Nori Parelius wrote a thoughtful article about taking notes, managing slip-boxes and “working with knowledge” in general. It matches my experience fiddling with various methods: what should be a playful exploration of ideas can easily become laborious bookkeeping. Caveat scriptor!(ᔥZettelkasten*)
Here are a few good comments on what recently happened at the FDA:
V(inay) P(rasad)’s ouster was clearly death by lobbyists, but then they had plenty of fodder. The current administration does seem to be going for a mid-to-late 19th century vibe in many ways, and this is one of them. Sure, Ulysses Grant probably didn’t coin the word, but isn’t that the peak period when those who had the president’s ear could get things done quickly and blatantly? Whether that excites you or scares you, well, that depends on what kind of person you are and what you do for a living.
Selfishly speaking, it will be good to see VP back publishing oncology papers. Here is a recent one about informative censoring in clinical trials, with a lay summary here. More of that, please.
The most recent issue of the FT Weekend Magazine is about games of all kinds, but the highlight is a massive article about the tragedy of Disco Elysium. It is depressing throughout, with a glimmer of hope buried near the end:
Kurvitz is making his next game at a new studio, Red Info, with Aleksander Rostov, Helen Hindpere and Chris Avellone, lead writer of the 1999 video game Planescape: Torment, a huge influence on Disco. “[Kurvitz] felt that Disco was the project in his head, and once he was cut off from the franchise, he was worried he didn’t have any other ideas in him,” Avellone told me. “I felt that was bullshit . . . Robert’s too creative to simply ‘not’ create something or rely on a single world idea in his head.”
Creators of Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium working together on a new game? Be still, my heart.
And with these four links I hereby declare a moratorium on LLM-related matters on this blog, until further notice.
For a contrarian take on LLMs as intelligent machines, here is Alexey Guzey saying that:
I remain dubious.