A tiny blog dedicated to my interests: computer science, discrete math, politics and other random topics (RE: everything else)....
I like the axis of Consumption vs Production as one lens for categorizing my hobbies. At the simple level, reading is a Consumption habit, whereas writing is Production. Then you get blurrier - watching TV is definitely Consumption, but what about debating the latest episode on Reddit? Playing videogames, Consumption, but playing videogames socially, like in an MMO? Or even more, being a guild…
I'm a socialist but also broadly in favor of markets. Trade is hard, allocating resources is hard, and markets do a reasonable job of this (outside of what we functional programmers would call side effects ). But even given this fondness for markets, I am generally opposed to large corporations (and for similar reasons, billionaires). And I've realized a core reason why is the non-linearity of…
(This post contains major spoilers for the TV show: The Four Seasons) My wife recently found out that one of her friends from college just had their first child. She came by this knowledge from another friend mentioning it in passing - the new parent had sent them an email. My wife checked her email and was sad to not have been similarly informed. It felt like she had lost this connection to her…
GALLUP, MAY 28-JUNE 2, 1961: Do you think "sit-ins" at lunch counters, "Freedom Buses" and other demonstrations by Negroes will hurt or help the Negro's chances of being integrated in the South? Hurt 57% Help 27% No opinion 15% I often hear that protests are too disruptive. That there are proper ways to protest and isn't it. My internal translation becomes something like "You should protest in a…
Hearthstone is a digital card game made by Blizzard. It's celebrating its 10th birthday this year and to celebrate Blizzard is killing off the competitive scene. This tweet lays out the changes they are making (tournament qualification only from ladder, a tiny number of participants, and the tournaments don't have a prize pool unless you make it all the way to the world championship). It also has…
My method for understanding the world is fundamentally Bayesian. 1 Because of this, when I evaluate if I trust 2 something (a statistic, a study, an organization, a person), I try to consider the evidence for and against. I also look at it from a risk perspective - what are the consequences for being wrong? Should I err one way or another because of these consequences? After mulling these things…
On average, corporations disappoint me. Whether it's creating poor products, misleading their customers, mistreating their employees, exploiting their monopolies, or a plethora of other abuses, there is a lot for me to be unhappy about at most corporations. 1 But I do have a few companies/products 2 that I enjoy so much that I'm willing to be a complete corporate shill for them (at least for the…
The superhero is an iconic trope of storytelling. It appears in cultures around the globe, perhaps in slightly different clothing. Perhaps you have a Chosen One 1 , the Messiah or some other character type with abilities beyond the pale. And while these characters often end up fighting battles far beyond the ordinary, they often start with struggles we face in the real world. They solve problems…
It's true. I'm a certified nitpicker. I hedge and I haw to avoid statements that are untrue. I fuss over details that frankly matter little. But why? I like rules. I'm a mathematician and a computer scientist. Almost 1 all of the ideas I contemplate in these spaces come with well-structured rules. In these spaces, the rules are sacrosanct. You can work with different rules and get interesting…
I'm trying a week's worth of daily blogging following some advice from Neel Nanda (I also highly recommend his blog in general, plenty of thought-inspiring posts). Some of these will be my normal topics (math, tech, philosophy, politics), and some will be things that strike joy. (I've been reading Ross Gay's Book of Delights and I could do an entire series of posts just following that idea). I'll…