Erik Postma

I play with discs, math, computers. Used to play board games, before I had a daughter. He/him/his.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

... persuasive to me: so far I've kept on making whatever pathetically small contribution I've made to this hell site. But if this account goes dormant, then that's probably what happened. I expect I'll set up a https://t.co/0G9ezd3PPG account.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

Breaking the third party Twitter apps is such a minor thing compared to all the major bullshit, but I think it'll be what drives me away from Twitter. The calls to not abandon ship for the benefit of Black and other communities that have built much of this site up were very...

[Erik Postma @postmath]

Okay, okay, I'll grant this one, even though it should technically be more like, "if it works today and if working today means it'll work tomorrow, then it'll work forever".

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@theTimmy2Tone Low key boasting you had a whole session without injury there, huh.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@CihanPostsThms Hmm, I would argue that with the most natural set of definitions, the answer should be 1 for n=4. As in, any point on the diagonals other than the center is an intersection of 1 diagonal.

[James Özden 🔸 @JamesOzden]

What makes a protest movement successful? Social Change Lab just finished a 6-month report looking into this and we're excited to share our results. We conducted a literature review, bespoke public opinion polling, interviews with experts, and more.

What we found 🧵

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@thomasfbloom @eigenknight to a smaller number k-e, then let q be a prime such that the sum after including q is >k-2e. Then all primes >max(q,1/e) are included. But that's an infinite sum.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@thomasfbloom @eigenknight Since the sum of the reciprocals of primes is infinite, the sum of the reciprocals of primes > n is infinite. So pick k in N, set s:=0, and for each prime p in ascending order, if s+1/p<k, include p and set s:=s+1/p. Each partial sum is clearly <k, and if the sum would converge

[Erik Postma @postmath]

Sometimes (very rarely) I wish I didn't have a PhD so that I could go get one.

[Timothy Gowers @wtgowers @wtgowers]

I will be taking on at least one new PhD student in automatic theorem proving in October 2023. If you might be interested in applying, it is bureaucratically easier if you do so before January 6th, though not completely essential. 1/
https://t.co/12N6tSgo9b

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@ZachWeiner But for that to apply, we would first have to have a program capable of passing the Turing test. I contend that we're not there yet. It's still too easy to trip ChatGPT and friends up. It's conceivable that we're only one big step away, but it could also still be 20.

[Tom Gauld @tomgauld]

Merry Christmas!
(my cartoon for today’s @GdnSaturday / @GuardianBooks)

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@being_ulti I like my world cups with only moderately outrageous corruption, slavery, and just general evil. This one had wayyyyy too much of all three.

[Elliott Downing @elliott_downing]

I think the new richest person should be required to buy Twitter now and this cycle should continue until none of them are rich anymore

[Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling @RubenBolling]

Want to come by for a drink?
Sure, what are your assassination coordinates?

[Sal Gentile @salgentile]

hard to believe there was once a time where they’d send a big yellow book to everyone’s house listing yours and everyone else’s assassination coordinates

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@scalzi @TheWallStBull Something something the inverse of an enslaved person during some pretty dark times?

[Erik Postma @postmath]

I mean, it's obviously the worst sort of grift. And it's a hilariously, toe-curlingly bad ad. But I couldn't have guessed it would be this bad of a grift.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

Oh I felt this when *I* returned home after working abroad for 2 months. (For me it was just a switch from laptop+FHD screen to laptop+4K screen, but it still felt like a *huge* improvement.)

[Jacques Carette @jjcarett2]

Oh the joys of a 3 monitor setup, with the smallest of the 3 being over twice the size of my laptop screen. Virtual desktops helped, a little, but it's just not the same.

[Erik Postma @postmath]

@shahlock puh-NEEP-ple