Ethan Heppner

Systems thinking + economics, writes of a future where we all spend more time doing what we love.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@Figure_robot @01Core_Ben @Klarna @cognition_labs @Cruise @kylevogt @metaculus @uscensusbureau @petercoy @DKokotajlo67142 @ajeya_cotra @EgeErdil2 @open_phil I'm excited to share my latest update, and upcoming questions I intend to explore over the coming months here: https://t.co/lUN9cyeDO5

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

Third 2+ hour delay in a row this week flying with @AmericanAir.

What does a sincere apology mean when preventable issues keep happening?

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@ryanburge Interesting that the US has the highest level of belief in hell but no heaven at 6%, with Taiwan in second at 4%.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@theistinthought Get a wagon. This one's been in my family for over 35 years! I also used it as a mobile lemonade stand as a kid.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@G_S_Bhogal Thank you, appreciate the background here!

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@davidshor @Lux_Stella_ @maiamindel Gamers seem to have grown at the expense of jocks, geeks, and floaters.

Very interesting, and makes sense!

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@KelseyTuoc @micsolana Yeah, allowing for just one boundary to be broken makes sense.

For large municipalities, districts could of course be broken out at the sub-municipal level (e.g. wards), (though there is plenty of gerrymandering at that level too :/)

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@KelseyTuoc @micsolana I've wondered if the way that legislative districts are drawn are unnecessarily abstract and confusing to voters who don't follow politics closely.

Has there ever been serious consideration of requiring all legislative districts to adhere to county/municipal boundaries?

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@mattyglesias Another way of framing this debate:

Run on desired outcomes while leaving some flexibility for how implementation will happen.

More emphasis on outcomes will make the discourse more focused too.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@mattyglesias This chart might be a great scientific explanation for why so many people have such bad memories of middle school...

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@signulll @grok Granted, I work in gov tech where the problems are often complex, context isn't always explicit, and the desire for human accountability for decisions is higher than in most other industries.

But as easy problems are solved, the remaining ones may resemble what we see in gov.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@signulll @grok "Email & docs" is a very broad example though. There are many different types of emails and docs.

Agree these are a bottleneck, but assuming that some level of human decision-making remains, especially in novel high-stakes situations, I'm skeptical about claims of 80% reductions

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@signulll What's a concrete example of this, and how did you figure 80%?

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

Have you been looking for a well-researched piece that puts the energy use of AI into proper perspective?

If so, this latest one from @ben_j_todd is for you!

[Benjamin Todd @ben_j_todd]

People are saying you shouldn't use GPT because:

• A ChatGPT query emits 10x more emissions than Google search
• Writing an email with GPT uses a whole bottle of water
• ChatGPT uses as much energy as 20,000 households.

But these stats are wrong or misleading..

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

I shall not today attempt further to define "slop". But I know it when I see it.

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

Has anyone encountered a good definition of “slop”. In a quantitative, measurable sense. My brain has an intuitive “slop index” I can ~reliably estimate, but I’m not sure how to define it. I have some bad ideas that involve the use of LLM miniseries and thinking token budgets.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@AlecMacGillis Cc @oyinadedoyin5 @rayalexsmith

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@AlecMacGillis When I looked at the CPS data on this a few years ago, I found it striking that the trend of shorter working hours for Millennials and Gen Z was entirely explained by men: https://t.co/X2QOWTkIKH

I'm surprised this piece doesn't mention this.

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@Rainmaker1973 But given the higher fatality rates for smaller vehicles (where perception is probably even stronger than the reality of a 50% increase in vehicle size leading at a ~50% decrease in fatalities), these could be a tough sell even at a low price-point: https://t.co/hrzkEpI17u

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@Rainmaker1973 Designs like this are what might ultimately make self-driving car services more economical than human driven ones: https://t.co/9iiF7WTvkF

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@TheStalwart A thoughtful classification system that ties in one's personal notes can help the mind make connections that it might not otherwise: https://t.co/B3xmwdFvQp

[Ethan Heppner @Ethan_Heppner]

@Andrey4Mir I've tussled with some similar questions in designing my personal knowledge management system.

I could just search a single document, but forcing myself to catalogue does get me to think about the relationship between different things I've read in a way I wouldn't do otherwise.