The limits of AI
In a recent experiment, I asked ChatGPT to create a Western blot, then to make it more realistic. The results? A fascinating journey that reveals much about the current state of AI.
A lot can happen in a year
I started this website as a project to explore thinking. Because writing is thinking. It started slowly but began to
Synthesizing
Over the past year, I wrote an article every week and sent it to a growing list of curious readers. The topics were eclectic, sometimes meandering, but always related to a simple question: how do you come up with a good idea?
Wait
One of the big ideas in having a minimum viable mindset is to get your ideas out in to the
Minimum Viable Mindset
“Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw”, says Bill Kaelin, Nobel laureate and professor of medicine. Scientists need to write papers that include fewer grand claims and more proof to make the scientific literature more reliable. Scientists need minimum viable discoveries.
Naming things
One of the key functions of science is to organize knowledge. Scientists take new information and classify and categorize it — connect it with the known. Name it. But knowing the name of the thing is not the same as knowing the thing.
Mental models
The DIKW triangle is a way to organize the relationship between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. When I first came across this model, it resonated with me. But I wanted to understand: how do you move up the hierarchy?
Dynamic range
In a common parable, a group of blind men heard that a strange animal called an elephant had been brought to the town. The moral of this story is that humans have a tendency to view the world through their experiences. But this is not the whole story.
Counting cycles
We published a paper last week. 🎉 We worked on this project for several years, plus one additional year for the editorial process (broken, I know). A conservative measurement estimates at least 5 years from start to finish. If a cycle takes 5 years to complete, how many cycles are left?
Consistency
It’s 9 o’clock on Sunday morning. I’ve written an article and sent it out every previous Sunday for almost a year, but I haven’t written this Sunday’s article yet. There goes the streak. I should probably throw in the towel.
