Blog
Thoughts, mostly about technology and philosophy. Sometimes about cats.
Summaries might be LLM generated. Actually, they probably are. Yes, they are definitely all generated by LLM. They're normally okay but I'm not going to take responsiblity for them or anything.
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The National Highway System: America's Original Housing Sin
A thought experiment about how highways enable wealthy people to oppose density without losing access to services, since workers can commute long distances despite not being able to afford housing in affluent areas. If highways didn't exist, self-interest would push the wealthy to support nearby housing density or transit to maintain access to contractors, restaurant workers, and other service providers.
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I Wish Elon Musk had More Imagination
Contemplating Musk's role in federal layoffs, the author suggests his time would be better spent on ambitious projects like reforming industrial policy, automating taxes, or even resolving international conflicts rather than firing low-level employees.
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Stargate SG-1 was the Last Great Sunday Television Show
Reminiscing on shows like Stargate SG-1 as the perfect example of "Sunday Television Shows" - episodic, light-hearted programs with simple character structures that were ideal for casual viewing without requiring consistent commitment, a format that has largely disappeared in the streaming era.
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On Unproductive Work and the US Economy
A significant portion of the US economy is tied up in zero-sum games that produce little societal value, exemplified by the complex healthcare billing system where insurance companies and hospitals employ millions in administrative roles that only exist to counteract each other, unlike manufacturing jobs which create tangible, universal value.
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On Variance as an Explanation for Dominance in Certain Fields
A humorous exploration of how slight differences in variance between gender groups could explain the surprising statistic that men suffer nine times more electrocution injuries than women, particularly from dangerous "fractal wood burning" hobbies—leading to broader reflections on how we might misinterpret group differences by focusing on means or outliers rather than complete distributions.
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Anki/Jisho Chrome Extension
LLMs have dramatically simplified Chrome extension development, demonstrated by a quick project that looks up Japanese words on Jisho and creates Anki cards, with minimal effort required even when adding Netflix subtitle support.
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LLM Generated Flashcards
A developer created a small application to generate flashcards with context sentences and translations for language learning, finding this approach helpful for initially memorizing words before transitioning to Anki for long-term practice.
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Noteomatic - Beautiful Understandable Handwritten Notes
Notematic is a tool that converts handwritten journal entries into HTML or Markdown, using LLMs like Gemini Flash to decipher handwriting and integrate your physical notebook content with digital note-taking systems like Obsidian.