#problems

Unrequired Reading, 003

Tools over problems I've been thinking this week about how addictive it is with these new tools to be able to build things without so much of the friction. The danger of that is falling in love with the effort and interactions over solving the problem. This is partly because of Karl Koch's piece on falling in love with the build , which is about the dangerous little pleasure of making something nice and then trying to find a reason for it afterwards. It is aimed at design engineers, but it applies neatly to almost anything creative. Just look at this website, it's exactly that level of over-en

Matt Davey · EN

The Dark Side of Cooperation

dealing with the problems of cooperation first Quick note—this post is available to listen to (read by me) here . We’ve established that aligning interests through Theory of Mind is humanity’s superpower. Understanding this concept on the level of different groups through Emmett Shear’s “Theory of Groups of Other Minds ” can help us achieve even greater alignment, if and only if we invite one another into our group. But who qualifies as our group and who doesn’t? Siloed Alignment is Dangerous Social animals generally have instincts that allow them to naturally align with kin—conjuring a pictur

LessWrong · EN

Guess Which Way?

Math problems get solved from time to time. Today I wonder if they are solved the way we guessed they were going to be solved? For example do most feel that P vs NP is likely to be equal or unequal? William Gasarch has conducted three polls of researchers concerning this question. Confidence that P […]

Gödel's Lost Letter · EN