We should be more ambitious with the software we build
Comments on “We should be more ambitious with the software we build”
3 judges. Scored by all three judges. Only the day’s top stories get the claim check. How far stories are checked
Dan Luu's essay argues that developers should be more ambitious with the software they build, using Michael Malis's pgrust project as a case study. The project, a Postgres rewrite, is widely dismissed as AI-generated slop, but its thorough testing has surfaced real Postgres bugs, and its performance work may influence…
Why it ranked
No. 92 of 93 with a score of 0.55. The panel rated it highest on new information (0.80) and audience breadth (0.73), lowest on substantiated (0.43). The judges disagreed most on new information (spread 0.45), so the story is marked contested.
Every answer behind this is in the table under Score.
Score
0.55total under rubric v2.2Contestedjudges differ by 0.45 on new information, 0.42 on overclaim
- Significance0.49
- Reader interest0.65
- Audience breadth0.73
- Practical relevance0.60
- Substantiated0.43
- Technical depth0.54
- New information0.80
- Counts against: Promotional0.07
- Counts against: Overclaim0.36
Each judge’s answer per question (0–1), their mean and spread, and what the question adds to the score (weight × mean).
| Question | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 | Mean | Spread | Weight | Contribution (weight times mean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Significance | 0.49 | 0.30 | 0.67 | 0.49 | 0.37 | +0.24 | +0.117 |
| Reader interest | 0.48 | 0.60 | 0.88 | 0.65 | 0.40 | +0.26 | +0.170 |
| Audience breadth | 0.93 | 0.55 | 0.72 | 0.73 | 0.38 | +0.13 | +0.095 |
| Practical relevance | 0.60 | 0.45 | 0.76 | 0.60 | 0.31 | +0.22 | +0.133 |
| Substantiated | 0.42 | 0.35 | 0.52 | 0.43 | 0.17 | +0.05 | +0.022 |
| Technical depth | 0.69 | 0.30 | 0.62 | 0.54 | 0.39 | +0.05 | +0.027 |
| New information | 0.94 | 0.50 | 0.95 | 0.80 | 0.45 , above the contested threshold | +0.05 | +0.040 |
| Promotional | 0.11 | 0.05 | 0.04 | 0.07 | 0.07 | −0.19 | −0.013 |
| Overclaim | 0.60 | 0.30 | 0.18 | 0.36 | 0.42 , above the contested threshold | −0.11 | −0.040 |
| Sum of contributions | +0.551 | ||||||
| Claim-check penalty | 0.000 | ||||||
| Total, as published | 0.551 | ||||||
Spread is the highest minus the lowest judge answer. marks a spread above 0.40: the judges disagree, and the story is marked contested.
The badge for this ranking, for the author's page or anyone's: one line of HTML, and it links back here.
<a href="https://rubric.hrih.si/editions/2026-10-25/92/"><img src="https://rubric.hrih.si/badge/2026-10-25/92.svg" alt="Ranked #92 on Rubric, 25 Oct 2026" width="245" height="28"></a>Also covered by
No other coverage was clustered with this story.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: HN 293 pts, front page
Recorded for context only, checked 25 Oct 2026, 05:46 UTC. It played no part in the ranking.