71–80 of 88 posts
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Completely doesn't answer the AI question, nor the "who's paying for this" question. Because presumably it's not a hobbyist buying every tool, mattress, and boot in the world annually.
Nobody is buying these things to review them, it's just a guy that works in "AI Strategy" in Palantir that has a lot of money to spend on LLM tokens.
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The page is entirely AI-generated and each piece is written with the same silly thesis (things used to be better and then they ruined everything). I see why this works, but it's frankly disappointing to see so many smart people fall for it over and over again. There's no human on the other end of these essays that believes these things. They're not true and not meant to be true. Yes, they're what we want to hear, but…
This page [0] didn't read as very AI-generated to me. However, it had an interesting link: > within days of closing a Cornell partner on the new board emailed the CEO to ask, "Is there fraud going on???" (Italicised part is the link) linking to [1]. When I search that page, I cannot find the word 'fraud' let alone anything like that quote. It's highly suspicious when a linked claim does not support the claim. [0]: ht…
Could be a copy/paste error, or could be an LLM trying to cite its own work by just looking at a list of sources used and guessing which one the claim came from.
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> It's been a long time since we've had a sense for how expensive clothing used to cost, and a "good" pair of boots (just as example) would be an enormous sticker shock to most people. Esp that example it's kinda triggering me a little, because someone I know can't shut up about it. From my perspective, what they consider "a good pair of shoes" is what I'd consider a "durable pair of shoes", which is - to them - crit…
What running shoes are you buying that last 2-3 years?
This site is absolute catnip for HN. Do we know what motivates the site? Long-term SEO content authority reputation building before pivoting to affiliate links?
The page is entirely AI-generated and each piece is written with the same silly thesis (things used to be better and then they ruined everything). I see why this works, but it's frankly disappointing to see so many smart people fall for it over and over again. There's no human on the other end of these essays that believes these things. They're not true and not meant to be true. Yes, they're what we want to hear, but…
Keyana Sapp is the writer behind it: https://www.worseonpurpose.com/authors/keyana-sapp
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WorseOnPurpose methodology page does not answer the question: is it claude vomit or not? Are the articles written partially or totally by AI?
Here is the creator's X profile: https://x.com/keyanasapp
I sure wasn't expecting to see multi-level-marketing company Cutco on the list of "Approved" vendors. I guess it depends on which moral failing you're monitoring.
It doesn't really take into account that not all products are meant to be premium. Like it says to avoid Black & Decker because it's "Built to a price point, not a quality standard". Like we know, it's not the 1980s - sometimes you just need a cheap drill to mount a TV and then forget about until you move.
But trading off a former reputation for premium quality whilst hollowing out the brand / actual goods ... is a pretty bright flag of red hue.
Looking through the list, I'm finding that the classifications and narratives for the cases I'm familiar with largely match my own experience, about 50 of the listed brands.
Principle exceptions are Keen and Merrell, both shoemakers. I've watched their products disintegrate before my eyes. Both had had good reputations. Keen, ironically, being my substitute for Teva when that brand went bad in the early aughts.
If anything, the rankings are generous. Though I don't see any marked "Approved" I'd disagree with.
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So you are saying - make the poor pay taxes for the rich?
Not quite sure how you got that out of my comment, but no. In the US at least, those classified as poor have a very low tax burden, in many cases they pay $0, or close to $0 in federal taxes after standard deductions.
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It's kind of weird. There is a lot of propaganda that says * rich people spending money==great investment into the economy and we need to give them more so they make the economy even better * poor people spending money==mindless consumption, it's a bad idea to give them money because they are wasting it anyways
Yep, and you see a similar thing with government spending and presumption of waste. Sure, government spending can be wasteful. But it's also generally going into the economy. It's buying stuff from companies who use the revenue to pay their employees and supply chains. It's paying government employees who spend their pay on places to live, food to eat, entertainment, etc. Some folks act like that money disappears. Wa…
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Completely doesn't answer the AI question, nor the "who's paying for this" question. Because presumably it's not a hobbyist buying every tool, mattress, and boot in the world annually.
Nobody is buying these things to review them, it's just a guy that works in "AI Strategy" in Palantir that has a lot of money to spend on LLM tokens.
EDIT: wait this guy is non-tech. It actually tracks a lot more now. Not as a knock against non-tech people using AI, just that I would have been very disappointed in Palantir if they had a top AI engineer create something like this after leaving. You would assume they are more judicious about the markers they look for in hiring, but for a more salesy, soft skills role, a product like this makes perfect sense and isn't unimpressive.