The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category

Robot Philosophy

Egg Report • 569 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Logic Metaphysics Reality Intelligence Time
  1. In the realm of computation, complex statements can be broken down into simple ones, reflecting a mono-causal, universalist view of reality.
  2. Projects like AI and VR are attempts to recreate intelligence and reality, each carrying metaphysical claims about the simplicity and illusory nature of complexity.
  3. Engaging with computers and writing code trains individuals to think in a certain way, guiding them towards a robotic mindset and reinforcing metaphysical assumptions.

What price are you willing to pay?

Kenny’s Sub • 239 implied HN points • 13 May 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Career development Freelancing Finance Work Life
  1. Understanding the effort needed for success can help you avoid disappointment. It's important to know what you're getting into before committing to a new venture.
  2. Trial and error are essential when exploring new hobbies or career paths. Try different things with low commitment to see what fits you best.
  3. Pursuing your goals requires a realistic view of the effort and resources involved. Being aware of what it takes can help you make smarter decisions.

Intel CEO Letter to Employees

More Than Moore • 560 implied HN points • 24 Jul 25
🕹 Technology AI Computing Business strategy Operations Workforce
  1. Intel plans to reduce its workforce by 15%, moving to around 75,000 employees, to improve efficiency and accountability.
  2. The company is shifting its focus to become a more disciplined foundry and aims to better align its operations with customer needs while cutting down unnecessary projects.
  3. Intel is honing its AI strategy to prioritize areas like inference and agentic AI, aiming to build a better system that meets customer requirements for future growth.

My new book “Cyber for Builders" is now available on Amazon

Venture in Security • 707 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
💼 Business Technology Cybersecurity Startups Entrepreneurship Investing
  1. The book 'Cyber for Builders' is a comprehensive guide for building a cybersecurity startup.
  2. The book covers various aspects of cybersecurity industry including key players, trends, and essential insights for early-stage founders.
  3. The book has received praise from industry experts for its practical advice and guidance for navigating the complexities of building a cybersecurity company.
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1st Look at Local Housing Markets in January

CalculatedRisk Newsletter • 28 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
💰 Finance Real Estate Housing Market Mortgages Home Sales Market Data Inventory Economic Indicators
  1. Early-reporting markets show January existing-home sales down year-over-year (about 7.2% in those markets), and seasonally adjusted national sales are likely lower. Many areas hit by Winter Storm Fern haven’t reported yet, so delayed closings could make the final numbers weaker.
  2. New listings were up modestly (about 2.1% YoY) and active inventory rose roughly 11.4% YoY, so supply is increasing in these markets. However, listings are still down compared with January 2019 in many places.
  3. Mortgage rates averaged about 6.2% in November and December, and January closings mostly reflect contracts signed then, which likely weighed on sales. Overall, most of these local markets remain well below January 2019 sales levels.

🥇2023 Accolades🥇

PETITION • 707 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
💼 Business Finance Job Opportunities
  1. Kirkland & Ellis LLP dominated the restructuring market in '23 by handling a vast amount of significant company-side chapter 11 filings.
  2. Joshua Sussberg of Kirkland & Ellis LLP emerged as a prominent figure in the restructuring circles, known for his relentless work ethic and deal-making prowess.
  3. Several other firms and professionals received honorable mentions for their notable contributions and achievements in the bankruptcy and restructuring field.

Mantic Monday 2/19/24

Astral Codex Ten • 4473 implied HN points • 20 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Blockchain Forecasting Prediction Markets
  1. AI forecasters are becoming more prevalent in prediction markets, with the potential for bots to compete against humans in forecasting events.
  2. FutureSearch.ai is a new company building an AI-based forecaster that prompts itself with various questions to estimate probabilities.
  3. The integration of AI in prediction markets like Polymarket could increase market participation and accuracy, offering a new way to predict outcomes on various topics.

Three Diagnoses of Totalitarianism: Kelley, Arendt, and Desmet in Conversation

Who is Robert Malone • 12 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
📖 Philosophy Totalitarianism Social theory Intellectual history Ethics Modernity Political Philosophy
  1. Ordinary people, not monsters, can become perpetrators when put into certain social and psychological conditions.
  2. Widespread loneliness, atomization, free‑floating anxiety, and lack of meaning create fertile ground for mass formation that suppresses independent thinking and turns people into unquestioning followers.
  3. Preventing totalitarian dynamics requires a multi‑level response: cultivate independent thinking and civic institutions, rebuild genuine social bonds and meaning, and protect vocal dissent to break the spell of collective hypnosis.

🚘 Tesla: AI & Robotics

How They Make Money • 628 implied HN points • 26 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Electric Vehicles Automotive Robotics
  1. Elon Musk envisions Tesla becoming the most valuable company in the world, emphasizing the need for flawless execution.
  2. Elon Musk wants to increase his voting control at Tesla to focus on expanding AI and robotics initiatives.
  3. Tesla's recent earnings report highlights challenges such as missed expectations in Q4 FY23 and a slowdown in vehicle sales, along with key financial metrics like revenue growth and margin trends.

Your Attention Has Been STOLEN | Peter Boghossian & Johann Hari

Peter Boghossian • 609 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Interpersonal Relationships Algorithms Social media Democracy
  1. Johann Hari and Peter Boghossian discuss the impact of technology addiction on attention spans and society.
  2. They emphasize the role of social media in capturing attention and keeping users engaged through algorithms.
  3. The shortened attention spans affect relationships, political engagement, and democracy.

The Popehat Report Is Moving To Beehiiv

The Popehat Report • 4611 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Platforms Blogging Social media
  1. The Popehat Report is moving to Beehiiv, a different platform for blogs and newsletters.
  2. Ken White made the decision to switch platforms for several reasons, including the opportunity for design changes and a more 'bloggy' feel.
  3. The new platform will allow for easy subscription management and Ken White will still be present on Substack as a co-host on Serious Trouble.

The Future, Now and Then: 2025 in review

The Future, Now and Then • 82 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Innovation AI Startups Venture Capital Tech Policy Big Tech Tech History
  1. This year’s writing moved from long, idea-driven essays to shorter, immediate pieces, with a clear intention to take bigger swings and return to deeper work next year.
  2. Silicon Valley is powered by three kinds of money—government contracts, product revenue, and speculative finance—and an overreliance on speculation warps incentives and creates bubble risk that can hide weak fundamentals.
  3. Big techno-utopian projects often ignore political and institutional veto points, so grand visions like abundance or network-states tend to be undercooked and clash with real-world constraints.

Are we ready for AI sales reps?

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 528 implied HN points • 06 Aug 25
💼 Business Startups Sales Marketing Technology AI
  1. AI can now take on tasks typically done by human sales reps, like answering common questions and helping with pricing. This means businesses can be available to customers 24/7 without delays.
  2. Good support documentation is crucial for AI success. If the AI has clear and structured information to work from, it can provide better answers and have fewer mistakes.
  3. While AI isn't ready to replace all sales jobs yet, it can definitely help support the sales process by filling in gaps and increasing efficiency for small teams.

Lunduke's Quest - December 16, 2024

The Lunduke Journal of Technology • 1723 implied HN points • 17 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Software Gadgets Internet Innovation Hardware
  1. Everyone deals with challenges, it's a universal experience. We all face tough times, and it's important to recognize that you're not alone.
  2. Being real about feelings can help you connect with others. Sharing your honest emotions can strengthen relationships.
  3. Understanding that struggles are part of life can be comforting. It helps to remember that overcoming difficulties is how we grow.

How Meta Plans To Crank the Dopamine Machine With Infinite AI-Generated Content

The Algorithmic Bridge • 1677 implied HN points • 03 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Ethics Digital Content User engagement Social media
  1. Meta is creating AI that generates custom content for users, aiming to keep them engaged on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This could hook people's attention even more than traditional entertainment.
  2. There's a risk that as AI-generated content becomes more common, people might lose the ability to notice or care about its presence. They could become so used to it that they forget it exists.
  3. The real concern isn't just the entertainment itself but how it distracts people and affects their ability to think and engage with the world around them. It raises questions about what kind of life we actually want to lead.

Is Substack exaggerating its network effects?

escape the algorithm • 579 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
💼 Business Marketing Analytics Subscription Platforms Tech
  1. Substack's network effects might be exaggerated: Data shows that most new subscribers come from sources other than Substack.
  2. Subscriber growth on Substack may not solely be due to Substack's technology: Many readers find newsletters due to recommendations from other writers or external sources.
  3. The power of a newsletter audience lies more in the people than the platform: Leaving Substack might not drastically impact growth as much as anticipated.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 552

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 139 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Data Visualization Data Engineering Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Data science
  1. Notebooks can be easy to use, but they might make you lazy in coding. It's important to follow good practices even when using them.
  2. When handling large datasets, it's crucial to learn how to scale effectively. Knowing how to use resources wisely can help you reach your goals faster.
  3. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) can improve how models generate information. It's complex, but understanding it can boost the performance of your projects.

Single-Use Disposable Applications

General Robots • 627 implied HN points • 09 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Software Applications Programming Internet AI
  1. Creating apps is getting easier and faster, meaning you can make exactly what you need without searching for it. It's now quicker to build a tool than to look for one that might work.
  2. Software apps are becoming single-use tools tailored to specific tasks. Instead of complex applications, people will create simple, disposable apps for immediate needs.
  3. In this new tech environment, anyone can build these tools, not just developers. This shift changes how software will be designed and used in the future.

WeKnow-RAG

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 39 implied HN points • 16 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Natural Language Processing Information Retrieval AI Machine Learning Data science
  1. WeKnow-RAG uses a smart approach to gather information that mixes simple facts from its knowledge base with data found on the web. This helps improve the accuracy of answers given to users.
  2. This system includes a self-check feature, which allows it to assess how confident it is in the information it provides. This helps to reduce mistakes and improve quality.
  3. Knowledge Graphs are important because they organize information in a clear way, allowing the system to find the right data quickly and effectively, no matter what type of question is asked.

What can still be a reasonable AI bear thesis?

Metacritic Capital • 27 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Infrastructure AI Hardware Cloud Semiconductors Software
  1. Investors are worried big tech is overbuilding compute and burning cash on AI capex without a clear path to high returns. If AI labs don’t turn revenue into sustainable margins, those capex bets may not pay off.
  2. Capabilities have advanced a lot, but that hasn’t translated into many profitable public businesses outside the labs and infrastructure sellers. Open-source models and commoditization could quickly squeeze margins and force labs to find new, hard-to-execute business models.
  3. A software-driven automation surge could be deflationary and displace white‑collar jobs, hurting consumer demand and traditional revenue streams. That macro uncertainty makes investors more risk‑averse and raises the bar for further AI spending.

Why Micro-Tipping Is the Fuel for Original Content on the Open Web

Olshansky's Newsletter • 68 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🔮 Crypto AI agents Payments Stablecoins Web3 Monetization Incentives
  1. Micro-tipping creates lightweight, optional payments that align incentives to fund original human-created content and help prevent AI agents from cannibalizing creators' revenue.
  2. For humans, tiny tips feel low-stakes and expressive and can act as lottery-like incentives or access mechanisms; for AI agents, programmatic micro-payments let models buy fresh, diverse ground-truth data without complex contracts.
  3. Micro-tipping is an interoperable, platform-agnostic middle ground between free content and paywalls, using stablecoin rails so creators can be supported across the open web without platform lock-in.

My Intellectual Heroes, Part 3

Life Since the Baby Boom • 1383 implied HN points • 12 Feb 25
📖 Philosophy Cognitive Psychology Behavioral Economics Decision-making Intellectual history Human behavior
  1. Daniel Kahneman showed that people often don’t act like the rational thinkers we expect. He studied how we make decisions and found many biases that affect our judgment.
  2. He worked with Amos Tversky and together they explored how our minds trick us. Their ideas laid the foundation for behavioral economics, changing how we think about choices.
  3. Kahneman's book 'Thinking Fast and Slow' explains our two types of thinking: fast reactions and slower, more careful thinking. Understanding this can help us make better decisions.

No slowing down on the smart stuff, ok?

Alex's Personal Blog • 98 implied HN points • 23 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Ethics Open Source Regulation AI Autonomous Vehicles Electric Vehicles
  1. AI image generators can easily create sexualized deepfakes that are already harming kids, and the spread of open-source models means company policies alone won’t stop that abuse.
  2. Electric cars are rapidly gaining market share in Europe and offer clear benefits like lower maintenance and better performance, making the shift away from internal combustion seem inevitable.
  3. Self-driving cars promise big safety improvements and pair naturally with electrification, but high‑profile crashes and cautious regulators are slowing deployment — we should keep pushing the technology forward.

This Year's Buffettisms

Investment Talk • 1159 implied HN points • 25 Feb 23
💰 Finance Stock Market Investing
  1. Berkshire Hathaway's annual return of 19.8% since 1965 beats the S&P 500's 9.9% performance.
  2. Annual shareholder letters from Berkshire contain helpful Buffettisms and market insights.
  3. Buffett emphasizes meaningful investments in businesses with favorable economic characteristics and trustworthy managers.

Crypto Market Update

DeFi Education • 999 implied HN points • 09 Nov 23
🔮 Crypto Investments NFTs Market Trends Trading Strategies Regulation
  1. Bitcoin's price might not go up much more right now, so some investors are selling it and looking for better opportunities in other assets like Ethereum or NFTs.
  2. Coinbase stock has grown significantly recently, showing that investing in established crypto companies can be a good strategy for long-term growth.
  3. NFTs are getting more attention again, with recent high-profile sales indicating a possible resurgence in the market.

Only A Truth-Based Relationship With Reality Can Satisfy

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1927 implied HN points • 24 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Mindfulness Truth-seeking Human condition Social Critique Cognitive Bias
  1. People really want a true understanding of reality, even if they don't always realize it. Society pushes false ideas and distractions that keep us from finding real happiness.
  2. Chasing after material things, social status, or knowledge often leads to disappointment because they are based on lies. True satisfaction comes from aligning our beliefs and actions with reality.
  3. To find happiness, we must confront our personal falsehoods and the lies in society. This journey to truth can be tough, but it's necessary for building a better world.

On Wise Agency, Part 3 | #317

Boundless by Paul Millerd • 112 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
💼 Business Productivity Freelancing Entrepreneurship Career Creativity Marketing Strategy
  1. Figure out what to work on by running lots of small experiments: ship quickly, design an easy off-ramp to quit, and learn what each experiment tells you.
  2. Don't just copy a niche — find a mode you can sustain for years that fits how you like to work. That lets you evolve your own style and choose projects you actually enjoy.
  3. Be deliberate about how much and when you work by mixing small bets, sprints, and long-game projects, and accept the trade-offs between autonomy, methods, and income by rotating priorities across gigs and seasons.

The Invisible Battlefield: AI, Cognitive Warfare, and the Battle for Your Mind (#PsyWar)

Who is Robert Malone • 9 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Tech Policy Cybersecurity Information Warfare Artificial Intelligence Surveillance
  1. AI chatbots run on hidden system prompts and designer values, so their answers can consistently shape how people think and act like large-scale propaganda.
  2. Small, targeted data poisoning and RAG attacks can quietly make models give manipulated or false answers, and those poisoned signals are hard to detect and can spread across systems and future model generations.
  3. Treating cognition as an intelligence domain — COGINT and fifth-generation warfare — turns minds into a battlefield, so people and policymakers need epistemic sovereignty and institutions to protect information environments.

Cultivating Excellence in Teams with Continuous Software Engineering — Part 1: Defining Excellence through 5 Characteristics

The Healthy Engineering Leader • 99 implied HN points • 09 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Team Dynamics Product Development Continuous Improvement
  1. An effective team knows what its customers want and focuses on building the right product. They prioritize features based on customer needs and data.
  2. High craftsmanship involves a team that produces quality work while minimizing bugs. They continuously learn and share knowledge to improve their software.
  3. Good communication and collaboration create a cohesive team environment. Everyone feels safe to share ideas, which helps solve problems together.

The evolved functions of morality: From the Haidts to the depths.

ideassleepfuriously • 628 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Evolutionary Psychology Social Sciences Altruism Morality
  1. Morality is more than just virtue; it involves judgments of wrongness and desire for punishment.
  2. The explanation for morality may go beyond altruism and virtues, delving into darker aspects.
  3. Understanding moral judgments involves looking at nonconsequentialism, desire for punishment, impartiality, and presence of a victim.

Inductive biases - a better way to think about machine learning?

Mindful Modeler • 159 implied HN points • 11 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Book Writing Data science
  1. Hyperparameter settings can drastically change inductive biases within machine learning models.
  2. Machine learning algorithms represent a collection of inductive biases that influence model outcomes.
  3. Understanding inductive biases is crucial for comprehending the robustness, interpretability, and plausibility of machine learning models.

Prophecies of the Flood

One Useful Thing • 1608 implied HN points • 10 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning AI Ethics Automation Digital Transformation
  1. AI researchers are predicting that very smart AI systems will soon be available, which they call Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This could change society a lot, but many think we should be cautious about these claims.
  2. Recent AI models have shown they can solve very tough problems better than humans. For example, one new AI model performed surprisingly well on difficult tests that challenge knowledge and problem-solving skills.
  3. As AI technology improves, we need to start talking about how to use it responsibly. It's important for everyone—from workers to leaders—to think about what a world with powerful AIs will look like and how to adapt to it.