Collin Dougherty

Cancer research @UNMC | ex ML @HuskersNAPL | Romans 8

[Ilya Sutskever @ilyasut]

if you value intelligence above all other human qualities, you’re gonna have a bad time

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@Stupercell This is awesome

[@levelsio @levelsio]

Do you work less, same or more with AI vs before AI?

[Brent Beshore @BrentBeshore]

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” — C.S. Lewis

He is risen! Sin and death are defeated. Jesus is king.

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@georgepickett This is awesome

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@KobeissiLetter

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@myhcaell @TheBTCTherapist @RiggsBTC Probably this, good resource: https://t.co/iPgpkxXhDj

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@yacineMTB Context window is a game changer, it feels like I don’t have to coach it to remember the key outline of what we’re doing

[kache @yacineMTB]

now that we have AGI, pretty much any problem in your life is entirely your fault. If you have a problem, its because you don't really want to fix it

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@klcmurphy @sentdefender We spend more than the next 9 combined, we’ll be ok

[Beff (e/acc) @beffjezos]

This may be the most e/acc speech of all time... unfathomably based 🥹🇺🇸🚀

"The future is not going to be won by hand wringing about AI safety. It will be won by building." - @JDVance

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@tvykruta @rohitdotmittal Hang it in the Louvre

[Saagar Enjeti @esaagar]

Here is the full video from Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of censorship and misinformation policies.

I highly recommend you watch all of it as tonally it is one of the biggest indications of "elections have consequences" I have ever seen

[George Mack @george__mack]

I built a Kale algorithm for YouTube.

I was sick of YouTube serving me junk content not aligned with my goals.

Here's the story and the simplicity of how it works:

1. I have a love-hate relationship with YouTube

Love case:

It’s a video library of the world’s best knowledge.

Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius would not believe an average peasant like me has access to this tool.

I can learn *ANYTHING* *IMMEDIATELY* for *FREE*.

I have the library of Alexandra -- in video format.

Hate case:

The explore page algorithm takes advantage of my chimp brain.

I could watch the world's best lecturers or a documentary on my favourite comedian... but here I am, clicking on “LOGAN PAUL EXPOSED FOR PUMPING SHIT COIN”.

Everyday, I’m walking up to the world’s best library — only to get distracted by fights and fentanyl in the car park.

The doom loop begins because the algorithm learns to serve me more slop content for my chimp brain.

2. I decided to look at my YouTube history

I decided to stare into the abyss...

And the abyss stared back into me.

I went to YouTube and clicked on "History"

Scrolled through last 100 videos I watched.

80% of the content I watched I regretted watching in hindsight.

Only 20% of the content I deemed was a good use of time in hindsight.

I was living in Huxley’s nightmare. I could be learning the secrets of the universe from the worlds best physicists or watching documentaries on my favourite comedians — and here I was clicking on thumbnails that have “DESTROYED” “HEATED DEBATE” “BREAKING NEWS” in the title.

3. Applying Occam's Razor

When I stared into the abyss of my YouTube history, I noticed a very simple rule Occam's razor:

The majority of videos I regretted were under 30 minutes long. The majority of videos I didn't regret were over 30 minutes long.

There's a strange quirk of human psychology: We can convince ourselves to click on clickbait trash when it's 10 minutes long. But if it’s 2h long — the brain wants higher quality content.

4. The Kale Algorithm

Worked with Chat-GPT to solve this problem so I could have agency over my algorithm -- rather than the algorithm have agency over me.

I built a simple script that does the following: Don't show me any videos under 30 minutes long.

I put it live and the abyss began to disappear.

There's no more fights and fentanyl in the car park of the Library of Alexandra.

It's been cleaned up.

It's just lectures, documentaries, long form podcasts and my favourite DJ sets.

I went from 80% of the videos being regretful in hindsight to 80% of videos being a good use of time in hindsight -- just from a simple Occam's razor built into the code base.

5. The Future of Algorithms

We will look back on this decade of internet consumption as an absurd period of low agency.

Where everyone outsourced their mental diet to an algorithm they had no control over.

The future of algorithms will be a 2 way relationship between the user and the algorithm.

E.g. Why can't I tell Grok what my goals and it create a timeline based off that?

9-5 Monday - Friday, show me the Kale Algorithm.

11pm on a Saturday night, show me the cocaine algorithm.

6. How To Turn This On

If you want to turn the Kale algorithm on your YouTube and opt out of the cocaine algorithm, I'll drop the instructions below.

Completely free but it's DIY.

It only works on chrome on desktop currently.

👇

PS. Sorry for the lack of content recently. I've been working on my Magnum Opus, the biggest piece I've ever written, the Guide to High Agency.

Will be dropping to beta readers soon.

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@george__mack Thanks George, this is great. The safari tappermonkey costs $2.99 but also does the trick

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@wheyfarer @PtrPomorski banger

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@PhilipDBunn I'd like to think the education system will massively change how it does things. more pop-quizzes, in person tests, changing of grade weights away from take home assignments etc., eventually...

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@robbystarbuck @esjesjesj @KyleKulinski anytime you see something like "child cancer research" or "hurricane relief" etc being thrown around as the main narrative you know its a distraction and appeal to emotion and is being used as a pawn in a political game

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@MAGAmegaMAGA @Noahpinion Exactly

[Collin Dougherty @CollinD0ugherty]

@perrymetzger Awesome. Length and complex jargon are typically diversionary. Can definitely see LLM's helping with this