frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

In Praise of Stupid Questions

https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/in-praise-of-stupid-questions/
17•ibobev•3h ago

Comments

9wzYQbTYsAIc•3h ago
> Toss a fair coin until the number of heads exceeds the number of tails. This determines a stopping time. What is the probability that this stopping time is even?

Claude Code did pretty well:

> Zero. > > The stopping time always falls on an odd toss. Here's why: after >n tosses, heads minus > tails equals S_n = X₁ + X₂ + ... + X_n where each X_i takes >value +1 or −1. The sum > of n odd numbers shares parity with n. For S_n = 1 (the first >time heads exceeds > tails), we need n odd. > > No even stopping time exists. The probability equals exactly 0. > > Cogitated for 38s

keiferski•1h ago
Fortunately these days I have a very patient interlocutor named ChatGPT blessed with an infinite tolerance for half-baked questions and a soothing lack of judgmentality.

I know it’s popular to say AI is overhyped or not actually useful, but I think one area where it’s unquestionably a massive improvement is in asking stupid questions. I ask ChatGPT so many questions that I’ve started looking for ways to automatically send me a daily summary of questions and answers, to add to Anki.

I used to post a lot of these types of questions on subreddits that are Ask-related. Ask Philosophy and Ask Historians, for example. Unfortunately the mod teams for many subreddits like this have gone overboard, deleting anything that doesn’t fit their specific idiosyncratic rules.

Needless to say I have almost entirely stopped asking questions on Reddit.

duhhhhh1212•16m ago
https://math.mit.edu/~apost/courses/18.204-2016/18.204_Jon_L... doesn't this paper demonstrate the same thing like a decade before?

Gimp 3.2 Released

https://www.gimp.org/news/2026/03/14/gimp-3-2-released/
80•F3nd0•56m ago•7 comments

Hostile Volume – A game about adjusting volume with intentionally bad UI

https://hostilevolume.com/
43•Velocifyer•2h ago•20 comments

MCP Is Dead; Long Live MCP

https://chrlschn.dev/blog/2026/03/mcp-is-dead-long-live-mcp/
18•CharlieDigital•1h ago•0 comments

Marketing for Founders

https://github.com/EdoStra/Marketing-for-Founders
16•jimsojim•1h ago•0 comments

2026 tech layoffs reach 45,000 in March

https://technode.global/2026/03/09/2026-tech-layoffs-reach-45000-in-march-more-than-9200-due-to-a...
61•ninadwrites•1h ago•43 comments

An ode to bzip

https://purplesyringa.moe/blog/an-ode-to-bzip/
62•signa11•4h ago•33 comments

Montana passes Right to Compute act (2025)

https://www.westernmt.news/2025/04/21/montana-leads-the-nation-with-groundbreaking-right-to-compu...
208•bilsbie•6h ago•174 comments

It's time to move your docs in the repo

https://www.dein.fr/posts/2026-03-13-its-time-to-move-your-docs-in-the-repo
50•gregdoesit•1h ago•28 comments

Show HN: Ichinichi – One note per day, E2E encrypted, local-first

25•katspaugh•1h ago•5 comments

Baochip-1x: What it is, why I'm doing it now and how it came about

https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao/updates/what-it-is-why-im-doing-it-now-and-how-it-came-...
239•timhh•3d ago•34 comments

Sunsetting Jazzband

https://jazzband.co/news/2026/03/14/sunsetting-jazzband
94•mooreds•3h ago•30 comments

Python: The Optimization Ladder

https://cemrehancavdar.com/2026/03/10/optimization-ladder/
219•Twirrim•4d ago•76 comments

In Praise of Stupid Questions

https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/in-praise-of-stupid-questions/
17•ibobev•3h ago•3 comments

Generalizing Knuth's Pseudocode Architecture From Algorithms to Knowledge

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/401189185_Towards_a_Generalization_of_Knuth%27s_Pseudoco...
18•isomorphist•3d ago•0 comments

Show HN: GitAgent – An open standard that turns any Git repo into an AI agent

https://www.gitagent.sh/
67•sivasurend•7h ago•7 comments

Nmap in the movies (2008)

https://nmap.org/movies/
128•homebrewer•4h ago•17 comments

CSMWrap: Legacy BIOS booting on UEFI-only systems via SeaBIOS

https://github.com/CSMWrap/CSMWrap
10•_joel•4d ago•2 comments

A Recursive Algorithm to Render Signed Distance Fields

https://pointersgonewild.com/2026-03-06-a-recursive-algorithm-to-render-signed-distance-fields/
5•surprisetalk•3d ago•0 comments

Life as an OnlyFans 'chatter'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq571g9gd4lo
103•1659447091•3d ago•102 comments

9 Mothers Defense (YC P26) Is Hiring in Austin

https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/9-mothers?utm_source=x8pZ4B3P3Q
1•ukd1•7h ago

Megadev: A Development Kit for the Sega Mega Drive and Mega CD Hardware

https://github.com/drojaazu/megadev
101•XzetaU8•11h ago•5 comments

Starlink militarization and its impact on global strategic stability

https://interpret.csis.org/translations/starlink-militarization-and-its-impact-on-global-strategi...
82•msuniverse2026•11h ago•100 comments

What happens when US economic data becomes unreliable

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/what-happens-when-us-economic-data-becomes-unreliable
270•inaros•3h ago•241 comments

1M context is now generally available for Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6

https://claude.com/blog/1m-context-ga
1085•meetpateltech•1d ago•465 comments

Everything you never wanted to know about visually-hidden

https://dbushell.com/2026/02/20/visually-hidden/
22•PaulHoule•4d ago•5 comments

Online astroturfing: A problem beyond disinformation (2022)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01914537221108467
71•xyzal•4h ago•35 comments

Show HN: Learn Arabic with spaced repetition and comprehensible input

https://abjadpro.com
42•adangit•4h ago•12 comments

UBI as a productivity dividend

https://scottsantens.substack.com/p/universal-basic-income-is-your-productivity
84•2noame•4h ago•145 comments

XML Is a Cheap DSL

https://unplannedobsolescence.com/blog/xml-cheap-dsl/
213•y1n0•8h ago•213 comments

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/fake-ram-bundled-with-real-ram-to-create-a-perform...
230•edward•10h ago•149 comments