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615 points __rito__ | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source

Related from yesterday: Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205632
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Rperry2174 ◴[] No.46223267[source]
One thing this really highlights to me is how often the "boring" takes end up being the most accurate. The provocative, high-energy threads are usually the ones that age the worst.

If an LLM were acting as a kind of historian revisiting today’s debates with future context, I’d bet it would see the same pattern again and again: the sober, incremental claims quietly hold up, while the hyperconfident ones collapse.

Something like "Lithium-ion battery pack prices fall to $108/kWh" is classic cost-curve progress. Boring, steady, and historically extremely reliable over long horizons. Probably one of the most likely headlines today to age correctly, even if it gets little attention.

On the flip side, stuff like "New benchmark shows top LLMs struggle in real mental health care" feels like high-risk framing. Benchmarks rotate constantly, and “struggle” headlines almost always age badly as models jump whole generations.

I bet theres many "boring but right" takes we overlook today and I wondr if there's a practical way to surface them before hindsight does

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yunwal ◴[] No.46223589[source]
"Boring but right" generally means that this prediction is already priced in to our current understanding of the world though. Anyone can reliably predict "the sun will rise tomorrow", but I'm not giving them high marks for that.
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1. SubiculumCode ◴[] No.46223658[source]
Perhaps a new category, 'highest risk guess but right the most often'. Those is the high impact predictions.
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2. arjie ◴[] No.46223696[source]
Prediction markets have pretty much obviated the need for these things. Rather than rely on "was that really a hot take?" you have a market system that rewards those with accurate hot takes. The massive fees and lock-up period discourage low-return bets.
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3. Karrot_Kream ◴[] No.46223779[source]
FWIW Polymarket (which is one of the big markets) has no lock-up period and, for now while they're burning VC coins, no fees. Otherwise agree with your point though.
4. gammarator ◴[] No.46225531[source]
Can’t wait for the brave new world of individuals “match fixing” outcomes on Polymarket.
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5. Karrot_Kream ◴[] No.46226109{3}[source]
As opposed to the current world of brigading social media threads to make consensus look like it goes your way and then getting journalists scraping by on covering clickbait to cover your brigading as fact?