https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2403.14606/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMThttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832517urn:hackerpapers:mention:2403.14606:48832517Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:33:40 GMT<p>note that similar concepts appear in mathematics. Generally the term for it is a &quot;mollified&quot; function. applied to the step function, you would get a smooth cutoff function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollifier#Smooth_cutoff_functi... this is also related somewhat to the notion of differentiable programming. RELU is (roughly) the same as x * step(x). In differentiable programming one can replace it with smooth approximations, cf &quot;softplus&quot; https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.14606 That book also has a chapter on control flow, which is very similar to what you&#x27;re talking about. Unrolling an if…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2403.14606/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>cs.LGhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39793191urn:hackerpapers:submission:2403.14606:39793191Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:08:18 GMT<p>The Elements of Differentiable Programming</p><p></p><p>131 points; 77 discussion replies on HN. <a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/2403.14606/">Paper and source history</a>. A submission is not an endorsement.</p>cs.LG