31–40 of 146 posts
Let's not forget this gem here [1]. Tells you everything you need to know about the company and its leadership. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195
He threatened the ex-intern by saying they have "a lot of money to pay for top lawyers" (goodness!), the incident gathered a lot of attention, got caught, and was forced to say sorry. Replit is in the news because of the Vercel fiasco. And it's jarring because of how they've tried to take advantage of that situation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think “vast majority” has a rigid definition, but I’d put it closer to 95% than 51%. For example, in the senate passing with 51 votes is a “simple majority”.
This is all highly personal, so just banter'ing, but: I agree there's no clear definition but 95% is even beyond "overwhelming majority" to me (with overwhelming being greater than vast). I'd call that "near totality". Maybe, at least for US contexts, "vast" should line up with "filibuster-proof"? Eg 60-65%? 75% at most. Of course, then that doesn't tell me anything about what it should mean in other contexts.
Personally, I feel vast is used to refer to things that 'appear limitless' e.g. vast desert, or when describing easily bound things - like percentages - to be almost complete.
Looking around it seems there is some debate on this, but it tends to end up suggesting the higher numbers:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vast_majority - puts vast as 75-99%
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39222264 - puts vast as greater than 75% (I can't tell if the top comment is a joke or there really is some form of ANSI guidance on this).
But to find a more compelling source I've taken a look at the UK's Office for National Statistic's use of the term. While they don't seem to have guidance in their service manual (https://service-manual.ons.gov.uk/) a quick term limited search of actual ONS publications show:
* https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...
- "The vast majority (99.1%) of married couples were of the opposite sex"
- "In this bulletin, we cover families living in households, which covers the vast majority of families. " - this is high 90's by a quick google elsewhere.
* https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/...
- "The vast majority of households across England and Wales reported that they had central heating in 2021 (98.5%, 24.4 million)."
* https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...
- "The vast majority (93.0%) lived in care homes."
This seems to put vast in the 90%+ category. There is certainly more analysis that can be done here though, as I have only sampled and haven't looked at the vast majority of publications.
(this was fun, I don't mean to come over as pedantic)
personally, the evolution of replit makes me sad. i remember writing some of my very first ever programs in python using replit in middle school, as it wasn't blocked by the school network and it was the best way of running arbitrary code online back then. i used it to execute java code for AP computer science in high school, and i improved a ton at using the terminal as well. At some point, I stopped using the repli…
Let's not forget this gem here [1]. Tells you everything you need to know about the company and its leadership. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195
>Rather than becoming defensive, Masad and his team owned the problem. In fact, says Masad, within two days, they rolled out an automatic safety system that separates a user’s “practice” database from their “real” one. The way Masad describes it, it’s a little like having two versions of a website’s filing cabinet — the AI agent can experiment freely in a development database, but the production database, which is th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He threatened the ex-intern by saying they have "a lot of money to pay for top lawyers" (goodness!), the incident gathered a lot of attention, got caught, and was forced to say sorry. Replit is in the news because of the Vercel fiasco. And it's jarring because of how they've tried to take advantage of that situation.
Vercel fiasco?
>Rather than becoming defensive, Masad and his team owned the problem. In fact, says Masad, within two days, they rolled out an automatic safety system that separates a user’s “practice” database from their “real” one. The way Masad describes it, it’s a little like having two versions of a website’s filing cabinet — the AI agent can experiment freely in a development database, but the production database, which is th…
Ironically, especially when you combine it with the em-dash, it really sounds like exactly the type of completely pointless and unilluminating analogy that LLMs love to generate. These analogies are essentially a bridge between two concepts, much like how a physical bridge connects two pieces of land separated by water, except in this case the 'water' is understanding and the bridge doesn't actually help you cross it…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is all highly personal, so just banter'ing, but: I agree there's no clear definition but 95% is even beyond "overwhelming majority" to me (with overwhelming being greater than vast). I'd call that "near totality". Maybe, at least for US contexts, "vast" should line up with "filibuster-proof"? Eg 60-65%? 75% at most. Of course, then that doesn't tell me anything about what it should mean in other contexts.
I think you're unaware of how vast vast is! Personally, I feel vast is used to refer to things that 'appear limitless' e.g. vast desert, or when describing easily bound things - like percentages - to be almost complete. Looking around it seems there is some debate on this, but it tends to end up suggesting the higher numbers: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vast_majority - puts vast as 75-99% https://news.ycombinator.…
Apparently I underestimated vastness.