AI infrastructure at DeepMind. These days I deploy and tune AI models at scale. Based in San Francisco Bay Area.
The first hour of using Claude Code feels like magic. You ask, it does. By hour six, you realize you’re glancing at the terminal every few seconds like a nervous first-time parent. Is it done? Did it break something? Is it asking a question you missed? The agent is pulling its weight and you are mostly nudging. Of course, you could run these agents in yolo mode and they would keep going without…
We spend most of our lives in cities. Walking past buildings, working inside them, commuting between one another. Cities are the background of our civilization. And yet, something fundamentally changed about how we think about them during the 20th century. Take Penn Station in New York. The original, built in 1910, had vaulted ceilings modeled after Roman baths. Marble columns rose to meet…
Search “will llms agi” on Google and you will find completely contradicting opinions. Sam Altman promises AGI in 2025 . Dario Amodei dreams about Machines of Loving Grace . Yann LeCun straightaway declares that scaling LLMs is just complete BS . Ilya Sutskever encourages young researchers to think new ideas , and Francois Chollet struggles to come up with a benchmark that can even define what AGI…
Every field, every era, has one. A place where the brightest minds collide, sparking new ideas and pushing boundaries. Athens had its philosophers, Florence its artists, Paris its writers. These places become like hives, attracting talented people drawn by the energy and opportunity. The field’s heroes band together and create communities with such fervor that it feels almost religious. As if…
Navigating advice is tricky. First, you have to solve the problem of motives. Does the person giving the advice really have your best interests in mind? Are they trying to manipulate you for their benefit? Maybe they’re just reminiscing their own regrets? Even when motives align, the advise-giver might not be entirely honest. Take the example of the entrepreneur YouTuber. She teaches you how to…
Elon Musk is one of the most important figures of the 21st century and this biography is fascinating in all the possible meanings of the word. Whether you feel hate, admiration, or indifference about Elon Musk, I think this book is an astounding read. I look forward to reading more of Isaacson's biographies.
A few months ago, I attended a friend’s housewarming party and ended up striking a conversation with a university colleague. Among our life updates, I shared my experience of a self-reinforcing feedback loop: delusional optimism leading to positive thinking, resulting in unexpectedly heightened performance leading to delusional optimism. Excitedly, I was trying to convey how interesting the…
Most people like the concept of voting. While I’m uncertain why, I suspect that feeling heard and acknowledged contributes to it. There is also general agreement that you should vote in presidential elections and other processes that directly affect you. However, beyond these formal instances, a subtler form of voting takes place in daily life. Buying groceries from Amazon is a vote supporting the…
A lot of good thinking and insight. Some books take 300 pages to convey an idea that could have been expressed in 10 pages. This book feels like 30 of those books compressed. There is no new or groundbreaking information, but there is a lot of good information all in one place. I think the book is most effective and useful if you ever wanted to start your own business but didn't, yet. DeMarco's…
For nearly every topic, idea, argument, belief, there are a 1000 points of view. Addressing every single one is counterproductive for several reasons. It dilutes the core message, weakening its impact and clarity. It makes your view harder to follow and confusing to your audience. Even worse, it exhausts their attention. Covering every possible viewpoint rarely benefits anyone. Skilled writers…
After months away from biking, I got a new bike last week. Weekend arrived, and the weather was beautiful. The sky was blue, and I was excited to have a bike after so long, so I decided to ride to the top of Üetliberg 1 . The incline was already tiring from the first minutes. My legs started burning even before the asphalt road gave way to the dirt path. Doubt filled my mind as I entered the…
Yesterday, my girlfriend asked me whether I’d like scrambled eggs or an omelet for breakfast. Throughout my life, I had always preferred scrambled eggs. My mom would frequently whip up omelets, but I would only have scrambled eggs during special occasions like hotel breakfasts or when my dad took charge of the morning meal. Scrambled was the premium deal. But I’ve been working at Google for the…
Amazing book written by a couple who studied History for their entire lives. The Durants present what History taught them about topics like Equality, Religion, Economics, and Government in short chapters. While compact, I found it incredibly insightful and powerfully calming to read. The most profound realization for me was that human society is in constant flux and that we have been in…
Opinionated book on startups, companies, businesses. An inspiring read with a positive outlook on the future, that encourages taking ownership of your life and making the best out of it. A refreshing contrast to the "accept what is" western-neobuddhism style that seems to be popular the past decade.
Writing is a tool for crystallizing one’s distilled thoughts through language. It allows the author to capture their way of thinking and writing at a specific moment in time. However, any written text is inevitably outdated by the time it is read, since it reflects the author’s thoughts at a past moment in time. Our opinions and understanding of the world continuously evolve, based on new evidence…
Showing your work publicly is the best way to connect with people who are passionate about the same things as you. It helps you invent yourself, lets your fans find you, and helps you improve at what you do. People who you look up to probably share their work as part of their routine.
Writing has been historically used as a means of understanding the world around us, and there is extensive research supporting the benefits of writing as a tool for thinking . Meanwhile, with the advent of the internet, all human knowledge has become universally accessible. Physics equations, nutrition facts, programming idioms, disease symptoms, can all be found in seconds. What is worth keeping…
A very short, easy to read, beautiful, honest book. Derek shares some of the lessons he learned through his journey of creating, growing, and finally selling his company CD Baby. The book feels incredibly honest and simple. Just read it. You will smile many times, and nod your head in agreement several others.
A charming and witty narration of various events from Franklin's life, with nuggets of wisdom often hidden among light-hearted puns and jokes.
This book takes a classic problem in Game Theory, the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, and uses it to examine how cooperation emerges in societies. It is a very enjoyable read since there is no fluff in it. The author explains the experiments he did, presents the outcomes, and then tries to interpret and explain them. Incredible insights arise from this simple approach, including how cooperation can…