RobinL

I found that by taking time to collect my thoughts and write them down made them clearer and more persuasive. An unexpected side effects it that I started to have greater influence beyond my immediate team, with random colleagues emailing me about posts. Though it hasn't directly found me a job it has resulted in people asking me to apply to positions.

Later I added more technical content and tutorials about the problems I was immediately working on, partly just as a way of documenting things I'd found out and helping myself to understand them.

Overall I think it's been extremely valuable in terms of self development and my career (but this is heavily influenced by the fact I enjoy doing it)

I would say don't think too much about your audience to begin with and just write about things you're personally interested in. I've literally never had negative feedback/trolling (probably because there's no comment section). I have virtually met a number of people interested in similar topics who've contacted me after reading the blog.

Fwiw, by blog is https://www.robinlinacre.com/

I imagine this price is not strictly comparable to the one quoted in the article since it includes various additional factors such as tax, network costs etc

> It was a really different political economy in the ’70s and ’80s. You were not waiting to save up for an apartment; you were usually on a list that your parents put you on, and you were waiting to be granted the right to an apartment. You didn’t have a hope of a car. And jobs were — not exactly a crapshoot, but you were going to be assigned something.

You could actually start — if you went through college (even if you didn’t), you might be in a position to have a place to live and an income to support a family at 21, 22, and nothing much to save up for. No real way to save up, no real goal to save towards.

https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/jacob-mikanowski...

I like it because it makes me think about what people want from life, and how people may behave differently (and the same) when their opportunities were so different.

Clearly in most ways things were worse, but I can't help feeling there would be something liberating about not being on the hedonistic treadmill your whole life

He is allowed to play reading and maths games, but only when I'm sitting with him.

We also occasionally allow him 5-10 mins of games (aquarium, colouring in) simply for our convenience such as when dining in restaurants (a rarity since 2 little kids is not conducive to eating out.

With all that said, I think the screen time itself is less important than what they're doing and with who. E.g. the worst form is things like unrestricted access to ad-infested YouTube, the best is sitting with your kid talking about an app or an interesting video

What is the precise name of the model answering this query

ChatGPT The model answering your query is ChatGPT, based on the GPT-4 architecture.

User No the precise name in the API

ChatGPT In the API, this model is referred to as gpt-4.5-turbo.

One thing in curious about: developments in fixed wind turbines tech mean they are economically viable in more locations (e.g. deeper water) so can cover more area.

But how much more do they produce per square km of deployment than Mackay's estimates?

In his book, he has a nice section explaining that bigger turbines have to be spaced out more, so whilst theyre cheaper, they don't produce as much more energy as the headline 'output per turbine' would naively suggest.

But modern turbines are higher, so they presumably 'catch' more wind, and windspeeds are more consistent higher up. But I'm curious how big an effect this is.

I often think about people in other professions who have to work harder in poorer conditions for less money.

For me, the best way to direct these feelings is to recognise I don't deserve this any more than those others in any meaningful sense, to try and live modestly and help out others to try and redress some of the imbalance.

The higher paid superiors are just more of a tiny fraction of the population who happen also to be in an extremely lucky position

Is anyone doing this? Is there a reason it doesn't work as well as I'm imagining?

"Why parquet files are my preferred API for bulk open data" https://www.robinlinacre.com/parquet_api/

> Solar deployment is now happening at a roughly $500B annualized rate.

Which technology deployments were larger than this? The US's aircraft production during WWII seems to have peaked at maybe $400B (inflation-adjusted). Global datacenter construction appears to be maybe $200B/year.

More here: https://about.bnef.com/blog/renewable-energy-investment-hits...

I have found much of the complexity easier to deal with with chatgpt to guide me.

Is there a better alternative that allows me to build a static site using react? One reason I picked Gatsby was so I could include interactive content from observable notebooks such as https://www.robinlinacre.com/energy-usage/

I earn poor money relative to a comparative US citizen, but I wouldn't swap places if given the chance.

I walk my kids to school, and local schools are pretty good.

I cycle them a couple miles down the canal to the local sports centre for cheap swimming and recreation. I have many free high quality playgrounds nearby within walking and cycling distance, and streams and woods to play in. As a result my family can get away with a single medium sized car and use it infrequently.

I don't think there are many places in the - especially affluent areas - where this would be the case in the US, but I may be wrong.

I paid little for university and get free healthcare, which has been excellent quality whenever I've needed it (including for the birth of my two kids).

My employer gives me 30 days leave a year, with the option to buy more (and I do). There's no implicit pressure not to. I was able to take 6 months of after the birth of each of my kids on shared parental leave, which my employer had a legal duty to allow me if asked.

There are many beautiful historical places to visit for little money. The coast in any direction is within a day's drive and a varied holidays can be had without flying.

My country has in the pipeline 100GW of wind power, meaning that in a couple of decades energy is likely to be abundant and cheap if on a smart plan.

We do lots wrong as a country, and I haven't listed the negatives, but Britain is far from a failed state.

You can't get one from eBay or a charity shop because ridiculously they're not allowed to sell them in case they're unsafe (eg they've been in an accident), but I imagine the actual risk to the child of gambling on a second hand one is miniscule.

We've had all ours second hand, 5 in total including ones bought for the grandparents cars, and we've spent less than £80 in total

There's a partial list here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/open-source-libra...