AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: What is not going to change in future?

Top comment by Tainnor

Theoretical CS fundamentals are not going to change. Practically, that means among other things:

- Unless somebody finds a polynomial algorithm for an NP-complete problem (which is a taller order than just proving P=NP), several interesting problems will continue to be infeasible to solve exactly in the general case with large data.

- If, in addition, quantum computers don't prove to be viable, commonly used cryptosystems such as RSA, AES, ECC, will probably continue to be secure provided they're used correctly.

- Results like the Two Generals Problem, the CAP theorem, etc. will still make distributed systems difficult to work with and require tradeoffs.

- Rice's theorem, that it is impossible to determine computational properties of arbitrary programs, will still apply, making static analysis (including antivirus programs, security scans, etc.) heuristic rather than exact.

- etc.

2. Ask HN: Which skills are least likely to be replaced by AI?

Top comment by ilaksh

You didn't give a time frame. So I would say, there are no skills that cannot be replaced by AI in an indefinite time frame.

AI might have mastered just about every skill or capability within 10 or 20 years. Some people suspect less.

Your list isn't really just skills but more generally abilities.

Emotional IQ - See the Inflection 2.5 model (Pi).

Creativity - Ask ChatGPT to help you be creative writing poetry and then creating paintings of the poems.

Leadership/management - Claude 3 or GPT4 might be better than the average manager. 70% of my bosses have been barely competent pr!cks though, so I may be biased.

Negotiation is not that complex actually. It's boils down to being willing to walk away. Leading LLMs can be good negotiators already.

Hand-eye coordination - not for every single task, but we have robots that can play ping pong, juggle, catch balls, and solve a Rubik's cube faster than humanely possible.

Critical thinking skills: put the average person off the street against Claude 3 Opus or GPT-4 Turbo and have them take a GRE or similar test. I would bet on the AI.

For your list, we are already there.

I think that "replaced" is not necessarily the best way to think about it though. People still play chess. Or run. Or Jeopardy. We still have plenty of amateur artists that just want to imitate their favorite cartoon or whatever. Even though AI can do all of that better and faster now.

But wait 10 or 20 years. There will be very realistic and fully capable simulations of humans.

3. Ask HN: Non-duopoly smart phone in Sweden?

Top comment by nonrandomstring

> do not support

A few years ago I wrote a Times Higher article called something like "Your future is not supported" about exclusion in schools.

"Not supported" is a seemingly innocuous but vicious expression. In almost all cases it has nothing to say about technical interoperability but is an opaque "layer 8" matter of "policy". Hence you are correct identifying it as a "political" problem.

I also wrote in Digital Vegan about how digital lifestyle choices, such as prioritising security, or choosing not to support convicted criminal monopolists and gangsters, rank equally with other kinds of identity and observances.

We no longer see signs in shops that say "No Blacks, No Irish" But today we have the equivalent with the language of "We do not support..."

> This requires a political solution.

Mandated service-level interoperability with the total elimination of all barriers to entry is the only way to go. It will happen. But it's a slow process. Obviously Europe is leading the way.

4. Ask HN: If you could spend $100k to get healthy and fit, how would you do it?

Top comment by mathhulk

I think you should spend your money on a respectable in-person personal trainer who will help you meal prep and exercise with you daily. You need to find someone who will force you to be consistent with your efforts, whether that involves exercise or diet. I certainly don’t think you need to spend $100K, but if you have the money, find someone who will help guide you through the hard work you’re already willing to try.

5. Ask HN: When will LLMs be able to interrupt or interject?

Top comment by layer8

“It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?”

That didn’t go down so well in the past.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant

6. Ask HN: How much to charge for an API call?

Top comment by orochimaaru

Please don’t charge per call. It’s irritating. Charge for a block of calls or better still a block of calls in a moving time window. This way prospective clients don’t have to go ahead and estimate their entire design before using your product. A block (eg 100k calls every 24 hrs) gives them an easy way of balloarking their costs as well.

7. Ask HN: How do you use AI for software engineering?

Top comment by throwaway74432

In my opinion, using these tools daily and extensively, AI and AI copilots are an extreme force multiplier for in writing boilerplate code, debugging simple (but non-obvious) mistakes in existing code, and context immersion ("How do I X in framework Y"). It truly helps elevate the craft of SWE above writing code to complexity management and system evolution.

I also feel like this generation of senior/staff SWEs (the senior pre-AI engineer) is in a very unique position for the following reason: we know what the correct code should look like, because we've written it ourselves many times, and we know how to review and modify it quickly. I don't think new SWEs will have that same ability. At the same time, that ability may not be required in the future as AI gets better and better at following instructions correctly.

AI's future in coding is uncertain. I think there is a new unrealized engineering platform on the horizon that can only be realized through a very small and focused group of architects using AI (maybe even 1 person), and that this new platform, which is focused on complexity management and system evolution, will change how we "code" completely, at the same time resetting AI's copilot utility in this new world.

8. Ask HN: How do you optimize your focus?

Top comment by shubhamjain

I believe it's fruitless to try to reach that state. Because the harder you try, more difficult it is to reach. I have been in the zone working on a messy desk, with tons of distractions around. And I have failed to be in the zone with all my website-blocking apps and having my phone away.

You get into the zone because you're obsessed with a problem or an idea. It's the key to being in the flow. Too many people try to optimize the environment, when it helps only a little.

Unfortunately, I only have a little clue how to trigger it. But I do know that what you're working on is the most important part. In addition to that journaling, reading, and meditation help. Other than that, it's okay to leave these things to chance and not try too hard.

9. Ask HN: Why does it seem hard to buy an ONT for fiber?

Top comment by alufers

I'm not sure where you live (probably the US), but here in Europe you can easily get GPON ONTs from different manufacturers. There even are whole communities dedicated to replacing your ISP's ONT+modem combo: https://hack-gpon.org/quick-start

In some countries (Germany) it's super easy, because there are laws forcing the ISPs to allow customer provided equipment, while in other countries you need to do some hackery with spoofing serial numbers and such of the original modem. People even make utilities to scrape that information via the administrative interface, and make the process semi-automated: https://github.com/StephanGR/GO-BOX

The biggest problem for me about the ISP routers is their sheer size, they probably make them big so that they seem "powerful" to the average person and he chooses that ISP believing that their router provides superior Wi-Fi. New apartments built here (in Poland) even have nice boxes with the incoming fiber and an electrical socket where you are supposed to hide your Router, but the shoebox-sized devices don't fit there and you have to put them on the floor, or somewhere else. I myself have bought a SFP+ GPON (LEOX LXT-010S-H) transceiver, which is the smallest form-factor you can get. It goes inside my Banana-Pi R3 router, together with an LTE modem for backup connectivity. And this setup is still smaller than the box provided by my ISP, which only served as a bridge between GPON and my router.

10. Ask HN: Why is the crypto booming again?

Top comment by photon_lines

I'd say the biggest reasons recently are:

1) The approval of various ETFs (so demand is heightened). It's much easier to invest in it than in was in the past.

2) Traders expecting the supply to tighten (see bitcoin halving which is due very soon) and the demand there also heightening due to supply constraint expectation.

3) A lot of the uncertainty in terms of exchanges is gone. Coinbase looks like it can stand up to scrutiny and this furthermore boosts demand.

When you have huge demand vs. constrained supply, bubbles form. Of course, are all of the factors I mentioned enough to keep the bubble going for a very long time? Well, that I can't answer. No one knows how long this will last. I can tell you though that this to me looks like it is the next Tulip bubble. I see almost no reason to use bitcoin as a store of wealth. As a decentralized currency it has tremendous value, but treating it as gold I have reservations on since a lot of corrupt gangs and regimes are currently using it as a method of payment and laundering (including North Korea), as well as it being a huge drain on the world's energy supply due to mining energy needs...I don't really see what value it brings to the world at all, so treating it as 'virtual gold' (the way the world has been treating it) makes 0 sense to me, but in general, the world in the short-term sometimes makes very little sense. Over the long term, things tend to clear up. Hopefully that helps.