The hottest Technology Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Involutions: The License to Update in O(1)

Software Bits Newsletter • 206 implied HN points • 14 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Algorithms Hashing Data Structures Software Engineering Distributed Systems Performance Cryptography
  1. XOR is an involution: applying the same XOR twice cancels it out, so adding and removing an element use the same operation and let you update combined hashes in O(1).
  2. Zobrist hashing leverages XOR to update a chessboard hash with only a few XORs per move, enabling fast transposition-table lookups and huge search speedups; collisions are possible but usually acceptable or verifiable.
  3. More generally, pick the algebraic tool that matches your needs — use involutions like XOR for O(1) incremental updates when collisions are tolerable, rolling linear hashes for sliding windows, or Merkle trees when cryptographic integrity is required.

Reading List for 11/23/24

Construction Physics • 8977 implied HN points • 23 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Construction Automation Robotics Energy Climate
  1. Shipping disruptions can lead to huge costs, like the $89 million loss from a single incident in the Suez Canal. Overall, global shipping costs could reach around $600 million from such events.
  2. Robots that perform specific construction tasks, like roofing, are becoming more common. Companies are focusing on automating certain jobs to improve efficiency in construction projects.
  3. Fusion energy investments are rising, with over $2.5 billion put into it in 2024. Countries like China are significantly increasing their spending on fusion technology.

Against "Brain Damage"

One Useful Thing • 3011 implied HN points • 07 Jul 25
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Mental health Innovation Creativity
  1. Using AI can help or hurt our thinking. If you rely too much on it, you might not learn as well, but with proper guidance, it can improve learning outcomes.
  2. In creativity, AI can generate many ideas, but they often lack diversity. It's better to come up with your own ideas first before using AI to enhance them.
  3. AI doesn't damage our brains directly, but careless use can harm our thinking habits. It's important to think, write, and meet first before leaning on AI.

Physical Intelligence Sweeps Humanoid Olympics

General Robots • 348 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Robotics AI Hardware Automation Sensors Research Engineering
  1. Physical Intelligence submitted robots for 11 humanoid Olympic events. They achieved these capabilities much sooner than expected, showing rapid progress in robotics.
  2. Many tasks that seemed to need special touch sensors or extra finger joints were actually solvable with standard grippers and cameras, and wrist force-torque sensing appears to help. This suggests clever hardware-software integration can overcome perceived limits.
  3. Teams make different trade-offs: some use more dexterous hands to collect teleoperation data while others add wrist force-torque sensors humans can’t provide. Those choices change what sensor data and training each approach can use.

PCBs, ground planes, and you

lcamtuf’s thing • 7142 implied HN points • 28 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Electronics Circuit Design Hobbies
  1. Copper pours on PCBs help improve signal quality by providing better pathways for electrical currents. They make it easier for circuits to work well at high speeds.
  2. These copper areas also help reduce radio frequency interference to meet certain regulations. This is important for keeping devices running smoothly and within legal limits.
  3. While using copper pours can make PCB design easier, it's essential to be careful. Poorly executed layouts can create problems, especially in high-speed projects.
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High Performance SwiftData Apps

Jacob’s Tech Tavern • 2842 implied HN points • 14 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Software Apps Development Programming Performance
  1. The app developed for Comic-Con was popular for its cool features but struggled with performance issues. As I used it, the app got slower, draining the battery and eventually crashing.
  2. I needed to improve the app's performance by optimizing how it used SwiftData without losing the cards I had already created. It was important to keep my collection safe while fixing the issues.
  3. This experience highlighted how vital it is to focus on app efficiency and data management to avoid frustration for users and devices alike.

Build AI or Be Buried By Those Who Do

Contemplations on the Tree of Woe • 3574 implied HN points • 30 May 25
🕹 Technology AI Machine Learning Innovation Automation Data science
  1. There are three main views on AI: believers who think it will change everything for the better, skeptics who see it as just fancy technology, and doomers who worry it could end badly for humanity. Each group has different ideas about what AI will mean for the future.
  2. The belief among AI believers is that AI will become a big part of our lives, doing many tasks better than humans and reshaping many industries. They see it as a revolutionary change that will be everywhere.
  3. Many think that if we don’t build our own AI, the narrative and values that shape AI will be dominated by one ideology, which could be harmful. The idea is that we need balanced development of AI, representing different views to ensure freedom and diversity in thought.

7 Slack hacks for engineers and managers

Leading Developers • 122 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Productivity Collaboration Communication Remote work Team Management Developer Tools Workplace
  1. Show only unread conversations and group channels by priority so you only see what needs attention.
  2. Mute and unmute groups and silence noisy threads to control when things demand your time, and schedule short regular reviews for lower-priority channels.
  3. Use message reminders and the /remind command to turn messages into timed tasks, and spend a few minutes organizing sections so the small setup saves hours and reduces mental load.

BazelCon 2025 recap

Blog System/5 • 744 implied HN points • 24 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Software Development Open Source Programming Languages Build Systems Cloud Computing
  1. Bazel is getting better with mandatory features like bzlmod and a real BUILD Foundation to support its community. This means it's growing up and easier to use.
  2. The Bazel team is really focused on making builds faster and more efficient, with cool new tools like Skycache for speeding things up on the client side.
  3. Community-driven tools are expanding Bazel's reach, solving old problems. For example, Aspect's task runner helps fill in gaps and improve work processes.

AMD Client Update at CES 2026

More Than Moore • 326 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Semiconductors AI Software Graphics Mobile Embedded Gaming
  1. AMD’s CES updates are a mid-cycle refresh that makes AI a standard across its client lineup, pushing Ryzen AI into volume laptops rather than keeping it as a premium add‑on. This keeps the existing Zen 5 platform relevant without new silicon.
  2. AMD is relying on software to drive the next wave of improvements — ROCm for local AI and FSR Redstone for gaming — delivering bigger performance and features through optimization and ML-assisted techniques instead of new chips.
  3. The hardware moves are about segmentation and integration: Ryzen AI 400 targets mass-market laptops, Ryzen AI Max+ and the Halo developer platform aim at local AI mini‑workstations with large unified memory, and the P100 embedded APUs focus on industrial and automotive edge AI with integrated CPU/GPU/NPU designs.

Money, Drama, and China: Why AI’s Next Step Could Be Messy

Big Technology • 6880 implied HN points • 24 Jan 25
🕹 Technology AI Open Source Startups Investment Competition
  1. A new AI model called DeepSeek is cheaper and efficient, potentially making big investments in AI technology seem unnecessary. This raises questions about how much companies should really spend on AI.
  2. DeepSeek's success is surprising since it was developed in China, challenging the notion that good tech only comes from big investments in the West. Its ability to compete shows that smaller companies can innovate effectively.
  3. This development might shift the AI landscape significantly. Big players like OpenAI may need to rethink their approaches to stay competitive, especially now that cheaper models are proving their worth.

Solving The Problems of HBM-on-Logic

More Than Moore • 490 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Semiconductors AI hardware Memory Packaging Design
  1. Stacking HBM directly on top of accelerators creates a severe thermal bottleneck that pushes GPU temperatures far above safe operating limits.
  2. Solving it requires many coordinated changes — removing base dice, merging/thinning stacks, adding conductive shims, and aggressive backside or double-sided cooling — and the single most effective move is halving GPU clock speed, which lowers temperatures but cuts raw compute.
  3. Those fixes bring big cost, yield, and supply-chain challenges and may only give modest net gains, so 3D HBM-on-logic looks like a research roadmap rather than a near-term commercial product, with vendors likely pursuing improved 2.5D or remote high-bandwidth memory alternatives instead.

The Dumbification of our smart screens

Product Identity • 753 implied HN points • 03 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Smartphones Digital Culture AI User Experience Screen Time
  1. Smartphones were supposed to make our lives easier, but now they often feel overwhelming and unhelpful. Many people want to focus on simpler uses for their devices instead of getting caught up in unnecessary features.
  2. There's a trend of 'dumbification' where people are choosing less complicated devices and apps to reduce distractions. Instead of seeking out the latest tech, people want tools that help them focus and connect better.
  3. This movement might not be mainstream yet, but it's growing. Many are looking for ways to minimize their screen time and simplify their digital lives to find more balance.

Open Thread 366

Astral Codex Ten • 7089 implied HN points • 27 Jan 25
🕹 Technology AI Media Consulting Forecasting Education
  1. Anyone can share thoughts or ask questions in the open thread. It's a space for discussing anything on your mind.
  2. There are opportunities for people interested in AI safety, including a course that can help you get started in the field.
  3. An AI forecasting project is looking for news outlets to publish articles on future predictions about AI advancements.

How to Learn the Swift Source Code

Jacob’s Tech Tavern • 2624 implied HN points • 22 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Programming Software Development Coding Open Source
  1. To learn the Swift source code, focus on understanding three key areas: the standard library, the compiler, and the runtime. These are the core building blocks that will help you make sense of the code.
  2. The 'type(of:)' function is important as it helps you find out the dynamic type of an object during debugging. It's a useful tool for any Swift developer to know about.
  3. Looking into the built-in types and how they operate can deepen your understanding of Swift's performance. Exploring the internals can make working with Swift more intuitive.

The Sequence AI of the Week #813: Deep Diving Into the Amazing GLM-5

TheSequence • 63 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Large Models Model Architecture Reinforcement Learning Systems Engineering Autonomous Agents
  1. AI is shifting from manual 'vibe coding' to agentic engineering, where models autonomously plan, navigate large codebases, run tests, and iteratively fix bugs over long time horizons.
  2. GLM-5 is an impressive open-source model that scales a mixture-of-experts architecture to 744 billion parameters and showcases strong systems engineering to handle that scale.
  3. Enabling agentic behavior needs rethought reasoning, support for huge context windows, and robust reinforcement-learning alignment, and GLM-5 tackles these core bottlenecks.

An Interview With Brian Daugherty

ciamweekly • 62 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Identity Authentication Cybersecurity AI Cloud Developer Tools Standards
  1. CIAM helps make users' day-to-day identity and access flow secure and seamless across devices, apps, and multiple personas.
  2. The CIAM landscape is complex with many protocols and legacy systems, which creates hard choices, maintenance burdens, and organizational resistance to adopting better practices.
  3. LLMs and agentic tools will both simplify CIAM design and implementation and create new trust and security risks, driving rapid changes in protocols and products.

This Is Pretty Cool If You Are In A Lot of Meetings

Points And Figures • 186 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Startups Entrepreneurship Productivity Tools Enterprise Software Venture Capital
  1. Failure is part of building something — smart entrepreneurs pivot, reuse what they built, and turn failed efforts into new successes.
  2. The founder of Riskalyze is launching a new company to solve problems found there, and the new tool is billed as revolutionary for people who spend a lot of time in meetings.
  3. Be skeptical about AI but don’t automatically reject it — adopting and adapting the right AI tools can make us more effective at work.

vgr: The Twitter Years (2007-22)

Breaking Smart • 54 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Social media Archiving Publishing Machine Learning Data processing Web Development
  1. A personal Twitter archive was turned into an LLM-friendly online book that collects top threads and hundreds of single tweets, with print and ebook versions planned.
  2. The project deliberately avoids embedding others' tweets, using links and footnotes instead, accepting that serializing Twitter's nonlinear conversations is lossy but more practical and legally safer.
  3. Building the book required bespoke scripting and heavy data cleaning, and using Claude Code sped up the technical work; this is part of a broader effort to create a queryable archival self that can serve as a prosthetic memory.

Mission Control Center - brains of the Space System. How does it work?

Space Ambition • 319 implied HN points • 26 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Space Tech Engineering Innovation Data processing Artificial Intelligence
  1. The Mission Control Center (MCC) is crucial for managing spacecraft. It collects data, controls systems, and predicts emergencies.
  2. Different specialists work in the MCC, each focusing on specific parts of the spacecraft. The center’s size varies based on the mission's complexity, from small setups to large control rooms.
  3. New technology, including AI, is changing how MCCs operate. AI helps with monitoring systems and predicting spacecraft movement, making the process more efficient.

On METR's AI Coding RCT

Don't Worry About the Vase • 2688 implied HN points • 18 Jul 25
🕹 Technology AI Tools Software Development Productivity Coding Research
  1. A recent study found that using AI coding tools actually slowed down experienced developers by about 19%. This surprised many who expected them to speed up.
  2. The slowdown might be due to developers being very familiar with their own projects, which made it hard for AI to add value. Also, many participants didn't have enough experience using the AI tools.
  3. Self-reports from developers on their productivity are often unreliable. The study shows that just thinking you're faster with AI doesn't mean you really are.

AI and Economics Links

In My Tribe • 243 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Automation Economic Research Labor Economics Digital Tools
  1. AI systems like large language models are deeply shaped by human behavior and social complexity. Using social-science ideas such as complexity theory can help us understand and improve these systems.
  2. AI can recreate historical thinkers to replay debates about technology and work. These recreations highlight disagreements over whether automation causes lasting unemployment or just temporary disruption through creative destruction.
  3. LLMs now let researchers draft and sometimes publish papers far faster than before, enabling quick 'vibe researching' from idea to paper in minutes or hours. This shifts how research is done and raises questions about quality, oversight, and the role of human judgment.

Choosing a microcontroller

lcamtuf’s thing • 6530 implied HN points • 08 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Microcontrollers Embedded Systems Programming Automation
  1. When picking a microcontroller for simple projects, stick to 8-bit options like AVRs. They are easy to use and work well for tasks that don’t need a lot of speed or memory.
  2. For more demanding applications, like video processing or complex calculations, go for higher-end 32-bit microcontrollers. They are more powerful and can handle heavy data loads.
  3. If you need wireless connectivity and processing power, single-board computers are the way to go. They run full operating systems but can be more expensive and less efficient than microcontrollers.

I'm glad I took the off-ramp from software engineering

Cloud Irregular • 6800 implied HN points • 22 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Career development Artificial Intelligence Tech industry Job Market
  1. A career in software engineering isn't guaranteed to lead to high pay or upward mobility. Many people find that their progress stalls after a certain point.
  2. The rise of AI will significantly change the role of developers, making it less about coding quickly and more about solving human problems and understanding technology's role.
  3. Choosing to step away from traditional software roles can open up new opportunities. It’s important to explore other interests and skills to avoid being trapped in a limiting career path.

Practical Data Engineering using AWS Cloud Technologies

VuTrinh. • 339 implied HN points • 23 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing Data Engineering Software Development Information Systems
  1. AWS offers a variety of tools for data engineering like S3, Lambda, and Step Functions, which can help anyone build scalable projects. These tools are often underused compared to newer options but are still very effective.
  2. Services like SNS and SQS can help manage data flow and processing. SNS allows for publishing messages while SQS aids in handling high event volumes asynchronously.
  3. Using AWS for data engineering is often simpler than switching to modern tools. It's easier to add new AWS services to your existing workflow than to migrate to something completely new.

Google, 2001: Don’t Be Evil

Marcus on AI • 6481 implied HN points • 05 Feb 25
🕹 Technology AI Internet Data Privacy Corporate ethics Surveillance
  1. Google's original motto was 'Don't Be Evil,' but that seems to have changed significantly by 2025. This shift raises concerns about the company's intentions and actions involving powerful AI technologies.
  2. The current landscape of AI development is driven by competition and profits. Companies like Google feel pressured to prioritize making money over ethical considerations.
  3. There is fear that as AI becomes more powerful, it may end up in the wrong hands, leading to potentially dangerous applications. This evolution reflects worries about how society and businesses are dealing with AI advancements.

Announcing The Engineering Manager Survival Guide

Tech and Tea • 115 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Engineering Management Leadership Careers Professional development Training
  1. A new course helps engineering managers learn to handle the people side of the job and avoid burnout by teaching clearer mindsets and practical tradeoffs.
  2. It’s an 8-week, 4-module asynchronous program you can do in about 60–90 minutes a week, with frameworks, audio conversations, exercises, and personal feedback on your submissions.
  3. A cohort starts March 13, there’s early-bird pricing through the end of February, and there are options for corporate group discounts.

2026+

Gonzo ML • 315 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
🕹 Technology AI Robotics Hardware Machine Learning Algorithms Quantum Computing Autonomy Research
  1. Quadruped robots (dog- or cat-like) will get much better and more practical for real-world use, while humanoid home robots stay too expensive.
  2. We’ll see production-grade agents with predictable 99.9% reliability and richer integrations, driven by better infrastructure and cognitive architectures.
  3. Advances in world models, latent-space reasoning, and multimodal architectures will create new interactive environments and begin to accelerate scientific discovery in certain domains.

The LLM Context Tax: Best Tips for Tax Avoidance

Nicolas Bustamante • 104 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🕹 Technology AI NLP Agents Software Engineering Systems Architecture Data Engineering Optimization
  1. Context tokens are expensive and degrade performance as they accumulate, so treat context as a scarce resource and keep prompts stable and append-only; move dynamic pieces (like timestamps) to the end so you preserve KV cache hits.
  2. Architect agents to minimize tokens by storing tool outputs as files, using precise two-step tools that return metadata before full content, delegating work to cheaper subagents, reusing templates, batching or parallelizing tool calls, and caching common responses at the application level.
  3. Clean and compact data before sending it to the model, place critical information at the beginning or end to avoid the lost-in-the-middle problem, use summarization/compaction before hitting pricing cliffs, and set strict output token limits to control costly outputs.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 559

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 219 implied HN points • 08 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Data science AI Machine Learning Software Development Statistics
  1. Camera calibration is crucial in sports analysis. It helps track players' movements accurately by mapping video frame positions to real field locations.
  2. Understanding the context of data is important for responsible data work. Datasets need good documentation and stories to highlight their historical and social backgrounds.
  3. There's a new, free encyclopedia for learning about cognitive science. It offers easy-to-read articles on various topics for students and researchers.

Apple's Trajectory: Achieving Twin Hyperextraordinary Triumphs, Four Slow-Motion Failures

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 169 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Hardware Software AI Supply Chain Product Design
  1. Apple’s recent success rests on two extraordinary strengths: in-house Apple Silicon chips and a highly efficient, China-centered manufacturing supply chain.
  2. Years of small software regressions and weaker visual design have eroded the “it just works” user trust, turning quality drift into a major strategic weakness.
  3. Apple also has big blind spots — an unclear AI strategy (highlighted by Siri’s failure), political vulnerability from China dependence, and fraught developer relations over App Store fees — and simple executive reshuffles may not fix these structural problems.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 561

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 139 implied HN points • 22 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Data science AI Machine Learning Data Engineering Visualization
  1. When building web applications, using Postgres for data storage is a good default choice. It's reliable and widely used.
  2. A new study shows that agents can learn useful skills without rewards or guidance. They can explore and develop abilities just from observing a goal.
  3. The list of important books and resources in Bayesian statistics is being compiled. It's a way to recognize influential ideas in this field.

Brainstorming Solutions for Aerospace Sector Challenges

Space Ambition • 259 implied HN points • 02 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Aerospace Innovation Startups Engineering Investment
  1. An online brainstorming session is being organized to find solutions for challenges in the aerospace industry. Everyone is welcome to join, regardless of their experience level.
  2. The discussions will be moderated by someone with a strong background in aerospace and venture capital. This helps ensure the session is productive and insightful.
  3. There are two scheduled sessions on August 10 to accommodate different time zones, making it easier for people around the world to participate.

Illumina Deliver Q70. Complete Genomics Sold.

ASeq Newsletter • 51 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Genomics Sequencing Biotech Life Sciences Instruments Acquisitions
  1. Illumina is targeting Q50 overall read quality by the end of 2027, and some kits will achieve Q70.
  2. They’re releasing much higher-throughput options, including a 5 billion-read flow cell, a 1.5 billion-read 600-cycle kit, and upgrades pushing 10 billion reads to 14 billion (20-hour runs) and 25 billion to 35 billion reads.
  3. Per-run prices will go up while cost per base goes down, and Complete Genomics has been sold.

Why AI writing is mid

Democratizing Automation • 712 implied HN points • 16 Nov 25
🕹 Technology AI Writing Speech Models Training
  1. AI models aren't great at writing because they're trained to prioritize different qualities like helpfulness over style, which makes good writing harder to achieve.
  2. Models are created to be predictable and cater to average user preferences, so unique writing styles or quirks often get lost.
  3. To improve AI writing, models need to be designed with specific voices or personalities that can express opinions and emotions, making the writing more engaging.

My weekly tech industry intake routine as a Staff Engineer

High Growth Engineer • 642 implied HN points • 30 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Software Development Engineering Productivity Mentorship Learning
  1. Staying updated on industry trends helps you make better decisions at work. Regularly reading articles can keep you informed and improve your skills.
  2. Organizing your reading materials into a special inbox can make it easier to find important articles. Using tools like split inboxes and email groupings can really cut down on your reading time.
  3. Taking action after reading is crucial. Simply saving what you've learned or adding tasks based on it can help you retain more information and apply it effectively in your job.

Space Traffic Management: The Growing Challenge of Collision Avoidance

Space Ambition • 359 implied HN points • 19 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Space Exploration Satellite Technology
  1. The number of satellites in space is rapidly growing, with projections to reach 100,000 by 2030. This increase means there is also a lot more space debris to manage.
  2. To avoid collisions, satellites need constant monitoring and updates on their positions. Companies are using radars and telescopes to track space objects more accurately, as even tiny debris can cause big problems.
  3. Dealing with space debris involves not just avoidance but also how to properly dispose of it after missions. If not managed well, the cost of avoiding collisions will rise, and satellites will become more expensive.

The Last Mover Advantage in AI

Enterprise AI Trends • 295 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🕹 Technology AI Machine Learning Enterprise Tech Tech Strategy Automation Infrastructure
  1. When AI progress is exponential, waiting can pay off because the last mover often gets a much better product and avoids wasted effort.
  2. Committing early to vendors or large enterprise deals risks big sunk costs and being locked into outdated tech, so negotiate harder and consider building more instead of buying quickly.
  3. Patience is a deliberate strategic choice alongside build and buy: decide what to wait on, what to experiment with now, and use waiting to watch paradigm shifts while you focus resources elsewhere.

Qualcomm RISCs, Arm Pulls: The Legal Battle for the Future of Client Computing

The Chip Letter • 8736 implied HN points • 16 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Computing Semiconductors Licensing Legal issues Market Trends
  1. Qualcomm and Arm are in a legal battle over chip design licenses, which could significantly impact the future of smartphone and laptop computing.
  2. Qualcomm recently acquired a company called Nuvia that designed high-performance chips, but Arm claims that this violated their licensing agreement.
  3. The outcome of this legal dispute could decide who dominates the chip market, affecting companies and consumers who rely on these technologies.