I think there should have been a Nobel prize awarded for the invention of the internet (Cerf and Khan?). We probably need a new category that can catch these wide reaching innovations that don’t neatly fit in the existing ones.
“What’s so hard about that first sentence is that you’re stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you’ve laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone.” Joan Didion
Something broadly relatable about how Viet Thanh Nguyen describes writing The Sympathizer. Getting the first lines right unlocked the book.
“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.”
New episode! @michael_nielsen joins @tylercowen to discuss the beauty of the universe, quantum computing, Simone Weil, finding good collaborators, and...the status of linear algebra?
COWEN: Is the status of linear algebra rising?
NIELSEN: [laughs] That’s a great question. It probably has, yes.
COWEN: It’s prominent in quantum, right? It’s prominent in AI.
NIELSEN: Google is built on matrix multiplication. It’s prominent for a lot of reasons.
COWEN: What should we infer from that about the whole nature of the world?
@michael_nielsen Perhaps people feel that their particular role doesn’t contribute to the bad parts? That’s my best guess. It would be interesting to really understand.
During the same 3 week visit, going to a large company event and not finding a spot to eat my sandwich in a crowded cafeteria. I see a small standing table with a single person on her phone and ask her if it’s ok if I use the remaining space. Her: a cold cold nope.
Ok.
@michael_nielsen Keep your FB friends close, and your corporate FB enemies closer?
Honestly, I don’t think I have a good approach. The dissonance is so obvious, it’s baffling.
I'm going to re-run all these tests on food we eat in California. Also going to test for other plastic chemicals.
Let me know what foods we should test and suggestions for methodology.
What are the best examples of exceptional pair programming? I'm looking for getting an intuitive sense of what they did well together to make it a success.
Hoping for a YouTube video where progress is made on a difficult problem over about an hour -- but open to other ideas.
At a Bay Area house party, listening to a German engineering manager lambasting Facebook for being evil. I ask him where he works. Facebook. For 5 years already.
Ok.
And also - it takes time to learn to read a new cultural code. An EU friend of mine came for a short visit in the US and was very suspicious of how friendly the waiters are here. So used to being abused in EU he thought it’s all just means to an end (larger tip) and a theater.