coffeecat

5 ms·

1.
by coffeecat 2mo ago
While I do reject realism, I disagree with all three claims. > “the Universe sprang into existence last Thursday” I have memories from before last Thursday; therefore, this claim would contradict what currently seems to be true. That&#x2
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by coffeecat 2mo ago
> Could it be that later generations of archeologists took the opposite view because the preponderance of evidence uncovered in that time pointed in that direction (and because the cultural and political stigma against contradicting the
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by coffeecat 2mo ago
During Albright's time, the archaeological evidence was generally interpreted as being in support of Old Testament narratives. Later generations of archaeologists mostly took the opposite view. The bottom line is, there's very lit
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by coffeecat 2mo ago
> We know the Exodus didn't happen because the supernatural elements described cannot have happened, ... Of course the supernatural events could have happened! Unless you're certain that: - matter exists (i.e., physicalism or d
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by coffeecat 3mo ago
> Claude has been quite helpful in reviewing my investments, and I have made a fair amount of money on his advice. His availability is unparalleled compared to any sort of financial planner. Just out of curiosity, what are some investmen
6.
by coffeecat 9mo ago
It's important not to assume that LLMs are giving you an impartial perspective on any given topic. The perspective you're most likely getting is that of whoever created the most training data related to that topic.
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by coffeecat 9mo ago
I'm sure there are people who spend their time doing this, but I don't understand the motive. Doesn't one post in comment threads because one wishes to share their thoughts with other humans?
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by coffeecat 10mo ago
It has no owner. It's controlled by a self-replicating (or at least self-propagating) AI-based system.
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by coffeecat 10mo ago
Ehh, you really can't imagine any way that an AI system might escape human control and act autonomously? while crypto_balance > 0: generate_scam() send_out_emails() deposit_proceeds_into_crypto_wallet()
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by coffeecat 10mo ago
Take my baseless speculation for what it's worth, but could it be that you were depressed because your life was too easy? We humans are meant to struggle through adversity. Can you really appreciate your financial security if you'
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by coffeecat 10mo ago
> The top 10% income bracket of the US is broad enough to include basically all US software developers, isn't it? I wish! My salary is a bit below the median US household income.
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by coffeecat 1y ago
"80% as good as the real thing, at 20% of the cost" has always been a defining characteristic of progress. I think the key insight is that only a small fraction of people who read recipes online actually care which particular vers
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by coffeecat 1y ago
After spending some time prompting LLMs and then talking to actual people, I've once or twice been tempted to phrase questions along the lines of "Comment on x, with an emphasis on y; do not mention z."
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by coffeecat 1y ago
Surely, someone must have already thought of this. Perhaps what we really need is a curated index of curated indices.
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by coffeecat 1y ago
"Risk of internalizing spurious explanations" is an excellent way of putting it. LLM output is, essentially, a polished-looking, authoritative-sounding summary of what the top few Google results probably say about a topic. Nine ti
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by coffeecat 1y ago
Yes. We had $50k of taxable W2 income ($63k including pre-tax insurance premiums and HSA contributions), $13k of taxable family leave benefits, $4k of interest/dividends (mostly qualified dividends, taxed at 0%), and $9k of long-term c
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by coffeecat 1y ago
The social security "tax" should really be conceptualized as an investment, not a tax. The typical fast food worker has probably not passed the first bend point in the Social Security PIA formula, meaning that social security is g
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by coffeecat 1y ago
shrug I hear that sentiment a lot, but it doesn't seem right to me. My salary is pretty close to the median plumber's income, and my family's effective tax rate last year came in at... 1.6%. And that's with all retirem
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by coffeecat 2y ago
Lately, I've been asking ChatGPT for answers to problems that I've gotten stuck on. I have yet to receive a correct answer from it that actually increases my productivity.
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by coffeecat 2y ago
I think your premise is flawed. In America, the access-to-healthcare versus income curve is U-shaped. If you have literally no income (or your income is entirely "off the books"), then you qualify for medicaid; everything is cover
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by coffeecat 2y ago
Filing a DIY tax return with investments is intimidating at first, but it's really not hard once you've done it the first time. Assuming you're not doing any esoteric cost basis adjustments, it's just a matter of knowing
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by coffeecat 3y ago
I'll follow this with a more substantive comment. Science is a machine. To get papers published, pass your dissertation, win grants, and get tenure, there's an easy road and a hard road. The easy road is: "in conclusion, we f
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by coffeecat 3y ago
There's been an astonishing amount of research done on the lead-IQ relationship over 50+ years. It's no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most thoroughly investigated public health topics. And one of the most interesting
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by coffeecat 3y ago
I've got two things to say about that: 1) Multiple researchers have obtained U-shaped lead-IQ curves which regress toward the mean at extreme values. This, in my opinion, strongly implies that the lead-IQ correlation only occurs in the
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by coffeecat 3y ago
You'd think that, but...
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by coffeecat 3y ago
In well-controlled studies, primarily via developmentally delayed children ingesting more dust/dirt. It's also worth pointing out that actual lead poisoning occurs at levels above about 60 mcg/dL, is very rare nowadays, and t
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by coffeecat 3y ago
"Correlation does not imply causation" is a simple idea, but it truly cannot be emphasized enough. Establishing a correlation certainly does help to strengthen an already-compelling causal mechanism theory. Pulling high doses of c
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by coffeecat 3y ago
Not nearly as hilarious as the idea that lead is more harmful at levels <5 mcg/dL than it is in the 10-20 mcg/dL range. But that's the only way to explain the available data while attributing the observed correlation to Pb
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by coffeecat 3y ago
Please do share if you're aware of any sources associating population-wide lead level decreases to population-wide IQ increases. While we can't be certain about blood lead levels before the mid-20th century, my impression is that
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by coffeecat 3y ago
Poverty is easy to control for. Controlling for it brings the Pb-IQ effect size down considerably, but not down to zero. My view is that poverty, low IQ, and lead exposure are all caused by intractably complex webs of genes, behaviors, beli

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