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vervez

54 karma · joined January 22, 2018

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vervez··on BoTorch – Bayesian Optimization in PyTorch
There's also recent Bayesian Optimal Experimental Design methods that allow you to directly design experiments using gradient ascent. Not sure how it compares with BayesOpt on your problem, though.
vervez··on Ask HN: Is it just me or GPT-4's quality has significantly deteriorated lately?
github copilot won't pay for itself.
vervez··on Bayes is guaranteed to overfit
Their paper is more for the case of "we can't gather more data, so what to do?" but your solution is in line with optimal experimental design and choosing a utility function to distinguish between models using as little data as possible.
vervez··on Bayes is guaranteed to overfit
Here's a good recent paper that looks at this problem and provides remedies in a Bayesian manner. https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.11678
vervez··on Most of my skills are now worth nothing, but 10% are worth 1000x
min{d(problem)/d(theta)} is essentially what LLMs are doing with a prompt. Every session that a chatgpt user has leads to either a resolution or not, which is the loss function given the prompt used to reach that point. It's getting better at not hallucinating in my experience over just the past 4 months.
vervez··on Neuropsychiatric researchers rethink what depression might be
Thanks for sharing and i'm happy to be your friend :)
vervez··on Google to reduce workforce by 12k
I see your point and agree it can be frustrating if DEI initiatives are used as a political tool or blindly without considering the pitfalls of a naive implementation.
vervez··on Google to reduce workforce by 12k
Indeed, I didn't cite any sources but I'm fairly sure there's literature studying this phenomenon. I agree that DEI when used as a political tool is a distraction for a company.
vervez··on Google to reduce workforce by 12k
I think many of the things you mentioned w.r.t. diversity is actually forward-thinking and potentially yields more returns later. If there's a brilliant swe that feels uncomfortable at a company because of how they name their branches, they won't work there. Same goes for hiring a "less-qualified" individual. How many decisions or projects can be improved because of a diversity of input? Again, a non-linear outcome that is harder to measure than immediate profitability. Those are some arguments for those programs focusing on your productivity point.
vervez··on A list of advanced math tricks by Terence Tao
Equivariance is growing in popularity in machine learning, so these tricks will be helpful if one wants to study, or publish, in that area (I'm thinking about it). I'd recommend for any ML-related folks to look into this area and save this thread whenever they're trying to implement an equivariant neural network.
vervez··on Layoff spree in Silicon Valley spells end of an era for Big Tech
So you `pip install`ed them at a new company? I'll see myself out.
vervez··on What if regular exercise is the best cognitive exercise?
Here's a short (unscientific) article (that kinda links to scinetific articles) about the link between lactic acid buildup and its relation in the brain. Sounds like exercise generates a natural nootropic. https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/lactic-acid-...
vervez··on Similarity Learning lacks a framework. So we built one
Very cool. Can you comment on how this compares with tensorflow similarity? https://blog.tensorflow.org/2021/09/introducing-tensorflow-s...
vervez··on A cancer trial’s unexpected result: Remission in every patient
Couldn't read the article but yea, if it's a small molecule, most likely it's inhibiting some protein specific to cancerous cells. In this case, it sounds like it's blocking some protein that blocks human cells' innate ability to produce antigens, which signal to T-cells that they are defective and need to be destroyed.

Sometimes we understand the biology after we discover a treatment.

vervez··on The Largest Suite of Cosmic Simulations for AI Training Is Now Free to Download
Briefly, no. Why: they're most likely not training your average ML models on this dataset. Instead, they are likely taking a model of some physics and seeing how it performs in these simulations.

You can think of this as a form of causal inference - "if this model is true, how well does it work with our current understanding (simulations) of physics?" type of questions. There are measures of error and bias that come with evaluation of these models.

vervez··on Synthetic tissue can repair hearts, muscles, and vocal cords
That's a strategy but there are issues with immune rejection since that's a xenograft. I think there are some products based off of this concept for other areas (skin grafts) after removing all xeno-cells from the tissue, but articular cartilage is more difficult to remove/replace xeno-cells with autologous or allogenic cells.
vervez··on Synthetic tissue can repair hearts, muscles, and vocal cords
Bioengineer here able to chime in with niche expertise. Cartilage is and has been a holy grail in biomedical engineering but is very difficult to grow and transplant. There have been some successful neo-cartilage projects but integrating that into a defect and successfully integrating with host cartilage is the problem. The boundary of the defect actually has electronegative components that actively oppose integration of host and transplant (synthetic) cartilage. I think the most likely solution won't be a tissue-engineered transplant but rather an active cellular component that appropriately responds, and builds upon, this negative feedback cycle via cellular programming.
vervez··on The dual PhD problem of today’s startups
The way I've seen startups make it work is to save part of the indirect for the worst-case scenario of no bridge funding for the 3-6 month period. If you are able to get into an accelerator that takes a small cut and aligns with your area, the amount of indirect saved (.4*250k) available could be sufficient to bridge a low-cost org for 3-6 months. Even then, it's still a gamble as to whether you'll receive the Phase II in that time.

As for timeline, you're able to apply for the Phase II to kick in right as the Phase I is ending. I've seen that work but it requires planning and long hours to perform research and write the next phase proposal. There's also direct to Phase II for ~$2m in one grant.

If you have outside responsibilities and don't want to risk that bridge, you could try and submit the direct to Phase II, which would also help develop your idea to pitch to VCs in clean-tech space.

vervez··on The dual PhD problem of today’s startups
I'd be interested in seeing citations for the known death valley. This is the second time I've heard this anecdote but have never seen the evidence.
vervez··on The dual PhD problem of today’s startups
With hard science ventures that sometimes have a hard time findng the 'killer app' for the technology, I think the experience and learning from ping ponging around is a feature. Yes, startups need to plan for the long and uncertain apply-decide-reapply cycle
vervez··on The dual PhD problem of today’s startups
SBIR funding is critical for hard science ventures early on. It's also a good indicator to future investors of potential hard science projects that a panel of experts in the area has reviewed and approved government funding for the idea, and the team is at least decently competent to meet the milestones of the SBIR. This helped Ginkgo Bioworks before they received more than half a billion in private investment.
vervez··on Short on Money, Cities Around the World Try Making Their Own
I'm not an economist but this also seems like an indirect, peer to peer, way to establish 'credit' of an individual, rather than relying on centralized institutions with dubious security practices, like Equifax. Is this obvious or has someone already thought of this and I'm being dumb? I don't typically hear about this type of application of digital currencies in mainstream media but it sounds interesting in certain applications of peer-determined credit.
vervez··on Ask HN: My wife might lose the ability to speak in 3 weeks – how to prepare?
Is Morgan Freeman the most used celebrity?
vervez··on I turned my entrepreneur journey into a game
This could work out pretty well. I remember reading somewhere (can't find the article) that Brian Eno works with artists this way as a producer, creating artificial constraints to expand their creativity. Would be interesting to see how this affects the startup process where optionality can be overwhelming.
vervez··on Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
Another possibility: the bacteria could be engineered to switch to a different metabolic mechansim, like the use of the lac operon to digest lactose instead of glucose whenever there's a scarcity of glucose. Although this envisages stably engineered bacteria that switch between plastic and regular metabolic process, which I'm not sure about the current feasibility/precision.
vervez··on Cleaning the Ship's Cargo Hold (2019) [video]
You're not wrong, I'm just saying they're synonymous. https://www.hsmagnets.com/blog/halbach-array/
vervez··on Cleaning the Ship's Cargo Hold (2019) [video]
Halbach array AKA fridge magnet.
vervez··on Equifax securities fraud class action [pdf]
Scapegoat?
vervez··on How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals
Maybe because the lifetime of the computer will be shorter, hence, closer to the next sale?
vervez··on Machine Learning Trick of the Day: Instrumental Thinking
Excellent post about potential flaws of your typical linear regression model and how to address with causal methods. As a self-taught practitioner, these posts are priceless in letting me know what I don't know...
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