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The info about the RAND corporation was engaging, but... since the post promised to connect it to "strikingly similar to the rhetoric coming out of places like Anthropic" ... I was surprised that it entirely lacked quotes from Anthropic, save one link to another blog post that was itself, IIUC, a joke.

Isn't "free market capitalism" is doing its job here, rewarding the best player of the game into brand-godhood?

More to the point - is it not government oversight that appears incapable of leveling the playing field for others?

That said - the only "others" we seem capable of getting is other governments' Amazons. So. Devil you know?


>Isn't "free market capitalism" is doing its job here, rewarding the best player of the game into brand-godhood?

only if you think free market == unrestrained market

as monopoly is antithesis to capitalism itself, whose main principle is competition.


And where is any monopoly involved in this situation?

Capitalism's main principle is not competition, it is merely the private ownership of the "means of production".

Just so we are all on the same page, capitalism is when:

.. the "means of production" (factories, employees, computers, tools, etc.) ..

.. are "privately owned" (as opposed to state owned) ..

.. for "profit" (so you do not have to live paycheck to paycheck).

This is a good idea, because otherwise the state would have a monopoly on everything by definition. Monopolies can form under capitalism, but that's where the state should take action. Remember when Standard Oil became a monopoly and was broken apart by the state under capitalism back in 1911? A failure of the state isn't a failure of capitalism, which is also why I can't understand people wanting communism, which would give the state a monopoly on everything, when what we are witnessing is already a failure of the state.


It even updated to let you choose the search engine. Surprisingly they haven't updated it to include OpenAI/Claude/Copilot/... guess he should've named the domain "lmFtfy" (s/Google/find/g)

The "taking credit" thing rings true for sure.

I have trouble saying "I" when an LLM has done the leg work.

"I found a report with this info..." turns into "There's a report with this info". heh.


Had the same thought.

> Scam American companies

... why would I do that?

> Scam American companies are using

... so fake companies?

> Scam American companies are using to manipulate ingredient lists

... What?

(reads post)

Oh. "Food companies are splitting up ingredients to manipulate you"

(as a tangent: There's zero percent chance this is only "American" companies. Useless addon word.)


You're defending the example (why idk), but what about, say, a dog food company listing "buffalo meat" as its #1 ingredient by simply splitting every filler ingredient into constituent parts?

How does one reward the "good guys" when one can't tell the difference between a gamed metric and an honest one?


Why? Because I once researched it also assuming it was a scam, and then found out it very much wasn't.

I can't speak to dog food, I haven't researched that -- just the multiple sugar types. And also that when ice cream lists skim milk as an ingredient along with heavy cream, this isn't to make it appear healthier either -- it's to control the overall milkfat levels.

But if you're looking for nutritional information, that's literally on the label next to the ingredients. If you want to judge the protein or the sugar, then just look at that. If you're trying to judge those amounts by looking at the order of ingredients, that's your mistake to begin with.


There.can be multiple reasons for things. It is true that blending sugar, corn syrup, and HFCS gives finer control over texture and flavor. It is also true that there is immense marketing value to "strawberries" being the first ingredient, and if "sugar" was listed first they would see a drop in sales.

If you think the second item there does not get consideration by these companies, you are dead wrong.


> It is also true that there is immense marketing value to "strawberries" being the first ingredient, and if "sugar" was listed first they would see a drop in sales.

To add to this, I recall an actual marketing campaign from one of the big US cereal manufacturers (I forget which) about the first listed ingredient in some of their cereals being whole grain, explicitly selling their product on the fact that the plurality ingredient of it is healthy.

Granted, that by itself doesn't mean much, but if they also split sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, their claim of "more whole grain than any other ingredient" could easily fall under technically-correct-but-misleading. Of course, a shopper can get more useful information from the nutritional facts but most people shop by the pretty picture on the front of the box (and the friendly message on their screen) rather than the technical label on the back.


> also assuming it was a scam, and then found out it very much wasn't.

Right, it's "just" an "honest" list of ingredients, how could a list of ingredients be a scam?

... but if splitting an unhealthy ingredient into 3 different obfuscated line items made you an extra pile of cash every year... would you do it?


OP says the article is to help CS majors soldier on.

... and I'm reminded of all the folks that have Accounting degrees. Their degrees ended up being proof that they could track a lot of rules.

That proof meant they got hired and their job was not to ... "account", but to "fit into our business".

Perhaps that's the majority of CS folks going forward?

"Your CS degree proves you can help me not get stuck in technical problems so I can go solve [business/engineering/scientific/...] problems"...?


As long as it has value... I'll allow it.

~guywithnopowertodisallowit


The first example (of HN) is the one that feels like it has the most potential to me.

"Teach me to do this" kinda stuff. "Guiding agent" rather than "doing agent".

Honestly, @franze, if you're reading this, maybe update your screenshots to show an agent in tutorial mode on some complicated app?


done


Confoundingly, not having permanent daylight savings time could harm sleep and mental health, @inanutshellus says.

If it benefits you to have DST timing, you'll want permanent DST. If it benefits you to ditch it, you'll want to ditch it.

The effects of being on the "wrong side" affect mental health and safety.

Thus... whichever way you want to be true, is true.


It turns out that humans evolved in hyper local environments and are not designed to serve the needs of corporations and schedules.


Yeah. I think we need to get back to a life that revolves around natural cycles and healthy circadian rhythms. It’s stupid that I have to get up in the dark to take my kid to school. Unquestionably, my kid should be sleeping until the light naturally wakes her.


You mean move back to Africa? It might be a bit un-natural for humans to even live that far north, which forces the consumption of more resources (heating, clothing, food transport, etc.) than we would if we would live in milder climates.

On top of which, people seem to have a large variation in preferences, see : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10870...


You are on the other side of the line, that's all.

No matter which way the government goes, someone's "mental health and safety" WILL be affected... just... somewhere else.

Implying only one side has those effects (like this topic's headline) is underhanded.


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