@eshear
applied developmental cybernetics researcher and CEO of Softmax, looking for a field theory of mind
SF
Joined: 3/11/2007
Archived: 9/9/2024
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is there still alpha in instagram reposts? https://t.co/nuR6MUTaPy
That was easy. Have ppl never heard of swimming? https://t.co/Ba2v4kFBr9 https://t.co/5yGRYRFEHd
Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my…
I continue to believe one of the biggest issues in our built environments is failing to use enough passive heating and cooling mechanisms. Failing to use enough passive components generally! Stuff in motion is stuff that breaks and costs energy to run. https://t.co/ucJWpR3SvM
I am deeply pleased by this result, after ~72 very intense hours of work. Coming into OpenAI, I wasn’t sure what the right path would be. This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I’m glad to have been a part of the solution. https://t.co/AGoDBbwhkq
Equally astonishing. Once we figure out the basics of something, the next 50 years tend to be wild. https://t.co/W9EJufhdP8 https://t.co/fQXblNF99v
We should legalize building apartments like these. For a family it’s far too small of course, but for a single person living in the big city? I would have absolutely preferred to save my money for other things. https://t.co/1ooYXFxXx8
In honor of the 10th anniversary of launching Twitch, I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned along the way. Each of these insights could probably be expanded into an essay, of course. Like the ones you would want me to expand on in the future.
“Burnout” is a particularly modern affliction, feeling simultaneously overwhelmed and paralyzed. I’ve found it’s best to think of burnout not as a disease but as a symptom, with many different etiologies. The big three: permanent on-call, broken steering, and mission doubt.
Gall's Law is one of those statements that just keeps hitting harder and more deeply the more time I spend with it. At first it seemed false, then a truism, then an interesting insight, and now a foundational belief about the world. https://t.co/9gfnaeAPqH
Growth mindset is just replying to yourself with “skill issue” every time something goes wrong
The real villain here is Google. Google found one of the very best business models of all time, skimming all the surplus profit off of the entire free open internet. This is the natural end state of that process. https://t.co/VVyjq7IlVB
My very favorite kind of vacation has become the kind where several families that have been friends for a decade+ get a house together somewhere beautiful, and then we just enjoy being together (meals, playing sports or games, chatting, going on walks).
Reddit is going IPO as $RDDT, the first social media IPO in some time. As someone who spent some substantial time running a social media company, my takes on the Reddit IPO:
This is your reminder to turn off self-view entirely during video calls. Why would you voluntarily receive 1d4 psychic damage per round? https://t.co/OMe2jYqVPw
I like each of these bc they each compress a pretty complex counterargument into a single image that avoids getting lost in the details. Are there more? https://t.co/zx3qrcRgZ4
Minimalist reconstructions are not more accurate, they have their own assumptions (this is true not only of fossils but of models in general) https://t.co/YoFGBNVabG
Every time I see a beautiful view with massive floor-to-ceiling windows that flaunts itself constantly, it reminds me of the Zen View pattern from A Pattern Language. I remember how after 6 months with a floor-to-ceiling view of the bay it became invisible to me. https://t.co/g6PyZm96An
There are crystal structures that simply won't form anymore, even though they did a few decades ago. Real life Ice-9? Could make an incredible sci-fi book. https://t.co/plVu56KejX
Hope no one was trusting Google with anything important! YouTube videos or Blogger websites etc that are owned by inactive accounts will just get deleted…burning the commons. God forbid Google is still big 50 years from now…so much history lost to this https://t.co/dSNOQAg7h9
The jump between the second panel and the third holds the entire secret. The correct question is asked (why am I not?), and then artfully avoided by an associative switch to self judgement. There is some reason you’re not doing them, and but it’s hiding. https://t.co/FONX59MxOq
@AlecStapp This is such an excellent scam, I kind of want to buy one
It’s so weird you can charge someone’s bank account with just their routing and account number, and it just does it. No approval required! I understand the historical reasons but it’s really wild it still works that way.
Random noise? Oh, you mean the part of the system whose dynamics are not described by your model of the world?
Apropos the recent controversy: the word delve is rarely used in English. Except used by LLMs, and in formal register Nigerian English. https://t.co/izRMkRfS8h
Why is the northern coast of Africa so much smoother than the southern coast of Europe? https://t.co/PDkgWjQp8X
Some of my favorite writing is single author short story sci-fi collections. Why are they so rare? https://t.co/TvtvnX44E2
@BenRatkaj Counterpoint. https://t.co/pfG6Dz5dnP
We have lived through something akin to The Great Renunciation, except instead of men renouncing interest in fashion it’s all of society renouncing interest in design. Buildings are boxes. Everything is in white or black. Mass degreebelization. (Reversal may be coming tho!) https://t.co/QWQKlDZZwi
The worst part about having taken that job is now I have to constantly censor myself around making startup-or-AI-related jokes bc everyone will take it like some secret knowledge instead of a dumb joke.
nothing destroys your ability to learn new lessons more thoroughly in the long run than repeatedly being very very right when literally everyone thought you were wrong
PSA: I’ve been feeling like shit for the past week, headaches and lethargy and brain fog. I mentioned it to my friend had he suggested it could be allergies. I took anti-histamine to test the theory and holy shit yes that was it.
In October 2006 we started working on live video for the internet. That became Twitch. More than 16 years later, I'm now a father and ready to move to my next phase of life. I wrote a blog post, but the short version is: thank you so much to everyone who built this with me.
@noampomsky Bullying someone by being verbally quicker is just as bad as bullying someone by being more cruel and aggressive or by using higher social status. Just a different form of power being abused.
You don’t have to play Capitalism® your whole life but it’s definitely worth a few years, really deep game, good combo of strategy and luck and skill. Plus the points you get are redeemable for cool prizes.
Advice my dad gave me that stuck with me: “consider your life as a series of 10-15 year projects”. The choices aren’t actually forever or never, although I know they sometimes feel that way. https://t.co/NQpIhLDaQy
This is the 3rd time I’ve had a @lyft accept my ride and claim they’ve “arrived” while driving away. When I call to ask they say “you have to cancel”. If I cancel, Lyft will blame me…if I don’t they run out the timer and claim I no showed. Lyft has no way to report this afaict.
1/ What is “product/market fit”? I’m not sure I can give you a definition. But maybe I can share what the subjective difference is in how it feels when you have it and when you don’t. Founding a startup is deciding to take on the burden of Sisyphus: pushing a boulder up a hill.
@Duderichy This is my favorite animation!!! I have it bookmarked on my phone for parties. Such a whitepill on past 40 years. https://t.co/hScqcrooJr
One of the biggest surprises of my adult life has been “UFOs are real, and they are extraterrestrials” becoming widely accepted as probable truth among many of the smartest people I know.
The future of making art favors taste over skill, and will continue to do so indefinitely until it is effectively 100% taste.
Twitter should have an asks-box, like tumblr. I get questions via DM that I might answer as a post, but probably wouldn’t answer as a DM. Eg…
The fantasy of the all-powerful slave has legs: the genie bound to grant wishes, the golem that defends, the spell that animates a broom to clean on its own, the Mr MeeSeeks box. They share a commonality: a deep intuition that this goes wrong somehow. https://t.co/j3mpjFQTCx
How to do hard stuff: write down a 1 page doc with your key assumptions, the hypothesis/goal you want to test, and your plan to do it now read it with a maximally critical eye…does it make sense? are there gaps? iterate until you can’t find any now go execute like crazy
I’m increasingly convinced we understand almost nothing about nutrition https://t.co/zDh3VwYB47
wake up babe, AI faction compass just became more relevant https://t.co/MwYOLedYxV
If you are a smart, diligent, and effective person, you are pretty much guaranteed that any problem you’re currently facing is really nasty and hard to fix. Bc otherwise you’d already have fixed it.
What if we paid prisons a flat rate per inmate per year, much higher than the current amount, but in exchange the prison was on the hook for any recidivism? You get paid for the 4 year sentence, but if they go back to prison you’re on the hook from there. Seems more aligned.
I’ve noticed this same trend whenever I look at new cars…what’s caused this convergent evolution? Is it really regulatory standards, or is this kind of hybrid SUV some optimal point in design space? https://t.co/kmKBDOF9Ul
One of my favorite policy ideas is "25 at 25": every American inherits $25k when they turn 25 years old. At that point you've probably been in the workforce a few years, and you understand the world a little. This would everyone to take a risk on a venture or career.
Even weirder, after animals emerge from hibernation they are often incredibly sleepy and immediately have to sleep! https://t.co/pyRzSNO7fb
I recommend ambitious people specialize in learning new domains and new skills
It might ruin the joke sometimes, but I would appreciate a version of trending on this app that featured the patient-zero tweet for whatever nonsense is currently trending. Like when everyone is posting about eggs on my timeline, show me “original 30 eggs tweet”.
18 law firms somehow miraculously have exactly identical wage scales that get updated in parallel? Hey DOJ, I think there might be an antitrust opportunity here…any gunner of a federal prosecutor want to really make a mark? https://t.co/BpQmhLdWoZ
The replies to this thread blow my mind. People legit believe the state needs to protect them from bad haircuts by ensuring hair stylists meet training standards. I’ve never seen the nanny-state mind virus (timorus overprotectionis) on clearer display. https://t.co/1nUQ08wcYG
I love recommending books to people, especially if they read them. For a book recommendation, reply below with three books you've read that you love and three words for each on why and I'll give you the fourth book you should read.
You have 168 hours per week. For most, sleep takes 56 of those. A full time job is anyone 40. Food, grooming, exercise add another 18 if you’re reasonably efficient. Misc obligatory bullshit paperwork like taxes or errands, another 7. This leaves you with 47 hours!
Don’t worry the human brain is definitely immune to adversarial inputs, nothing to see here https://t.co/XNlq26P9v1
much suffering is caused by people turning a "reduce variance" knob without realizing it controls the positive variance too
The five growth strategies are high-touch sales, paid advertising, intrinsic virality, intrinsic influencer incentives (Twitch!), and platform hacks.
Make something 10 people completely love, not something most people think is pretty good.
Welcome new followers. We have returned to our regularly scheduled programming where I post whatever idle thoughts or silly jokes come to mind, interspersed with occasional threads or interactive games.
If we do our job well, if we succeed as a civilization, one day people will look back at today and say, “the past was a place of so much suffering and pain”.
I don’t think America is a failing nation
One clear mark of intelligence is when someone is often surprised, but usually by particularly interesting bits of detail or nuance
This a beautiful proof that atoms must be conscious, actually https://t.co/ujme1kQt9N
@akshatzoid @OpenAI It’s important.
I was told recently that I should stop posting on a topic until I've understood it more deeply and mastered the material. That seems to me to be backwards. It is exactly the material with which you are thinking the hardest and evolving your thoughts on which you should write.
RT @DrJaclynnMoskow: When do drugs really expire? Which ones take decades to degrade? Why does the US government use secret expiration da…
I find explaining any actually interesting idea usually requires explaining like 5 subsidiary ideas. If you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky it’s like 25 and either they’re ready for a three hour lecture or you’re not going to succeed.
I think about these two charts a lot. What is going on??? https://t.co/ECGQQP99K9
I'll be 40 years old soon. I thought I'd take a look back and see how I've spent it. Good memories, very few regrets. https://t.co/Uqka01osTJ
I'm trying to learn some difficult real math for the first time in a while and holy shit guys I see why everyone is raving about this AI thing now, this is a game changer.
Prediction: AI has reopened consumer tech, for the first time since ~2012 when the last great mobile consumer companies started. We will see a wave of big winner AI consumer startups crossing 100m DAU in ~3 years.
There are two reasons that someone would fail an interview question that should be easy given their CV. (1) they’re actually incompetent (2) the interview was scary and they froze
Have you ever noticed that ideologies are always formed around writers who love to write a lot of words? They often cover the same few ideas, over and over, in different ways. But mostly it's a LOT of words. This is not an accident.
Manifesting is prompt engineering the universe
Frank Zappa once said “No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.” Maybe the same thing is true of tech wearables. https://t.co/grB8rzWRbw
Have you ever noticed that memory and learning are at some deep level exactly the same thing?
Twitter should have a Snooze Tweet button that pops a Tweet back up onto my timeline tomorrow
i got drinks with Beff once and he seemed like a smart, nice guy…he wanted to raise an elder machine god from the quantum foam, but i could tell it was only because he thought that would be best for everyone
It takes a lot of introspection to attune to the sensation of progress, rather than the sensation of reward.
There is a certain mindset, a certain worldview, under which the possession of power and agency makes you culpable for every bad thing you don’t fix, and where being incompetent or powerless renders you pure.
If your product is for consumers, either it’s a daily habit, it’s used consistently in response to an external trigger, or it’s not going to grow.
@thechosenberg Remember how they used to have all those articles about how “Millenials this” and “Millenials that” like 10 years ago that were all bullshit? Yeah.
@sweatystartup Man I’m glad I didn’t have you as a parent.
The core emotional drama of the metamodern adventure (everything everywhere all at once, umbrella academy, Loki, rick and morty) is Heidegger’s dread. Dread is the recognition that ultimately, systems of thought (ideologies) cannot produce any ultimate meaning.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feynman "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." — Colin Powell Meditate on the interplay between these two insights and you will achieve agency-enlightenment
conspiracy theorists are fundamentally optimists. a horrible moment that occurs, often sometime in your 30s, when you truly fully realize that the conspiracy theorists are wrong no group is secretly in charge there is no plan no one even really understands what is going on
I heard about a technique for eradicating mosquitos from a city-sized area by releasing huge numbers of sterile male mosquitoes during breeding season…was that real? Who does it? What does it cost?
My mental barriers for this political shit aren’t strong enough — watching people I otherwise respect have their brains melted and start spouting total nonsense is just kind of sad and painful. Time to update the mute list.
I don’t know if this study will replicate…but I’ve long believed humans have a basic need for synchronization. It’s available through team sports, dancing (especially if everyone is dancing the same dance), choir, complicated group photos where everyone jumps… https://t.co/rWsYGhXrpC
When I have a problem, and it’s proving difficult to solve, I’ll often go on a walk about it, go talk to a friend about it, go try to solve it again. But when it’s proving intransigent, I’ll go write an essay proving why it just cannot be solved. That almost always fixes it.
All cars should have this by law, like brake lights and turn signals https://t.co/alDt1EmEWG
For people who believe “there is no ethical way to make $1b”, i am curious: what is the maximum number of dollars that could be ethically made in a lifetime, in your opinion? I presume it’s not $1b-$1, but perhaps it’s that last dollar that makes the difference to you?
I’m grateful today for my family. We are all born with a family, but having a child I get to be part of creating the family. I didn’t quite realize how meaningful that would be, and I’m so grateful to have this chance on earth.
My most contrarian take is that, given the empirical results, the American government is actually very effective and well run on the dimensions that matter. It may look like we are led by bumbling malicious incompetents, but if so we’ve channeled their energy marvelously.
The number one rule of building things that can destroy the entire world is don’t do that.