By using hundreds of written notes as training data, we can configure a model to learn to be the note-taker, to internalize their thought patterns, to adopt their writing style and interests, to approximate their mannerisms and responses. After several months of disciplined note-taking, the aligned model becomes powerful enough to accurately... See more
Consequently, in its idealized form the scientific method limits freedom of the will, while technology amplifies freedom of the will. Technology is by no means derived with certainty. It is the extremely particular result of someone’s will, based on rationalizing through the concrete and contingent circumstances of the world.
Products are easier to reason about when you think of them as functions. They transform an input situation into an output situation.This lets you describe what the product does as a transformation of the user's circumstance instead of a bundle of features.
The immutability of this new world means that if you send someone your tokens, no centralized authority can come in and decide the transaction was invalid and wipe it from the ledger (unless, of course, there is a hard fork). But it also means that there’s no way to undo fraudulent transactions and return funds to their rightful owners. It means... See more
I get the feeling that the median vocabulary of interactions with computers is shrinking. I see so many people who’s entire computing experience is laboriously moving the mouse, clicking on buttons, and maybe poking ⌘C and ⌘V. For knowledge workers who spend half their waking hours using a computer, that’s akin to being a professional athlete who... See more
We must start at the beginning: what is technology? Indeed, how deeply do we understand what we make? The increasing power and consequence of technology seems to obscure its definition. Technology is like a cloud; it envelopes and surrounds us, but we can’t quite apprehend it because its omnipresence obscures our vision. We know it familiarly, thus... See more
My favorite aspect of websites is their duality: they’re both subject and object at once. In other words, a website creator becomes both author and architect simultaneously. There are endless possibilities as to what a website could be. What kind of room is a website? Or is a website more like a house? A boat? A cloud? A garden? A puddle? Whatever... See more