geph2021

wow, that's terrible. I was a competitive swimmer in my youth, and we did similar competitions from time to time (very rarely). I've never seen or even heard of a swimmer passing out underwater.

A more common drill we would do in practice were called "hypoxic" sets, where we would do one length of the pool breathing every 3 strokes, then the next every 5 strokes, then 7, 9 etc.. until you were going across the whole length (25 meters) without breathing. Not everyone could do it towards the longer distances without breathing, and the coaches would look out for "cheaters", but never once did anyone pass out. Maybe most swimmers, by way of the typical training and exertion in the pool, just don't develop a very good suppression of the "breath signal". I also never remember seeing anyone purposely hyperventilate so that they can stay under water longer.

I think this sort of technique is used in boxing and MMA: play a good defense, stay out of trouble, and let the aggressor exhaust themselves until later rounds when you feel you may have a fitness advantage. I think there were good examples of this in the early days of MMA, when there was much less, if any, specialized training, techniques and strategy. It's probably much less effective now, since a well trained aggressor will know how to pace themselves too.

   Our motor controller had a 100 page datasheet that was overwhelming and dense - but uploading it to Claude and then asking questions let us quickly resolve one of our issues!

That's interesting. I've tried exactly this with chatGPT (enterprise install), and it failed pretty miserably when asking it basic questions about configuration/control. Although, I do have to add that the datasheet in question was a lot more complicated than a motor controller, and included a Firmware API guide.

   There is no upward mobility at the company, unless you have been in some org 5+ years.

I think that's true of most large organizations.

People have been comparing and contrasting successive technology innovation cycles for a long time. OP mentions railroads, but that doesn't mean there's an "effort to hitch" AI to railroads. It's just a comparison, which may or may not be useful in understanding how the latest innovation cycle may impact the world.

When you think about the promise (or hype) of crypto/bitcoin/blockchain 10 years ago, in some sense it augured equally, if not more, transformative change/disruption than AI.

Crypto portended drastic and fundamental changes: programmable money, disintermediation, and the decentralization of the very foundations of our society (i.e. money, banking, commerce). Suffice to say that nothing close to this has happened, and probably will never happen.

So I can see how many people are equally skeptical that AI, as the next hyped transformative technology, will achieve anything near the many lofty predictions.

It depends on the counter offer and your situation. I would have agreed with you, but a couple years ago I told my employer that I had a job offer kind of land in my lap (I wasn't actively looking), that it was good and I was inclined to take it. I wasn't unhappy at my current job, but the change in title/seniority and compensation of the job offer was definitely worth it. They didn't want me to leave, so they countered with a very strong offer, which I decided to take and stay with the company. If you want to leave because you're unhappy with other aspects of your job, then I agree that accepting a counter offer doesn't seem like a great choice.

   governments should have been falling over themselves to buy or otherwise subsidise expensive solar PV, because the more we bought, the faster the price would fall

That's quite a stretch, especially considering that there are plenty of examples where government subsidies and intervention distorts markets and makes them less efficient and more dysfunctional. I don't disagree with the general premise of the article: more could have been done to transition to renewable energy sooner. But it's really simplistic to say there was a clear, easy answer to this, and it simply involved more government spending on solar energy.

same :)