HenrikPontoppid

I live in Denmark.

The 2FA verification system in place now has not had any reported breaches but is nevertheless an absolute joke. I use GrapheneOS on my personal phone which cannot use the government 2FA due to the arbitrary Android integrity API. I therefore use my old phone on which it works perfectly. The catch is that it hasn't been updated in over three years lol.

When the ministry responsible for the 2FA system was asked to allow it to be run on degoogled OSes, they refused saying it would be too costly to develop for "other systems". The responsible authority doesn't even know degoogled Android is still Android. And you expect these people to protect your private information and health records.

It was also leaked some time back that the Danish government let the NSA spy on every citizen in the country for literally nothing in return. Unconstitutional? Yes.

> the vast majority of my work would be playing sooth sayer to increasingly complicated piles of linear algebra.

Such a good description. No sentience here, just raw computational power

Really a nice perspective. Carry childhood with you as an adult.

I remember reading once about how Astrid Lindgren's children's books were supreme exactly because she - contrary to many others - remembers what it is like to be a child. Not just what you did or thought when you were a child - how it felt. The endless curiosity and appreciation for what in an adult's eyes is trivial is really a special thing I hope most people carry throughout their lives. On the other hand, children also understand more than one would normally think, essentially a Moravec's paradox but in relation to adults.

"Children heal the soul" - Dostoevsky

Yes. In other words: the singularity. I'll only believe it when I see it though.

The value of these companies is not defined entirely by the state of their current models. A much more important signal is their chance of having the best model in the future. Just like with anything having to do with investment, this is the castle in the sky. Also, shame on me for simplifying things so much - but I still believe in my original sentiment.

When it comes to what really matters, they're far behind and probably will not catch up. It is my conviction that in this space, if you're not the best in the world, you're losing. Everyone is fundamentally selling the same thing, so if you don't have the most intelligent or cheapest model in the world, you're losing. Sure, Mistral has a "Made in Europe" edge, but any open-weight self-hosted chinese model might as well have been made by Von der Leyen herself.

Also, €3B is nothing in this market, especially when you're competing with more efficient competitors. €3B in Europe is probably the same as €10B in the USA and €20B or €30B in China.

And it is a massive problem. The complete overflow of impressions you get from mindless scrolling is really not talked about enough. Before you realize it, you begin forgetting important tasks, rationalizing wasting your time and showing up late to things. Please take back your life

Something I noticed from this post is that the immediate go-to hobby for the author when forgoing time-swallowing brainrot is learning. This has been the exact same for me. After I actively started reducing my screen time, I have seen an almost unconscious kneejerk reaction consisting in me simply learning new things. Learning for fun is awesome. Never stop.