neerajk

On not re-inventing the wheel obviously.

There is a Sanjeev Arora paper "A Theory for Emergence of Complex Skills in Language Models" (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.15936) on this subject. The key idea is there is cross entropy (how "surprised" the model is with the "correct" next token, lower is better), some of which is inherent in the language and therefore unavoidable, and the rest is model error, and that this portion of the cross entropy is reduced with scaling.

And as scaling reduces a model's excess entropy, the model can become good at combinations of skills much faster than you would expect if it had to separately see and memorize every combination. They call this "slingshot generalization".

I rarely see gears in these bicycles. Is the idea that should a pelican need to go uphill it could just fly.

I'm just getting started ;)

In contrast, the 2nd Ave Subway extension here in NY cost $4.5 billion for 2.9 km

Am I allowed to stay with a relative or a friend when I visit their town? I am totally ignorant of local norms, maybe I should be in the Holiday Inn next door instead?

segfaults raise my belief in spirits

"I'm so sick of hearing about bronze. Bronze bronze bronze bronze. Whats wrong with stone? Does stone not work all of a sudden?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyu4u3VZYaQ

Thats when the sea receded, so its "only" 5,000 years old after all.

aside: me after reading the headline: Shouldn't that be Octopii?

But no! "The plural form octopii is doubly incorrect. Firstly, octopus derives from Greek, not Latin; its etymologically-consistent plural form is octopodes. Secondly, even if octopus were a second-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be octopi; in the correct plurals radii and gladii, with which octopii is analogous, the first ‘i’s are part of the words’ stems (radi- and gladi-), and not their case endings — for octopii to be the plural, *octopius would need to be the singular."

Thanks wikipedia.

TIL!

Exactly. And if you don't say seven in the emphatic manner George says it who are you.

We'll give "real actual bug" a pass :)

> The nominal mode enables motion through the water at 3.6 km/h, and for speed-seekers, the SEABIKE can reach a maximum of 7.9 km/h – much faster than normal swimming speeds or even flipper-assisted swimming.

https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/seabike/product-68606-564117...

Pretty fast, but "superhuman"? For short distances Michael Phelps can swim faster :)

it is science that discovers errors in science :)

New life goal: "There is very little that is new to me; I wish my corresponders would realize this."

Second life goal: To have corresponders

"How many time do you need to rewrite your UI, your backend and redesign the logo"

Just one more time.

Possibly naive, but hopefully trying to reason from first principles:

The insurance companies are the ones paying for care. The hospital systems are the ones charging for care. The entity that pays for care has every incentive to keep costs _low_. The entity that charges for care has every incentive to charge as much as possible. i.e. The ire of consumers should be directed at hospital systems rather than insurance companies.

Embarrassingly, I was today years old when I learnt that dig used to be a) an acronym and b) what is stood for

TIL: there exists a 14X miner!

compare to just what?

what?

just what?

just

what?

Right! And per some theories it was the Theia collision that brought carbon and nitrogen to Earth to kick start life in the first place.

In a similar vein also recommend “Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements” by Paul Strathern.

From the Tex Tuneup of 2021: "The TEX family of programs seems to be nice and healthy as it continues to approach perfection. Chances are nil that any documents produced by previous versions of TEX or METAFONT will be affected by the changes in the new versions"

This is how the Gods do programming :)

Any pro-OKR arguments now sound more and more like "But Real communism has never been tried" :)

“Mcrib is objectively a better system for generating memcached configurations — but its efficiency made the broader system behave in a less safe way.” Be good but not _that_ good :)

All my life I've read it as "Horn Please, OK!"

_Now_ you tell me?

Somewhat tangentially, from Dennett's review of Lucas' "The Freedom of the Will"

"He obtains some of his pet conclusions by patent non sequiturs, aided by a great deal of hand waving, and not a few elementary logical confusions and slips (e.g., pp. 39, 61, 72, MO). But he gives us a splendid display of his command of Latin, Greek, and Middle English, and, except for failing to give any reference for a crucial argument of Wolfgang Pauli's that he mentions (p. 112), his footnotes are erudite."

Lincoln's second inaugural is an A- as well, and is estimated as "High School" Grade Level. Harsh. https://www.gradeflex.com/graded/5856996dde6a20085a2d2b97