Government & Funding Shakeups

First off, the biggest one was about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations. Yeah, like PBS and NPR funding. Apparently, they lost federal funding. The comments section was a total war zone, people debating everything from government's role to Elon Musk giving out Starlinks during a hurricane – which, by the way, someone quickly pointed out wasn't as free as it sounded. Even the HN admin had to step in and tell people to chill with the personal attacks. Seriously, heated debate there.

Tech Industry Talk

Then there was this classic: Live coding interviews measure stress, not coding skills. Man, people are still arguing this one! Some folks were like, "Duh, if you can't code, you can't pass," but a lot of others agreed it's mostly a stress test. Super relatable, right?

And speaking of AI, Google dropped news about their Gemini 2.5 Deep Think model. They're calling it "Deep Think" – sounds like it's supposed to be super smart at complex problems. People in the comments were asking how it stacks up against competitors, and one guy was pretty hyped, saying Gemini's the only one that can really reason over long context for him.

Oh, and this one was awesome: "I couldn't submit a PR, so I got hired and fixed it myself." This dev wanted to fix a bug, couldn't get a PR in, so he literally got hired by the company and fixed it from the inside. How epic is that?! The comments were cracking up about it, and someone even mentioned a Google Maps bug that's been around for ages, hoping this guy could fix that too!

Big Money & Big Brains

Another huge one was OpenAI raising $8.3 BILLION at a $300 BILLION valuation. Seriously, three hundred billion! People in the comments were scratching their heads trying to figure out how they justify that kind of money. Some joked about them selling ads eventually, while others talked about the potential for "superintelligence" automating every white-collar job.

On the other side of the brain spectrum, there was a cool story about Hannah Cairo, a 17-year-old, solving a major math mystery. Super impressive! But some comments were debating why universities wouldn't take her earlier, saying it's about social development and not just pure smarts at that age. Still, pretty mind-blowing for a teenager.

And speaking of big brains, apparently the NSF suspended a grant for Terry Tao – you know, that famous mathematician. This one got pretty political in the comments, with people talking about "ideological stances" impacting academic funding and hiring. Sounds like a mess.

Quick Hit: IRS & Taxes

One more quick one: the IRS head said their free tax service, "Direct File," is gone. Apparently, it's tied to the Trump administration. Sounds like a political move to help out the tax software companies, and the comments were definitely getting spicy about it, talking about tribalism and voter decisions.