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Inverted Passion

Inverted Passion
You can’t jail an AI Here’s why I worry about AI. We know that people can get away with anything to pursue their goals...
9 months ago
117
9 months ago
Here’s why I worry about AI. We know that people can get away with anything to pursue their goals (of profit, power, etc.) as long as they know they can get away with it, without negative consequences. We have had Hitlers, and insider traders. But the world keeps them in check...
Inverted Passion
How to be a messy thinker I love thinking about thinking. Give me a research paper on rationality, cognitive biases or mental...
9 months ago
98
9 months ago
I love thinking about thinking. Give me a research paper on rationality, cognitive biases or mental models, and I’ll gobble it up. Given the amount of knowledge I’ve ingested on these topics, I had always assumed that I’m a clear thinker. Recently, though, it hit me like a...
Inverted Passion
Why time seems to pass faster as we age 1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling. A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as...
12 months ago
90
12 months ago
1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling. A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as compared to when I was a kid or even as a teen. It seems cosmically unfair – we have fewer years to live, and each year flies by faster. 2/ But, why is that happening? My tentative...
Inverted Passion
Usefulness grounds truth Are LLMs intelligent? Debates on this question often, but not always, devolve into debates on what...
7 months ago
86
7 months ago
Are LLMs intelligent? Debates on this question often, but not always, devolve into debates on what LLMs can or cannot do. To a limited extent, the original question is useful because it creates an opening for people to go into specific. But, beyond that initial use, the question...
Inverted Passion
What bootstraps intelligence? A musing on how intelligence comes to be. The bedrock of intelligence is abstractions – the thing we...
5 months ago
80
5 months ago
A musing on how intelligence comes to be. The bedrock of intelligence is abstractions – the thing we do when we throw away a lot of information and just emphasise on a subset of it (e.g. calling that thing an apple instead of describing all its atoms and their x, y, z positions)....
Inverted Passion
Getting things done by not trying I recently finished a very short book with an intriguing title: Why Greatness Cannot be Planned....
4 months ago
74
4 months ago
I recently finished a very short book with an intriguing title: Why Greatness Cannot be Planned. It’s an unconventional self-help book disguised as a computer science research exposition (that’s why the publisher is Springer). I strongly recommend reading it. Here is a taste of...
Inverted Passion
Not everything is physics The first book I ever read was The Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I liked it so much that...
5 months ago
71
5 months ago
The first book I ever read was The Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I liked it so much that I re-read it 8 times. As a young boy, the book had made a lasting impression on me, making me fall in love with ideas such as the arrow of time, black holes, entropy,… Read...
Inverted Passion
A primer on dopamine 1/ I recently made notes on the book “Hooked” but wasn’t satisfied by the depth of explanation in...
a year ago
54
a year ago
1/ I recently made notes on the book “Hooked” but wasn’t satisfied by the depth of explanation in it. 2/ I wanted to get down into neuroscience of habit-forming products and that inevitably lead me to the (in)famous neurotransmitter dopamine. 3/ Before we dive into what dopamine...
Inverted Passion
2024 wrapped This year’s review is going to be shorter than 2023 (and previous years) because I’m in Goa right...
a month ago
52
a month ago
This year’s review is going to be shorter than 2023 (and previous years) because I’m in Goa right now for a holiday and I don’t feel like being in front of a screen for long. I mean, just look at this view and tell me that you’d rather be in front of a screen writing… Read...
Inverted Passion
Review of 2023 Time is strange – 2023 simultaneously felt too long and too short. It was short because I remember...
a year ago
36
a year ago
Time is strange – 2023 simultaneously felt too long and too short. It was short because I remember recently writing my 2022 review, and it was long because I ended up packing a lot of stuff into it. ✅ Train 5 days a week (including Mixed Martial Arts) I did manage to train 5...
Inverted Passion
Notes on how Facebook ads work I was studying Facebook ads system for Nintee, made some notes that you might find useful. Resources...
a year ago
29
a year ago
I was studying Facebook ads system for Nintee, made some notes that you might find useful. Resources Facebook Doesn’t Make as Much Money as It Could—On Purpose How to Save Millions With Marketability Testing Facebook Bid Strategies The post Notes on how Facebook ads work appeared...
Inverted Passion
Notes from the book “Hooked” I re-read the book Hooked by Nir Eyal and these are my notes. 1/ The key question that the book...
a year ago
20
a year ago
I re-read the book Hooked by Nir Eyal and these are my notes. 1/ The key question that the book answers is: how to make habit-forming products. And its answer is a model that involves four stages: a) trigger; b) action; c) variable reward; d) investment 2/ Why should products be...
Inverted Passion
Notes on how Supercell is run Supercell, the company behind the massively popular Clash of Clans game, has one of the highest...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Supercell, the company behind the massively popular Clash of Clans game, has one of the highest valuation per employee figures out there: they’re valued at $32mn per employee. That’s insane! How do they do it? 1/ What struck me is the sheer number of games they kill each year?...
Inverted Passion
Games are problems people pay to solve Good definitions are powerful. Lately, while reading The Art of Game Design, it became clear to me...
a year ago
15
a year ago
Good definitions are powerful. Lately, while reading The Art of Game Design, it became clear to me that the author’s definition of games makes a lot of sense. He defines games as problems that people pay to solve with either their time or money. Unlike movies or books, games are...
Inverted Passion
Notes from the book “Decoding the Why” Finished (well, skimmed) the book “Decoding the Why: How Behavioral Science is Driving the Next...
a year ago
15
a year ago
Finished (well, skimmed) the book “Decoding the Why: How Behavioral Science is Driving the Next Generation of Product Design”. It’s a decent introductory book if you have not delved into behavioral science before, but if you have, most of the ideas in the book won’t come across...
Inverted Passion
Wealth is not money, it’s the things we use money for As an entrepreneur, money is obviously a massive motivation for why you’re doing what you’re doing....
a year ago
14
a year ago
As an entrepreneur, money is obviously a massive motivation for why you’re doing what you’re doing. However, it’s essential to understand that money is not wealth. Wealth is stuff we want and by that logic, people can be wealthy even if they don’t have a lot of money. In fact,...
Inverted Passion
You can only succeed if you know how you can fail We want to be successful with our decisions. Even though failure is often glamorized, nobody wants...
over a year ago
14
over a year ago
We want to be successful with our decisions. Even though failure is often glamorized, nobody wants it on purpose. Everyone wishes to be successful when they’re starting a company, launching a product, hiring a leader or even while buying a house. It may sound obvious, but the...
Inverted Passion
How to increase wealth for everyone I’ve started reading The Capitalist Manifesto, a book full of data on how free markets generate...
a year ago
13
a year ago
I’ve started reading The Capitalist Manifesto, a book full of data on how free markets generate prosperity. The author is nuanced and uses data and logic to show how we should be rooting for capitalism (instead of bringing it down). Income and wealth inequality created as a...
Inverted Passion
Notes from the book “Magic Words” Just finished reading Magic Words by Jonah Berger and my notes follow. 1/ Most of us spend a...
a year ago
13
a year ago
Just finished reading Magic Words by Jonah Berger and my notes follow. 1/ Most of us spend a significant amount of time in assembling the thoughts we want to convey, but assume the words to convey them as a given. 2/ This book – written by a professor of business – takes the view...
Inverted Passion
Don’t sell your soul to the algorithm The danger of pleasing the algorithm to go viral is that gradually you end up selling yourself to...
a year ago
12
a year ago
The danger of pleasing the algorithm to go viral is that gradually you end up selling yourself to big tech companies. This is how it works: This loop has two sinister effects: All this to make the richest companies and their shareholders even richer. This is why we must refuse to...
Inverted Passion
Why you will skim this article Most likely, you’re going to read this sentence and hit the back button. Still here? Good, then...
a year ago
11
a year ago
Most likely, you’re going to read this sentence and hit the back button. Still here? Good, then you’re likely to scan through a few paragraphs in this article and then give up. (Unless, you’re a long-time reader and trust that my writing is worthy of your time. More on this...
Inverted Passion
The Anti-Productivity Manifesto After a barrage of recommendations on my twitter, I finally ended up reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four...
a year ago
10
a year ago
After a barrage of recommendations on my twitter, I finally ended up reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks. The central premise of the book is simple: everyone has got about four thousand weeks to live, and spending that limited time chasing efficiency is wrongheaded. The...