Abhishek Raj

Exploring decentralized worlds

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@Akshay8212 Great advice!

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

# on shortification of "learning"

There are a lot of videos on YouTube/TikTok etc. that give the appearance of education, but if you look closely they are really just entertainment. This is very convenient for everyone involved : the people watching enjoy thinking they are learning (but actually they are just having fun). The people creating this content also enjoy it because fun has a much larger audience, fame and revenue. But as far as learning goes, this is a trap. This content is an epsilon away from watching the Bachelorette. It's like snacking on those "Garden Veggie Straws", which feel like you're eating healthy vegetables until you look at the ingredients.

Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that "10 minute full body" workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating. It's not that the quickie doesn't do anything, it's just that it is wildly suboptimal if you actually care to learn.

I find it helpful to explicitly declare your intent up front as a sharp, binary variable in your mind. If you are consuming content: are you trying to be entertained or are you trying to learn? And if you are creating content: are you trying to entertain or are you trying to teach? You'll go down a different path in each case. Attempts to seek the stuff in between actually clamp to zero.

So for those who actually want to learn. Unless you are trying to learn something narrow and specific, close those tabs with quick blog posts. Close those tabs of "Learn XYZ in 10 minutes". Consider the opportunity cost of snacking and seek the meal - the textbooks, docs, papers, manuals, longform. Allocate a 4 hour window. Don't just read, take notes, re-read, re-phrase, process, manipulate, learn.

And for those actually trying to educate, please consider writing/recording longform, designed for someone to get "sweaty", especially in today's era of quantity over quality. Give someone a real workout. This is what I aspire to in my own educational work too. My audience will decrease. The ones that remain might not even like it. But at least we'll learn something.

[genzcash @genzcash]

.@balajis on Zcash: “We’ve got the zero to one moment for zero knowledge already, and now we’re going to go to the one to infinity moment where financial privacy is just a human right.”

[Balaji @balajis]

This year's Network State Conference is on Friday, October 3 in Singapore.

Our speakers include Vitalik Buterin, Bryan Johnson, Ben Horowitz, Brian Armstrong, Amjad Masad, Ranveer Allahbadia, Arthur Hayes, Nas Daily, Noah Smith, Andrew Huberman, and the governments of Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and El Salvador.

That means many of the most successful founders, creators, investors, and policymakers in the world are now interested in the idea of bringing online communities into the physical world.

Our conference also features writers, community organizers, and intellectuals from around the world (and across the ideological spectrum!) who are aligning around the concept of fusing offline states with online networks, with ideas ranging from pro-tech regulations to special innovation zones to startup cities.

All this capital and talent going towards the area means that you too can join a startup society that suits you — or found one yourself — even if you're starting out with nothing besides an internet connection.

And by building new societies with defined social smart contracts where everyone has explicitly consented to governance — and anyone can opt out — we can defend capitalism, democracy, internationalism, self-determination, and liberal values in an increasingly illiberal world.

That's the goal, at least. We can only give broad sketches in a tweet. But if you're interested in the long-form version, register to attend in person or remotely at https://t.co/oOx0ShxUCC.

Because we’ve started internet companies, we’ve started internet currencies, and now we’re starting internet communities. Come to the Network State Conference to be there at the start.

[Naval @naval]

Pay the world whatever it takes to leave you alone to think.

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@indif4ent @justalexoki Hmm.. Law permits (not forces) employers to pay restaurant workers less.
So, we can (not need to) tip to their workers

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@Globalstats11 @IndianTechGuide ... and due to their utterly bad public infrastructure, especially in Karnataka.

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@shrihacker @Srihobo @Ishansharma7390 Bro, I will eat out and pay the food price and not for the loot. idiots

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@shrihacker @Srihobo @Ishansharma7390 Restaurants can increase the price for the food, and pay their employees accordingly. But this sort of "moral obligation" to pay tip is utter nonsense.
I would like to eat out as much as I want and pay the price for the food and I should be the one to decide tip not they

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

start learning something new today :)

Python - Basic Data Types https://t.co/4RZqcdtShO via @YouTube

@_buildspace

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@sanjaymanjrekar Badi izzat thi aapki... kaise insaan ho bhai?
U can't acknowledge and respect the biggest servant of modern cricket @imVkohli. he would be an absolute legend of the game, even if he got out on a golden duck in the finals, let alone knocking a match-winning innings and being POTM.

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@PR4S4NN4 @_nightsweekends @_buildspace @FarzaTV Good one for the privacy of the users! waiting for see your toy demo.

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@VrindaBansal11 @_buildspace @_nightsweekends @FarzaTV It's really cool if it works with handwritten notes.
keep it up!

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@normiefounder @_buildspace @_nightsweekends beautiful site!
may be there can be some way of organizing the report on the site before downloading.
keep it up!

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

progress for week 2 of @_nightsweekends s5
cc: @_buildspace

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@Chiku1706 @_buildspace @_nightsweekends @FarzaTV sounds something which wud be very useful.
keep it up!

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@therahulalam @_nightsweekends @_buildspace sounds like a really good one. keep it up. cheers!

[Abhishek Raj @ab_raj]

@LawalAd23267043 @_nightsweekends @_buildspace wow.. the product in this case is literally you.
more power to you. kudos!