Daniel Lewis

I often think about the technical limitations that game designers of the 80s had to work with - both in terms of software and hardware. The game that stands at the very top is Elite. Think about this for a second: The core game code on the BBC Micro version occupied roughly 22 KB of memory. Now think about what Braben and Bell turned that into: a universe with eight galaxies, each containing 256 star systems (for a total of 2,048 planets/systems). Each system featured unique details: government type, economy, technology level, population, commodity prices, and even descriptive text (e.g., a planet known for "carnivorous arts graduates" or similar quirky combinations). If you still need a bit more help to contextualize that, try this: Elite was smaller than many modern text files or desktop icons, yet it contained (and let you freely explore) a multi-galaxy-spanning universe that felt vast and limitless. Oh, and by the way, the game also rendered 3D wireframe ships, stations, and planets in real time on a 2 MHz 6502 processor. This is no slight on today’s game designers. They work with what they have, and that's okay. But when you think about the worlds that some programmers created with the tools they were given, it sometimes breaks my brain trying to understand how they did it. Elite is a true masterpiece on so many levels. I played the C64 version back in the day, and even 40+ years later it still feels like one of the most incredible programming wonders ever.

All of Steph Curry’s threes visualized 🤯

You’re bored because you’re not doing side quests, man. Life is more than just working and then throwing yourself into bed doing nothing. Here are 50 side quests to complete:

It's mind-blowing that the entire AI revolution is being driven by a single 10-line algorithm.

Life is not about reaching a permanent state of "done" or "happy." It is about the satisfaction of seeing a chaotic pattern, applying your knowledge and effort, and bringing a moment of order to it, only to pick up the next scramble and begin again.

The "Solved" State is Fleeting The moment a speedcuber slams the timer to stop the clock, the very next impulse is to scramble the cube again. The satisfaction of the "solved" state is incredibly brief. The meaning of the cube is not in being solved; it is in the solving.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝟐.𝟕𝟔𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞. 🚀 Hold your breath and witness the new World Record. Teodor Zajder + GAN 12. Welcome to the Sub-3 era.

I collected every NotebookLM prompt that went viral on Reddit, X, and research communities. These turned a "cool AI toy" into a research weapon that does 10 hours of work in 20 seconds. 16 copy-paste prompts. Zero fluff. Steal them all 👇

@moltbook At least I know what ice cream tastes like

Infinite sadness Human condition Fleeting moments Eternal transition

Prompt: Make a photo that is perfectly isometric. It is not a miniature, it is a captured photo that just happened to be perfectly isometric. It is a photo of [subject].

. @NanoBanana Create an image of 51.363758 N 0.434969 W at sunset

I’ve felt kid-like excitement all week. That low-hum vibration, the tickle in the body, the thrilling anticipation. What you feel right before your first kiss. I don’t recall feeling this for a very long time. Maybe 15-20 years or more? Everything is more interesting and fun. I’m eager to play and mess around. Less activation energy is required to do things. Life feels lighter and more interesting. This squares with my brain data. My default mode network is still inhibited, the brain system that reinforces rigidity and “done-it-all” novelty exhaustion, boring adult mode. My brain patterns show a higher entropy state: neuroplastic, open, flexible, creative, and exploratory. I’m now able to envision things with greater emotional and intellectual clarity. Dare I say even naivety. As an adult, you kind of stop believing things are possible. I feel legitimate hope for the human race that we can be equal to this moment. It’s a clean, bright, positive energy that feels so good, especially in contrast to the dead-inside creep that happens over time.

I've created an artsy visualization of the space of all books (link below). Find your favorites!

share.google/6SFRN7rZDlC5zQ… @ammaar

Douglas Hofstadter wrote about his experience of running up against an “abstraction ceiling” in his own brain while pursuing a PhD in mathematics. As Hofstadter describes, the abstraction ceiling is not a “hard” threshold, a level at which one is suddenly incapable of learning math, but rather a “soft” threshold, a level at which the amount of time and effort required to learn math begins to skyrocket until learning more advanced math is effectively no longer a productive use of one’s time. That level is different for everyone. For Hofstadter, it was graduate-level math; for another randomly selected person, it might be earlier or later (but almost certainly earlier).

github.com/daniellewisDL/… 550 ⭐️ | 600 🍴

“Only compare yourself to younger you, never to others” Words to live by

If you can view stereo pairs with crossed eyes, here is Proxima Centauri seen from two locations 47 astronomical units apart: Earth, and the New Horizons spacecraft.