Outback, and the two systems are as close in functionality as humans are to chimpanzees. The differences are many, stark and subtle (that Subaru screen), I'd just say take a test drive with FSD.

My current FSD usage is 90% over ~2000 miles (since v14.x). Besides driving everywhere, everyday with FSD, I have driven 4 hours garage to hotel valet without intervention. It is absolutely "Full Self-Driving" and "Autonomous".

FSD isn't perfect, but it is everyday amazing and useful.

My current FSD percentage is 90% over 2k miles (recorded since v14 update).

FSD is not perfect, but it is everyday amazing and useful.

Counterpoint: I like my Tesla, and I find the AI assistant diverting and useful. I have very little doubt the functionality of the limited on-board voice assistant will be merged into Grok (it's literally on the coming features).

Whether you like this or not, who cares? The pace of improvement in Tesla software compared to any other manufacturer is astonishing, and astonishingly good.

I have no love for the CEO, but my Model Y is a very interesting (and intuitive) car.

I own the Y and drove the S as a loaner. The S is a noticeably better car. Also has 1000hp.

> Real FSD for me at least, means I can sit in a 'car' open a laptop and work.

Sure. Meanwhile, I'm literally using FSD 90% of the miles driven in my Y (the last update added a counter). I can appreciate a non-existant better product as much as the next guy, but as it is my daily commute is vastly improved.

FSD isn't perfect (probably about 90%!), but it's everyday amazing and useful.

I can speak to this directly: I've customized a few extensions I use with VSCode, (nearly) completely having the AI generate/iterate over my feature request until it works. I don't have the time to learn the details (or different languages) of the various projects, but I get huge benefit from the improvements.

- PRO Deployer

- MS Typescript

- Typescript-Go

- a bespoke internal extension to automate a lot of housekeeping when developing against tickets (git checks, branch creation, stash when switching, automatically connecting and updating ticket system)

Back when I listened to NPR, I shook my fist at the radio every time Shankar Vidantim came on to explain the latest scientific paper. Whatever was being celebrated, it was surely brand new. It's presentation on Morning Edition gave it the imprimature of "Proofed Science", and I imagined it getting repeated at every office lunch and cocktail party. I never heard a retraction.

I understand existing-tool-holder opposition to a new measurement system, but sweet mother I hate fraction math.

For me, Wave was the most exciting thing Google ever tried. The requirements exceeded most corporate hardware, but the whole "email as a wiki page" struck me as the future. Replay the messages in order to follow the responses.

(there was a lot of other stuff going on in there too)

When in American history have we had more free time for civic participation?

yes?

This is also a crutch. Take the time to learn the kludgier tool. It will make you a better developer.

/s (I'm a big fan of fish)

It's not that Linux is "bad" when the hardware is incompatible, it's not "Linux's fault". It's that, at a certain age, I don't want to spend my precious few hours of free time working _on_ my computer, I just want it to work.

(big fan of MacOS, and esp. third-party Mac software, the quality of which simply does not exist on any other platform)

(Also, I have huge affection for Linux. I used Linux exclusively for years personally, and any place I could sneak it into my work environment)

"big capital" does not have the monopoly on violence (except in a dictatorship, through connections to the "big man").

I've been around a while, VSCode is a goddamn miracle.

What happens if I lift crates for an hour, get $10, then lend that $10? I risked my hard earned money by lending it, have I "earned" the interest?

> I think the fanboys self select for above-average risk tolerance

As an admitted FSD fanboy, I think this is correct. You know within a couple of days (or as some have mentioned, one drive) your comfort level with the technology. My wife has no patience for even a single aberration, I'm comfortable with the occasional hitch or wrong lane choice. On the highway or going home from a night out however, she's more amenable to the robot driving.

I don't have an investment (monthly subscriber), I've driven with it for years, and I am everyday impressed.

> If you can't bear to pay back even a tiny, tiny fraction of what you've been ~~given~~earned then you shouldn't have it at all.

FTFY

> Nothing brings down a conversation as quickly as someone like you, trying to justify your purchase by insulting everyone who doesn't agree with your sunk-cost-fallacy-driven opinions.

I don't have any sunk cost in FSD. The car, sure, but it's a fine electric car that I got when there weren't many options (especially at a reasonable price).

I felt I was being generous. My inclination is that animosity to Musk's odious politics clouds the rational judgement of many critics (and they've mostly have no first-hand experience with FSD for any length of time).

I'll grant that the marketing oversells the capabilities of the system, but (as I have commented repeatedly in these FSD threads): anyone using it knows within a couple days their comfort level. I'm utterly unconvinced that any user is actually confused about the capacity of the system just because it's named "Autopilot" or "Full Self Driving" is not telling the truth.

The fact of the technology is that while imperfect, it is absolutely a marvel, and incredibly useful. I will never drive home again after having a beer after work, or when I'm tired after a long day. I can only attribute the angry skepticism in the comments to willful ignorance or lack of in-the-seat experience. I use it everyday, it drives me driveway to parking with only occasional interventions (per week!).

I'll throw in that my wife hates it (as a passenger or driver), but she has a much lower tolerance for any variance from expected human driving behaviour (eg. lane choices, overly cautious behaviour around cars waiting to enter traffic, etc).

Writing as a conservative, the marketplace is also a huge win. I have an employer-subsidized plan I got through healthcare.gov.