The hottest Substack posts right now

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LLMs Know More Than What They Say

LLMs for Engineers • 120 HN points • 15 Aug 24
đź•ą Technology Machine Learning Data science Software Development Computing AI
  1. Using latent space techniques can improve the accuracy of evaluations for AI applications without requiring a lot of human feedback. This approach saves time and resources.
  2. Latent space readout (LSR) helps in detecting issues like hallucinations in AI outputs by allowing users to adjust the sensitivity of detection. This means it can catch more errors if needed, even if that results in some false alarms.
  3. Creating customized evaluation rubrics for AI applications is essential. By gathering targeted feedback from users, developers can create more effective evaluation systems that align with specific needs.

Morning as Training Ground

The Stoic Journal • 60 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics Virtue ethics Practical philosophy Self-Improvement Mindfulness Stoicism
  1. Use the morning as a deliberate practice: aim to think clearly, act fairly, and accept what’s beyond your control.
  2. Treat everyday annoyances—commute delays, difficult people, missed deadlines—as chances to train patience, gentleness, and persistence.
  3. Look for what will go wrong because those moments build your character; choose to face the day ready to get stronger instead of complaining.

Who is Oleksii Sidorov

Oleksii Sidorov • 324 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
đź’Ľ Business Research Ecommerce Investing AI Startups
  1. Oleksii Sidorov started his journey in art but shifted to physics and math, eventually excelling academically and discovering a passion for tutoring and entrepreneurship.
  2. He gained diverse experiences through research and various startup ventures, exploring innovative AI solutions in marketing and advertising.
  3. Investing has become a significant part of his financial strategy, where he learned to balance risks with cautious decision-making across different asset classes.

Meta unspools Threads

Platformer • 3518 implied HN points • 05 Jul 23
đź•ą Technology Content Moderation Decentralization Apps Social media Data Privacy
  1. Meta released Threads, a new app challenging Twitter, with a focus on content moderation and decentralization.
  2. Threads is a text-based messaging app similar to Twitter, allowing easy following of Instagram users with limited features.
  3. The success of Threads will depend on cultivating a vibrant community and continuous improvements to user experience.

No. Fed stimulus doesn't hurt first-time homebuyers

Erdmann Housing Tracker • 126 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
đź’° Finance Homeownership Real Estate Housing Mortgages Monetary Policy Credit Markets Housing policy
  1. Changes in mortgage rates mainly shift short-term buying and prices, but they don't plausibly explain large, long-term declines in the share of first-time homebuyers.
  2. Factors like credit access rules, down-payment/LTV constraints, repeat-buyer activity, foreclosure and seller swings, and housing supply shortages are more important and lasting drivers of homeownership patterns.
  3. Empirical models that accumulate transitory rate shocks or use unrealistic assumptions (no construction, exogenous rents) can give misleading causal conclusions, so housing research needs better counterfactuals and out-of-sample testing.
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5 Sony Devices That Never Left Japan

Obsolete Sony’s Newsletter • 159 implied HN points • 06 Aug 24
đź•ą Technology Gadgets Innovation Electronics
  1. Sony created some really cool gadgets that were only sold in Japan. These devices show how innovative and unique their technology is.
  2. One notable device is the KW-3600HD, a heavy and expensive TV that was the first to support high-definition back in 1990.
  3. Another interesting gadget is the D-901NV Discman from 1995, which had a built-in TV tuner and GPS, combining several cool features.

Spotify’s Plans For AI Generated Music, Podcasts, and Recommendations, According To Its Co-President, CTO, and CPO Gustav Söderström

Big Technology • 5879 implied HN points • 13 Nov 24
đź•ą Technology Recommendations AI Music Podcasts Digital Media
  1. Spotify is embracing AI to enhance creativity in music and podcasts. They see these tools as ways to help artists express themselves better rather than replacing them.
  2. The company is focusing on improving how users find new music and podcasts. They want users to feel like they have control over their recommendations and can provide feedback.
  3. Spotify aims to create a more personal experience by using AI. They envision a platform where users can interact like friends with the app, making the recommendations feel tailored and engaging.

If apps are dead, is context the new moat?

Kathy PM • 13 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology User Experience Developer Experience Product Strategy Infrastructure Artificial Intelligence Platforms
  1. Building standalone apps as destinations is becoming obsolete because people don't want to leave their existing workflows. Software now needs to show up where users already are.
  2. Low-cost, fast-built "vibe" apps will flood the web but most won't earn long-term value because they don't accumulate context. The real advantage is owning continuous context — memory over time, visibility across tools, governed actions, and trust.
  3. The future is continuous systems that observe work, accumulate context, and proactively help inside your existing tools. These always-on, mostly invisible layers prioritize continuity and background improvements over flashy interfaces.

The Evolution of Behavioral Value Investor

Behavioral Value Investor • 118 implied HN points • 29 Jan 26
đź’° Finance Case Studies Value investing Behavioral Finance Investment education Portfolio Management
  1. A paid tier is launching to help serious investors systematically improve, centered on a weekly "10-Minute Investment Autopsy" case study plus deeper company deep-dives, frameworks, and templates.
  2. Free content and the Value Investing Seminar will remain available, while paid members get a moderated community, regular interaction, an annual Zoom Q&A, and group or educational rates for teams and professors.
  3. The service is explicitly educational, not a stock tip or portfolio service — no public recommendations or portfolio transparency — and aims to improve your investing process with as little as about 30 minutes a week.

OpenAI: Economic Justice Delayed

Dana Blankenhorn: Facing the Future • 39 implied HN points • 03 Oct 24
đź•ą Technology Investment Artificial Intelligence Economics Innovation Startups
  1. OpenAI recently received a large investment to avoid bankruptcy, but experts think financial troubles may still be on the way. There's skepticism about how sustainable their business model is.
  2. The promises of AI, like improving productivity and creativity, often don't match up with what users actually experience. Many believe AI tools still have major limitations.
  3. The funding from investors seems more focused on finding a quick profit than on genuinely improving AI technology. There's a worry that this could lead to a crash if expectations aren't met.

If You're So Smart, Why Can't You Die?

Desystemize • 3933 implied HN points • 16 Feb 25
đź•ą Technology Philosophy Innovation AI Intelligence Computing
  1. AI improvements are not even across the board. While some tasks have become incredibly advanced, other simple tasks still trip them up, showing that not all intelligence is equal.
  2. We should be cautious about assuming that increases in one type of AI ability mean it can do everything we can. Each skill in AI may develop separately, like bagels and croissants in baking.
  3. Understanding what makes intelligence requires looking deeper than just performance. There is a difference between raw capabilities and the contextual, real-life experiences that truly shape how we understand intelligence.

Telephone troubles

Disaffected Newsletter • 2158 implied HN points • 03 Jan 24
đź•ą Technology Telecommunications Privacy Digital Culture User Behavior
  1. People used to enjoy phone calls and felt excited when the phone rang. Now, many find modern phones annoying and feel they serve the demands of companies instead of the user’s needs.
  2. Modern phone users often lack manners and respect for privacy, using features like speakerphone in public without consideration for others. Many don’t think about how their calls affect those around them.
  3. Communication has shifted, and with it, the expectations of basic decency. It's important for users to remember to consider others’ comfort and privacy when making calls.

Economics Isn't "About" Anything

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 22 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
đź“– Philosophy Civics Economics Methodology History Epistemology Political Economy
  1. Economics isn't 'about' a single theme or object like a novel; it's a science that explains why people make choices by linking causes and effects.
  2. Economics provides neutral, causal explanations of choices and is distinct from ethics, law, or medicine, which judge whether choices are good, legal, or healthy.
  3. Understanding economics is vital for preserving civilization because it reveals how policies (like price controls) change incentives and outcomes, helping citizens avoid demagoguery and harmful decisions.

Visions for AI

In My Tribe • 288 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Robotics Labor markets EdTech Health tech Automation Software Artificial Intelligence
  1. AI will eventually do most software engineering by taking English prompts to write and maintain business applications, making traditional developers unnecessary for routine work.
  2. Robots that understand and respond to human language will become much more useful, sparking a robotics boom and creating new roles for people who design practical uses for them.
  3. AI will automate many routine tasks in education and health care — personalized teaching software will handle factual instruction and AI tools could diagnose and treat — but political and institutional resistance means assisting human professionals will come first.

How Medium finally pivoted its way to profitability

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 1546 implied HN points • 25 Jul 25
đź’Ľ Business Publishing Digital marketing Startup Strategy Content creation Media
  1. Medium has turned around its business by focusing on quality writing and rewarding writers better. The new management cut unnecessary costs and introduced systems that encourage good content.
  2. A big part of Medium's success is its commitment to human curation. Instead of relying only on algorithms, real people help highlight the best articles, making the platform more reliable for readers.
  3. Medium aims to attract not just professional writers, but everyday people who want to share their knowledge. This broader approach could help it grow even bigger, potentially reaching millions of subscribers.

A few themes for 2026

Tanay’s Newsletter • 220 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Venture Capital AI Research Monetization Startups Products Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence
  1. Big AI products will start finding ways to monetize massive free usage with ad-like or sponsored placements outside of direct answers, because subscriptions alone won’t capture everyone.
  2. AI will get more proactive and agent-like, monitoring signals, surfacing updates, and taking on multi-step tasks without waiting for prompts.
  3. Technical leaps in reliable computer use and continual learning will let agents actually operate apps, fill complex forms, and improve over time so they can complete work instead of just offering suggestions.

Kong AI Connectivity, AgentMail $6M, Mimecast Threat Detection

The API Changelog • 1 implied HN point • 17 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology Security Messaging APIs Identity AI Infrastructure Fintech
  1. AI agents are becoming first-class users of APIs, with programmable banking and agent-native email that let agents act autonomously.
  2. New infrastructure is emerging to discover, control, and secure agent traffic — think unified control planes, MCP registries, network-level authentication, and API-based threat detection.
  3. Companies need to treat APIs as programmable products and invest in AI-readiness, standard identifiers, and one-click integrations so agents can reliably and safely consume services.

Who does what and how to support them

Leading Developers • 125 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Management Leadership Teamwork Career Organization Knowledge sharing Engineering
  1. Match resources to missions by balancing immediate company efficiency, engineers' growth and challenge, and the team's long-term durability and flexibility.
  2. Build a simple knowledge map of tech, systems and soft skills to spot single points of failure and to surface clear development opportunities.
  3. Support people based on task-relevant maturity — how experienced they are with the specific task — not just job title, and reduce inertia by lowering activation energy with small, deliberate steps when rotating ownership.

My Head Is Spinning. Is Yours Too?

Spilled Coffee • 40 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Markets Artificial Intelligence Robotics Automation Workforce Industry Impact Policy
  1. Nobody really knows what will happen next with AI, so most confident predictions are just educated guesses and should be taken with caution.
  2. AI is already disrupting large swaths of white-collar work and is moving toward physical tasks with robotics, which is causing real market anxiety and rapid industry shifts.
  3. The real conversation needs to be about people: retraining, who pays for transitions, and which institutions will support workers, because the pace of change feels much faster than past revolutions.

Axie and Ragnarok are joining forces in Axie Dungeon!

The Lunacian • 414 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
đź•ą Technology Gaming Virtual Worlds Cryptocurrency NFTs
  1. The Axie Dungeon is now open in Ragnarok Online, where players can fight monsters to earn rewards like RON and Axie Coins. It's a limited-time event from December 4 to January 8.
  2. To participate, players need to talk to Professor A in Prontera and accept a mission to enter the dungeon. You can fight alone or in a party up to five players.
  3. Only players with a Season 9 Battle Pass can earn RON while playing, but everyone can join for free and collect other seasonal items.

Je suis libre financièrement

L'Atelier Galita • 39 implied HN points • 03 Oct 24
đź’° Finance Income Generation Wealth Management Personal Finance Investment Financial Independence
  1. Knowing how much money you need for a comfortable life is important. Many people struggle to figure out when they have enough and end up always wanting more.
  2. Financial freedom means earning enough money to do what you love without worrying about bills. It's about enjoying your work and feeling financially secure.
  3. There are different paths to financial freedom, like building passive income or earning money from your passions. It's possible to find joy in work while also being financially stable.

How ADR Addresses Gaps in the Detection & Response Landscape

Resilient Cyber • 99 implied HN points • 20 Aug 24
đź•ą Technology Software Cybersecurity Cloud Computing Data Protection Application Security
  1. Application Detection & Response (ADR) is becoming important because attackers are increasingly targeting application vulnerabilities. This shift means we need better tools that focus specifically on applications.
  2. Modern software systems are complex, making it hard for traditional security tools to catch real threats. That's why understanding how these systems interact can help identify harmful behavior more effectively.
  3. There’s a big push to find and fix security issues early in the development process. However, this focus on early detection often misses what's actually happening in real-life applications, making runtime security like ADR crucial.

Sonic R: The R&R mod

Rings of Saturn • 116 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
đź•ą Technology Reverse Engineering Retro Gaming Emulation Software Video Games
  1. The R&R mod turns Sonic R into a relaxed exploration mode with unlimited time to wander and a Retire option to end a session. It also reworks controls to lower top speed, improve turning and traction, and simplifies the HUD for exploration.
  2. Collectibles and unlocks no longer require winning races: if you leave a course you keep any Chaos Emeralds you found, and collecting all five Sonic tokens marks you as having won and unlocks special characters. That makes getting extras and exploring possible without racing pressure.
  3. The mod implements these changes by patching in-ROM game state and control tables—adjusting race-state values, skipping finish/lap checks, overriding HUD rendering, and changing character parameters—so the original game logic still runs while allowing indefinite, exploration-focused play.

The AI is eating itself

Platformer • 3419 implied HN points • 27 Jun 23
đź•ą Technology AR Cybersecurity AI Social media E-commerce
  1. Generative AI is dramatically impacting the internet with a variety of changes to platforms and services.
  2. The increasing use of AI-generated content poses challenges such as misinformation, disruption, and a dilution of human wisdom.
  3. Research shows that relying on AI systems to generate data can lead to degradation and collapse of models, raising concerns for the future of the web.

Breaking news: AGI is not imminent!

Marcus on AI • 4466 implied HN points • 20 Jan 25
đź•ą Technology Computing AI Digital Trends Innovation Machine Learning
  1. Many people believe AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is coming soon, but that might not be true. It's important to stay cautious and not believe everything we hear about upcoming technology.
  2. Sam Altman, a well-known figure in AI, suggested we're close to achieving AGI, but he later changed his statement. This shows that predictions in technology can quickly change.
  3. Experts like Gary Marcus are confident that AGI won't arrive as soon as 2025. They think we still have a long way to go before we reach that level of intelligence in machines.

From Race to Co-opetition

Interconnected • 416 implied HN points • 25 Nov 25
đź•ą Technology Geopolitics Open Source Tech Policy Artificial Intelligence
  1. The US–China AI relationship is better described as "co-opetition" — a simultaneous mix of competition, cooperation, and mutual co-opting — not a simple zero-sum race.
  2. Competition is fierce among labs and companies in both countries and is spilling into other regions, which can be healthy because a single winner taking everything would be bad for innovation.
  3. Despite rivalry, researchers still collaborate and companies routinely reuse each other’s open-source models, so co-opting is a pragmatic, normal part of how AI ecosystems evolve rather than just theft.

March Newsletter

RSS DS+AI Section • 11 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
đź•ą Technology AI Ethics Applications Industry Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Data science Research
  1. AI is spreading into many areas, but bias, safety and governance are still unresolved, so people are calling for stronger auditing and regulation.
  2. Research is moving fast — scaling laws, reasoning models, agentic systems and shifting LLM representations are driving progress, yet we still don’t fully understand model behavior or failure modes.
  3. Practitioners are focused on real-world use: there’s lots of practical guidance, on-device and open-source work, and community events and job opportunities to help teams deploy AI effectively.

AI Agents: Hype versus Reality, redux

Marcus on AI • 4545 implied HN points • 15 Jan 25
đź•ą Technology AI Machine Learning Software Development Innovation Data science
  1. AI agents are getting a lot of attention right now, but they still aren't reliable. Most of what we see this year are just demos that don't work well in real life.
  2. In the long run, we might have powerful AI agents doing many jobs, but that won't happen for a while. For now, we need to be careful about the hype.
  3. To build truly helpful AI agents, we need to solve big challenges like common sense and reasoning. If those issues aren't fixed, the agents will continue to give strange or wrong results.

I’m Losing All Trust in the AI Industry

The Algorithmic Bridge • 1911 implied HN points • 03 Jul 25
đź•ą Technology Software Development User engagement AI Ethics Tech industry Investment Trends
  1. Many AI researchers are changing jobs, suggesting they don't really believe that powerful AI will be ready soon. If they thought it was near, they wouldn't leave their positions.
  2. A lot of AI development focuses on creating engaging products rather than useful ones, similar to social media strategies. The aim often seems to be keeping people addicted rather than truly helping them.
  3. The AI industry is running into financial problems and most companies are currently not profitable. This might lead them to prioritize making money over the responsible use of technology.

What It Really Takes to Move From Senior to Staff Data Engineer

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 447 implied HN points • 17 Nov 25
đź•ą Technology Software Development Collaboration Technical Skills Career growth Data Engineering
  1. Moving from senior to staff data engineer requires developing non-technical skills like communication and project management. It's important to help your teammates and have a holistic view of your work.
  2. Staff engineers need to be adaptable and handle more responsibilities beyond coding, such as mentoring and collaboration. They also need to maintain good relationships with different teams and stakeholders.
  3. A clear understanding of project goals and the ability to design scalable solutions are essential. This often involves diagramming ideas and determining what should be built in-house versus what can be delegated.

“I’ll never sleep again”

12challenges • 428 implied HN points • 28 Nov 25
đź•ą Technology Existential Risk Artificial Intelligence AI Alignment Machine Learning Ethics Tech Culture
  1. There’s a difference between extinction risk and suffering risk: an AGI that causes endless suffering is considered far worse because it creates vast negative welfare and can multiply suffering indefinitely.
  2. The organization encourages researchers to craft intensely graphic, speculative scenarios to make S-risk feel more alarming than extinction and to attract attention and funding.
  3. Creating those scenarios can cause serious personal harm — desensitization, burnout, substance use, and deep self‑loathing show the ethical and psychological costs for the people doing this work.

Why I Quit Full-Time Roles

Elena's Growth Scoop • 2712 implied HN points • 22 Nov 23
đź’Ľ Business Career growth Entrepreneurship Professional development Work-life balance Burnout
  1. The author quit full-time roles due to personal losses and declining health.
  2. Traditional corporate ladder may not be the only option for those passionate about their work.
  3. The author found success in solopreneurship by structuring her work, taking interim roles, and creating alternative income streams.