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DYNOMIGHT

DYNOMIGHT
Things to argue about over the holidays instead of politics III How much should a couple talk if they are having dinner in a restaurant, after being together for...
2 months ago
52
2 months ago
How much should a couple talk if they are having dinner in a restaurant, after being together for one month/year/decade? If it’s safer to face backwards in vehicles, then what is it that’s shared by infants in cars and soldiers on military planes but no one else? Among rock bands...
DYNOMIGHT
Why I’m skeptical of minimum prices for ride-sharing The Attorney General of Massachusetts recently announced that drivers for ride-sharing companies...
a month ago
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a month ago
The Attorney General of Massachusetts recently announced that drivers for ride-sharing companies must be paid at least $32.50 per hour. Now, if you’re a hardcore libertarian, then you probably hate the minimum wage. You already disagree with this policy, so you need no convincing...
DYNOMIGHT
Links for January (1) Jimmy Carter rabbit incident On April 20, 1979, President Carter was on vacation fishing in a...
a month ago
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a month ago
(1) Jimmy Carter rabbit incident On April 20, 1979, President Carter was on vacation fishing in a pond in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. After returning to DC, he mentioned to some White House staffers that a large rabbit had swum towards him “hissing menacingly” and he’d had...
DYNOMIGHT
I am offering mentoring What is this? I am offering to act as a “mentor”, to you, in case that seems like something you’d...
a month ago
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a month ago
What is this? I am offering to act as a “mentor”, to you, in case that seems like something you’d find useful. How will it work? We will meet three times for 30 minutes. During those sessions, I’ll try to help you do whatever it is you’re trying to do. Then I’ll sit back and...
DYNOMIGHT
OK, I can partly explain the LLM chess weirdness now We recently talked about a mystery: All large language models (LLMs) are terrible at chess. All,...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
We recently talked about a mystery: All large language models (LLMs) are terrible at chess. All, that is, except for gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct, which for some reason can play at an advanced amateur level. This is despite the fact that this model is more than a year old and much...
DYNOMIGHT
Something weird is happening with LLMs and chess A year ago, there was a lot of talk about large language models (LLMs) playing chess. Word was that...
3 months ago
24
3 months ago
A year ago, there was a lot of talk about large language models (LLMs) playing chess. Word was that if you trained a big enough model on enough text, then you could send it a partially played game, ask it to predict the next move, and it would play at the level of an advanced...
DYNOMIGHT
Arithmetic is an underrated world-modeling technology Of all the cognitive tools our ancestors left us, what’s best? Society seems to think pretty highly...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
Of all the cognitive tools our ancestors left us, what’s best? Society seems to think pretty highly of arithmetic. It’s one of the first things we learn as children. So I think it’s weird that only a tiny percentage of people seem to know how to actually use arithmetic. Or maybe...
DYNOMIGHT
Thoughts while watching myself be automated An old friend visited me a few weeks ago. And we soon got to chatting about—what else—how long will...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
An old friend visited me a few weeks ago. And we soon got to chatting about—what else—how long will it be before all human intellectual work is automated. My position was: I dunno, because things are moving fast right now but what if we run out of data or scaling laws break and...
DYNOMIGHT
Underrated reasons to be thankful IV That you can apparently learn to meditate your way into a state of profound relaxation and bliss and...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
That you can apparently learn to meditate your way into a state of profound relaxation and bliss and pleasure on par with heroin or orgasm, which was certainly not on my bingo card, which is good because bliss is good, and also because it’s cool that there can still be huge...
DYNOMIGHT
Algorithmic ranking is unfairly maligned What does “algorithmic ranking” bring to mind for you? Personally, I get visions of political...
a month ago
21
a month ago
What does “algorithmic ranking” bring to mind for you? Personally, I get visions of political ragebait and supplement hucksters and unnecessary cleavage. I see cratering attention spans and groups of friends on the subway all blankly swiping at glowing rectangles. I see...
DYNOMIGHT
Please show lots of digits Hi there. It’s me, the person who stares very hard at the numbers in the papers you write. I’ve...
4 months ago
20
4 months ago
Hi there. It’s me, the person who stares very hard at the numbers in the papers you write. I’ve brought you here today to ask a favor. Say you wrote something like this: There were 446 students tested. The left-handed students passed 5.67664% more often than right-handed...
DYNOMIGHT
Tactical parenting I'm so confused TACTICAL PARENTING Written by Dynomight INT TACTICAL HOME - DAY WE OPEN on...
2 months ago
19
2 months ago
I'm so confused TACTICAL PARENTING Written by Dynomight INT TACTICAL HOME - DAY WE OPEN on TACTICAL GUY’s house. A small tree is visible in a window. We see TACTICAL GUY staring at TACTICAL BABY on the ground. CUT TO: INT DESK - SAME DAY TACTICAL GUY uses keyboard plugged...
DYNOMIGHT
The real data wall is billions of years of evolution Say you have a time machine. You can only use it once, to send a single idea back to 2005. If you...
4 months ago
18
4 months ago
Say you have a time machine. You can only use it once, to send a single idea back to 2005. If you wanted to speed up the development of AI, what would you send back? Many people suggest attention or transformers. But I’m convinced that the answer is “brute-force”—to throw as much...
DYNOMIGHT
Sloth was not the right answer Once, when I was 12, my parents asked me what my favorite animal was. And I thought: OK, self, what...
3 months ago
18
3 months ago
Once, when I was 12, my parents asked me what my favorite animal was. And I thought: OK, self, what you’ve got here is a totally safe question. There are no “right” or “wrong” animals and no need to worry about any consequences. Let your heart soar! At school recently, I had seen...
DYNOMIGHT
Against dystopian views of high-speed audiobook listening There was recently a thread on r/slatestarcodex about “What life hacks are actually life changing”....
4 months ago
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4 months ago
There was recently a thread on r/slatestarcodex about “What life hacks are actually life changing”. One of the examples given was: Buy audiobooks to read much more books, listen at 1.5-2x speed This led to the following thread (later removed): Aaa: A midwit in making Bbb: Audio...
DYNOMIGHT
Nursing doubts: Is breastfeeding good? If you ask the internet if breastfeeding is good, you will soon learn that YOU MUST BREASTFEED...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
If you ask the internet if breastfeeding is good, you will soon learn that YOU MUST BREASTFEED because BREAST MILK = OPTIMAL FOOD FOR BABY. But if you look for evidence, you’ll discover two disturbing facts. First, there’s no consensus about why breastfeeding is good. I’ve seen...
DYNOMIGHT
Consciousness will slip through our fingers I guess life makes sense: For some reason there’s a universe and that universe has lots of atoms...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
I guess life makes sense: For some reason there’s a universe and that universe has lots of atoms bouncing around and sometimes they bounce into patterns that copy themselves and then those patterns go to war for billions of years and voilà—you. But consciousness is weird. Why...
DYNOMIGHT
Attitudes one can take towards people who have behaved badly Have you ever noticed that reality has some properties that are quite annoying? For example, have...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Have you ever noticed that reality has some properties that are quite annoying? For example, have you noticed that some people do bad things? And yet those same people sometimes have interesting ideas? Occasionally, I’ll bring up an idea in conversation and someone will gently...
DYNOMIGHT
Car trouble Some time ago—I’m not sure when exactly—my car started rattling. It would only rattle: When the...
2 weeks ago
14
2 weeks ago
Some time ago—I’m not sure when exactly—my car started rattling. It would only rattle: When the engine was on, sitting idle, or When accelerating with just the right amount of throttle. This rattle, I did not like it. It sounded like a tiny spoon in a garbage disposal. Which...
DYNOMIGHT
It’s probably just money: Why hosts do well at the Olympics They say that countries win more medals when they host the Olympics. But do they? And if so,...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
They say that countries win more medals when they host the Olympics. But do they? And if so, why? I’ve seen various theories: Jetlag. Maybe it’s because athletes from the host country don’t need to travel as far. Esprit de corps. Maybe athletes feel lifted up by the local crowd...
DYNOMIGHT
Tactical typing
6 months ago
DYNOMIGHT
Fancy math doesn’t make simple math stop being true What are you supposed to do when someone disagrees with you using a bunch of math you can’t...
a year ago
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a year ago
What are you supposed to do when someone disagrees with you using a bunch of math you can’t understand? I’ve been thinking about that recently because of the NordICC colonoscopy trial. It took 85k Europeans aged 55-64, invited a third of them for a free one-time screening...
DYNOMIGHT
Using axis lines for good or evil Say you want to plot some data. You could just plot it by itself: Or you could put lines on the...
11 months ago
10
11 months ago
Say you want to plot some data. You could just plot it by itself: Or you could put lines on the left and bottom: Or you could put lines everywhere: Or you could be weird: Which is right? Many people treat this as an aesthetic choice. But I’d like to suggest an unambiguous...
DYNOMIGHT
Do you need permission from the government to do independent research? Some of my favorite internet people sometimes organize little community experiments. Like, let’s eat...
a week ago
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a week ago
Some of my favorite internet people sometimes organize little community experiments. Like, let’s eat potatoes and see if we lose weight. Or, let’s try take some supplements and see if anxiety goes down. I’ve toyed with doing one myself, to see if theanine (a chemical in tea)...
DYNOMIGHT
Taste games I bet you like it when beautiful people laugh at your jokes. And I bet you like the taste of sugar....
a year ago
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a year ago
I bet you like it when beautiful people laugh at your jokes. And I bet you like the taste of sugar. I sure do. But what about camping or dubstep or chain restaurants or installation art? What about blue cheese or pick-up trucks or reality TV? Me, I like some and loathe others....
DYNOMIGHT
What if you just bought everyone air purifiers? I haven’t written about air quality in a while. Ominously, sometimes people ask me if I still care...
a year ago
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a year ago
I haven’t written about air quality in a while. Ominously, sometimes people ask me if I still care about it. So, lest anyone think I have some kind of dreadful healthy mental balance, I thought I should do some Fermi estimates. Say you’re one of the five humans who have $100...
DYNOMIGHT
Fahren-height The Internet is well into middle-age, and yet doesn’t seem to have answered humanity’s most pressing...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
The Internet is well into middle-age, and yet doesn’t seem to have answered humanity’s most pressing question: If you pour boiling hot water from various heights, how much does it cool in flight? First attempt I figure there are two key variables: The height you pour from, and...
DYNOMIGHT
Datasets that change the odds you exist 1. It’s October 1962. The Cuban missile crisis just happened, thankfully without apocalyptic nuclear...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
1. It’s October 1962. The Cuban missile crisis just happened, thankfully without apocalyptic nuclear war. But still: Apocalyptic nuclear war easily could have happened. Crises as serious as the Cuban missile crisis clearly aren’t that rare, since one just happened. You estimate...
DYNOMIGHT
Is there a homeless crisis? A few years ago, I took a look at the data on homelessness in the United States. We now have new...
7 months ago
8
7 months ago
A few years ago, I took a look at the data on homelessness in the United States. We now have new data (and a new reality) so let’s revisit things, this time in superior list format. 1. After holding steady for years, homelessness recently jumped up a bit. Here is the percentage...
DYNOMIGHT
Obvious travel advice Mindset matters more than where you go. Who you go with matters more than where you go. After seeing...
8 months ago
8
8 months ago
Mindset matters more than where you go. Who you go with matters more than where you go. After seeing each other for a few months, many new couples take a short trip, which often ends in an apocalyptic, relationship-destroying fight. My theory is that’s the trip working as...
DYNOMIGHT
Everything is espionage: Things I learned researching Assange (espissange? asspionage?) Who is this Julian Assange guy? Is he good or bad? Did he do espionage?...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
(espissange? asspionage?) Who is this Julian Assange guy? Is he good or bad? Did he do espionage? Why is the US so obsessed with getting its hands on him? At dynomight.net we don’t like to answer questions. Instead, we prefer to replace them with more abstract questions that we...
DYNOMIGHT
Let’s stop counting centuries Here’s a sentence from Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Enlightenment is conventionally placed...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Here’s a sentence from Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Enlightenment is conventionally placed in the last two-thirds of the 18th century, though it flowed out of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason in the 17th century and spilled into the heyday of classical...
DYNOMIGHT
Thoughts on seed oil A friend has spent the last three years hounding me about seed oils. Every time I thought I was...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
A friend has spent the last three years hounding me about seed oils. Every time I thought I was safe, he’d wait a couple months and renew his attack: “When are you going to write about seed oils?” “Did you know that seed oils are why there’s so much {obesity, heart disease,...
DYNOMIGHT
Things that don’t work (Or: Things where there’s a case worth considering that they don’t work all that well for most...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
(Or: Things where there’s a case worth considering that they don’t work all that well for most people.) Acupuncture. (link) Phenylephrine. (link) Multivitamins. (link) Phosphoric acid. (for nausea; link) Tree-based knowledge organization. The physical world whispers to us to...
DYNOMIGHT
Why doesn’t advice work? In ancient India, there was a long-running feud between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Duryodhana,...
7 months ago
6
7 months ago
In ancient India, there was a long-running feud between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Duryodhana, leader of the Kauravas, planned a huge war to end things forever. Krishna warned that this would lead to the total destruction of both sides and made every effort to forge a...
DYNOMIGHT
Fighting me and other survey results Thank you to the 966 people who filled out the survey. And thanks also to the strangely numerous...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Thank you to the 966 people who filled out the survey. And thanks also to the strangely numerous people who read all the questions and wrote to me about them but didn’t answer them. (Though: why?) Many asked: Will the survey data be public? Unfortunately no, because I’m a big...
DYNOMIGHT
Dynomight internet survey Hello, clever charming good-looking people. I am in need of a richer understanding of: you the...
9 months ago
6
9 months ago
Hello, clever charming good-looking people. I am in need of a richer understanding of: you the nature of reality consciousness ethics dynomight internet website and have therefore created a survey, which you can take here. (You don’t need to create an account or give your email...
DYNOMIGHT
The first RCT for GLP-1 drugs and alcoholism isn’t what we hoped GLP-1 drugs are a miracle for diabetes and obesity. There are rumors that they might also be a...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
GLP-1 drugs are a miracle for diabetes and obesity. There are rumors that they might also be a miracle for addiction to alcohol, drugs, nicotine, and gambling. That would be good. We like miracles. We just got the first good trial and—despite what you might have heard—it’s not...