lunar expert? i prefer 'the man on the moon'

'I have spoken to high-performers in all sorts if fields at this point, and every single one has said that their profession is plagued by people that are essentially not even trying'

I love these data heavy, skeptical deep dives that scott alexander does

blowing the jones act out of the water

a charming story about manufacturing FM radios in mason jars at a small and then medium scale

matthew smith the flexible goat

Hear, hear!

A video about Isaac Lab and using ML to balance double pendulums

find random old videos from 2015 with this one weird trick

i feel like we could all do with a little reset right now

an expertly written explanation of the Oklab color space (aka you don't know how little you know about colour)

In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astounding

Scott Alexander's techno-optimist roundup

How Warhammer 40,000 abandoned anti-authoritarianism for comfortable cowardice

a scrolly telling lesson in narrative and the way social media misuses scientific literature by The Pudding

same as BELOW

more of a bookmark than a reblog but WHATEVER

The observance of defeat, especially in an election, is often all that keeps a state from tipping into violence

Molly White's article on the war against the internet archive boils my blood

maybe this time will be different

a big forum roundup

a fun LitHub piece on the history of bathing

An idea I've often wondered about, challenged

a stunning examination of the reading pedagogy dogma that has dominated american schools for the last 2 decades

facts, facts

so technical, so cool

another fun works in progress read

What? CSS is evolving!

An earnest and labour intensive documentation of the consequences of AI slop and SEO fraud

i read this a while ago but it's an idea that's stuck with me since

'I wasn’t sure how wise it was to solicit health advice from a meta­human whose creators hadn’t mastered human anatomy, but she was, after all, wearing a stethoscope.'

Chiang does it again

Everything that was once considered lowbrow is now triumphant. It is still common for people to talk of “guilty” cultural pleasures—TV, dance music—about which no one has felt guilty in decades, and to apologize for them with an enthusiasm that looks a lot like pride.

An essay that has stuck with me for years, and returns to mind whenever I hear someone praising art for its subtlety. Subtlety is simply another quality that art may have, like humour, or beauty. Its absence doesn't mean the art isn't good!

Do “outline speedrunning”: Recursively outline an MVP, speedrun filling it in, and only then go back and perfect.

neat!

an aesthetically satisfying youtube channel of a person who folds up complex cardboard boxes

A good little article on typed function design

how to write about conspiracy theories and the process of revising an essay

“Nobody thinks the current system is perfect. I respect people who want to change it. But you’ve got to propose a specific change! Don’t just write yet another article saying “the damn liberals are soft on the mentally ill” The damn liberals are soft because some of them are the people who have to develop an alternative plan, and they can’t think of a good one. If you’re going to write yet another article like this, and you want to change minds, you should skip the one hundred paragraphs about the damn liberals, and go straight to the part where you explain how you plan to do better.”

One of the eminent learning tech thinkers presenting the thesis he's been cooking since LLMs took off

the most forceful argument for anything i've ever read. normally this makes me feel reflexively distrusting of the position but here i think it's just an honest salvo of really, really good arguments

please can ticketmaster die already

more jhānas vulgarization. i am part of the problem

specifically in the context of having developed Thoracic Outlet Syndrome from power lifting

Not the robot wars kind

peter attia discusses the most impactful ways people can increase their healthspan

A disappointing read, but good to know, to push back against anyone who's deferring changing their diet until this technology exists

an even bigger list of life wisdom from mari andrew

good seeming life wisdom from sasha chapin