Intelligence

Speaking of what excites you…The psychologist Angela Duckworth (best known for her research on grit) talks about “the complex dance between having intelligence and having interest.” The more she studies intelligence, she said, “the more I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what it is.’” People who have interest in a topic or subject learn better and rememb... See more

language models are not intelligent in the ways that even small children are intelligent, but they are already superhuman at tasks like summarization, translation (both linguistic and conceptual), and association. And when you apply those skills to artfully curated source material written by equally, but differently, gifted humans, magic can happen... See more

Intelligence without risk is an empty thought, as is an intelligence whose realization takes no time. Risk and time are the presuppositions for the history of intelligence in which nothing is given in advance and nothing is completed as the totality of that history.

Sometimes I’ve had this feeling like someone is so much smarter than me and therefore I have no hope of competing. But usually what is really going on is that they are just more obsessed than me. Intelligence is good, and some amount is required, but the obsession is better.

I believe many young people struggle with the insecurity of being intelligent. They often feel the need to prove their intelligence by overthinking, excessively planning, and acquiring knowledge before taking action. However, this approach is a waste of time. The more you research, the more you realize how little you actually know. Instead, you jus... See more

The project would attempt to invent an anti-gravity system from the ground up instead of reverse engineering it. This project began in 1955 with the establishment of the Research Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS) at the Glenn L. Martin Company, which later became Martin-Marietta and ultimately merged with Lockheed in 1995 to form the modern com... See more

The Manfield amendments were a huge blow to Project Whorl. Panic set in among the Trustees as they scheduled urgent meetings with top officials from the Nixon administration, including the president himself. Out of those meetings came a brilliant idea. The Gang of Eight has to be briefed on all special access programs, even those that are waived an... See more

In late 1970, Lockheed was near bankruptcy because of the large debt they had built up to fund the L-1011 Tristar commercial aircraft program. They approached the Nixon administration for a $250 million loan guarantee to avoid insolvency. That is about $1.9 billion in today’s dollars. Here was an opportunity to transfer the assets to a private defe... See more

Smart people are a dime a dozen and often don’t amount to much. What counts is being creative and imaginative.