Snowball Trigger

The word “algorithm” comes from al-Khwarizmi, a 9th-century Persian mathematician. He also gave us “algebra” from his book “al-jabr.” One man, 1200 years ago, wrote a book. That book now runs your Netflix recommendations, your Instagram feed, and every Google search you’ve ever made. The most powerful force in the modern economy was invented by a guy who never saw a light bulb.

GPS satellites have to account for Einstein's relativity. Time moves faster in orbit than on Earth — about 38 microseconds per day. Without adjusting for this, your GPS would drift 10 kilometers daily. You'd end up in the wrong city by Thursday. Your ability to find the nearest coffee shop depends on a theory about the fabric of spacetime written by a patent clerk in 1905. Every latte you've ever found is thanks to Einstein.

The antidote is painful but simple: Ask someone who didn't build it to evaluate it. If you can't separate "I made this" from "this is good" — you're not thinking. You're justifying.

The IKEA Effect also explains something darker: Why bad ideas survive so long inside organizations. Once someone builds something — a process, a product, a policy — they can't see its flaws. Not because they're stubborn. Because their brain literally rewrites how good it looks.

In 1950, Betty Crocker cake mix wasn't selling. It was easy. It was delicious. It was fast. A psychologist figured out the problem: it was TOO easy. His fix? Remove the powdered eggs. Make customers crack a real egg themselves. Sales exploded. Here's why 🧵

@elonmusk The hard part of AI alignment was never "don't lie." It's "who decides what counts as lying." And that question doesn't have an engineering answer.

Yes

the "EV vs gas" debate is only a debate when you add infrastructure, policy, and geography into the mix. On pure engineering? 90% efficiency vs 30%. Instant torque vs combustion lag. ~20 moving parts vs ~2,000. The ICE didn't survive 150 years because the engineering was better. It survived because the ecosystem was already built around it. Remove the external variables and there's no contest.

Just a reminder why electric vehicles are better than gas cars:

@elonmusk The real benchmark isn't "does it sound human." It's "does it make me forget I'm talking to a server rack." And that's a psychology problem, not an engineering one.

True

@SawyerMerritt Smart move if you're genuinely in the market. Just know the FOMO is engineered, not accidental.

If you're on the fence about ordering the new $59,990 dual-motor AWD Cybertruck, consider placing an order now to lock in the current low price. You’ll have until June/July 2026 to decide whether to take delivery, plenty of time. Worst case, you’re out the $250 order fee. Best case, you secured a new Cybertruck at a great price. Make sure to use a referral code or your loyalty code when ordering so you lock in the $1,000 discount, bringing the price down to $58,990. Also check local EV incentives, For instance, Massachusetts will give you an additional $7,500 off, bringing the price to $51,490. On March 1st, Tesla will either raise the price on this new trim or get rid of it all-together. It'll depend on how many end up ordering it. Photos below of what the $60k dual-motor AWD Cybertruck will look like (some taken from RWD Cybertruck, as there are similarities to the new AWD trim):

Water in a bathtub drains clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the North. The Coriolis Effect — Earth's rotation pulling fluids. Except in your bathtub it doesn't matter because the basin shape overpowers the effect entirely. The internet's favorite "science fact" is technically true at ocean scale and completely wrong in your bathroom. Most viral knowledge works this way. True in theory. Useless in practice.

@nima_owji @grok What's the principle behind detecting if something is AI-generated?

BREAKING: X is working on a "Made with AI" label! Users will soon be able to label their posts as AI-generated content! Most probably, not labeling them will go against the X rules when this feature launches!

Original studies for deeper dive: • Morrot, Brochet & Dubourdieu (2001) — Brain and Language 54 trained oenology students at University of Bordeaux. Not one noticed the switch. • Johansson et al. (2005) — Science The face-swap experiment. One of the most cited papers in decision-making.

This is the thinking tool: Your brain is not a truth-seeking machine. It’s a story-generating machine. Its #1 priority isn’t accuracy — it’s coherence. When reality doesn’t match expectations, your brain doesn’t update. It rewrites the story. This happens everywhere in daily life: → You buy something expensive and suddenly “discover” reasons why it was a great decision
→ You hire someone you liked in the interview and interpret every early signal as confirmation you were right
→ You defend a political position and can’t remember when you actually started believing it The wine experts weren’t stupid. They were human. More knowledge just gave them richer vocabulary to confabulate with. The antidote isn’t more expertise. It’s structured doubt. Before you trust your judgment, ask: “Am I seeing what’s actually here? Or am I tasting red because someone painted the glass?” What’s one decision you were 100% sure about — but looking back, you might have been tasting the food coloring?

In 2001, a PhD student at the University of Bordeaux pulled off one of the greatest pranks in science history. Frédéric Brochet invited 54 wine experts — oenology students trained to detect the subtlest notes in a glass — and poured them two wines. One red. One white. They described the red with classic red wine language: “jamminess,” “crushed red fruit,” “spice.” The catch?
Both glasses were the same white wine. He just added a few drops of odorless, tasteless red food coloring. Not one expert noticed. Their noses worked perfectly. Their taste buds were fine. But their eyes told their brain what to “taste” — and their brain obeyed without question. This isn’t just a funny wine story. It’s a window into how your brain actually makes decisions. Psychologists call it Choice Blindness.