Tom Pollard

PhD Chemistry, BS Biology/Chemistry now a software engineer and amateur botanist. Love math, puzzles, and being outdoors

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@BellaDiMartino @PoorWilber @__venlyx There’s no watch

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@TruthAloft @Rainmaker1973 I think these are motorbikes, not bicycles.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@fchollet A field that uses computation does not thereby become a branch of computer science.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@mahdi_tcs_ AI agents are just tools. The people who learn how to use them effectively as tools are the ones who will come out on top in this new AI era. They can be used as tools for mathematical work, too. (See Terry Tao‘s recent posts)

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@Rainmaker1973 2, then 3, then 1. It’s unambiguous

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@thedaily_greg @CoffeewClassics I think the point is that how we accept the “things” that happen to us can be what makes them good or unbearable. People lose sight of their blessings to focus on their woes, and blame God for woes that are of their own making.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@QuantaMagazine AI is just not a model of “intelligence”. Anyone who thinks it is, is confused. You have to expect that anything a person might say could be the output of one of these LLMs

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@diannahaze So happy to see you getting back to healthy self! Looking forward to more updates…

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@JohnDCook And yet, it’s instantly understood.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@thephysicsgirl You’ll get there

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@thephysicsgirl @jameswebb_nasa Lovely to hear your voice!

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Lots of interesting food for thought in this thread.

[Quanta Magazine @QuantaMagazine]

Many researchers accept that models of machine learning are “black boxes” and impossible for humans to understand, but the computer scientist Cynthia Rudin has shown that interpretable variations can work just as well. https://t.co/jEeBF9pkk6

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@JohnDCook I suspect this is a losing battle, because most of the people misusing “exponential” like this aren’t engineers and don’t care that it’s technically incorrect.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@ArmyProperty @eric_is_weird @AndrewCMyers @dwlachance @Harvard Unimaginably fun

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@ArmyProperty @eric_is_weird @dwlachance @Harvard Even in the early 1980’s, when I was an undergrad there, I think half of my class was course 6.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@sarah_edo I don’t get why you thought Her was dystopian. It was interesting. The characters grew.

[David Chapman @Meaningness]

Much insight into project work, and life in general, embedded in this blogvertisement for a web consulting company. I especially liked the sections toward the end. (It's by and via Brian Toomey, tx!) https://t.co/ec8tvJipBl

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@interesting_aIl @JohnDCook Terrifying! That guy could easily have been killed or severely injured.

[Tom Pollard @tompollard61]

@RiverTamYDN @littmath 2.6 and 2.3.2 are labels, really - not numbers.