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jorgesborges

1,566 karma · joined September 26, 2018

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jorgesborges··on AI World Clocks
Conceptual deficit is a great failure mode description. The inability to retrieve "meaning" about the clock -- having some understanding about its shape and function but not its intent to convey time to us -- is familiar with a lot of bad LLM output.
jorgesborges··on I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it
I’ve played drums and loud music for a long time. When I pay close enough attention there’s this persistent, aggravating noise — which I sometimes call “silence”, and other times call “tinnitus”.
jorgesborges··on From: Steve Jobs. "Great idea, thank you."
That is one of the most beautifully crafted “I did something dumb” emails — and to a CEO no less. I wish all my emails were so clear, direct, and personable.
jorgesborges··on We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads [video]
Is it possible to launch an offensive against advertising by spoofing humans that consume ads so numbers increase so dramatically they’re meaningless?
jorgesborges··on Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI
I have a footnote at the end of my resume about my interests -- it's short, authentic, and more of a way to showcase my personality than my actual interests. It's always been a point of contact during the interview process. If an organization thinks that's stupid or a human isn't reading it in the first place it's not somewhere I want to work anyway.
jorgesborges··on Interviewing a software engineer who prepared with AI
Despite how bad the job market seems at the moment it's things like this make me feel confident for when I have to search again.
jorgesborges··on There's no emotion we ought to think harder about than anger
Interesting, yeah that makes sense to me too.
jorgesborges··on There's no emotion we ought to think harder about than anger
Or its role is to react toward perceived injustices within a social group in order to strengthen and reinforce cooperation.
jorgesborges··on There's no emotion we ought to think harder about than anger
> my anger is usually "directed," though more in the sense of furiously/forcefully wanting to correct some perceived wrong, rather than revenge.

This is the exact definition of revenge. While revenge carries connotations that we tend to separate ourselves from today -- sounds too barbaric? -- it's fundamentally about justice, and as such is justified and even noble given the right context and expression.

jorgesborges··on You're not a senior engineer until you've worked on a legacy project (2023)
It’s okay to enjoy work and focus on your craft for two years rather than jump for more money. If you like your employer and colleagues and are growing as an engineer isn’t that better in the long term? I think jumping around can risk creating an engineer who leaves a place worse than when they started.
jorgesborges··on Brood War Korean Translations
I've always wanted translations of Korean game broadcasts (GSL/ASL). I'm curious what balance their commentators strike between game analysis and entertainment, and whether there's a disparity between Korean and Foreigner game analysis. Do they have a Tastosis?
jorgesborges··on The paper passport's days are numbered
This is how I feel leaving the house without my phone.
jorgesborges··on The new science of controlling lucid dreams
Mine as well -- nose-plug was most effective but also least discrete and most awkward to do in public. Checking a clock was my second go-to..
jorgesborges··on We can mine asteroids for space food
Yep, my argument isn’t grounded in whether a carrot feels pain — the comparison is to underscore the idea that in each case a living thing is extinguished from the world, and that they’re equivalent contrary to metrics like pain or “more like us”, simply for having experience.
jorgesborges··on We can mine asteroids for space food
This actually makes sense to me in terms of logical coherence. I understand and support people who follow ethically-motivated diets but the fact is a line is always drawn somewhere. Plants are alive. Why is a carrot’s life less important than a rabbit’s?

I don’t think we’re good at making claims about where particular organisms sit along a gradient of consciousness we can’t even properly define.

I like to imagine other civilizations in the universe might use this basic distinction to evaluate how sophisticated a culture is — do they still needlessly eradicate life for more convenient consumption? Akin to asking, are they still a pre-warp civilization?

jorgesborges··on Bird flu in Canada may have mutated to become more transmissible to humans
It’s easy to subscribe to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency[0] and receive updates on cases of AI in livestock across the country. I was a subscriber for a year or so and thought it was fun but ultimately received too many emails — sometimes multiple cases a month. Not once did any of those get blown up to a media-worthy case, which I always found interesting: relatively high frequency but low severity.

I suppose the “severity” is low only because the rate of transmission to humans is low. The article mentions how we come into contact with wild animals especially birds more often than we might think. I wish they expanded on that — from touching things in public? from unwashed food? These aren’t wild populations of birds right?

Also gotta love the “we’re hoping no more transmissions occur and the mutation dies out” statement. I mean I don’t have a better plan.

[0] - https://notification.inspection.canada.ca/

jorgesborges··on Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?
I think you mean get a cat.
jorgesborges··on Ambulance hits cyclist, rushes him to hospital, then sticks him with $1,800 bill
No complacency is very real and necessary. When I bike everything is my responsibility, my life is in my hands, so I’m not looking to finger-point when a driver does something stupid or rash — it’s on me to be notice, anticipate, and react so that I don’t get killed.
jorgesborges··on A 22 percent increase in the German minimum wage: nothing crazy
I remember working at a kitchen being paid $x an hour, and when minimum wage was increased to just below that many of the cooks were mad to find themselves earning just above minimum wage. It was an interesting corollary I hadn't thought about before and while I wasn't mad it did feel like my value was depreciated.
jorgesborges··on Ask HN: Can a 5 year old i7 laptop compete with one made today?
I’m using a 2018 MacBook Pro with 16gb RAM and just sent a ticket for an upgrade. I run a lot of docker containers and between that, jet brains IDEs, multiple browser, etc it’s pretty slow.
jorgesborges··on Ask ChatGPT this question – paste response if possible
I recently turned off memory because I’m used to opening a new chat to refresh context and I was tired of telling it to ignore memory.

So it told me I need to turn on memory to learn more about me.

jorgesborges··on Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more
I stopped using Calibre because it turned out to be more annoying than simply emailing an epub to my designated kindle address. I've never had anything removed. Most of the content comes from libgen.
jorgesborges··on Psilocybin Bests SSRI for Major Depression in First Long-Term Comparison
If you don't mind my asking, what about the experience was so bad? Did it take time or work to process the experience for it to have its beneficial effect?
jorgesborges··on <b>: The Bring Attention To element
> Do not confuse the <b> element with the <strong>, <em>, or <mark> elements. The <strong> element represents text of certain importance, <em> puts some emphasis on the text and the <mark> element represents text of certain relevance. The <b> element doesn't convey such special semantic information; use it only when no others fit.

It's hard not to read this as satire. All I want is for my text to be bold, dammit!

jorgesborges··on I mapped almost every USA traffic death in the 21st century
I'm not sure the intention here but in an addition to being an outstanding project it's also a hideous indictment of 21st century transportation. So much life lost as a result of apes clumsily manoeuvring heaps of metal across painted lines of asphalt.
jorgesborges··on Mistral NeMo
I’m AI stupid. Does anyone know if training on multiple languages provides “cross-over” — so training done in German can be utilized when answering a prompt in English? I once went through various Wikipedia articles in a couple languages and the differences were interesting. For some reason I thought they’d be almost verbatim (forgetting that’s not how Wikipedia works!) and while I can’t remember exactly I felt they were sometimes starkly different in tone and content.
jorgesborges··on A Philosophy Professor's Final Class (2023)
I knew that would be part of the old teaching company videos! I'll definitely give them a watch thanks for sharing. Finding those videos as a teenager inspired my interest in philosophy and it's what I eventually studied in university. They had such incredible content. The company was rebranded as Wodrium and it's good but they pivoted to more popular, consumable content and it's less rigorous in my opinion.

Other great philosophy courses from that era:

Robert C. Solomon on Nietzsche https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfiUrZFEZfI&list=PLdnXkNG3Fr...

Rick Roderick on the Post Modern Condition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFiU9nDQD4&list=PLA20B69058...

jorgesborges··on Philip Morris International has funded Japanese academics
I’m not implying causation here but I was surprised to see such a big smoking culture when I visited Japan. A lot of establishments have designated smoking rooms that are kinda cool and chic, with sliding glass doors and a motley crowd — young hipster types, business people, casuals. And the farther you are from an urban center people straight up smoke wherever. Watched the owner of a cafe make me eggs while casually enjoying a cigarette. I didn’t perceive as big a stigma and it kinda made me miss smoking.
jorgesborges··on Researchers find high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in Beethoven's hair
Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent but it’s often referred to as a suicide note. It’s interesting — apparently he hid his bad hearing for a long time and considered it a humiliation. From the letter it also sounds like he was a real dick to people around him as a result, but they weren’t aware. So it serves as a sort of confession, apology and goodbye.

You can read it here it’s pretty short.

https://nac-cna.ca/en/stories/story/beethovens-complete-heil...

jorgesborges··on How to mess with your roommate (2018)
In the early 2000s one of my friends bought TV B Gone which was basically a universal tv remote with an off button. We had a lot of fun confusing the hell out of family and friends who were trying to peacefully enjoy their show. We also had fun at bars and restaurants when sport games were on.
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