HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

mrctte

40 karma · joined November 4, 2021

submissionscomments
mrctte··on Are we offloading too much of our thinking to AI?
> I'm not good at lifting weights or running, so my thinking is the only thing I have

I'm not saying this to be snarky, but maybe it's time to work on lifting weights and running. The worth of a novel is, of course, subjective, but most people would judge it based on the entertainment value it provides and not how much human effort went into it. Hobbies like fitness (which don't have an output that's meant to be consumed) seem like a safer harbor in this new era.

mrctte··on Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
The book "Nexus" by Yuval Noah Harari essentially makes this same point. The way he phrases it is that information's primary role throughout history hasn't necessarily been to convey objective truth but to connect people and enable large scale cooperation. So more information is not necessarily better.

Worth a read or you can check out one of his recent podcast appearances for a quicker download.

mrctte··on My Life in Weeks
I started this in 2015 and I'm still keeping up with it. Maybe it will work for you.

https://medium.com/@markracette/make-every-day-matter-9ac6db...

mrctte··on You might not need an effect
Isn't this exactly what useLayoutEffect is for? https://react.dev/reference/react/useLayoutEffect
mrctte··on Google Search Is Dying
SSG gives you the best SEO because web crawlers can understand the structure of a static page with pre-populated content better than a dynamic site that relies on Javascript. The pages also load much quicker and score better on other metrics that Google uses. I would go so far as to say that SSG is a must for major publications or anyone serious about SEO. This sort of data-driven SSG is exactly what you are thinking of but it happens at build time so that the build output is static content that can be put behind a CDN.
mrctte··on Google Search Is Dying
Yeah, those pages are definitely auto-generated. Static site generation makes it possible for those types of pages (I call them "shims") to jump to the top of the results list. I wrote about it here: https://zestyrx.com/blog/nextjs-ssg
mrctte··on Google Search Is Dying
This is partially due to the proliferation of data-driven static site generation.

Two types of sites I see popping up are:

1) "shims", which generate the bare minimum static content required to get listed on Google, usually for obscure or long-tail queries

2) "skins", which make exact copies of sites with publicly available context (like Wikipedia or npmjs.org).

Both are enabled by tools like NextJS which allow you to take data and convert it to a static site which does well with SEO.

I wrote about this in depth here: https://zestyrx.com/blog/nextjs-ssg

mrctte··on State of the Web: Static Site Generators
> SSGs have had neglible impact on non-technical users.

I don't think so. Publishers are leaning heavily into SSG to improve SEO: https://zestyrx.com/blog/nextjs-ssg

mrctte··on State of the Web: Static Site Generators
Funny, I wrote about this recently as well.

I'm a huge fan of SSG but concerned about the impact that it has on SEO and search engine quality.

https://zestyrx.com/blog/nextjs-ssg

mrctte··on A Safer San Francisco
I’ve read that police simply aren't reporting low level crimes at the rate they used to due to staffing shortages and apathy. I would be curious to see the data too, but I doubt it paints the whole picture.
mrctte··on Cocaine Paraphernalia Ads in the 70s
That’s far from the only benefit. Lawns have immense recreational value especially for families with children.
mrctte··on Cocaine Paraphernalia Ads in the 70s
Yea I think you’re underestimating the euphoric effects of alcohol.
mrctte··on Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
Overall, pretty well. I was able to make a major career shift, going from a data analyst to a software engineer in the span of about 9 months of self-directed study. I reckon this was one of the biggest positive changes in my life to-date.

On the other hand, I developed quite a bit of anxiety and felt a little lost and depressed at times.

My advice to get the most out of your time would be: make sure the other key areas of your life are stable first (e.g. relationships, geography, finances, social life).

If you change multiple major facets of your life all at once, you are running the risk of becoming a bit untethered.

That being said, maybe it's the feeling of being untethered that catalyzes the growth in the first place.

mrctte··on Django 4.0 release candidate 1 released
You can also just generate an Open API spec and use something like openapi-generators to produce typed client code for data fetching (https://github.com/OpenAPITools/openapi-generator)
mrctte··on Django 4.0 release candidate 1 released
It's also quite easy to swap out the templating engine for whatever front end framework that you'd like to use. Django provides tons of value even when used solely as an API server and ORM.
mrctte··on Ask HN: Does Everyone Hate Chatbots?
Baird Hall from Wavve made an interesting point that chatbots are a blessing for founders because every question/conversation is an insight into what users are thinking and how they view the product.

As a consumer, I hate them. There is something very off putting about seeing a notification when you visit a landing page.

mrctte··on M1 Pro First Impressions: Core Management and CPU Performance
This app changes everything https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12
mrctte··on Our self imposed scarcity of nice places
I think there are quite a few other factors that could explain the difference in international tourism between Phoenix and NY.

LA seems to be doing alright though with ~7.5M foreign visitors a year: https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/sites/default/files/2019-...

mrctte··on Our self imposed scarcity of nice places
If that is true, why are there so many international tourists in U.S. cities every Summer?

Furthermore I've both vacationed to - and lived in - SF at different stages of my life.