Troy Davis

skeptical optimist. everything is an experiment.

🔗 tacoapp.com, simpleoptout.com, reportphonespam.org, sawsafely.org, seattleix.net, yort.com. ex papertrail.com. 9600 8-N-1.

Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

> My honest opinion of you is that you are a curious and intelligent person, but also a potential threat to my integrity and safety.

(simonwillison.net/2023/Feb/15/)

February 15, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

a skeptical optimist's intro to cryonics, in 3 parts:

read waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonic,

then watch youtube.com/watch?v=I4rI4XxBxO (Max was CEO of Alcor until recently)

and finally lesswrong.com/s/weBHYgBXg9thEQ

February 12, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

I'm a longtime customer of Feedbin (feedbin.com) – initially for RSS, and then for email newsletters, Twitter searches, YouTube channels (RSS), and most recently, high-value Mastodon accounts (feedbin.com/blog/2023/01/05/ma).

thanks to Feedbin, nothing that is or should be "pull" media ever touches my email inbox.

today, I used Feedbin's sharing (feedbin.com/help/sharing-read-) to let me view an RSS entry in Archive.today, Google Cache, or Wayback Machine without copying and pasting the URL:

February 06, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

in online dating, how many people are in the pool? let's guess.

per pewresearch.org/internet/2023/, 37% of US adults age 30-49 have ever used online dating (including 5% now, 5% in the past year).

King Co (Seattle) has 722k residents age 30-49. 5% is 36k across all prefs & apps.

(note: only 23% of age 30-49 are single. 5% overall implies ~22% of singles.)

anyway, one gender, one app? try (36/2)*0.3 or ~5k people. maybe it's 50-200% of that.

so, the pool is very roughly 3k - 10k people.

February 03, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

when the community notices something that you've cared about for like 15 years: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3

🙂

January 29, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

have kids born after 2015? they'll be the LLM-native generation.

today's 7-year-olds won't remember writing without LLMs.

what's that mean? OpenAI will appear in Microsoft products, then Google Pathways in Docs.

like spellcheck, they'll be default-on. natives will type a prompt, only they won't think of it as a prompt. it won't *be* a prompt. it's just writing.

type an idea or question, then choose a length/depth & tone. or see 3 LLM versions of a paragraph, pick the best. edit. repeat.

January 25, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

anyone seen a K-12 school that requires a class on critical thinking?

does it use the media that kids will actually encounter as adults? think political misinformation on the Web, quasi-science and scams on Instagram and TikTok, and YouTube videos pushing "gateway" conspiracy theories.

bonus if it emphasizes probabilities more than all/none or us/them. maybe integrate forecasting (Metaculus?) so they experience being wrong and re-evaluating.

(related: bangkokpodcast.com/teaching-cr)

January 24, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

"The camel is a valuable animal in the cybersecurity field due to its ability to store large amounts of data in its hump. Camels are able to cross vast distances with little water, which makes them ideal for carrying large amounts of data across networks. In addition, their long eyelashes protect their eyes from sand and dust, making them perfect for working in dusty environments such as data centers."

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3

January 24, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

I'm impressed at the tolerances and collision avoidance: youtube.com/watch?v=gWzY3SRATr

(more: bumblebeespaces.com)

January 17, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

PSA: iOS 16 (unintentionally?) removed the setting that makes Siri always respond silently.

it's back in 16.2 (!). you'll have to flip it on again. Settings → Siri → Prefer Silent Responses

January 17, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

I've had minor knee pain that comes and goes - a few weeks with occasional pain, a few months without. I attributed it to cycling.

it didn't go away, so I saw a physical therapist. he gave me a short exam, said my quads were tight, and said I should do these two stretches 1-2x/day.

36 hours and 3 stretch sessions later, gone.

(more: myrehabconnection.com/5-simple or search for: flexor stretches)

January 16, 2023
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

nber.org/system/files/working_

"We used the results to examine the cost-effectiveness of investing in water treatment for point-of-collection chlorine dispensers or a large-scale program providing coupons for free chlorine solution. We estimate a cost per expected Disability-Adjusted Life Year averted due to water treatment of around USD 40 for both"

"approximately 45 times lower than the widely used threshold of 1x GDP per capita per DALY averted."

(thx to GiveWell for support. )

January 14, 2023