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Comment by simonw

10 hours ago

You and a few other people, but enough people still appreciate the bit that I'm going to keep doing it.

They're easy enough to skip - click the little "-" icon and you'll collapse the entire sub-thread.

+1. First thing I look for in a model announcement thread. I actually came across this one an hour ago and was sad there were no pelicans yet.

It's a decent heuristic because the better models generate better pelicans. That's all. Nobody sane is going to make a bet on a model based on a pelican. But it's cool, it's tradition by now, and it's a semblance of a good first impression for new models.

I love and appreciate you doing and sharing them, with stats and details.

thank you.

[flagged]

  • If enough people agreed with you, simonw's top level comment would be grey. It isn't. Not every comment is for every person, that is fine and normal. He didnt hijack a popular thread in here to make his post. He doesnt have a tin can in your face shouting from a soapbox that makes it hard to ignore. Flag or ignore are reasonable options that can be used.

    • People aren't supposed to upvote or downvote posts for these kinds of reasons here. Most people are downvoting far too much on this website, and it leads to significant echo-chamber dynamics that are worse than even reddit. The pelican test continuing to be taken seriously is a great example of that kind of echo chamber.

      "He doesn't have a tin can in your face shouting from a soapbox that makes it hard to ignore."

      He metaphorically does because people upvote his pelicans to the top and the ensuing comment threads are massive/bloated. Huge amounts of the readership of this website are lurkers who don't even know how to hide these giant posts. Look at how bloated this very thread is right now!

      Also, a lot of people unironically are whining about him because of sour grapes. Pay them what Simon is likely making, give them as much mindshare/attention as Simon gets, and they wouldn't be so mad.

      Anti-incumbency bias and anti-elitist attitudes are good actually.

      1 reply →

  • I did hit a nerve. I don't like being accused of posting comments here for "low effort personal brand promotion" or nefarious financial motives.

    • Well, yeah. No one does.

      But, also, as said, you're an industry (and foss!) veteran, so I find it impossible to believe that you haven't had your fair share of baseless bullshit being thrown at you, and with that, you gaining a persona that will not be hit by that, because it clearly knows that it is in fact bullshit.

      Unless of course it doesn't really know that with certainty.

      As said, I would _love_ to give you the benefit of the doubt, because you might just have a stressful day or whatever, but content marketing is literally your whole thing by now. It is impossible for me to do that with a clean conscience.

      Your blog front page currently opens with

      > Earlier this month I hosted a fireside chat session at the AI Engineer World’s Fair with Cat Wu and Thariq Shihipar from Anthropic’s Claude Code team.

      That is not what "some rando foss maintainer we are morally obligated to be soft with" does.

      But I repeat myself.

      4 replies →