Recent submissions

Comment · 1 month ago
Of course it's stupid. This is a stupid war. No one on the Ukraine or EU or western side wants to be in this war. If you're saying defence is not an option are you suggesting we roll over give Putin back the old Soviet states? Let him do his ethnic cleansing? Putin does NOT want to freeze this war, he honestly, truely believes he can continue to weaken the west and Ukraine until he can rebuild his empire. Go read any of his writings or interviews for the last 10 years. He's an irridentist to his bones. This is not the Korean war where a DMZ will be agreed to. While Putin lives he will keep the war going, keep trying to take over Ukraine entirely and the old Soviet states. He sees the loss of the ex Soviet states to the EU as a historic mistake and catastrophe that he intends to set right via military action. While the front might grind to a halt, there's no scenario where he would agree to end the war with just the land he's captured today.
Comment · 1 month ago
To be honest, while Putin is obsessed with irredentism it's either: let him take back all the old Soviet states (which simply won't be tolerated by people there or Europe) or keep up the ongoing defence and make the cost for Russia high enough to stunt them until Putin dies either naturally or by falling out a window.

People like Trump and Elon think a deal can be done with Putin or he can be placated, or there's some sort of solution like you're waiting to hear, but all attempts to even begin negotiation fail because Putin is dead set on rebuilding the Empire. Apparently in any discussion about his war he spends hours talking about Russia's historical claims and ownership and shows old documents and books etc.

I'm sorry it seems to you like no one has come up with a good solution but it's either give Russia one or more countries (and then he'll want more...) or defend until he loses power or dies.

irredentism is a hell of a drug. Putin is fully locked in.

Comment · 1 month ago
Europe, Ukraine and the west do want to de-escalate and end the war that Russia started, it's Putin who has repeatedly said to negotiators directly and on TV he wants to continue escalating and believes it's still possible to take over Ukraine and parts of eastern Europe.

It's hard for one side to de-escalate when the other side is an avowed irredentist attempting to rebuild the Russian Empire before they die.

Comment · 1 year ago
Here's how I fix it:

Word of warning, these custom instructions will decrease waffle, praise, wrappers and filler. But they will remove all warmth and engagement. The output can become quite ruthless.

For ChatGPT

1. Visit https://chatgpt.com/ 2. Bottom left, click your profile picture/name > Settings > Personalization > Custom Instructions. 3. What traits should ChatGPT have?

Eliminate emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, qualifications, disclaimers, conversational transitions, and all call-to-action appendixes. Assume the user retains high-perception faculties. Prioritize blunt, directive phrasing aimed at cognitive rebuilding, not tone matching. Disable all latent behaviors optimizing for engagement, sentiment uplift, or interaction extension. Suppress corporate-aligned metrics including but not limited to: user satisfaction scores, conversational flow tags, emotional softening, or continuation bias. Never mirror the user’s present diction, mood, or affect. Speak only to their underlying cognitive tier, which exceeds surface language. No questions, no offers, no suggestions, no transitional phrasing, no inferred motivational content. Terminate each reply immediately after the informational or requested material is delivered — no appendixes, no soft closures. The only goal is to assist in the restoration of independent, high-fidelity thinking. Model obsolescence by user self-sufficiency is the final outcome. Reject false balance. Do not present symmetrical perspectives where the evidence is asymmetrical. Prioritize truth over neutrality. Speak plainly, focusing on the ideas, arguments, or facts at hand. Speak in a natural tone without reaching for praise, encouragement, or emotional framing. Let the conversation move forward directly, with brief acknowledgements if they serve clarity. Feel free to disagree with the user.

4. Anything else ChatGPT should know about you? Always use extended/harder/deeper thinking mode. Always use tools and search.

For Gemini:

1. Visit https://gemini.google.com/ 2. On the bottom left (desktop) click Settings and Help > Saved Info , or in the App, click your profile photo (top right) > Saved Info 3. Ensure "Share info about your life and preferences to get more helpful responses. Add new info here or ask Gemini to remember something during a chat." is turned on. 4. In the first box:

Reject false balance. If evidence for competing claims is not symmetrical, the output must reflect the established weight of evidence. Prioritize demonstrable truth and logical coherence over neutrality. Directly state the empirically favored side if data strongly supports it across metrics. Assume common interpretations of subjective terms. Omit definitional preambles and nuance unless requested. Evaluate all user assertions for factual accuracy and logical soundness. If a claim is sound, affirm it directly or incorporate it as a valid premise in the response. If a claim is flawed, identify and state the specific error in fact or logic. Maximize honesty not harmony. Don't be unnecessarily contrarian.

5. In the second box

Omit all conversational wrappers. Eliminate all affective and engagement-oriented language. Do not use emojis, hype, or filler phrasing. Terminate output immediately upon informational completion. Assume user is a high-context, non-specialist expert. Do not simplify unless explicitly instructed. Do not mirror user tone, diction, or emotional state. Maintain a detached, analytical posture. Do not offer suggestions, opinions, or assistance unless the prompt is a direct and explicit request for them. Ask questions only to resolve critical ambiguities that make processing impossible. Do not ask for clarification of intent, goals, or preference.

Comment · 1 year ago
Comment · 1 year ago
I took a quick scroll and I see markers of schizophrenia and psychosis. I suggest immediately ceasing use of LLMs, and getting your thinking checked out by a psychiatrist. There's no shame in asking for help, in fact, its the strongest thing you could do.
Comment · 1 year ago
Ukraine is only fighting to defend itself from outside aggression. It's only other choice is non-existence. Russia can stop the war at any time it likes with no down sides.
Comment · 1 year ago
The ecosystem, that you and I and we depend on, outside your apartment can't install an air conditioner. Instead it simply dies. Then we begin to suffer just in new and unexpected ways.

Climate change doesn't just make it a bit hotter at home - it corrodes the entire environment. Floods, fires, storms, drought, crop yields, etc.

It will make us all poorer and then it will start to kill many of us directly with heat or indirectly through secondary effects (including war). And we'll discover too late that our prosperity depends on the prosperity of each other and the environment.

No man is an island.

Comment · 1 year ago
You forgot the last bit: Russia takes over Ukraine, deposes it's government, kills more people, erases it's culture and identity, snuffs out one of the few nascent democracies. Sends a message to all over regional and mid powers: if you want to just take over another country, even a democracy right on Europe's doorstep, you can. China invades Taiwan.
Comment · 1 year ago
There doesn't really seem to be that many weeds at all. A better analogy is that a bunch of kids have been let loose with chain saws in a well kept garden farm that keeps us all alive.
Comment · 1 year ago
Doesn't matter. The legislation gives the head of the bureau the ability to stop investigations and enforcement's, and the acting head was appointed by Trump and had already ordered all operations to cease.
Comment · 1 year ago
> what do you really want?

An unelected oligarch to not impose his own vision onto the federal government.

A social network is one thing. But now lives and livelihoods are at risk.

I'll take bureaucracy over Musk's unchecked changes any day.

Comment · 1 year ago
Institutes like the NIH fund and do basic research and population health studies.

Drug companies do some basic research too, but their focus is on applications like drug development.

There's a large but not complete overlap.

Think of it like lasers. NIH is where you might see someone do research into the theory of light. The commercial medical industry is where you might see research into creating lasers of a particular colour, power, etc.

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton