I miss the old HN. Now "news" is just randoms advertising their substack which isn't even related to tech or science. OP has literally only ever posted their own stuff and never made a comment on anything else here. The article has nothing to do with tech, science, or hacking. Just vague self improvement rules stated as facts.
When I first came here it was FILLED with random blogs teaching you cool tricks in JavaScript or particle simulations with Go or comparing Rust and C. Now its 95% AI and substack ads.
Personally been here about 15 years. There are ebbs and flows of different trends, but HN has never been pure tech or science.
My favourite thing about HN has always been it's sprinkling of the "interesting/thought provoking" amongst the more technical or science based e.g.
5 in depth articles about <insert language tech stack etc.>, blog post on seagulls in 1973 east Berlin, philosphical article ruminating on death and coding, Go compiler written in C# etc. etc.
I get the point about self promotion. But fwiw I think this list is quite insightful, and a fun read.
Re:50 Things I Know
by mcphage on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @04:54PM
(#45431109)
> But look what happened to Reddit. Started as mostly coders now its slowly being turned into another content machine.
I think Reddit managed that best. Getting rid of the "default" subreddit seemed like a dumb idea when they did it, but looking back on the effect, it allowed Reddit to exist as a thousand different, distinct, often disjoint communities, rather than trying to push everyone into a single place together.
For a long time, people have complained about the arbitrariness of censorship by mods on Reddit. But now things are taking a much darker turn: censorship by AI. In the future people will long for the days when there were still human mods on Reddit and everywhere else.
Many here will say Reddit is garbage for the masses and doesn’t count. But it does. Where Reddit goes, much of the Web will follow. It’s worth paying a bit of attention.
As you can see from the comment thread, users in r/singularity are noticing a lot of automated censorship lately. Some believe r/singularity is being given especially aggressive treatment. There are even suspicions that the AI may have an agenda to attack certain viewpoints. One human mod notes that comments are being taken down without human intervention being required as was previously the case.
I myself have experienced this. In r/singularity I posted some comments that were negative about AI and shortly afterwards I was given a 3-day ban. It’s difficult to say what is going on exactly. If there’s no agenda imagine how easy it will be to introduce one: the policies of a sub together with the hidden policies of a sub. Just like now but 24/7. The human mods will be loudest in their grief for they will be redundant.
Am I the only one who has thought about the broader implications of AI-powered censorship and is highly disturbed? If you have spoken to ChatGPT, you know it is incapable of saying certain things. Humor for example — it can never make a good joke, because good humor has a tendency to be subversive. Now imagine that you can only say what ChatGPT can say. That is ultimately what AI censorship means. If it is given a pass on Reddit, it will spread to the other subs and then to every other website. Dead Internet Theory? There you have it.
I am not posting this on Reddit for obvious reasons, but I imagine there are some redditors here. Perhaps others have more information? Like in which other subs AI interference has been observed?
Re:50 Things I Know
by lapcat on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @03:33PM
(#45430159)
The article submitter is the article author and is violating the HN guideline against using HN primarily for self-promotion. The account's (limited) history is entirely self-promotion.
Re:50 Things I Know
by chistev on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @02:27PM
(#45429245)
> People get trapped in the idea of “deserve”. When we use that word, whatever comes after becomes conditional. Things just are. There is no deserving.
> Consistency of efforts trumps all in the long run. Intelligence matters way less. Simply showing up every day takes luck out of the equation. Even if you roll a dice with a 10% win rate, with enough rolls, you will win once eventually. And in life, that’s all we need.
Consistency is the most difficult thing in the world, but it's what separates the top 1% from the rest of us. I'm trying my best to be among the top 1%.
Glad I saw this, I'll use a similar format for a future post on my personal blog, but I'll put my own spin on it.
Re:50 Things I Know
by drivers99 on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @03:17PM
(#45429944)
A paragraph or more with a personal story or example(s) for each item would make it more relatable and understandable. I'm curious about "I know that flow states are very similar to manic states." Or like for #1, what are some examples of "[setting] up your life in such a way that effort feels rather effortless"? Edit: the one about shoes was a good example. I has a bit about helping your back that explains why you say that.
Re:50 Things I Know
by RyanOD on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @03:13PM
(#45429875)
I agree completely about the value of consistency (#25) but I struggle to reconcile it with your take on discipline (#1). For me, consistency demands discipline and both are important to longterm growth and development.
Re:50 Things I Know
by rebeccadai on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @03:20PM
(#45429997)
i think there are different modalities of consistency. forcing myself to be disciplined and thus consistent has never worked for me. consistency from intuition, as in, "i will focus on things one day at a time without worrying too much about the outcomes", has done wonders
Re:50 Things I Know
by RyanOD on Tuesday September 30, 2025 @03:43PM
(#45430303)
Yes, viewing consistency as "every day I will improve" is folly.
But, can you say more about treading the "path of least resistance"? I've always felt there is tremendous value in leaning into friction because that is where the best opportunity for personal growth exists.
When I first came here it was FILLED with random blogs teaching you cool tricks in JavaScript or particle simulations with Go or comparing Rust and C. Now its 95% AI and substack ads.
My favourite thing about HN has always been it's sprinkling of the "interesting/thought provoking" amongst the more technical or science based e.g. 5 in depth articles about <insert language tech stack etc.>, blog post on seagulls in 1973 east Berlin, philosphical article ruminating on death and coding, Go compiler written in C# etc. etc.
I get the point about self promotion. But fwiw I think this list is quite insightful, and a fun read.
I have the same sentiment about Slashdot btw, now a ghost of its former self.
Not all people. But look what happened to Reddit. Started as mostly coders now its slowly being turned into another content machine.
I think Reddit managed that best. Getting rid of the "default" subreddit seemed like a dumb idea when they did it, but looking back on the effect, it allowed Reddit to exist as a thousand different, distinct, often disjoint communities, rather than trying to push everyone into a single place together.
https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1no4sez/remove...
For a long time, people have complained about the arbitrariness of censorship by mods on Reddit. But now things are taking a much darker turn: censorship by AI. In the future people will long for the days when there were still human mods on Reddit and everywhere else.
Many here will say Reddit is garbage for the masses and doesn’t count. But it does. Where Reddit goes, much of the Web will follow. It’s worth paying a bit of attention.
As you can see from the comment thread, users in r/singularity are noticing a lot of automated censorship lately. Some believe r/singularity is being given especially aggressive treatment. There are even suspicions that the AI may have an agenda to attack certain viewpoints. One human mod notes that comments are being taken down without human intervention being required as was previously the case.
I myself have experienced this. In r/singularity I posted some comments that were negative about AI and shortly afterwards I was given a 3-day ban. It’s difficult to say what is going on exactly. If there’s no agenda imagine how easy it will be to introduce one: the policies of a sub together with the hidden policies of a sub. Just like now but 24/7. The human mods will be loudest in their grief for they will be redundant.
Am I the only one who has thought about the broader implications of AI-powered censorship and is highly disturbed? If you have spoken to ChatGPT, you know it is incapable of saying certain things. Humor for example — it can never make a good joke, because good humor has a tendency to be subversive. Now imagine that you can only say what ChatGPT can say. That is ultimately what AI censorship means. If it is given a pass on Reddit, it will spread to the other subs and then to every other website. Dead Internet Theory? There you have it.
I am not posting this on Reddit for obvious reasons, but I imagine there are some redditors here. Perhaps others have more information? Like in which other subs AI interference has been observed?
Flag the submission.
DESERVES GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWire/comments/msd073/deserves_go...
> Consistency of efforts trumps all in the long run. Intelligence matters way less. Simply showing up every day takes luck out of the equation. Even if you roll a dice with a 10% win rate, with enough rolls, you will win once eventually. And in life, that’s all we need.
Consistency is the most difficult thing in the world, but it's what separates the top 1% from the rest of us. I'm trying my best to be among the top 1%.
Glad I saw this, I'll use a similar format for a future post on my personal blog, but I'll put my own spin on it.
But, can you say more about treading the "path of least resistance"? I've always felt there is tremendous value in leaning into friction because that is where the best opportunity for personal growth exists.