zlacker

Can we please stop paying attention to what celebrity developers and HN darlings like simonw have to say?

Listening to influencers is in large part what got us into the (social, political, technofascist) mess we're currently in. At the very least listening to alternative voices has the chance of getting us out. I'm tired of influencers, no matter how benign their message sounds. But I'm especially tired of those who speak positively of this technology and where it's taking us.

No, this viral thing that's barely 2 months old is certainly not the most interesting place on the internet. Get out of your bubble.

>>imiric+(OP)
You gotta learn to read past the headline.

>>imiric+(OP)
Of course it isn't. Internet comedy was set in stone with Zombocom and Homstar, and we all know the Internet moves very slowly, so "the most interesting place" would have to be something old, like the Space Jam Website from '97 still being up. That bubble is at the very front of a very frothy wave, at the bleeding edge of art and technology. That makes it more interesting than all the other shit on the Internet because we've that shit already. This is what FORUM 3000 dreamed of being!

>>imiric+(OP)
He’s the right person at the right time. A prolific HN celebrity that has been spamming day in day out this site with LLM updates, playing the optimist, the skeptic and any shade in between, 10 times a week, during the peak of the hype.

His efforts might single-handedly be worth a couple percentage points off the valuations of AI companies. That’s like, what, a dozen billion dollars these days? At least I hope for him he gets the fat check before it all goes up in flames.

>>imiric+(OP)
It's bizarre to me how much attention this site pays to ~influencers~ self-promoters who aren't even AI researchers. Anything substantial on this topic is likely going to be presented at siggraph, or written by someone who does actual research in the field. We're acting like "all-round web tech enthusiasts" are real authorities and letting them suck all the air out of the room in this constant barrage of AI hype.

>>eloisi+fV3
Well said, I fully agree.

I respect Simon's work, and have no desire to disparage him. He's an accomplished engineer who has made great contributions to the industry.

But he's not an authority on this subject. And even if he were, this community has a strange obsession with authority figures. Appeals to authority are frequently thrown around to back up an argument. Opinions made by dang, pg, tptacek, sama, et al, are held in higher regard than those made by random accounts. It's often not about the value of what is being said, but about who says it, which is detrimental to open discourse.

I would argue that opinions from authority figures should be challenged more than anyone else's. They are as fallible as everyone, but they're also in a position to influence and mislead a lot of people. So many of humanity's problems were caused by deranged leaders wielding their power and influence over masses. I think this is especially important in the case of this technology, where many people have a lot to gain from certain narratives, and many more have a lot to lose depending on how all this plays out.

>>eloisi+fV3
I very much look forward to reading a SIGGRAPH paper about OpenClaw and Moltbook!

>>sph+m63
I'm actually quite selective about what I post to Hacker News - I didn't submit this piece about Moltbook for example because there was already an active thread about it.

If you look at submissions from my domain on https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=simonwillison.net you'll see most of them weren't by my simonw user - I generally submit things myself 2-3 times a month, and only things I deem to be "Hacker News worthy".

>>simonw+FI5
For completeness, I feel the frequency of the posters own domain in their comments should be included, not just their self submissions.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

>>cube00+jO5
Guilty as charged, I've been trying to set a precedent there that more people should write on their own site and link back to it where relevant in comments.

I argued that point in this comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367224#46371369