Writing

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Writing is hard. You’re condensing your thoughts into more general concepts that can (hopefully) be understood by others. It’s equivalent to compressing a giant file (your mind) into some smaller artifact (some scribbles on a page).

Writing is valuable. It’s how we can give the gift of knowledge to the future. One can learn some concept and teach it to others with no investment other than the time spent compressing that knowledge.

Writing is introspective and philosophical. Writing delves into the nature of knowledge. What’s worth sharing with others?

The process of writing is good practice for thinking. It forces you to focus on communicating clearly. It makes you think about language and how to effectively convey concepts. It makes you consider if your examples are truly clear and engaging, or just a distraction not adding any value.

I’m really bad at writing. My thoughts are chaotic and disorganized and hard to communicate. Praciting writing gives me the chance to hone what I’ve been thinking about, and work “muscles” to help me communicate more clearly.

Recent posts from blogs that I like

Medium and Message: Gilding

How gold leaf is applied, burnished and patterned using punches to create a jewelled surface. Seen in the Wilton Diptych, and revived by Gustav Klimt at the end of the 19th century.

via The Eclectic Light Company

Giving LLMs a personality is just good engineering

AI skeptics often argue that current AI systems shouldn’t be so human-like. The idea - most recently expressed in this opinion piece by Nathan Beacom - is that language models should explicitly be tools, like calculators or search engines. Although they can pretend to be people, they shouldn’t, beca...

via Sean Goedecke

The Unbound Scepter

My post-surgery medication stack gave me the most on-the-nose dream of my life.

via Xe Iaso