- Eight marvelous and melancholy things I've learned about creativity: A delightful post about what Matt Inman learned delighting people like me for ten years.
- Notes on Japan: None of which are quite enough to explain it, I think, even though the results are wonderful. And it costs like $2. Again, 20 years ago, when Japan seemed closer to the future, things seemed more expensive. Now, coming from the US or London or Singapore, things seem positively cheap! Somehow, they have made the mundane necessities of life, of buying snacks at a supermarket or getting a cup of coffee, not feel like an experience in making you wish your life were better. In the US every interaction seems poised to fill you with envy for those who live a rung above you, not in Japan.
- Why AI Labs Are Starting to Look Like Sports Teams: With their obsessive focus on talent, the AI labs are increasingly looking like sports teams: They are each backed by a mega-rich tech company or individual.
- Using LLMs as a search engine: In about 3 years we've seen a fun chatbot turn into, much to the chagrin of some, an essential piece of information infrastructure for the entire world. They have wholly replaced some systems, including search systems, for many people, and they can often do a better job of it. This is a phenomenal advancement in computing, even though there's clearly so much further to go. I hope that more folks understand the risks involved in using this tech as search engines, so that we can all take the very useful capabilities we now have and use them truly to our advantage instead of our detriment.
- LLMs Are Weird Computers: This inversion is really weird. We've spent decades working with computers that are incredible at precision tasks but need to be painstakingly programmed for anything remotely fuzzy. Now we have computers that are adept at fuzzy tasks but need special handling for precision work. I genuinely do not know what to make of this yet!
gurupanguji