Author: smartistone

Raskin: Trump looking to ‘exact vengeance’ on Harvard with foreign student block: “Harvard has turned into a hotbed for anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators that put American students at risk,” she continued. “They’ve repeatedly failed to address the serious issues plaguing their campus, despite warnings, and now they’re facing the consequences.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, when… Continue reading Trump’s ‘War on Harvard’ will not lead to lasting reforms

A recurring theme I have observed in rationalism-type communities is a sort of moralistic fatalism or nihilism in regard to AI cheating, particularly in the context of the classroom or college, which is that cheating is good or justified, and futile or hopeless to stop. Colleges must accept that cheating is the norm, or that… Continue reading AI cheating and fatalism

Mr. Langan developed the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU), but it’s not regarded as a valid scientific theory. Any mention of it is typically met with derision. From the post “Chris Langan, the CTMU, and the process and pitfalls of developing research”: Like Mr. Langan, I have also claimed to have one of the… Continue reading Math/IQ challenge update: some thoughts

#1 Scott Adams reveals he has the same cancer as former President Joe Biden. As we know, Biden revealed on Sunday he has late-stage prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, making it terminal. But more surprising, Scott Adams, only 67, revealed a similar diagnosis and says he has until only Summer. A few… Continue reading The Daily View 5/23/2025: Prostate Cancer, Harvard, Tax Cuts, Claude 4

I have been thinking about why writing has become harder in recent years. I blame what I call the ‘Substack effect’. In short–the sudden, huge success of the Substack blogging platform has raised the bar for online, short-form non-fiction writing. The popularity of Substack has both raised the quality of online writing in the aggregate,… Continue reading The ‘Substack Effect’–How Substack made writing better, but also harder

In an upcoming book co-authored with Nate Soares, Eliezer Yudkowsky doesn’t pull any punches, promising in the title that if anyone builds superhuman AI, that ‘everyone in will die.’ But It’s more likely that rather than everyone dying, this book will go in the dustbin of history. Like most non-fiction books, the putative objective of… Continue reading No one needs or wants a book about AI risk

Inspired by Dynomight’s viral post “Why doesn’t advice work?” I have been thinking about why does advice work so poorly. Or why is there such a stark disconnect between the application of said advice and the desired outcome? Why does advice work for a few and not most? I am going to ignore the edge… Continue reading Why does advice work so poorly?

Tesla stock keeps going up having surged from as low as $230 a month ago to over $350. The cars are everywhere. Three years post-Covid, Tesla went from a niche to mainstream, defying the media’s predictions of it either running out of money or being a fad. What makes this more impressive is that the… Continue reading How Tesla defied the odds

Consider the following recent stories as indicative of the stark contrast between the risk of small business, compared to the relative safety and high-ROI of careerism–a similar patten observed in 2008, 2020, and now 2025 it pertains to Trump’s tariffs: “The Art of the Price Hike”: Trump’s tariff plan has pushed America’s businesses into a… Continue reading Trump’s tariffs: white-collar careers boom, small biz struggles: same as it always was

Interesting post by Rob K. Henderson, Experts and Elites Play Fundamentally Different Games. He begins by defining the categories: Experts are people who know things. They’re judged by other experts—people who speak the same language, use the same methods, and know the same details. You can spot experts by their credentials, their technical precision, or… Continue reading Pundits vs. Elites vs. Experts