Dwight Houweling

Saying people people should apply critical thinking is like encouraging children to learn a musical instrument. And then they choose the drums, and start practicing in your basement. I’m in your basement right now… :-)

Daily prayer? Daily meditation? Or two minutes of hate?

@ChrisDeMuthJr @bryan_caplan @nxthompson No more log plots?

@nxthompson Life hack for avoiding horror: start y axis at 0.

This is horrifying. open.substack.com/pub/profgmedia…?

To clawd or not to clawd, is that the question ?

Ask the world to accomodate my shortcomings? That's not how I was raised. Times have changed...

@janrosenow @Noahpinion Misleading unless you show energy efficiency loss in producinc electricity in the firstt place ? 65% lost to heat?

ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of the energy in their fuel. Electric vehicles are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain: EVs need not convert one form of energy to another resulting in much higher efficiency.

@AutismCapital @grok what is association been tylenol and autism?

It’s been real, old friend.

In coding, comments are lies. The code is updated but the comments remain unchanged. Variable names express intended use and meaning but then changes with time. Names only express what was thought at first. The atom means indivisble. No one bothered to change the name.

@yudapearl Since I read the beginning of infinity, I feel like I should understand this. I don't...

In March 2023, The New York Times published an opinion article by Noam Chomsky, titled “The False Promise of ChatGPT.” See nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opi…. The article argues that current investment in ChatGPT-style machine learning is fundamentally misguided, as it diverts attention from understanding or emulating human-level intelligence. As Chomsky writes, “The human mind seeks not to infer brute correlations among data points but to create explanations.” My interest in this article — and in reactions to it — stems from the fact that the development of causal inference was motivated by precisely this distinction: correlation vs. explanation. However, contrary to Chomsky’s pessimism, causal inference has produced formal and general criteria for identifying the extra-statistical ingredients required to generate explanations from any dataset. Causal inference has also clarified an important nuance: the distinction between data arising from natural phenomena and data consisting of human-authored text. The latter may appear to circumvent the limitations imposed by the Ladder of Causation, since the authors behind the training data often embed causal understanding — knowledge that exceeds what the data alone would reveal. See ucla.in/3L91Yvt I wonder whether any of our readers have had an opportunity to discuss Chomsky’s essay in light of the causal inference literature. @GaryMarcus @eliasbareinboim @smueller @analisereal @soboleffspaces @DavidDeutschOxf

@slashdot Beginning of the end for domain names?

Let's Encrypt Rolls Out Free Security Certs For IP Addresses ift.tt/gFYnDZv

@nspector4 I read "kicking" three times before getting the actual intended message... Organizing a conference is hard work (food, lodgings, security) congrats to the ones actually doing the organizing...

@HoopMixOnly Backspin...

Courtside of this is just SICK 🤮

Current mental model for how people interpret news/information is trying to minimize cognitive dissonance... how can I explain new information in a manner that doesn't require me to change my previously held opinions. Cognitive dissonance to be avoided at all costs...

Every conference and other event I’ve ever spoken at, this person appears:

@nntaleb In the Netherlands they don't wear helmets. Well some do, but my Dutch cousin assures me that if you do you are "a loser". How do you explain that?

Friends, cyclists fatalities per 100 mil km in the US are between 5 and 15. How does it compare to the lowering of the All Cause Mortality from exercise? Note: You can lower further w/ 1) helmet, 2) flashing lights (Varia Radar), 3) paranoia, etc. (PS my crash was on gravel).

Did Dante ever say what happens to those fraudsters that write headlines?

Lenin and Luther, my two parallel biographical audiobooks right now. I didn`t choose them, they chose me, these are the times we live in.

@DavidDeutschOxf Need to finish reading Beginning of Infinity. Got stuck sometime after Socrates’ dream.

Fallibilism is true. Humans are always fallible even when, in fact especially when, interpreting sacred texts.

Oh the irony… eastern Canadians have always kown what’s best for Albertans.

"Especially downweight comments designed to raise or lower various individuals in status, they are a kind of epistemic poison." “What do I think of the Trump-Zelensky dust-up?” - marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…

@TheEconomist Who writes these? How do you know what he intended, it’s one thing to speculate to someone’s intention… but “doubtless”? The more strongly you assert your opinions the less likely I am to believe them.

Volodymyr Zelensky might have flattered and cajoled Donald Trump. Instead he played right into the hands of J.D. Vance, who had doubtless intended all along to attack and humiliate the Ukrainian leader econ.st/3Xq9cBd