Top all-time · #20177
Lessons Learned
Personal blog · enki.orgdatapoliticsai
Lessons Learned is a personal blog at enki.org about data, politics and ai. Since 2017, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 26 times, most often “Publishing My Genome”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked by one commenter in a thread on a Covid testing firm selling customers' DNA, where they say they published their own results. The linked post is about the author's personal DNA results from 2017.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Publishing My Genome2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-10-18
- Encouraging People to Vote – Lessons Learned2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-11-08
What Hacker News says?
I did some research on this: https://enki.org/2018/06/06/co2-monitoring/ I now am very conscious about keeping a door open and getting some fresh air into the room. This is a challenge in modern, well-insulated buildings in Florida in the summer.
Comment linking /2018/06/06/co2-monitoring/
on “Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?”Submitted Quitting Caffeine as a story · 257 points
HN discussionI found suspicious data when looking at voter records: https://enki.org/2018/12/07/finding-unusual-voters/ https://quark.cards/voters/Florida/oldest
Comment linking /2018/12/07/finding-unusual-voters/
on “Supercentenarians are concentrated into regions with no birth certificates”Submitted Steel Prices and Dumb Policies as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> In the article there is a quote, “There is no personal data more sensitive than our DNA.“ > This seems a bogus assertion to me. I can imagine many diagnostic health test results that would be more sensitive to leak than DNA (e.g., STD and drug tests). > DNA sequencing is eventually going to be so cheap and ubiquitous that it will happen to everyone anyway. > Having published my own results ( https://enki.org/2017/…
Comment linking /2017/10/17/publishing-my-genome/
on “Covid testing firm ‘selling swabs carrying customers’ DNA’ to third parties”Submitted Finding Unusual Voters as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIn the article there is a quote, “There is no personal data more sensitive than our DNA.“ This seems a bogus assertion to me. I can imagine many diagnostic health test results that would be more sensitive to leak than DNA (e.g., STD and drug tests). DNA sequencing is eventually going to be so cheap and ubiquitous that it will happen to everyone anyway. Having published my own results ( https://enki.org/2017/10/17/pu…
Comment linking /2017/10/17/publishing-my-genome/
on “Covid testing firm ‘selling swabs carrying customers’ DNA’ to third parties”Submitted ChatGPT Playing Wordle as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI am aware of Pollan's recently well-publicized assertion that caffeine made the modern world. I am unconvinced. I quit caffeine a few years ago. I'm not an unusual mutant. I have the genes on markers rs4410790 and rs2470893 that indicate a typical reaction to caffeine. ( https://enki.org/2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/ ) Most people experience a temporary increase in productivity until they build up a tolerance for c…
Comment linking /2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/
on “I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week”Submitted Genes Carrying Memes as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI have been wondering why we don't use the term "synthetic intelligence": https://enki.org/2019/08/18/artificial-intelligence-is-a-dum...
Comment linking /2019/08/18/artificial-intelligence-is-a-dumb-term/
on “Our field isn't quite “artificial intelligence” – it's “cognitive automation””Submitted Dingell's Number as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI don't understand these concerns. I have published my data from 23andMe ( https://enki.org/2017/10/17/publishing-my-genome/ ) ( https://github.com/mcculley/genes-genes ). Can you share what you think the bad outcomes would be? What am I missing? Edit: As people bring up the insurance risk, yes I did consider that and mention it in my post. I am personally not concerned about it and think the advantages outweigh the…
Comment linking /2017/10/17/publishing-my-genome/
on “GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact”Submitted Encouraging People to Vote – Lessons Learned as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis is an interesting problem. I thought and wrote a little about this a few years ago: https://enki.org/2017/03/02/historical-narrators/
Comment linking /2017/03/02/historical-narrators/
on “Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics questions”Submitted Publishing My Genome as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI quit a few years ago. I wrote about my experience: https://enki.org/2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/
Comment linking /2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/
on “How coffee became a modern necessity”Just this Monday I sent email to 162,883 Floridians who had no record of having voted before: https://enki.org/2018/11/07/encouraging-people-to-vote/ The Florida data set which I requested has the same kind of information about absentee votes and physical addresses. I am wondering if this kind of data will become less public.
Comment linking /2018/11/07/encouraging-people-to-vote/
on “Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online”The bigger problem is that we have more people retiring than entering the workforce. This demographic collapse has been forecast for decades. COVID just pushed us ahead on the curve with some early retirements. I wrote about this [0] and welcome input on how my thinking might be incorrect. I work in multiple industries and am struggling with recruiting labor that requires years of training. I welcome creative ideas…
Comment linking /2022/05/17/demographic-impacts/
on “Cook shortage threatens to sink U.S. Coast Guard operations”This was taught to me in elementary school (among other things: https://enki.org/2018/07/30/things-i-learned-in-elementary-s... ) as Genesis 22.
Comment linking /2018/07/30/things-i-learned-in-elementary-school/
on “Mr. Rogers vs. the Superheroes”I used caffeinated workout supplement powder to gently titrate down when I quit: https://enki.org/2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/
Comment linking /2017/08/13/quitting-caffeine/
on “I almost quit caffeine in one year”My 3rd though 6th grade education was at a private Christian school. We were explicitly taught that the Earth is ~6,000 years old and that fossils are a test of faith in that belief. Fundamentalist creationists exist. https://enki.org/2018/07/30/things-i-learned-in-elementary-s...
Comment linking /2018/07/30/things-i-learned-in-elementary-school/
on “Notes from a Flat Earth Conference”I did some analysis of vote data in Florida and found some fraud: https://enki.org/2018/12/07/finding-unusual-voters/ I'm not convinced it is large scale enough to sway an election. It's mostly just a failure of the counties to coordinate with each other to prevent double votes. Florida has had unrestricted absentee ballot voting by mail since 2002. Over 2.5 million Florida voters used it in the last two elections,…
Comment linking /2018/12/07/finding-unusual-voters/
on “Vote by Mail: Ballot Fraud Risk, State Laws and Trump's Claims”As an elementary school student [0], I struggled with the incompatibilities of evolution and the literal Christian creationist model I was taught. I thought that "the chicken and the egg" was a question of faith. One who believes that the Earth was created in seven days believes that the chicken came first, in whole form, on Day Five. One who uses evolution and natural selection as a model thinks it most likely that…
Comment linking /2018/07/30/things-i-learned-in-elementary-school/
on “Did the chicken come first or is it turtles all the way down?”> you import and pay the tariff anyway Yes, I recently wrote about my own frustration with this: https://enki.org/2023/08/01/steel-prices/
Comment linking /2023/08/01/steel-prices/
on “the US climate law is fueling a factory frenzy. Here’s the latest tally”