david927

I have to defer, you're a lot closer to these things than I am, but I remember since the 90's the "this-for-that" analogies were around and became hot at some point, so that you were even encouraged by some to put it into that form for a while.

Where I see a difference is that it used to be about creating unique combinations and now it's more about deployment. "What about the known tool for this market?" It's banal. I can honestly say, it's not that I don't remember -- I do -- it's that I'm waiting and hoping to get excited about a startup again.

HN is a mirror on the tech world -- which is dead. There is dearth of original ideas, generally. There are no cool startups, no investment, nothing happening.

You're definitely looking for something other than the writing and even the plot. For example, the novel "The Firm" had a ridiculous ending but they fixed it for the screenplay.

I dropped of a book to this guy that I had just finished called "The Hotel on the Roof of the World," and he later told me that they optioned the author. Unfortunately the film never got made, but if you read it you'll see it has the bones of a really nice film.

I think it was a combination of right place/right time, knowing everything about film-making (and you're right, what makes a good adaptation) and was just a naturally cool, interesting guy, so that everyone who met him just liked him.

It didn't last forever. The last time I saw him was one of those wild random coincidences. I was visiting Cannes during the festival (as a tourist) and ran into him on the Croisette. We went for coffee and he told me that he had become a television producer.

I had a good friend who did this -- was a reader for a movie studio, looking for adaptations. Everyone teased him for having such a great job.

A CAPE ratio of 40x and record-high margin debt; what could go wrong?

Exactly this. They're a necessary evil and they require constant vigilance to minimize the "make what you measure" effect.

The original author's point is interesting, seeing rules as the constraints that, in one sense, spur creativity, give life. The reason the trumpet is the instrument of jazz isn't in spite of it having merely three valves, but because of it.

My theory is this civil suit was used to expose Sam's (and Greg's) self-dealing and perjury. This was civil, now comes criminal.

The Spirit Level by Pickett and Wilkinson argues convincingly that the pursuit of equality and social safeguards makes life better for everyone, rich and poor.

San Francisco used to be my favorite big city in America; now it's a hellscape. The experiment, whatever experiment we're running, failed.

I remember in the couple years before the dot com crash in 2000, there was a lot of satire being written which was being taken very seriously. You couldn't tell what was serious and what was humor because both were absurd.

In 1961, Peter Benenson, a British lawyer, read a newspaper story about two Portuguese students who went to jail for making a toast to freedom. He wrote letters to the Portuguese government and got others to do so as well, and it got media attention, and they were freed.

That was the start of Amnesty International, which to this day, simply asks people to write a letter when they see an injustice. The spray painting potholes story has the same theme: "Better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness."

I heard what they're saying, and while I don't personally agree with it, I can see it's shared by a lot of people.

Personally, I'm not sure a separate thread makes sense. What if people mark their project as "[ARTISAN]" like they do with [Remote] in Who's Hiring? Any other ideas?

Hi, I'm David and I run the "What are you working on?" posts. I hear what you're saying and yet I think it's just the new reality. There will be more projects and some of those will be quickly-made vibe-coded projects. I'm not against it.

In Moveable Feast, Hemingway talks about being opposed to ski lifts (which were probably fairly new at the time). He thought, if you're fit enough to hike up the mountain, you're going to be fit enough to ski down without getting injured; it opens skiing up to people who maybe shouldn't be skiing. I deeply prefer ski lifts. :-) And I love agentic AI coding.

I guess what I'm saying is that we shouldn't compare it to the past, because that's gone. And yet, each month the number of comments breaks 1000, so "drowning" is a fair word for just number of projects alone. And I don't have any answers.

Anyway, you (and anyone reading this) can feel free to email me. My email in my profile.

On the second Sunday of every month, there's an "Ask HN: What are you working on?" post. Feel free to show your projects there!

Raid? They're committing a crime.

I wish I had some advice that could help. I think you're doing everything right, it's just winter out there right now. The employment numbers are all a lie -- it's much worse than anyone is saying. Keep your head up and keep trying and I wish you all the best.

71% of adults say that their monthly debt payments prevent them from saving.

So why don't they take it out of that thousand they have at the end of each month? America is suffering economically and I don't think we help anything when we pretend it's not.

Every single court case is two sides bringing forward only "objective facts" by definition. It's not that one side brings lies and the other facts. They both bring objective facts.

So why does it always end with the judgement falling on one side? Because facts do not a complete case make.

No I'm not. I'm responding to data about median income adjusted for PPP, and not adjusted for social services such as healthcare. Big difference.

- Around 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

- 71% of adults say that their monthly debt payments prevent them from saving.

When we say America, we can't just mean the 20% who are ok. It has to mean the 70% who aren't. America is not rich. It used to be. It is not now.

This, like so many of his talks, keeps popping up -- as it should.

In our industry of software construction, there's only one true test, "Does it scale?" And the answer is and has been a resounding "no."

I'm worried we'll just slop our way out from here; it's a terrifying thought.

Clearly

> NPR is missing the basics here

sadly, on purpose

We need active journalism to watch out for our interests as citizens. What happens when it dies?

and without a Kay

I didn't go to the gym a single day for November and December and it was heart-breaking when I started again in January how much I had set back. But slowly I got back to a good rate again.

A week ago someone asked why I was going to the gym that evening and I said, "Because it will make going tomorrow so much easier."

Start again.

> he asked for help getting STD drugs from Epstein [to commit a felony]

We're talking about the 2% of information made available, much of which is redacted. The investigations need to include all evidence.

I don't want apologies and resignations. I want investigations and the most serious of consequences if found guilty.

I can't believe people aren't more upset about this.

We're all under a bad star right now. There aren't many options, lots of people underemployed and many more completely unemployed. Competition is fierce. I don't have much to say, unfortunately, other than recognizing that it's hard and wishing the best for you.

And I don't want to add fuel to a strange fire, but in 1764 when Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a letter to Beaumont regarding the absurdity of belief despite evidence, he used this as an example:

"If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete."

This is a fun story from the early 18th century if you haven't read about it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_of_St._Germain