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Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't
The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 715 posts.
122
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – The Operator Came Forward
Context: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…
123
The Real Luxuries In Life
Labor Day weekend has always been the back to school marker for me. I'm 60, closing in on 61, and thinking a lot more about what I actually care about. Amy texted me a list yesterday.
124
ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did
There's a lot more to replacing labor than just automating tasks
125
Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless
Yesterday, June 15, 2026, a small and unimportant announcement appeared in Apple developer news: New domain for Sign in with Apple and iCloud+ Hide My Email. Long story short: now both Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email aliases are going to be issued on the @private.icloud.com subdomain. This makes it much easier to…
126
Surely the crash of the US economy has to be soon
Last year I predicted there would be a significant (2008+) economic crash that year. The year is now 2026 and I was wrong. At the time my main argument was essentially this: The unemployment rate just follows these smooth curves, covid was an exception, and it was due to jump again. Not very scientific I […]
127
Lobbying is corruption
On lobbying, corruption, and the same animal under two names
128
Are we offloading too much of our thinking to AI?
Reflections on autonomy and the value of thinking for ourselves
129
September 2026: The world today, as seen by one Polish guy
How a Pole sees the world in September 2026: a scrolling essay that follows one closed strait into fuel, food, bonds, defence and demography.
130
I'm becoming AI-blind
Recently I've been catching myself having these little moments at work, when I'm trying to read a document someone has sent me and my brain somehow refuses to analyze it. It feels like I'm reading it, but I'm unable to focus on its content. I sat down to analyze these situations and realized they all have a common…
131
Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning
Show HN is Hacker News’ “showcase” page where makers show and discuss what they’ve built. A few days ago I shared my own project(https://news.ycombinator.com...
132
Does Georgism work? Five years later
A guest post by Lars Doucet
133
Not everyone is using AI for everything
People are consuming AI like they eat meat: some are embracing it, some are limiting their use of it, and some are avoiding it altogether.
134
Two-tier encryption in the UK
Alice and Bill have identical Apple devices. Only one gets Apple’s strongest iCloud protection.
135
Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense
Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense
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137
The Egg Bandits Made a Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing
The Stringer Bell rule is obsolete, as Trump and state attorneys general let the egg producers off the hook for a brazen conspiracy. Still, egg prices did drop as a result of the investigation.
138
65% of Hacker News posts have negative sentiment, and they outperform
Sentiment analysis of 32,000 Hacker News posts shows 65% skew negative and earn 27% more points. Six transformer and LLM models tested, full data included.
139
Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career
I don’t think there’s compelling evidence that using AI makes you less intelligent overall. However, it seems pretty obvious that using AI to perform a task…
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141
What shall I teach my son?
Yesterday, the title The End of Education by Neil Postman called to me from my bookshelf, whispering that it might be the right book at the right time. It was. Published in 1995, it was surprisingly appropriate balm for the soul of a confused programmer and soon-to-be father.
142
The case for physical media ownership
An overview of physical media ownership, streaming shutdowns, content removals, and the limits of digital licenses.
143
There is a shadow hanging over this Fable thing
Man, I was just trying to relax and (have my agent) code on a Friday
144
macOS Golden Gate Is a Buggy Mess
In June 2008 Apple announced Mac OS X Snow Leopard, proudly boasting that it would have "no new features". Instead of piling on new things, Snow Leopard aimed to build on the success of its predecessor, Leopard, opting to focus on under-the-hood performance and stability improvements throughout the system.
145
Elon Musk Just Gave Europe a Reason to Replace American Technology
I’ve been in London for the last month and have heard policymakers react to the wake up call Elon Musk just delivered. The decision of the U.S. to shut off intelligence and throttle the military v…
146
The Eternal Sloptember
I’m calling it now, the adoption of AI agents into software development will be one of the most costly mistakes in the field’s history. Agents cannot program, and it’s taking longer and longer to realize that they can’t. They are a highly sophisticated statistical model designed to mimic the distribution of…
147
I told them forced consent was unlawful. 5 years later it cost Elkjop €1.8M
Datatilsynet just fined Elkjop NOK 20 million (€1.8m) for the forced consent in its loyalty club — five years after I told their DPO it was unlawful.
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AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it
You're using AI to be more productive. So why are you more exhausted than ever? The paradox every engineer needs to confront.
150
The Pentagon Threatened Pope Leo XIV's Ambassador with the Avignon Papacy
The Free Press has documented a closed-door Pentagon meeting in which a senior Trump official lectured Pope Leo XIV’s ambassador on American military supremacy.