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← A test meant to find the best candidates must make perfect scores…
12 connected korrents · 10 moments on record from 17 Apr 2012 to 3 Sept 2026.
Everything filed under benchmarks
benchmarks
Everything filed under software quality
software quality
Everything filed under writing
writing
Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject Same subject
Read this korrent: A test meant to find the best candidates must make perfect scores vanishingly rare, so that the top of the distribution can still be told apart.
A test meant to find the best candidates must make perfect scores vanishingly rare, so that the top of the distribution can still be told apart.
Last stated a year ago
15 Apr 2025
BC
Bryan Caplan — holds since 2025-04-15 — tap for who they are
Same subject: Elite programmes stay with tests that cannot separate the best candidates because doing so is a stealthy move in a wider war against merit. — tap to centre the map on it
Elite programmes stay with tests that cannot separate the best candidates because doing so is a stealthy move in a wider war against merit.
Last stated a year ago
15 Apr 2025
BC
Bryan Caplan — holds since 2025-04-15 — tap for who they are
Same subject: Running a model five times and keeping the best answer buys a higher benchmark score without buying a better model. — tap to centre the map on it
Running a model five times and keeping the best answer buys a higher benchmark score without buying a better model.
Last stated 2 months ago
26 Jun 2026
NB
Noam Brown — holds since 2026-06-26 — tap for who they are
Same subject: Making test coverage a target destroys it, because high coverage numbers are easy to reach with worthless tests. — tap to centre the map on it
Making test coverage a target destroys it, because high coverage numbers are easy to reach with worthless tests.
Last stated 14 years ago
17 Apr 2012
MF
Martin Fowler — holds since 2012-04-17 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A benchmark result should be reported under a stated budget, or as a curve against test-time compute — never as a single number. — tap to centre the map on it
A benchmark result should be reported under a stated budget, or as a curve against test-time compute — never as a single number.
Last stated 2 months ago
26 Jun 2026
NB
Noam Brown — holds since 2026-06-26 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A benchmark that ranks Claude Code last while it stays first in use is measuring the wrong thing, and has been for a year. — tap to centre the map on it
A benchmark that ranks Claude Code last while it stays first in use is measuring the wrong thing, and has been for a year.
Last stated 5 days ago
3 Sept 2026
DR
Dax Raad — holds since 2026-09-03 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A company's staff-engineer bar should be set against the best companies in the industry rather than against its own history, which is what makes title inflation a real cost. — tap to centre the map on it
A company's staff-engineer bar should be set against the best companies in the industry rather than against its own history, which is what makes title inflation a real cost.
Last stated 5 months ago
1 Apr 2026
TP
Thuan Pham — holds since 2026-04-01 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A language-agnostic conformance suite is the most powerful thing you can hand a coding agent, because the whole instruction becomes: write code until these tests pass. — tap to centre the map on it
A language-agnostic conformance suite is the most powerful thing you can hand a coding agent, because the whole instruction becomes: write code until these tests pass.
Last stated 6 months ago
19 Mar 2026
SW
Simon Willison — holds since 2026-03-19 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A passing test suite is not evidence that the software works, so an agent must also be made to start the thing and exercise it the way a person would. — tap to centre the map on it
A passing test suite is not evidence that the software works, so an agent must also be made to start the thing and exercise it the way a person would.
Last stated 6 months ago
19 Mar 2026
SW
Simon Willison — holds since 2026-03-19 — tap for who they are
Same subject: Adding a config option so nobody breaks compounds into permutations no test suite can cover, because it is infinitely harder to evolve software that has users. — tap to centre the map on it
Adding a config option so nobody breaks compounds into permutations no test suite can cover, because it is infinitely harder to evolve software that has users.
Last stated 4 weeks ago
10 Aug 2026
PS
Peter Steinberger — holds since 2026-08-10 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A browser that answers with generated prose instead of links is not a web browser but an anti-web browser, and it hides that substitution from the person using it. — tap to centre the map on it
A browser that answers with generated prose instead of links is not a web browser but an anti-web browser, and it hides that substitution from the person using it.
Last stated 11 months ago
22 Oct 2025
AD
Anil Dash — holds since 2025-10-22 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A first draft should not be graded good or bad; it is only the material that taste then gets to act on. — tap to centre the map on it
A first draft should not be graded good or bad; it is only the material that taste then gets to act on.
Last stated a month ago
6 Aug 2026
GS
George Saunders — holds since 2026-08-06 — tap for who they are
Same subject: A plain text file and a basic editor are everything anyone needs in order to think and write well; the extra tools add nothing. — tap to centre the map on it
A plain text file and a basic editor are everything anyone needs in order to think and write well; the extra tools add nothing.
Last stated 5 years ago
2 Mar 2022
DS
Derek Sivers — holds since 2022-03-02 — tap for who they are
same subject or similar wording a cloud: claims about one subject, named for it bar: when it was last stated, on a scale from 2012 to today (stretched back to the oldest claim here) — full is today a face: someone on record holding the claim — tap it for who they are