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Today (2024), generative artificial intelligence allows us to generate infinite solutions, but the problem is that we cannot prove that these solutions are related to a particular real output. We can, correlate them and approximate the solution as a function of a given distance in a latent space, but we cannot prove this as a fact. To me, this is a problem whenever we want to apply this to deterministic …

My notes on the thought-provoking book The Collapse of Complex Societies. Recommended to me by Eli Dourado, whose notes you can find here. This chart sums up the thesis of the book, but it’s mislabeled. It’s the benefits of complexity vs level of complexity, not the marginal product of increasing...

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I have written about the first, second and third laws of thermodynamics; these three laws are numbered in chronological order and, I believe, in logical order. But, in 1932, the English physicist Sir Ralph Fowler (1889-1944) proposed that there should be a further law that logically belonged before the other three. So it is called the Zeroth law of themodynamics. The zeroth law considers three objects a, b and c. …

Here’s my regular post of old photos from ten years ago. This time, it’s November 2014, plus a few from October 2014 that I missed last month. Another day, another train disruption. Plenty of unhappy punters at Richmond. For a while, Metro was putting ads on the windows. Not good. This was how a Comeng train looked from the outside. …and here was the view from the inside of a …

The post Happy Thanksgiving appeared first on Mia Rabbit.

This post adds another chapter to my previous series of posts on line signatures in maps. Back in the first part of the series i explained and illustrated how the sophisticated techniques in using line signatures in pre-digital maps have practically largely been replaced by rather primitive line drawing in digital map production. And i showed some methods how you can, in digital rule based map design, work around these …

Dear friends, comrades, lovers and loiterers It’s First Sunday, This Sunday and, somewhat discombobulatingly the last First Sunday of the year. How the devil did that happen? Join us to ponder time flying, cities dreaming, buddleia conspiring and doubtless much else. Meet 2pm this Sunday outside Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Oak St M4 5JD. I don’t know exactly where we will go, but as ever our wanders wind collectively, …

Dear Mr. Newport, I listened to your podcast Episode 287 - Minimalist Notes with great horror and deep concern. I’m sorry, really sorry that you still don’t have a Zettelkasten. Interim note: Below are a few comments on Cal Newport’s podcast. I can’t hold on to fake outrage for too long. :) Reducing Friction Costs Is Part of the Zettelkasten Method Cal Newport’s initial thesis is that most systems are …

The Trump administration has made aggressive threats against immigrants in the US. It’s not clear what’s coming, my biggest fear is a violent display of fascism. (Don’t call them camps!) But even if it’s a polite legal process it will be chaotic and disruptive to many neighbors. Back in 2018 I donated reactively to the Trump administration’s cruelty to immigrant families. This time I’m trying to get ahead of it. …

So it’s the end of another year already… that one went fast didn’t it? In July 2025, Thesis Whisperer will be 15 years old. Does this mean I am now a bratty teenager instead of a menopausal woman?! I feel there’s life in the old girl yet, so I’ll still fire up the blog monthly, never fear. As is tradition, the end of year post should contain some reflections on …

To be frank, 90% of the perfumes I smell are disappointing, if not downright awful. Which is why I’m starting a series dedicated to reviewing (or should that be ‘roasting’) the duds. Sogni (Meo Fusciuni) Sogni is quite possibly the worst thing I have smelled in a long while. I can usually find something positive to talk about in any perfume – and I am inclined to give indies like …

You wouldn’t know it was the very end of November from the verdant hydrangea leaves. History is about to be made. The latest recorded first frost I could find for our area ranges from November 23 in Bellingham, 15 miles north, to November 29 in Everett, 40 miles south of us. Today is November 27, and there is no frost in sight, even through December 6, when the high is …

Book Now Available [limited] & Paperback Launching February 10, 2025. It took over a decade, but perhaps that timing is perfect? There is much concern and plenty of gloom-and-doom about the future. I’m reminded of one my favorite M*A*S*H episodes in which Hawkeye jumps upon on the table, bangs his tray, and leads a chant of “We Want Something Else.” This isn’t just another book about what’s wrong with capitalism; …

Online reading“I feel connected to my organization’s culture.” Only 40% of leadership, 23% of management, and 19% of staff agree with this statement.My pal Jenny Zhang recently gave a superb conference talk on ways it might be more useful to think about values (fit/mismatch/tension) in the workplace, instead of culture.I particularly enjoyed this:The expected return of going to leadership with negative feedback is terrible. Risk alienating your boss for the …