timeagain

Silly question. If an AGI did exist, what reason do we have to believe that it would act in its own best interest? Does an AGI need an ego?

Everyone is courting VC dollars. Think of these claims as grant applications and everything makes more sense.

I’ll concede my point, I think you’re right. Everyone’s a critic.

Boo. Sure it’s probably wrong to call someone “cogent”. But is there such a huge difference between saying “Harry has cogent writing” and “Harry is a cogent writer”? Is the reader confused about the meaning?

I might use “prosaic”, “flowery”, or “confusing” in the same way, even though strictly speaking those words are describing the writing and not the writer.

> The best essay would be on the most important topic you could tell people something surprising about.

The premise is wrong (or at least not obviously right) IMO, so I have a hard time taking any of the rest of it seriously. Could the best essay not be the most emotionally moving? The best when heard aloud? The most convincing call to action? The most accurate? The highest grossing? Driving the most engagement? What about the topic (any topic) that you could tell the /most interesting surprise/ about?

If Paul Graham didn’t run this company he certainly would not make it to the front page for his lazy philosophy.

This is not the first time that the whims of the rich have gutted cities. Compared to the explosion of suburbia and white flight in the 50s-80s, the current situation is much less dire.

My hometown of Minneapolis lost 30% (!!) of its population between 1950 and 1980. The only major difference now is that rich people are losing money instead of making more of it.

On the other hand, you can actually use it to buy things which is nice

There are a few people street lights near me in Seattle and now I probably know why. I thought it was a vain (!) attempt to deter intravenous drug use.

The assumption being that if SE was a licensed field that it wouldn’t have the same outsized impact on people’s lives?

This article tries to out-logic racism (so smart!) but completely overlooks that different cultures have different experiences regarding who is a part, what it means to be a part, and how their culture meshes with the whole. And the sudden and intense interest in biological difference is kind of creepy too.

Obviously people of different cultures are slightly genetically different, otherwise how could you be racist against strangers! In the case of the professor who learned she was not ethnically indigenous, people didn’t want her out just because she, individually, was pretending to be native. It’s because there is an entire industry and extensive history of non-native people smothering native culture, telling native people through movies, books, etc. of what their own culture is or what it means, and of native arts and symbols being used by white people to make a quick buck. She /symbolized/ a sore point for the community and furthermore she was not open about it. The whole situation was unfortunate, but the author seems more interested in her case to prove his own point than in the concerns of the community he is poorly explaining about.

It’s true that a new change can intriduce more bugs, but I have a suspicion that the excel team is working with brains and a test harness that most software projects don’t have the time or money for.

Oh definitely. I think by talent I just meant “not a constant struggle”

Starting a career in something you love is a good way to poison your love and mess with your self image. Starting a career in something you happen to have some talent for is the way to go.

Yeah my Rolex helps my mental state. I can read the time with it and it is useful for deep sea diving.

In my experience the less judgement I bring to a situation, the better I will be able to listen. If someone is telling me a story where I feel like they were morally wrong or where “one easy trick” would have solved their problem, it is very hard for me to not want to blurt out advice, admonishment, or shut the conversation down.

The funny thing is that being quickly opinionated is highly valued in tech, so my maladaptive behavior (in part) got me accolades and promotions. I actually think this tendency to have a hot take on everything immediately is a large portion of why engineers rub non-engineers the wrong way