Join Notes

A batch of the best highlights from what Tristan's read, .

Perhaps this is why many of the most habit-forming products are those that provide continuous forms of novelty. Video games provide visual novelty. Porn provides sexual novelty. Junk foods provide culinary novelty. Each of these experiences offer continual elements of surprise.

Atomic Habits

James Clear

Transformers were essential for the emergence of AC as the standard choice of the new electric networks. DC was a logical choice for the earliest isolated minigrids serving sections of cities, and there were some undeniable concerns about the safety of high-voltage AC (HVAC).

Energy and Civilization

Vaclav Smil

But in the end, the remarkable thing is that all these operations—individually as simple as they are—can somehow together manage to do such a good “human-like” job of generating text. It has to be emphasized again that (at least so far as we know) there’s no “ultimate theoretical reason” why anything like this should work. And in fact, as we’ll discuss, I think we have to view this as a—potentially surprising—scientific discovery: that somehow in a neural net like ChatGPT’s it’s possible to capture the essence of what human brains manage to do in generating language.

What Is ChatGPT Doing ... And Why Does It Work?

Stephen Wolfram

...catch up on these, and many more highlights