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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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TechTakes
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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Jeff "Coding Horror" Atwood is sneering — at us! On Mastodon:
T. chatbot booster rhetoric. So what are those examples, buddy? Very specifically? He replies:
Um hello‽ Maybe Jeff doesn't have a spare room or room to sublet, but surely he can spare a couch or a mailbox? Let your friend use your mailing address. Store some of their stuff in your garage. To use the jargon of hackers, Jeff should be a better neighbor. This is a common issue for unhoused folks and they cannot climb back up the ladder into society without some help. Jeff's reinvented the Hulk tacos meme but they can't even eat it because printer paper tastes awful.
"Provide an overview of local homeless services" sounds like a standard task for a volunteer or a search engine, but yes "you can use my address for mail and store some things in my garage and I will email some contacts about setting you up with contract work" would be a better answer than just handing out secondhand information! Many "amazing things AI can do" are things the Internet + search engines could do ten years ago.
I would also like to hear from the friend "was this actually helpful?"
Friend: "I have a problem"
Me, with a stack of google printouts: "My time to shine!".
E: ow god, I thought the examples were multiple and the friend one was just a random one. No, it was the first example. 'I gave my friend a printout, which saved me time'. Also, as I assume the friend still is unhoused, and they didn't actually use the printout yet, he doesn't know if this actually helped. Atwood isn't a 'helping the unhoused' expert. He just assumed it was a good source. The story ends when he hands over the paper.
Also very funny that he is also going 'you just need to know how to ask questions the right way, which I learned by building stackoverflow'. Yeah euh, that is not a path a lot of people can follow up in.
Its even worse when I read the whole thread, Atwood claims to have $140 million, and the best he can do for "a friend" who is homeless is handing out some printouts with a few sections highlighted? And he thinks this makes him look good because he promises to give away half his wealth one day?
Like Clinton starting a go fund me for a coworker with cancer, the rich and their money are not voluntarily parted.
This also shows problems with the "effective altruist" approach. Donating to the local theater or "to raise awareness of $badThing" might not be the best way of using funds, but when a friend needs help now, you have the resources to help them, and you say "no, that might not be as efficient as creating a giant charity to help strangers one day" something is wrong.