us-merul
Joined 3 years ago
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273
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76
Member since
May 17
https://dmerullo.github.io/
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Comment · 6 days ago
https://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec9.html
“Now, what happens if you try to come up with a theory that's like probability theory, but based on the 2-norm instead of the 1-norm? I'm going to try to convince you that quantum mechanics is what inevitably results.
Let's consider a single bit. In probability theory, we can describe a bit as having a probability p of being 0, and a probability 1-p of being 1. But if we switch from the 1-norm to the 2-norm, now we no longer want two numbers that sum to 1, we want two numbers whose squares sum to 1.”
Comment · 2 months ago
To clarify, I am pro-university. I'm just saying that institutions do not always behave in ways that are purely for educational benefit, such as with legacy admissions or grade inflation. I don't think the blame falls solely on students for viewing university degrees as a necessary step for something else. I would sure bet admissions committees will use AI to screen applicants, if they aren't doing so already.
Comment · 2 months ago
Absolutely; it's a real problem. But institutions like MIT have also been participating in, and benefiting from, this transactional relationship from their side in offering degrees that they know carry so much value.
Comment · 2 months ago
I think this has been going on well before AI or LLMs: "A fundamental danger, as we’ve discussed, is that AI can allow students to bypass learning. Equally concerning is that students may internalize a transactional model in which assignments are outputs, teachers are evaluators, peers are optional, and knowledge (or an MIT degree) is an optimizable commodity to be acquired or produced as efficiently as possible."
Comment · 2 months ago
The French tried this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar
Comment · 2 months ago
I came across this while trying to find context around the “trip” move in Super Mario 64. Although I’ve been playing the game since it first came out, I only just found out that when you crouch and hit the punch button, Mario does a sweeping kick. (You can run, crouch, and punch to enter into a slide, too.) A developer in this interview says the move was meant to counter short enemies, but those never made it into the game.
This article was previously submitted 10 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12558589
Comment · 3 months ago
I was referring to this bullet under Lessons Learned: "Manuscript translation is feasible but rough. A 14th-century Sephardic manuscript hand is readable at ~70–80% accuracy. The output is a useful rough draft, not a polished translation. Plan for a longer discrepancy report and more editorial review." Some of the samples I looked at had question marks or original Hebrew text throughout, which I took to mean marked uncertainties.
Comment · 3 months ago
I think there's more to it than that. It's a combination of extracting the text from the PDFs, resolving persistently tricky issues (especially numbers), and flagging issues for human review at scale. You can view lessons from the author on the GitHub repo: https://github.com/sweisman/translation-pipeline
Comment · 4 months ago
I entered an interview with a hiring manger where they had received a "summary" of my resume that contained information blatantly not in my experience. The recruiter claimed they mixed my name up with another applicant, but the summary the hiring manager showed me had parts that were correct.
Comment · 6 months ago
Awesome site. I wonder how much of this is tied to the pre-mobile, desktop era. I never really thought of it that way, but I guess that’s where a lot of early Web nostalgia comes from.
Comment · 6 months ago
The difference for me has been the Apple Pencil. Now I don’t view the iPad as trying to replicate the mouse and keyboard experience, because it’s something different. For notes, brainstorming, research ideas—something where I don’t want a keyboard—the iPad with Pencil has been excellent.