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That is great news. The last time I checked, there was a long waitlist and needed to book online (maybe COVID-related?). Appreciate you sharing this story.

Just to clarify, I’m not disparaging the value of business context or domain expertise. But I’m genuinely curious how companies are evaluating AI talent, especially when there’s little to no technical foundation.

Have any of you seen these types of hires deliver results? Or do they end up outsourcing everything and adding a layer of abstraction and confusion that slows things down?

Would love to hear both success stories and cautionary tales.

That's awesome. My wife and I have been thinking about visiting CERN too. Curious, what part of the visit stood out as especially impressive? Last I checked, there was a pretty long waiting list for tours.

This is the same video featured in the news article.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycn46hUGMw8

I totally get where you’re coming from, and you're right to flag the risk of this mindset turning into hoarding. I think your approach is good advice for many. I realize my original comment may have unintentionally encouraged that, so thank you for pointing it out.

In my case, I’m a bit obsessive about labeling, organizing, and keeping an inventory. I like having everything within arm’s reach because I hate wasting time searching.

That said, I might also one day change that habit and I fully recognize it’s not practical (or healthy) for everyone. I agree that space, time, and mental load are real constraints. I’ll be more mindful about how I frame these things moving forward. Appreciate your comment.

Oh, this is such a great topic for a frugal person like me. Sure, I’ll occasionally splurge on a gadget I probably don’t need, "For Research", but most of the time, I try to live simply and frugally.

I try to DIY everything. In my head, every piece of hardware, broken furniture, or random screw has a future use. My default mindset is always repair before replacing. And even if I can’t fix something, I’ll go on a mission to find some other way to use it and look for a used replacement. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad trait, but I do know it drives my wife a little nuts at times!

Still, I take pride in being the guy with the only 20-year-old Toyota on the street, rust patches and all.

If R2-D2 gave up on rebellion and settled for fetching beers.

Jokes aside, so many gadgets and the tech behind them took decades to become genuinely useful.

Curious: what’s a piece of old tech (hardware or software) that was ahead of its time, and only now are we seeing real progress toward its original vision?

I'm really enjoying this discussion, and you’re right, my choice of the word “true” wasn’t ideal. Thanks for pointing that out. What I meant was more along the lines of “making the effort to stay connected”, the kind of friendships where both parties are there through the good and the bad. That kind of connection can form early or later in life, but once it exists, I believe it’s something to be cherished.

I won’t pretend I carried the full weight of maintaining every friendship. I was young, overwhelmed, and then came the career and everything else life throws at you. But with the friends who were there through thick and thin, I did make the effort to stay in touch, because a stronger bond had been forged.

And just to be clear, I wasn't placing blame on friends without children. Whether it’s kids, pets, demanding jobs, or anything else, none of us gets a free pass. Relationships need to be nourished, or they fade. For example, when we did movie nights, we made an effort to include everyone who wanted to join. If the film was age-appropriate, our little one came along, and no one minded. If not, we’d arrange a babysitter. We genuinely tried to stay connected, not just with our closest friends, but even with those we casually saw.

So to answer your question, yes, we made as much effort as we could to maintain friendships, which I think we both agree is the key message. My original post was simply a reflection on those who chose to stay connected despite the shift, not a judgment on those who didn’t.

You're right that effort needs to come from both sides, and I agree that some parents, for whatever reasons, do unintentionally withdraw from friendships. I can only speak from my own experience, where we genuinely tried to stay connected, but I understand how it might have felt one-sided to others.

In the end, people do grow apart for all kinds of reasons, and that doesn’t necessarily make anyone the villain.

Thanks again for the thoughtful pushback; it helped me better reflect on what I was trying to express.

Fair point, and yes, I agree that friendships are mutual, and no one is obligated to adjust to someone else’s life changes. I certainly didn’t expect that from my friends. I didn’t mean to label those who drifted as “bad friends,” especially knowing that I also could’ve done more to invest in those connections that were fading.

In my case, I didn’t choose to become a parent—life did that for me—and I adapted. Expecting all my friends to adapt too, in hindsight, was probably selfish. But my point was that the friendships that endured were the ones where both sides did their best to make it work. Those friends could have easily chosen the cooler parties, but instead, they hung out watching Teletubbies with us. That meant something.

I'm just reflecting on how some friendships adapt and grow, while others naturally fade. No judgment either way. Just sharing my experience. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.

lol...thanks for the comment. Keeping fun and connection alive during those early parenting years wasn’t easy, but we figured out how to integrate it instead of cutting it out. A basement hangout with a toddler in a diaper and a crew of Bon Jovi–style teens wasn’t your typical "party", but somehow, it worked.

And yes, agree that BBQs are great opportunities when shared. Parenthood doesn’t have to mean social exile.

You make a great point, and I completely agree that deep friendships require mutual investment, and life doesn’t always make that easy. I feel fortunate to have held on to a few close friends, but I’ve also lost many connections that couldn’t survive the shifting priorities over time.

Your comment is aligned with one of my favorite books on relationships, which I’m sure many here are familiar with: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s shaped my mindset in many areas of life, especially when it comes to building and sustaining meaningful connections.

And you’re absolutely right—modern life can be brutal when it comes to creating space for those kinds of relationships. That’s something we don’t acknowledge nearly enough.

If you don't mind me sharing my story, here's my take on this discussion. A few decades ago, my wife (then girlfriend) and I were raising a child at the age of 18. That experience shaped my understanding of friendship more than anything else.

Back then, I often had to skip parties or show up at events with a toddler in tow. Some friends drifted away, but the true ones stuck around. They’d hang out with us, sometimes just chilling in the basement, tossing a one-year-old on their knees, while we were all still barely out of adolescence and rocking Guns N' Roses T-shirts.

Over time, those same friends had kids of their own, and naturally, life pulled us in different directions, careers, families, obligations… all the grown-up stuff. But as others here have commented, real friendships don’t vanish. The time spent together may change, but the connection remains.

Now that the kids are grown, those same teenage friends and I get together more often. What I’ve learned is this: don’t cling too tightly to friendships that can’t adapt to your circumstances. The right people will walk with you through different stages of life. And new ones will appear when you least expect them. Hope that helps.

Thanks for sharing, this really resonated with me.

I couldn’t agree more.I'm experiencing the same issue. I rarely watch TV or movies (still hoarding my binge list). My routine used to be a quick 30-min mind reset before bed.Usually it's some random, oddly fascinating YouTube rabbit hole. My wife still hasn’t recovered from the video about a remote tribe brewing beer with spit.

But lately? It’s like the algorithm gave up. Same thumbnails haunting me. I used to feel like YouTube knew me. Now we are stranger's.

Makes me wonder, either the algorithm broke, or we’re part of a marketing experiment.

Thanks for sharing. It's a really clear write-up. I’ve been planning something similar and might just follow your setup.

In my case, I learned that grinding 12-16-hour days on a single skill (coding) isn’t beneficial to anyone. The quality drops, mistakes creep in, and the risk of burnout skyrockets. Clients typically only care about delivery. Did the thing get done, and does it work?

Meanwhile, some managers and even teammates seem to care more about the hours you clock than whether you crossed the finish line. I’ve never fully understood that mindset. Why glorify effort over results, especially in knowledge work?

Moments like this remind me exactly why the hairs on my arms stand up every time I see the NASA logo. It’s not just science, it’s the amazing inspiring human achievement. Incredible work, NASA team.

I remember spending most of my week fighting spam, patching MTAs, and managing virus definitions. Running on-prem email felt like a second job. Props to anyone still maintaining mail infrastructure. Unfortunately the human at the end is still the weakest link. The cloud didn’t make it simple, just easier to forget how complex it really is.

Please take no offense—I genuinely want to understand. I agree that my blog needs work, especially with less fluff and more value—i'm working on that.

I guess where I’m coming from is this: why is it assumed that using tools like AI or Grammarly takes away from the creative process? For me, they speed up the mechanical side of things—grammar, flow, even structure—so I can spend more time on ideas, storytelling, informing, or just getting unblocked.

I do get frustrated when ChatGPT changes my wording or shifts the meaning of what I’m trying to say. It can definitely throw a wrench into the overall story. But in those cases, I rephrase my prompt, asking it not to touch the narrative or my word choices, just to act like a word processor on steroids or an expert editor.

I’m not saying these tools replace a good human editor—far from it. If I ever get to the point where I can work with a real editor or proof reader and so on, I’d choose the human every time. But until then, these tools help me keep the momentum going—and I don’t see that as a lack of care.

On the contrary, it often takes me more time to get the output right—because I’m trying to make sure it still reflects exactly what I want to say and express.

Maybe it’s just a different kind of process?

I hope I don’t get banned from HN—I really like it here. Not kidding.

I write a lot (maybe too much, some might say). I actually spent last weekend writing 10k words for self-help book that just popped in my mind - and yes, i trust me i did more than 2 big articles in one day, just haven't published them yet and to be frank, i'm a little worried now.

For full transparency: yes, I used ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Hemingway to assist with the writing structure, grammar and spelling. Not originality and wording. It just helps me move faster and keeps the flow going.

Will my book be a bestseller? Doubt it—it’s my first. Will anyone read it? No clue. Maybe if it’s free. Was it worth my time instead of coding? Absolutely. It cleared my mind and shifted my focus—something I think everyone should try at least once. So yeah, maybe I do write like ChatGPT... but one could also say ChatGPT writes like me. Anyway, like i said, I hope I don’t get banned—I really do like it here.

Yes, I agree—especially when it comes to larger corporate entities. With smaller companies, I’ve often found myself face-to-face with key decision-makers, owners, VPs, and others—where I at least had the opportunity to discuss (or pitch) a service or product. In my case, though, I usually didn’t have anything to promote during those networking or social situations. Still, I believe it’s generally easier to connect with small businesses than with large corpo's. It’s just a matter of putting yourself out there as much as possible.

As for the elephant in the room: large corporations are riddled with bureaucracy, inflexible policies, and, frankly, executives who often don’t give a hoot. Not impossible—but definitely more difficult. Speaking from experience (and this may be hard to believe, especially after being accused of being an LLM agent): one of my SaaS web apps I developed last year is currently in use—at no cost—by a top Fortune 500 company. I can't name them, but I maintain the app through a small fee charged to one of their 3rd-party vendors I work with. Now, to be clear: the number of users is barely worth mentioning, but the collective data and its operational value are huge for that corporate department. In short, they love it. Ever since launch, I've been trying to convince them to take on the fees directly and scale the app across all their branches. Even though their internal team, including IT department, has endorsed it and approved internal use, they have too many barriers to jump even before thinking of adopting it as their own tool. Anyway—just sharing. Sorry for the long comment! Amen.

"A reverse uncanny valley" I had to look that up, so embarrassing (especially from a tech nerd). Thank you for pointing that out, i will definitely focus less on perfection and be less worried about tyypos from now on— genuinely NOT being sarcastic and sincerely appreciate the feedback.

guilty.

I get where you're coming from—been there. My only two pieces of advice for situations like that are: Walk away. Sometimes a difficult customer just isn’t worth the fuss. Or, if you believe they’re the right person and a good fit for your project, try flipping the approach.

Instead of pushing your solution, offer to help with theirs. That might mean helping them improve their current system or even assisting with testing X. Strange as that may sound, it genuinely shows you care and want to help. You’d be surprised how much trust that can build—and how it can open doors to the opportunity you were hoping for. That said, don’t fake it. If you’re not being sincere, it won’t serve either interest. Just sharing what’s worked for me—hope it helps and wishing you the best.

Got it—I'm green here. My comments are human, sometimes put in AI for spelling, grammar, and structure. I will avoid AI for HN posts at all costs, and thank you for clarifying.

What’s wrong with saying “hair on fire” and “knocking on doors”? Granted, I’m bald—but still, the words and thoughts are mine (even if some are structured by ChatGPT). I’ll admit my blogging skills need work, but it’s an original process, and it’s a start. Thanks for the feedback.

Wait—which startup are you referring to? My blog or my current SaaS project with 100 users? Both are real. The blog is just a creative outlet for me, while the SaaS is my latest dev project, in beta testing with a little over 100 users. I’ll be more than happy to share its success—or failure—with the community when the time is right (I’m rooting for success). Hope that clears up.

Ok. I’m left speechless—but I can only comment that I’m trying to be genuine—obviously failing at an alarming rate! Yes, my blogs are edited with ChatGPT or whichever AI tool I have open, but my words and experience are my own, for what it’s worth—again, I am not an LLM agent. To be fair, I sometimes think ChatGPT writes like me. Where’s Sam when you need him? (Tasteless joke.)

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I hope I don’t get grilled, or offend anyone for saying this: I use AI at every level of my work because it speeds things up—especially when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. And yes, I was overusing dashes even before ChatGPT was a thing.

I use AI for coding too. It definitely helps with speed and boilerplate, though I’ll admit it sometimes sends me deep down the rabbit hole. Still, the ideas, creativity, and decisions are my own.

For what it’s worth, the structure is AI-assisted, but the wording and ideas are entirely my own. I use whatever AI chat window or tool is open in my browser—Grammarly, Hemingway, Word or others.

I’m here to share and learn, and I hope that still comes through—Thanks again.

No, I’m not based in Silicon Valley. I’ve always believed location matters less these days—especially in software.

As for networking, I’ve always catered to businesses—and in my experience, most of them face similar challenges regardless of geography. Odds are, the problems a company faces in my neck of the woods are the same ones you’ll find in yours.

This is a bootstrapped, client-first effort—no buzz, no funding, just trying to solve one real problem at a time. It’s also my first time working directly with individual subscribers, unlike my other projects which were built for businesses and their internal teams or clients. I’m still learning as I go and looking forward to sharing more with the HN community.