Recent submissions

Comment · 3 days ago
great book!
Comment · 2 years ago
Greg Egan as great! Two other Australians you might try are:

Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman, about what it's like to be colonized.

Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen, about what it's like to be part of a computer.

Comment · 3 years ago
I asked "what well known pieces of American minimalism feature the marimba"

Claude answered with several well-known works, but also included "Marimba Lumina" (1986) by Philip Glass - Written for the virtuoso marimbist Rei Sasaki, it merges Glass's repetitive rhythmic style with dramatic gestures."

That's not a thing...

I followed up with "actually, I don't see any evidence that Marimba Lumina (1986) by Philip Glass is a real piece of music - is it possible that you hallucinated it?"

And Claude answered "You're absolutely right, upon further research it appears I did make a mistake in citing "Marimba Lumina" by Philip Glass as an actual musical composition. I do not have any factual evidence that such a piece exists. As an AI, I do not truly "hallucinate" or imagine non-existent information, but I can generate incorrect information if there are gaps or inaccuracies in my training data. In this case, it seems I conflated details between Steve Reich's "Six Marimbas" and Philip Glass's legitmate "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra." I likely crossed the concepts of Philip Glass, marimba, and minimalism too eagerly when answering the original question. As an AI still in development and training, mistakes like this can happen in my efforts to produce relevant, detailed responses. Thank you for catching this inaccurate example - it will help strengthen my knowledge and improve my response validity going forward. I appreciate you taking the time to verify and correct me."

which was pretty interesting...

Comment · 3 years ago
I wonder how Alex and Alex's boss would tell this story?

[edited below - because threaded comments can come across wrong]

I wonder if how Alex's boss would tell this story is - my employee landed a $35m account, then failed to manage the account successfully, and when $35m walked out the door, we never understood what we did wrong

Comment · 3 years ago
Old enough to remember when Alta Vista was obviously going to win because it came from DEC.
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
Remarkable that a venture-backed company can loan $10B to the founder's hedge fund without running into some sort of board/corporate sign-off that's required to literally execute the agreement/fund transfer.
Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
Because it's a programming language, where they learn to program, and then make programs.
Comment · 4 years ago
trackly.io
Comment · 4 years ago
For folks who dislike p-value reporting (and I'm one of them), we can focus on the effect sizes for speed of processing training in ACTIVE:

[1] 0.36 in slowing decline in functional abilities, equivalent to ~3 years of delayed decline [2] 48% reduction in at fault auto crash risk [3] 30% reduction in the risk of experiencing serious [0.5 s.d.] worsening of depressive symptoms [4] 29% reduction in dementia incidence [hazard ratio]

These are all clinically meaningful effect sizes.

Regarding the dementia incidence study, it's correct that two of the cognitive training interventions did not show effects, and speed of processing training did. In my view, a straightforward interpretation is that different types of cognitive training are different (much like different small molecule pharmaceuticals are different), and consequently they have different effects on endpoints like dementia incidence.

Comment · 4 years ago
>> Examples include the ACTIVE trial, commercial brain-training games (e.g., Neuroracer, Lumosity, and BrainHQ), and multidomain training programs (Binder et al., 2016; Buitenweg et al., 2017; Duyck & Op de Beeck, 2019). To date, none of these regimens have shown compelling evidence, or any evidence at all, of training-induced far transfer to either cognitive tests or real-life skills >>

ACTIVE showed that cognitive training slowed decline in instrumental activities of daily living [1], and that adaptive computerized speed training in particular reduced at-fault car crashes [2], reduced depressive symptoms [3], and most importantly reduced the incidence of dementia [4]. The NIH is spending tens of millions of dollars on follow-up trials to extend the results.

To dismiss ACTIVE in the brief paragraph is...startling.

>> We demonstrate that this optimism is due to the field neglecting the results of meta-analyses >>

A strong statement from a paper that doesn't seem to cover multiple positive meta-analyses of cognitive training [5, for example].

In my view, if you read a lot of papers in this field (and I do), the pattern is that negative articles generally focus on working memory training and effects on IQ or "generalized cognitive ability" (whatever that is); and positive articles generally focus on neurocognitive measures and real-world functional measures. One reasonable interpretation [and there are many!] is that programs focused on using working memory techniques to improve IQ are not generally effective, and programs using speed/attention training to improve specific aspects of cognitive and real-world performance are effective.

Meanwhile, out in the clinical world, cognitive training is now recommended by clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology and the World Health Organization, and offered as a benefit by a dozen Medicare Advantage plans around the country.

Disclaimer: I work at BrainHQ, and have published in this field. Further disclaimer, a HN comment isn't an academic article.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055506/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3057872/ [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2657170/ [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5700828/ [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7050567/

Comment · 4 years ago
A lot of discussion here about the limitations of Scratch as a programming language.

But the magic of Scratch is the community. My daughter learned Scratch, and she joined multiple teams of 10-year olds making all kind of interactive stories and games. And virtually every interaction she had was positive, uplifting, and helped her construct her identity as a programmer.

She now teaches Scratch for kids and programs in Java and Python. But making those friends and doing those team projects was invaluable - and nearly unreplicable in another language/ environment.

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