Brain Ticklers, Ed. 42
Links for July 2023 that [carnivas thinks] will tickle the brains of his [purportedly] intelligent friends (and his future-self if AGI lets him live).
Hello, Subscribers —
So, we hit 42. I wonder if I should stop doing this, since we have hit the answer to the ultimate questions. Just kidding, of course. If I stop doing this, how do I justify the insane amount of time I spent reading things to do this?
Not that any reader of this newsletter bothers, but Substack asked me if I would like to enable “rewards” for people who refer others, and I have enabled it. Just saying. By the way, I missed mentioning this earlier this year - Would you believe if I say there are people who have “pledged” (another feature of Substack) to pay money if I enable paid subscriptions? I don’t intend to make this paid, of course, but I got some warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that. Thank you, indeed. :)
And no ChatGPT summary. Enough of that gimmick. Read what I link.
Now to the links:
History (or its first draft)
Slouching Towards Utopia: A brave attempt at a “grand narrative prequel” to the present moment and the recent history of the world. (A fascinating review of what appears to be a fascinating book)
The US's China tech ban mirrors the 1980s attempt to destroy Japanese competition. (This is a theme that caught my attention a few years back, and you will see a few links in the archive).
There is an important complementarity between patriotism and public-good provision. Should this “public-good” provision be broadly considered as socialism?
Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587 - This is independent of the Europeans reaching the east coast. This has a history of 7 sailors, including Japanese, Chinese, Bengali, and a person from Malabar. Just wow!
“Homo naledi”—a small-brained species of hominin that lived at a similar time to early humans—left behind rock engravings and buried its dead deliberately and with ceremony. Fascinating! The narrative of 'bigger brain, higher intelligence' isn't true anymore.
The genealogy of Chinese cybernetics - Wonderful story of a Chinese man who played a significant role in several events of the 20th century history in the US and China.
Society
There’s a cautionary saying within the Black community that’s worth exploring : “All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”
“Violent video game” research is interesting because people really just desperately want to hold on to an easy solution to all the world’s complex problems, like mass shootings, juvenile delinquency—they just want to blame something. However, there’s been no consistent findings that would suggest at all that they’re in any way directly linked. Whereas we have a wealth of research linking, like pure delinquency, and low frustration tolerance, and previous exposure to violence, that are very well established in the research as predictors of violent behavior. We ignore that because those are confusing societal issues.
There might be at least 650,000 ways advertisers have segmented you into, including “Affluent Millennial”, “Dunkin’ Donuts Visitor”, or even “Propensity for Irritable Bowel Syndrome”. (Now, the last one gets personal).
College pedigree, daddy’s name, BBC accent, no longer golden ticket. India has a growing new elite. (But you know what, there will be an elite, who will want to act as one - As stated above, skinfolk ain't always kinfolk)
Return of Office blues: Small tech companies are using remote work to compete with the big guys.
If you've been in bed all day, you've been taking part in a GenZ trend called "bed rotting." Nice, our world has a bright future, ha.
Lucy Calkins has rewritten her curriculum to include a fuller embrace of phonics and the science of reading. (My thoughts on this from a few years back; Also: check back in 20 years, when these experts would have changed their mind again.)
Interesting-Perspectives
A good note on why traditional financial planning is mostly useless
Companies going 'woke' is just 'good business'. Related: In worshiping diversity, in making it the highest value, what is it that we are missing? (asks Theil, in this note about DEI). I was hoping for some intelligent argument there about DEI isn’t good, but Theil offers none. He only says it exists to hide other things, not if DEI by itself is good or bad. He, of course, implies it is bad, but offers no explanation.
The relentless exercise of reason eventually generates doubt, an all-embracing, all-pervading doubt of the kind that basically constitutes a cosmic crisis of meaning. (Reason is a powerful tool, but it pays to know its limits). Sure, but I would like the vast majority of people to start reasoning. “Relentless” reasoning is far away.
The ants and the grasshopper story told from various perspectives. Even if you don't read that link, read this one: How ants build amazingly complex and stable structures.
I am sure you have read "Man’s Search for Meaning", but read this review to get blown away with a comparison to a character in the Ukraine war, and if that character could ever find meaning in his life.
You can't reach the brain through the ears - Very funny write-up on why others don't listen to our advice (and we theirs).
A list of ideas, in no particular order and from different fields, that help explain how the world works.
The Case Against Travel: It turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best.
Real life "Non-Playable Characters" (NPCs) explained.
Science & Technology
AI does better algorithms, apparently. The existing C++ algorithm for sorting a list of five items took around 6.91 nanoseconds on a typical Intel Skylake chip. AlphaDev’s took 2.01 nanoseconds, around 70% faster.
ChatGPT outperforms humans in emotional awareness evaluations, says research. However, naive anthropomorphism can give us an inflated view of what AI can do. It can also lead us to underestimate them by blinding us to the complex and inhuman ways they have of being intelligent.
When AI can create a whole movie: If you do not give the AI directions that it shouldn’t be done perfectly, it’s going to make a dull kind of movie.
Irrational exuberance is in full swing; the next winter for AI is fast approaching!! I think a lot of Crypto-Guys are now AI-Guys, including the VC-types. So, the bubble is definitely about to burst. Just that Gen AI will not be all-gas like Crypto (hopefully).
In that world, hope comes from perspectives like this: Computers that live two seconds in the future - This is a remarkable write-up of examples where computers can predict your behavior.
My audio usage is typically with people speaking, but for people who like music, this Dolby Atmos seems to be an important thing. Slightly related: For people who can’t speak, there has been depressingly little innovation in technology that helps them communicate.
Perso-Dev
Recovering from perfectionism doesn't mean being perfect about that recovery. Ha.
Conveying benevolence is much more likely to earn trust than conveying how competent you are (in a team).
Reaching out is the primary bottleneck of human connection. I agree, but I don’t know how to get good at this.
Festina lente: The principle to “make haste slowly” can help us find the balance between the need to meet a deadline and do things well. Nice. Reminded me of “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast” maxim.
[Video] Why daily routines make you poor & fragile? (When I first saw this video, I ignored it as 'obvious'. But the thought about this came to me repeatedly over a few days, so I decided to include it here. This sits close to the mental model I have on sleep as "Don’t be bothered about intense periods when you might not get the 7+ hours. It's OK if you don't get 7+ hours every day, just make sure you don't let it linger for longer, say more than a week”. Also: Don't anticipate tiredness right while waking up sooner than usual, or sleeping later than usual. Let your body tell you when it feels tired. More broadly, this I think fits with the Paul Graham maxim of 'keeping your identity as narrow' as possible. I think even routines like 'I need my coffee right after waking up', 'I am a morning person' etc. are part of the 'identity' and that should be kept narrow).
How to turn LLMs into your creative teammate and thinking companion. (I think I should use this more seriously - specifically the 'Thinking Hats' part)
Random
I can't believe I've been doing this wrong for SO many years. Use a comma after “Hi” or “Hello” in your greeting (and one more). Like "Hi, Name" and not "Hi Name". This is not sitting well with me at all. I just don't like the "em dash" some of my colleagues use. Sounds too rude to me. I am really really confused about what to do now. (See top of this post, JIC you don’t feel like).
Short Story: Pretend that you have free will. You must behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know that they don't.
Ergodicity - Slightly embarrassed but I heard this word for the first time: An activity is ergodic if the outcome of a person performing it many times coincides with the outcome of many people performing it once. And an activity is non-ergodic if the two outcomes differ.
(Video) Six Systems of Hindu Philosophy - Pretty neat introduction, me thinks.
I have heard of Vegas lunches and stuff, but this one is interesting: Under the Chatham House Rule, anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from the discussion, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment. It is designed to increase openness of discussion.
No link, but it was funny to read this in an Economist article: The fastest-growing language in America is Telugu (which is spoken almost exclusively in the south of India).
A good set of contronyms - English words that have two, contradictory meanings
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