alephnerd

And of that, $24B was GCP.

I think the reason pay is awful in anime is the same reason as in gamedev: if people get into it for passion, the companies can pay less and still have employees

Partially, but also outsourcing. First it was South Korea, then China, and now Vietnam and India.

Toei Animation's (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Sailor Moon, Mononoke) VISION 2030 [0] is interesting if you want to deep dive into how the industry is thinking medium-to-long terms

has pay gone up in other fields where AI has taken over a lot of job

Depends on the industry [1]

[0] https://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/en/ir/main/00/teaserItems1/0112...

[1] https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/ai-impacts-in-bls-employme...

Open weight models aren't likely to be open weight in the long-term. China has started considering export controlling and limiting access to model weights [0].

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/6049a031-9e9b-464c-97bb-414da04d5...

In English you don't need to add "One of the..." to the beginning of a sentence that is referencing multiple objects - it is implicitly inferred.

((Adj N) V (N V N))

I'd recommend reading the the OCCRP investigation - https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/european-password-man...

but as a niche for a 30 year old for a stable gig? Some of these legacy systems are never going away...

It's not as stable as you would think.

I have some acquaintances at JPMC and GS who have led internal initiatives to leverage foundation models to translate COBOL and other legacy software into more modern frameworks with decent success over the past 24 months.

What else couldn't be done by foundation models was then offshored to their dev teams in India, Poland, and Romania.

Hyperspecializing in a niche and ignoring other newer innovations is also setting yourself up for failure long term as of 2026.

If one cannot be bothered to deep dive into newer shifts in technology in order to both understand their pros and cons, it's hard to justify hiring them.

Very much this.

I've been to a couple rationalist events in the Bay during peak rationalism (originally with an open mind but eventually resorted to gawking after people couldn't handle "but why..." style questions and prodding which is the norm in my line of work and past academic experience) and it was truly weird seeing supposedly well educated people fall for such obvious cult-like traps.

In hindsight, I guess there might have been an overrepresentation of neurodivergence in the community as well, and for some rationalism's simple precepts simply worked - though arguably you can integrate axiomatic thinking and formal logic with traditional religion as well (eg. Nicomachean Ethics or Ashtadhyay).

I am a massive supporter for data-driven decision making (heck, much of my undergrad was touching this kind of stuff), but mental models are meant to be tools not a crutch, and overindexing on them causes one to lose sight of the forest when amongst trees.

I'd also refute the notion on HN that the movers and shakers of the industry are overrepresented in the community - I actually found the rationalist community to be somewhat marginal in the industry as a whole but overrepresented among a specific type of chronically online individual. Indoor climbing, pickleball, and creative arts (eg. Pottery) are much more representative.

You do realize how physically and mentally demanding pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery is right?

It truly sounds like you think it's a cakewalk and does not have long term side effects. This is why plenty of women just aren't interested in having kids no matter how much money or status is offered.

Women have to deal with Lochia, Perineal Soreness, Uterine Cramps, Pelvic Floor Weakness, significant Hormonal Shifts, Postpartum Depression, Hypertension, Diabetes (yes, pregnancy does induce diabetes), Hemorrhages, and other physical and mental experiences that can take a significant toll.

A generation or two ago, most women had kids because they didn't really have a choice. Now you are seeing what the true choice is amongst a growing proportion of women.

That's for women who are 50 and older. I'd recommend reading the entire survey, or you know actual women in their 20s and early 30s.

57% of all American women under 50 don't want children as the Pew Survey showed. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for so many guys to not get that a lot of women are uninterested in having kids.

And this is a common sentiment globally as living standards rise.

It's not about status dude.

Gestating and expulsing a living human being is very difficult to physically and mentally recover from.

All we as guys need to do is put our shlong in. Women have to deal with the physical and mental externalities of that, so unsurprisingly a lot of young women are increasingly uninterested in having kids even if status played a role (which it doesn't as polling amongst women points out).

Or because having kids is much more limiting for women than it is for men...

It's almost like no one here has actually talked to women in their 20s and early 30s. While cost does play a role, almost every guy (and it's always guys) seems to ignore polling amongst women [0] that highlights this shift.

Women face the physical effects of childbirth and the subsequent recovery (if they recover), as well as stalled careers and the continued existence of patriarchical norms. Unsurprisingly, the younger generation of women are much less interested compared to men, because now they have a choice.

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons...

What is interesting is the subnational breakdown - volumes have been decreasing in the US West for over a year compared to the rest of the US, and overall sales have also decreased as well whereas they are stagnant in the rest of the US.

The US has just imposed 25% tariffs on Brazil [0], but it does exempt beef, coffee, rare earths, energy products, aircraft, and aircraft parts.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-imposes-25-tariff-...

Becuase it is retro. The 1990s and 2000s were a generation ago.

Surprisingly, the Taliban's national keyboard app is openly using OpenAI [0]. How this was not flagged by OpenAI's security team is surprising.

[0] https://keyboard.rta.af/

Not exactly. Most of those drones are being used fairly effectively by the Taliban's Pakistan branch [0].

Most reporting on the war is being overshadowed by Iran or being done in Dari or Pakhtu.

[0] https://southasianvoices.org/sec-m-pk-r-ttp-drone-threat-06-...

The difference is the scale [0] at which they are manufacturing [1] now that the Taliban control Afghanistan, as well as the fact that Afghan media is report "international engineers from countries including Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Bangladesh, and China" [1] as well as India [2] are collaborating on the project.

[0] https://thediplomat.com/2026/03/why-is-afghanistan-developin...

[1] https://en.didpress.com/16426/?ut

[2] https://www.afintl.com/202606200748

but being a CTO at a major org isn't exactly a low-paying gig

The IC pay at OpenAI alone is comparable to that of an EM at Google. CTOs at most large orgs end up earning the same as an EM at Google.

OpenAI and Anthropic pay is extremely competitive. The last time I saw something similar in SV was Google back in the 2000s.

Gotta start somewhere. Even the CHIPS Act and the first Big Fund were $52B and $20B in size respectively, and both Samsung [0] and the Taiwanese Government [1] have begun training programs in India specifically for device physics and fabrication. Taiwan is also sponsoring Indian to take training fellowships in semiconductor fabrication [2].

[0] https://iisc-iswdp.org/

[1] https://web.ncku.edu.tw/p/406-1000-274628,r3636.php?Lang=en

[2] https://cltc.ntut.edu.tw/p/412-1035-18451.php?Lang=en

Overall emissions.

But the UK and EU (the only large polluters who have even considered carbon tariffs) have largely watered them down - for example, yesterday with the UK increasing it's duty free steel quota for India [0] as Tata Steel owns much of the UK's steel capacity and demand (JLR is a Tata company). Add to that the EU's largest steel maker is owned by India's Mittal family (AcrelorMittal) and European conglomerates like Renault [1] are expanding manufacturing in markets like India, which means using Indian steel.

And all of that ignores domestic growth in all those countries. Base GDP growth rates are expected to be in the 6.5-8% for India and ASEAN despite deglobalization because domestic markets are growing.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-14/india-win...

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/renault-plans-boost-indi...

Both China and the US have similar carbon emission growth rates (0.3-0.5%).

And that does nothing to stop the collective 8 GT of carbon emissions coming from India and the other countries I listed with an average emissions increase rate of around 3-5%.

1.1 GT combined but shrinking yearly by 1-3%, which isn't enough to make up for the combined increase in carbon emissions from India, ASEAN, MENA, LatAm, and Russia.

Yes, and?

That's why nothing will happen.

Developing countries like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are continuing to expand their emissions as they industrialize. All are expected to have an GDP growth rate in the 6-8% range over the next decade, as will their peers across Asia, so the carbon footprint globally will only increase.

Even China's emissions rate aren't decreasing - they're stagnant, which is a good shift, but not enough to turn the tide given how large China's existing carbon footprint is.

Edit: can't reply

but they're not going to expand by taking on coal and fossil fuels...

India [0], Vietnam [1], and other large industrializing nation in Asia have all doubled down on expanding coal usage over the last 6 months. And that's ignoring increased usage of NatGas and Oil.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/india-will-use-more-...

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/vietnam-looks-more-c...

If we don’t do something about this...

We can't. We're too late.

China (13 GT), the US (4.6 GT), and India (3 GT) alone represent 51% of global carbon emissions - and at least in India's case, it is growing at a rate of 5%.

Throw in other large polluters like Russia (2 GT), Indonesia (0.8 GT), Iran (0.8 GT), KSA (0.6 GT), Brazil (0.5 GT), and Vietnam (0.5 GT) whose rate of carbon emissions is growing in the 5-10% range and you see there is no path forward.

Any amount of de-carbonization that China or the collective West does is automatically negated by the other countries I listed. At best global carbon emissions stagnate - which by default is going to lead to a 2-3 °C increase in temperatures.

There is a political aspect to it as well, but it's overstated to a certain extent.

Most of these humanities programs are being created via philanthropy from alumni or business families now thinking about their legacy.

Also, now that India isn't as poor as it was previously, it's unsurprising that a new generation of humanities and social sciences researchers are choosing to take roles in India versus abroad.

Yes as well. My list of languages was non-exhaustive.

Or Koshur - it still retains archaic word forms, syntax, and roots that fell out of other Indo-Iranian languages.

This new revival is not going to lead to actual communication, just a lot of visual art based on the script and quotations

This, but also social sciences and interdisciplinary research (especially in the NLP, CompLing, and ML space).

Something that isn't called out but is playing a role as well is the rise of humanities and interdisciplinary research in India. 20-30 years ago, specializing in ancient languages and texts from a CompLing perspective or a humanities perspective just didn't occur.

As India grew richer, the newer generation of liberal arts colleges (eg. Ashoka) and humanities programs in public universities (eg. IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, JNU) started attracting and hiring Western educated faculty and researchers (Indian as well as Foreigners) to help revitalize interest in humanities and social sciences.

India also now has a new generation philanthropists who are starting to donate to this kind of research (eg. Murthy and the "Murty Classical Library of India" at Harvard).

There is a similar revitalization for older texts in Tamizh, Telugu, Koshur, Pahari, Tibetan, etc as well.

Partially. It's basically only enterprise and upper market organizations that were hit by billing re-negotiations by AWS, GCP, or Azure and want a high touch experience.