Just for the record: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22272837

Fair enough. Nonetheless, a lossy compression algorithm by definition produces fewer possible outputs than possible inputs. A lossless compression algorithm, again by definition, produces exactly as many different outputs as there are possible inputs. Therefore, on average, unless the lossless algorithm has a perverse encoding that uses more bits than necessary to encode the possible outputs, no lossless algorithm can beat it on average. It is of course possible that a lossless algorithm might beat a lossy one on some select inputs. It's even possible that those inputs are the ones you are interested in, but in that case you are using the wrong lossy algorithm.