my story š
iāve been thinking š
How many new moons have I experienced in my life? The age we recite when asked is the count of our trips around the sun. I found myself wondering how many new moons Iād seen. Hard pass on sitting down to do the math, but luckily in the time of this moon I can just farm that work out to ChatGPT.
I saw it write a python script and calculate the results: Iām a bit under 500 moons old. My obvious next question was to ask for the date of my 500th moon. Then I did the same for Kim, and then the kids. Then, I asked it to put all these together in a table. Thatās when things went bad! It had āhallucinatedā the dates for the adults. I noticed, and I also noticed that there was no python script this time.
The LLM decided to save itself the extra work and just barf out some plausible numbers. When I told it to āRecheck all the mathā, it ran the script and outputted real data. One way the AI companies are making LLMs smarter is by effectively telling them to ārecheck all the mathā before you see their results. Itās amazing that this works. Stay vigilant, LLM users!
fun facts š
ChatGPT helps a dad diagnose his 3-year-oldās obscure dental issues. āmy 3yo has had tons of dental/cavity issues. we've been taking her to dentists for years, and they have spent an awful lot of time not even subtly intimating that selentelechia is a shitty mom. tonight i took our case to Dr ChatGPTappā ~ learn more
Video showcasing the importance of PPE for workplace safety. Grilling hotdogs on recently welded metal gets the point across to me. ~ learn more
OpenAI furious DeepSeek might have stolen all the data OpenAI stole from us. āI will explain what this means in a moment, but first: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha. It is, as many have already pointed out, incredibly ironic that OpenAI, a company that has been obtaining large amounts of data from all of humankind largely in an āunauthorized manner,ā and, in some cases, in violation of the terms of service of those from whom they have been taking from, is now complaining about the very practices by which it has built its company.ā ~ learn more
oh, chicago š
Chicagoās renewable energy milestone. āAs of January 1, all buildings owned and operated by the city are officially powered by 100% renewable energy, including OāHare International Airport, Harold Washington Library, 98 fire stations, and two of the worldās largest water treatment facilities.ā About a third of that energy is from purchased renewable credits, but still good! ~ learn more
Chicago mayors get a lot of secret gifts? āInstead, under an āunwritten arrangementā between the Board of Ethics and the Mayorās Office that has been in place since 1989, the mayor can completely disregard the law. Under this arrangement, the mayorās office simply makes a publicly available log book of the gifts they receive, which is kept on the fifth floor of City Hall. No prior approval of gifts. No reporting to the Board of Ethics. And no reporting to the city comptroller to put these gifts in the city inventory. According to the Board of Ethics, this informal arrangement is communicated to mayoral staff during ethics trainings. And the Board does not disclose this policy on their website. This is insane.ā ~ learn more
oh, austin š¤
Why are people dropping flour in weird patterns around Austin? āThe mystery man then pulled out a spice container and began sprinkling kitchen flour along the trail and surrounding areas. Heād make a mark, walk 10 to 20 feet, then repeat the process.ā The answer is a ādrinking club with a running problem.ā ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ā”
Waymoās master plan. These self-driving cars have taken over my part of Austin and itās surreal. In this post Harry Campbell, aka āThe Rideshare Guyā since 2014, unpacks the companyās strategic options for scaling the service outside of its current few markets. ~ learn more
Explainer: whatās R1 & everything else. āR1 just came out a few days ago out of nowhere, and then thereās o1 and o3, but no o2. Gosh! Itās hard to know whatās going on. This post aims to be a guide for recent AI develoments. Itās written for people who feel like they should know whatās going on, but donāt, because itās insane out there.ā ~ learn more
The short case for Nvidia stock. Jeffrey Emanuel argues that Nvidiaās moats are all under attack in this lengthy post. ~ learn more or read a good summary
The Microsoft 365 copilot launch was a total disaster. So says ZDNet Senior Contributing Editor Ed Bott. āAt the start of the New Year, with no warning, Microsoft gives its flagship productivity app a name change and a huge price increase. Why would the company make this mess? I asked Copilot, who explained it very well.ā ~ learn more
to your health ā
What a $20,000 longevity clinic really buys you. The NYTās take on longevity-focused medical providers is ā¦ critical. Hereās an excerpt I dislike: āBut experts worry that these clinics are capitalizing on peopleās fears of aging and death without offering many tangible benefits ā because almost none of this is covered by insurance, or proven to prolong oneās life.ā Just two small humble points: 1) so ācovered by insuranceā is the bar for ātangible benefitsā? 2) so prolong oneās health without extending oneās life is not enough? ~ learn more
How are hospitals actually organized? āThen a lot of you asked āwhat actually counts as a āhospitalāā? And after a brief ayahuasca trip, we started asking ourselves the same question (just me, Benās clean). So today we want to actually explain organizationally what hospitals actually are.ā ~ learn more
retail therapy šø
Why did DoorDash win? āThe business school version of why DoorDash won is that they had the right strategy. They launched in the right markets, acquired the right restaurants, and designed the marketplace the right way. The Silicon Valley hustle culture version is that they out-executed everyone else. They just shipped faster until they had better selection, a better product, and more reliable delivery. The financial markets version is that they got lucky. Grubhub and Uber were both public and playing with a hand tied behind their back during the most pivotal moment in the fight. The reality is that you canāt understand what happened without all three perspectives. Increasingly, success in every competitive market will require the right strategy, rapid execution, and good luck.ā ~ learn more
under the microscope š¬
Bacteria (and their metabolites) and depression. This is a bit of a dense writing flush with scientific names and terms, but its short. Thereās growing evidence that a gut microbe has a causal role in major depressive disorder. ~ learn more
A boost of a protein could encourage fat burn over muscle loss. I rarely hear scientists expressing confidence like this: āAnd while the BCL6 discovery came through a study on mice, researchers are confident it will translate to human physiology.ā ~ learn more
big ideas š
The most important time in history is now. An author whose point of view on history I admire also has a point of view on the future. āWeāre at the precipice, and weāre about to jump off the cliff of AI superintelligence, whether we want to or not. When are we jumping? Whatās at the bottom? Do we have a parachute?ā ~ learn more
Dark energy doesn't exist, claims new study on supernovas. āEnter dark energy. It's one of the most debated and intriguing missing puzzle pieces of modern physicsāa mysterious form of energy believed to uniformly permeate all of space. In the current most accepted model of modern cosmology, dark energy is what drives the accelerated expansion of the universe. But what if there's another explanation that doesn't involve dark energy? A recent study using data from supernovas hints there might indeed be one, and it's called the Timescape model. This finding could profoundly challenge our understanding of the cosmos, so let's dive in.ā ~ learn more