rs.io Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700:3036::ac43:816c  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

POST http://mercury.rs.io:3000/subscribers

<form action="http://mercury.rs.io:3000/subscribers" method="post">
  <h2 style="color:white;">You've read this far⁠—want more?</h2>
  <p>Subscribe and I'll e-mail you updates along with the ideas that I don't share anywhere else.</p>
  <div class="form-row" style="margin-bottom:20px;">
    <div class="col-8">
      <input name="subscriber[email]" id="email" class="form-control" placeholder="E-mail Address" required="">
    </div>
    <div class="col-4 subscribe">
      <button class="btn btn-dark form-control" style="font-weight:700;">Go</button>
    </div>
    <input type="hidden" name="recaptcha_token" id="recaptchaResponse"
      value="03AFcWeA4IWjCcxXCYfWOMHNbGA6z3fDWvgYuaZyulwMJ4hXxUoGZCXJWpOSw90abVhRwz0m40QfbnzJiF076FqFDeUBt4eU8tTnTh7M0wYXwg9IQBVaZV-g4Wfq_vmLGlgnSm5650syegzqMD4c7X6rz-tvHtmPHnIcgJ3V08ed8-TCl4I8Klm0NpTylowzzqOtOMp42rPe33axODp-tn4ZVF1whHbg3G5o_7W2C9-83-g59GNXLTLeoCGj8B5eCs7-PN_xq1tzn-OH1LpNHfbGsq8-zAe9LuKlDNbhT1i9RgKcqxlEpAoisxhpfKo1hFmz2pTMDdPnkIAlVStYwvdYE5N4qt_7IJJKd51FbjcpNTAoNi9FnexIYId5WIvBYrcq-VIr-GMfz_XGg2oJKqG0G5r9kbiVQHBjnsUnGFtVV4RCXhPeG1X4QMv9llII25-sds76vBA36YkPGTLBfhJwYe9j-WWfrrgkyiTIrvNLD2fIXeUdugZjYMF_4fCZXas_nwlbEYwvPjA1cq7eCJNKdgyfFjkx8VrkO9rgYOSS-ptkoc-XAuxOR-V6IL4LqqOl8tfKu2VL4zcU0fpRt4u10lOxdcq7Cyyw1eb61MMM0A35ePKDZDUuzu2P1YWIu3iH3EayTrblTogEo4_EQq8dFHgnPnRMMNNZASqre83go-iwDQ0IiZuiFTb9zBigpLC8E8U_RSuBeeLIxlSSkuf7vCi8RRGqzBRiCx8T_4Dy0LnvTRirG3sSDGziS6t_mk_N4BuKKzQl9SBfOb41TLeip9siDnBu9Vh5g7iBd1zkbViWZt5Bg-U_lgkjuZgeGxb6wGAWSzzwLsBSpDlnvBRp3Nbj_XEdtnpg">
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

RS.IO

like being punched in the brain

 * Start Here
 * All Articles
 * Contact



BOOKS ON PROBABILISTIC PROGRAMMING ML

Thu, Oct 10, 2019 A list of intro-level books for learning a first probabilistic
programming language.

FIXING "FATAL:UDEV_LOADER.CC(38) CHECK FAILED: FALSE." ERRORS ON NIXOS CODE

Wed, Oct 9, 2019 Electron apps on NixOS crash at the udev\_loader.cc check due
to a linking error. Here's how to fix it with libudev0-shim.

HOW TO INSTALL PIXELATOR ON NIXOS CODE

Wed, Oct 9, 2019 Here's how to install Pixelator on NixOS.

HOW TO LOOK UP A URL'S PAGERANK WITH RUBY + OPEN PAGERANK'S API CODE

Thu, Oct 3, 2019 DomCom’s Open PageRank is a free alternative to Google’s
PageRank and includes a public API. Here's how to use it with Ruby.

BLACK PROGRESS SHORT

Wed, Oct 2, 2019 From 2001 to 2017, the incarceration rate for black men
declined by 34 percent.

TALL TREES SHORT

Wed, Oct 2, 2019 Researchers Discover the Tallest Known Tree in the Amazon 88.5
meters, or over 290 feet

AS HEDGE FUND GRANDMA USED TO SAY SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 A truism at the commodities hedge fund I used to work at was
the “the Saudis are always lying” along with “never be long a country’s currency
if they have their own word for afternoon nap”

CLOWNS TO THE LEFT OF ME, SECRET POLICE TO THE RIGHT SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 We find that low‐achieving officers were stuck within the
regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the
secret police for future benefits.

COMMUNISTS HAVE THE BEST TRANSIT SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 Subways in Beijing are roughly 55 cents, only about 1/5th the
level of NYC.

DIVERSITY RIDDLE SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 Between 2013 and 2016, 90% of Oracle’s hires were people of
color.

HOW TO MAKE RENT IN THE BAY AREA SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 I‘m using near infrared as a brain hack, by shining a cheap
850nm LED light on my forehead.

MONEY + FIRE = VC SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 Venture capital (VC) has delivered poor returns for more than a
decade.

MUSHROOMS & CIVILIZATION SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 Psilocybin mushrooms occur in higher concentrations around
human settlements than in “wild nature” (still today).

WHY SHOULDN'T I HAVE MY OWN WATER FOUNTAIN? SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019 If anything, Thomas believes that the state should—where it
can, within the law—support the separation of the races.

WOULD YOU HIRE ELON MUSK? SHORT

Tue, Oct 1, 2019

> We find that former founders receive fewer callbacks than non-founders;
> however, all founders are not disadvantaged similarly. Former founders of
> successful ventures receive even fewer callbacks than former founders of
> failed ventures.
> 
> –The Effect of Founder Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: A Field Experiment
> (emphasis mine)



NGINX + RAILS (PUMA) ON NIXOS CODE

Fri, Sep 27, 2019 Not too much on the web about how to set this up, so here's an
example.

HOW TO: GENERATE RAILS-COMPATIBLE HTML.ERB WITH HUGO CODE

Tue, Sep 24, 2019 You can teach Hugo to generate Rails compatible
html.erbhtml.erb

HOW TO: GPU-ACCELERATED R/KERAS ON NIXOS (VIA DOCKER) CODE

Tue, Sep 24, 2019

I spent a weekend trying to get R, Keras, and CUDA to play nice together on
NixOS. I suspect this’ll be the task I’m assigned on my first day in Hell.



TOP PLACES TO BUY CHEAP HOUSES IN USA, 2019 HOMESTEADING

Sat, Jun 22, 2019

Houses in this country can be had for far cheaper than almost anyone realizes.



RURAL AREAS WITH GOOD INTERNET SPEEDS (FOR STREAMING, GAMING, REMOTE WORK)
HOMESTEADING

Fri, Jun 21, 2019

Ever wonder how remote you can go without sacrificing internet connectivity?



GUIDE: THE BEST PLACE TO BUY LAND FOR HOMESTEADING HOMESTEADING

Mon, Jun 10, 2019 There is no clean, “one size fits all” answer to the question,
“Where is the best place to buy land for homesteading?

LINKS FOR JUNE HOMESTEADING

Sun, Jun 9, 2019 The possession of a cow or two, with a hog, and a few geese,
naturally exalts the peasant.

LINKS FOR JUNE LINKS

Fri, Jun 7, 2019 In favour of about one citizen in five hundred, who, by
education or practice in scribbling, has acquired a tolerable style as to
grammar and construction, so as to bear printing; or who is possessed of a press
and a few types.

THE BEST SELF-SUFFICIENCY BLOGS HOMESTEADING

Mon, May 13, 2019

Here are my favorite self-sufficiency blogs, along with links to content I
particularly enjoyed. Note that I continue to expand this list whenever good
articles hit my RSS reader. Last updated 06/26.



“THE ASK” IS AN ENTREPRENEUR’S CORE SKILL BOOK

Mon, May 6, 2019


+ OTHER NOTES ON ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPERTISE

I’ve been going through the second edition of the Cambridge Handbook of
Expertise after reading the first years ago, and was delighted to find the new
edition has a chapter on excellence among entrepreneurs.

Some highlights:



LINKS FOR MAY LINKS

Sun, Apr 28, 2019 Any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and
must be.

WHERE IS HOMESCHOOLING MOST POPULAR? STATES BY THE NUMBERS HOMESTEADING

Wed, Apr 24, 2019 Surprisingly, no one has published homeschooling rates per
capita for different states, so I’ve mashed together some census data to figure
that out.

LINKS FOR DECEMBER LINKS

Mon, Dec 8, 2014 File this under “everything you believe about yourself is lie”:
“Surveys of the psychological literature suggest that perception of skill is
often only moderately or modestly correlated with actual level of performance.

LINKS FOR NOVEMBER LINKS

Sat, Nov 1, 2014 “Several studies have indicated that, for men, regular blood
donation results in a massive reduction in heart attack.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR OCTOBER LINKS

Sat, Oct 11, 2014 They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill
tombs with sinners.

A 60-SECOND EXERCISE THAT BOOSTS GOAL ACHIEVEMENT BY 20% COGSCI

Tue, Sep 23, 2014 The hero of our tale, Jason Padgett. (Content note: this is an
example of what I send out to email subscribers.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR SEPTEMBER LINKS

Mon, Sep 8, 2014 Famous last words: “Why are you dodging [bullets] like this?

ANALOGICAL THINKING: CONCEPTS AS EXAMPLE BUNDLES COGSCI

Tue, Aug 12, 2014 Analogy is our best guide in all philosophical investigations;
and all discoveries, which were not made by mere accident, have been made by the
help of it.

BOOK REVIEW: A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET BOOK

Sat, Aug 9, 2014 _(Note: this review originally appeared on a sister-site I’m
building out, Top Financial Advisor, but I’m cross-posting it for readers here,
as part of my ongoing book reviews.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR AUGUST LINKS

Thu, Jul 31, 2014 Useful Science is a super cool website, aimed at summarizing
instrumentally useful science.

REVIEW AND SUMMARY: ADVERTISING SECRETS OF THE WRITTEN WORD BOOK

Tue, Jul 22, 2014 I made you a promise. I promised that book reviews were going
to become a regular thing around here — you know, in my Born to Run review and
summary, where I said: “I plan for this to be the first in a very long tradition
of reviewing books, so stay tuned for more.

SPINACH, UNHEALTHY? REFLECTIONS ON ONE MONTH VEGAN PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Jul 21, 2014 Rewind. It’s August of last year. I’ve just published a post
on the reasoning behind certain “strange” beliefs.

FIXING VIRTIO CODE 39 MISC

Sun, Jul 20, 2014 I’m recording this here in case anyone else is unfortunate
enough to encounter this Code 39 message, and so that she can avoid wasting
several hours of her life attempting to fix it, by instead Googling it and
reading this.

BORN TO RUN: BOOK REVIEW AND SUMMARY BOOK

Thu, Jul 10, 2014 I’m training for a half-marathon. As someone not terribly
athletically gifted, it’s been slow-going.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR JULY LINKS

Tue, Jul 1, 2014 3 book recommendations straight from Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos:
The Goal, The Innovator’s Solution, and The Effective Executive.

PARETO PRINCIPLE EXAMPLES AND HISTORY ECON

Mon, Jun 30, 2014 Economics consists of theoretical laws which nobody has
verified and of empirical laws which nobody can explain.

TIGER PETTING, NOT THAT DANGEROUS MISC

Wed, Jun 25, 2014 I was not designed to be forced. —Henry David Thoreau, On the
Duty of Civil Disobedience

RESULTS FROM THE FIRST SPLIT TEST MISC

Tue, Jun 24, 2014 Measuring gives you a leg up on experts who are too good to
measure.

WEB ROUNDUP: MORE LINKS FOR JUNE LINKS

Sun, Jun 15, 2014 Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in
these.

HOW THE 2013 BOSTON MARATHON BOMBINGS AFFECTED THIS YEAR’S ATTENDANCE MISC

Tue, Jun 10, 2014 A year ago, I logged a prediction (at 60% confidence) that
this year’s Boston Marathon attendance would be lower than the previous year’s
as a result of the 2013 bombings.

WHY I LIKE SURPRISES AND YOU SHOULD TOO COGSCI

Fri, Jun 6, 2014 I love surprises. Imagine a man — oh, I’ll just pick a name at
random, let’s call him James Randi.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR JUNE LINKS

Mon, Jun 2, 2014 Regarding MMOs: 23 percent of men play as women, but only 7
percent of women try taking a walk on the hairier side.

PROLONGED EYE CONTACT AND ATTRACTION: WHAT THE SCIENCE TELLS US PHILOSOPHY

Sun, Jun 1, 2014     Belladonna means “beautiful woman” in Italian, but it’s
also the name of a type of plant.

100+ INTERESTING DATA SETS FOR STATISTICS MISC

Thu, May 29, 2014 If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are
opinions, let’s go with mine.

SURPRISINGLY DANGEROUS JOBS IN AMERICA MISC

Fri, May 16, 2014 You can’t avoid danger. —Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses

WEB ROUNDUP: MORE LINKS FOR MAY LINKS

Thu, May 15, 2014 Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish to know but
to talk.

THE UNREASONABLE EFFECTIVENESS OF CHECKLISTS PHILOSOPHY

Mon, May 12, 2014 Dr. Peter Provonost had a problem. People were dying and — to
borrow a line from Fight Club — not in the Sylvia Plath, Tibetan Buddhist,
we’re-all-dying-so-get-used-to-it sense of the word.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR MAY LINKS

Fri, May 2, 2014 Expensive wine doesn’t taste better: “In a sample of more than
6,000 blind tastings, we find that the correlation between price and overall
rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more
expensive wines slightly less.

WHY CATEGORY THEORY MATTERS MATH

Wed, Apr 30, 2014 I hope most mathematicians continue to fear and despise
category theory, so I can continue to maintain a certain advantage over them.

WHAT I’M WATCHING MISC

Sat, Apr 26, 2014 From most recommended to least (roughly): The movie
Manufacturing Consent details Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the media, covering
Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor and media bias generally.

HARD BOOKS ARE OVERRATED BOOK

Tue, Apr 22, 2014 Hot air balloons take people on adventures. Books do, too.

WEB ROUNDUP: MORE LINKS FOR APRIL LINKS

Sat, Apr 19, 2014 Andrew Drucker has a paper where he mentally multiplies
ten-digit numbers by exploiting human image recognition.

MATH JOKES EXCERPT

Thu, Apr 17, 2014 The AMS has a 2005 paper “Foolproof: A Sampling of
Mathematical Folk Humor” which is — delightfully — filled with math jokes.

HAL ABELSON ON MATH FOR PROGRAMMERS EXCERPT

Thu, Apr 17, 2014 Seibel: So that explains why the book is the way it is.

IT PROBABLY WON A PRIZE EXCERPT

Wed, Apr 16, 2014 Architect Sam Sloan coordinated a project in which employees …
were able to select their own office furniture and plan office layout … Since
both the Seattle and Los Angeles branches of the FAA were scheduled to move into
new buildings at about the same time, the client for the project, the General
Services Administration, agreed with architect Sloan’s proposal to involve
employees in the design process in Seattle, while leaving the Los Angeles office
as a control condition where traditional methods of space planning would be
followed.

WHY DOGS BARK AT NIGHT EXCERPT

Tue, Apr 15, 2014 A reformed thief, telling of his success, put it this way,
“I’m telling you, if I had a hundred dollars for every time I heard a dog owner
tell their dog to ‘shut up and go lie down’ while I was right outside their
window, I’d be a millionaire.

RESPONSE TO BASICBOOKREADER MISC

Mon, Apr 14, 2014 How can e-readers be improved? This is a response to Austin G.

TOO SMART TO UNDERSTAND MISC

Fri, Apr 11, 2014 Here is a meme I would very much like to see die forever.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SCIENCE? ALGORITHM DISCOVERY COMPSCI

Thu, Apr 10, 2014 Consider the trial of Amanda Knox. What’s the purpose of the
legal process here?

PROOFS IN MATH: WHAT’S THE POINT? MATH

Wed, Apr 9, 2014 Tyler Cowen pointed me to an article on automated theorem
proving.

HERBERT SIMON’S ANT COGSCI

Tue, Apr 8, 2014 Here’s a metaphor that comes to me by way of Nobel laureate and
Turing award recipient Herbert Simon.

ZACH WEINERSMITH ON THE IMPORTANCE OF READING BOOKS EXCERPT

Mon, Apr 7, 2014 Zach Weinersmith writes Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, my
current favorite webcomic.

WEB ROUNDUP: LINKS FOR APRIL LINKS

Mon, Apr 7, 2014 A sociology-style deconstruction of the pick-up community.
Nearly twice as many black men than black women are looking for a long-term
relationship, or so they report.

ANKI TIPS: WHAT I LEARNED MAKING 10,000 FLASHCARDS MISC

Sat, Apr 5, 2014 If you don’t know what Anki or spaced repetition is, start by
reading gwern’s excellent introduction.

CREATIVITY, FAN FICTION, AND COMPRESSION COGSCI

Fri, Apr 4, 2014 I’ve written before about the relationship between creativity
and compressibility.

YOU COULD HAVE DISCOVERED QUANTUM MECHANICS EXCERPT

Mon, Mar 24, 2014 Quantum mechanics is what you would inevitably come up with if
you started from probability theory, and then said, let’s try to generalize it
so that the numbers we used to call “probabilities” can be negative numbers.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS DEMYSTIFIED COGSCI

Mon, Mar 24, 2014 Jack Kerouac is a liar. Okay, let me rewind. I don’t know how
much experience you’ve had with creative writing types — pale, imaginative
creatures — but let me tell you how they talk about Jack Kerouac.

WEB ROUNDUP: MORE LINKS FOR MARCH LINKS

Sat, Mar 22, 2014 To score drugs, try a support group for addicts.

CREATIVITY, LITERATURE, AND COMPRESSION COGSCI

Thu, Mar 20, 2014 But first, a joke: I was at a bar last weekend, chatting with
this woman.

MIKE TYSON AND STEROIDS SCIENCE

Sun, Mar 16, 2014 This is a picture of Mike Tyson at age 13.

THE STABLE MARRIAGE PROBLEM EXPLAINED MATH

Sat, Mar 15, 2014 You are out in a thunderstorm. You look up, at the rolling
thunderheads painting the sky, and wonder, “Why am I here?

WHAT ARE QUANTUM COMPUTERS USED FOR? COMPSCI

Fri, Mar 14, 2014 The literal answer to the question, “What are quantum
computers used for?

WHO INITIATES DIVORCE THE MOST? MEN OR WOMEN? SEX

Fri, Mar 14, 2014 Pop quiz. Who initiates divorces and break-ups? Men or women?

RED PILL RHETORIC: SWALLOWING THE RED PILL ISN’T MISC

Tue, Mar 11, 2014 You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your
bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

FOX NEWS VERSUS MSNBC: WHO’S MORE OPINIONATED? MISC

Mon, Mar 10, 2014 Listening to the internet, you’d think that Fox News is some
sort of liberal boogeyman — the lowest of the low that is modern journalism.

WHAT AFFECTS YOUR PERSONAL IDENTITY? YOU’RE A SPONGE. PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Mar 10, 2014 That thing is the most badass of all sea slugs, the
nudibranch.

HINDSIGHT BIAS IN THE MEDIA: TALKING WHILE DRIVING SCIENCE

Sat, Mar 8, 2014 What’s more dangerous: texting and driving or talking on a
headset and driving?

SOFTWARE FOR WRITERS: TOOLS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING MISC

Fri, Mar 7, 2014 There are two types of writer — the snobs and the engineers.

WHY DO WE THINK THE WAY WE DO? COGSCI

Thu, Mar 6, 2014 I sometimes experience a sort of mental disconnect — a sense of
knowing what I’m going to think before I bother to think it.

LINKS FOR MARCH LINKS

Thu, Mar 6, 2014 A review of linear algebra, with pictures instead of matrix
computation — which, if the Lord God had possessed a bit more foresight, would
have been banned in Leviticus instead of shrimp.

THE BOY GIRL PARADOX EXPLAINED MATH

Wed, Mar 5, 2014 Probability theory is notorious for violating human intuition.
Consider the Boy Girl Paradox:

PEOPLE ALL THINK THE SAME COGSCI

Tue, Mar 4, 2014 On May 7th of 1997, Garry Kasparov — the second strongest chess
player of all time — was hunched over a chess board.

THE SECRETARY PROBLEM EXPLAINED: DATING MATHEMATICALLY PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Mar 3, 2014 I was, to put it mildly, something of a mess after my last
relationship imploded.

WORLDBUILDING, WORLDBUILDERS, AND MATHEMATICS ECON

Fri, Feb 28, 2014 This week, I was introduced to the hobby of worldbuilding —
inventing imaginary places, making maps, elaborating histories.

DOES THE INTERNET LIE? (HINT: YES.) MISC

Fri, Feb 28, 2014 Yesterday, I saw someone spin this very plausible theory about
why it’s so repellent when someone brags about their IQ on the internet.

STATISTICIAN ON A PLANE JOKE EXCERPT

Thu, Feb 27, 2014 Speaking of probability and statistics, there is the story of
a statistician who told a friend that he never took airplanes: “I have computed
the probability that there will be a bomb on the plane,” he explained, “and
although this probability is low, it is still too high for my comfort.

OVERCOMING WRITER’S BLOCK: NARROW TO GENERATE IDEAS MISC

Thu, Feb 27, 2014 Heuristic: Focus on concrete categories when generating ideas.

ONLINE COMMUNITY BUILDING: WHY COMMUNITIES DECAY MISC

Wed, Feb 26, 2014 The first day of September 1993 was the beginning of an
eternal September, a calendar month whose days stretched to infinity.

WHAT SAVANT MEMORY SAYS ABOUT THE LIMITS OF MEMORY COGSCI

Wed, Feb 26, 2014 Scientific American has published an article on savantism,
which rattled a few ideas loose in my head.

EFFECTIVE STUDY SKILLS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS: “WHY?” QUESTIONS COGSCI

Tue, Feb 25, 2014 Consider two sentences: The llama was made out of watermelon
flavored cactus.

WHY PSYCHOLOGY IS NOT A SCIENCE SCIENCE

Tue, Feb 25, 2014 Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

DEVELOPING GOOD RESEARCH SKILLS: COMPRESSING KNOWLEDGE SCIENCE

Mon, Feb 24, 2014 I wrote a couple of days ago about how we can think of humans
as agents who take in information from the environment, compress that
information, and then store it in long term memory.

LOVE IS NOT A CHOICE AND OTHER TOOLS FOR THINKING PHILOSOPHY

Sun, Feb 23, 2014 I’m not much of a romantic. If I wanted to hack romance I’d
start with going through all the literature on the mate preferences of
chimpanzees, bonobos, and great apes generally.

WHAT MAKES SOMETHING INTERESTING? COGSCI

Sat, Feb 22, 2014 Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin and maybe best known
for his work on intelligence, was a bit obsessed with the idea that people have
certain innate traits.

THE SCIENCE OF PROBLEM SOLVING COGSCI

Fri, Feb 21, 2014 Mathematics is like the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings.

MORE LINKS FOR FEBRUARY LINKS

Thu, Feb 20, 2014 Users with many Facebook friends are less likely to post about
politics and gay rights.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SIMULATED ANNEALING COMPSCI

Sun, Feb 16, 2014   Imagine that you’re approached by the Greek goddess of
discord, Eris and, given that Eris is a cruel goddess, she places you into the
mathematical space above.

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN IN THE IT INDUSTRY? SEX

Tue, Feb 11, 2014 It has become fashionable as of late for media outlets like
Gawker and others to attack Silicon Valley, math, computer science, and the hard
sciences generally for being unfriendly to women.

THE SCIENCE OF HABIT PHILOSOPHY

Sat, Feb 8, 2014 The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to
cultivating habits.

LINKS FOR FEBRUARY LINKS

Wed, Feb 5, 2014 What’s the most bullshit-sounding-but-true fact you know? My
personal favorite: “There used to be a flying reptile that was as tall as a
giraffe.

4CHAN IS WHAT FREE SPEECH ON THE INTERNET LOOKS LIKE MISC

Wed, Jan 29, 2014 Meditation: If there are true things that no one is allowed to
say, how will you know them?

WHY REPLICATION IS IMPORTANT PHILOSOPHY

Sat, Jan 25, 2014 Every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one
that much closer to what is true.

DOES RACE EXIST? MISC

Fri, Jan 24, 2014 No one in her left brain could reject reductionism.

POLYA URN MODEL DISSOLVES THE GENDER WAR SEX

Fri, Jan 24, 2014 Now listen, you queer, you stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or
I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.

EXPERT MEMORY: WHAT CAN MEMORY EXPERTS TEACH US? COGSCI

Mon, Jan 20, 2014 That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the
task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE YOUR LEGACY, ALL OF THEM PHILOSOPHY

Sun, Jan 12, 2014 I have heard tell of a time in a man’s life where he begins to
worry less about his own dreams and invests more in living through his children.

WHEN IS IT OK TO BREAK THE RULES? PHILOSOPHY

Wed, Jan 8, 2014 I propose a new way of thinking about rules. Not as something
that distinguishes between what one is allowed and not allowed to do, but rather
as a penalty that certain actions carry.

COULD OSX’S SPOTLIGHT SUCK MORE? DOUBT IT MISC

Sun, Jan 5, 2014 There was a post about a week ago about how new computer
science students don’t get the Unix philosophy and the power (and great
responsibility) of the command line.

THOUGHTS ON THE POLICE BODY CAMERAS PRIVACY DEBATE PHILOSOPHY

Sat, Jan 4, 2014 There’s a link on Reddit to the sort of story that the internet
can’t get enough of: police abuse.

AN INTERESTING ACADEMIC FIELD MISC

Mon, Dec 30, 2013 I’m troubled by not only how much I don’t know, which is
legion, but how much that I don’t know that I don’t know.

BILL THURSTON ON READING HARD THINGS EXCERPT

Wed, Dec 25, 2013 I was really amazed by my first encounters with serious
mathematics textbooks.

WHAT IS WISDOM? PHILOSOPHY

Tue, Dec 24, 2013 There’s an art to knowing when; Never try to guess.

TWO CULTURES OF NUMBER THEORISTS EXCERPT

Mon, Dec 23, 2013 There is a famous distinction in prime number theory between
the number theorists who like to multiply primes, and the number theorists who
like to add primes.

FEYNMAN ON READING DIFFICULT THINGS EXCERPT

Sun, Dec 22, 2013 Well, I asked him, “How can I read it? It’s so hard.

SCOTT AARONSON ON MATHEMATICS EXCERPT

Wed, Dec 18, 2013 From Luke’s recent interview of Scott Aaronson (theoretical
compsci guy at MIT, who blogs here):

DECIPHERING CORE HUMAN VALUES IN A SOCIETY OF MIND COGSCI

Sat, Dec 14, 2013 Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

THE LIFE SATISFACTION OF ECONOMISTS ECON

Fri, Dec 6, 2013 Tyler Cowen has written a post on a paper about the life
satisfaction of economists.

WORLD WAR II: NOT A MORAL TRIUMPH PHILOSOPHY

Wed, Dec 4, 2013 I’ve started reading through some of the works of Mencius
Moldbug.

THE TERRIBLE FUTURE ISN’T: DRONE DELIVERY EDITION ECON

Mon, Dec 2, 2013 Last night, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos appeared on 60 Minutes and
spoke about the possibility of using drones to deliver small packages (“drone
delivery“).

CRITICISM OF ECONOMICS ECON

Fri, Nov 29, 2013 I don’t have the requisite expertise to lay out compelling
criticism of economics as a whole, and I suspect such an endeavor would be
profitless (heh).

“NOT A REAL CHRISTIAN” IS REAL RHETORIC PHILOSOPHY

Tue, Nov 26, 2013 Perhaps Sarah Palin will actually read about what that Jesus
guy kept talking about and her head will explode.

UNREASONABLE DOUBT: LEGAL CERTAINTY IS IMPOSSIBLE PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Nov 25, 2013 The line about “what if he’s guilty?” made me almost throw my
laptop across the room.

FECUND UNIVERSE AND THE BLIND UNIVERSEMAKER PHILOSOPHY

Sun, Nov 24, 2013 Imagine that there are many universes, not just the one we
live in, and that they can reproduce; that one universe can have many children.

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST AN AGUMENT AGAINST NIHILISM PHILOSOPHY

Wed, Nov 20, 2013 Skepticism, while logically impeccable, is psychologically
impossible, and there is an element of frivolous insincerity in any philosophy
which pretends to accept it.

CATEGORIES FOR THE WORKING PHILOSOPHER BOOK

Tue, Nov 19, 2013 Elaine Landry is working on putting together a book,
Categories for the Working Philosopher.

EPSILON-DELTA PROOF INTUITION MATH

Mon, Nov 18, 2013 There’s a nice question on MathOverflow about the mental
experience of mathematics.

WHAT’S DEADLIER: HIV OR SMALLPOX? MISC

Thu, Nov 7, 2013 The annals of history are strewn with smallpox-infested
corpses. The idealist thinks, “Ah, the past.

FEYNMAN ON THE SUPERNATURAL EXCERPT

Wed, Nov 6, 2013 The nurse recorded the time of death, 9:21 P.M. He discovered,
oddly, that the clock had halted at that moment —just the sort of mystical
phenomenon that appealed to unscientific people.

BAD AT MATH? HAVE YOU TRIED STEROIDS? MATH

Fri, Nov 1, 2013 Men with lower T performed better than other groups on measures
of spatial/mathematical ability, tasks at which men normally excel.

SIR JOHN HARINGTON ON TREASON EXCERPT

Fri, Oct 25, 2013 I thought about titling this as “Sir John Harington on
Selection Effects,” but treason seemed more compelling.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH ANYTHING PHILOSOPHY

Fri, Oct 18, 2013 A complex system that works is invariably found to have
evolved from a simple system that worked.

READING MATH: TIPS AND HEURISTICS MATH

Tue, Oct 8, 2013 Reading math is tough. So tough that even Fields Medal winner
Bill Thurston wrote about his near-constant confusion.

THURSTON ON CONFUSION EXCERPT

Sun, Oct 6, 2013 Mathematics is a process of staring hard enough with enough
perseverance at at the fog of muddle and confusion to eventually break through
to improved clarity.

BEING A GOOD PERSON DOES NOT DEPEND ON PERFECTION PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Sep 30, 2013 The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping
from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been,
into every corner of our minds.

IS BELIEF A CHOICE? PHILOSOPHY

Sat, Sep 28, 2013 ‘Snow is white’ is true if and only if snow is white.

NO, I LOVE YOU MORE EXCERPT

Thu, Sep 26, 2013 Kaprio, Koskenvuo, and Rita (1987) noted that in the week
following the death of a spouse, suicide rates are elevated almost tenfold for
women, and almost seventyfold for men.

DEPRESSED? TRY PLASTIC SURGERY PHILOSOPHY

Thu, Sep 26, 2013 Ohlsen, Ponten, and Hamburt (1978) noted that twenty-five of
seventy-one women in their study were receiving psychiatric treatment prior to a
breast augmentation procedure, whereas only three continued to do so after the
operation.

LET THEM EAT LOBSTER EXCERPT

Wed, Sep 25, 2013 Prior to [the mid-19th century], lobster was considered a mark
of poverty or as a food for indentured servants or lower members of society in
Maine, Massachusetts, and the Canadian Maritimes, and servants specified in
employment agreements that they would not eat lobster more than twice per week.

IS VEGANISM FOR WOMEN? SEX

Wed, Sep 25, 2013 I recently tried my hand at making this bean-based, vegan taco
filling (recommended), and noticed something curious while reading the recipe’s
comments:

ARE INTROVERTS EVER HAPPIER THAN EXTROVERTS? SEX

Mon, Sep 23, 2013 Here’s one actual perk of being a wallflower: Although
extraverts are generally happier than introverts, Kette (1991) found that
extraverted prisoners were less happy than introverted prisoners.

GREAT MATH QUOTES MATH

Thu, Sep 19, 2013 I don’t collect many things, who needs that junk? But I do
have a collection of great math quotes that I’d like to share with you.

OMAR ON READING PHILOSOPHY

Sun, Sep 15, 2013 Either the books contain what is in the Koran, in which case
we don’t have to read them, or they contain the opposite of what is in the
Koran, in which case we must not read them.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCOMPLETENESS AND THE HALTING PROBLEM COMPSCI

Tue, Sep 10, 2013 Yesterday, while googling around for information on
hyperoperations, I came across Scott Aaronson’s essay, “Who can name the bigger
number?

THE STARK BEAUTY OF THE GLAZED DONUT MISC

Sun, Sep 8, 2013 The glazed donut is the noblest of all donuts. It’s not a loud,
flashy donut.

WOMEN FRIENDS ARE BETTER FRIENDS SEX

Sat, Sep 7, 2013 The Justice Department now seems to be saying that prison rape
accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the US in 2008, likely
making the United States the first country in the history of the world to count
more rapes for men than for women.

MATH ART: PICASSO AS A MATHEMATICIAN MATH

Wed, Aug 28, 2013 Math art. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of
life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not
life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and
reduce it to its lowest terms.

WHY SOME WEIRD BELIEFS AREN’T PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Aug 26, 2013 People hold a lot of weird beliefs, but these weird things
seem a whole lot less weird once you understand the reasoning behind them.

BOOK SUMMARY: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS BOOK

Fri, Aug 9, 2013 This is a review and summary of David Myers’s The Pursuit of
Happiness.

BOOK SUMMARY: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HAPPINESS BOOK

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 The Psychology of Happiness.” width=“199” height=“300”
srcset=“https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/psychology-happiness-michael-argyle-paperback-cover-art-199x300.jpg
199w,
https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/psychology-happiness-michael-argyle-paperback-cover-art.jpg
200w” sizes=“(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px” />This is my The Psychology of
Happiness summary.

BOOK SUMMARY: HAPPINESS: LESSONS FROM A NEW SCIENCE BOOK

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 Happiness: Lessons From a New Science.” width=“195”
height=“300”
srcset=“https://rs.io/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/happiness-lessons-from-a-new-science-cover-195x300.jpg
195w, https://rs.

HOW TO SPOT IMPORTANT PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD TODAY PHILOSOPHY

Mon, Jul 15, 2013 If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely
you’ll do important work.

PREDICTIONS FOR 2014 MISC

Wed, Jan 2, 2013 The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge goes unclaimed. The
price of an ounce of marijuana in Colorado drops to under 150, half of what it’s
going for today.

I HATE MY PHONE MISC

Wed, Oct 19, 2011 I read an interesting interview with Matias Duarte, Android’s
head of user experience, this morning.

WHY YOU SHOULD START BLOGGING (AGAIN) MISC

Fri, Oct 14, 2011 I have this theory: inside of every person there is a blogger
trying to get out.




YOU'VE READ THIS FAR⁠—WANT MORE?

Subscribe and I'll e-mail you updates along with the ideas that I don't share
anywhere else.

Go

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of
Service apply.