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columns/2026-05-14-by-attrition.md

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-I don't want to lead just for leadership sake. I don't want to be the default example by virtue of attrition. I want to inspire and to steer because...? I can't find the motivation. I take such a hands-off approach, because I believe it's better to let everyone find their own way? Do I really believe that, or it's just what I believe was expected of me? What is my hope for others, if not for myself? I think that's the root of a lot of attempted influence: I can't, so I'll try through you instead. I couldn't figure out how to rely on others, so I'll just vaguely insist upon it for you instead. But that's just placing the burdon on someone else. If I truly believe in something, why do I resist it? Either there's a conflicting belief opposing the effort, or it's not truly my belief. It doesn't really capture what I think and feel. I think it's a mixed-bag: that I have a lot of growing to do, and that I need to build meaningful connections with others. I hesitate to pursue the latter before the prior is established (undeniably,) but then again I probably won't make any real progress without learning from others. A self-limiting condition: become excellent before seeking others, but you need others to become truly excellent. So get comfortable with the discomfort of your own mediocrity.
+Do we lead by virtue, or by attrition?

columns/2026-05-18-survivors-bias.md

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-title: Survivor's Bias
-date: 2026-05-18
-layout: column.njk
-tags: [column, philosophy]
-permalink: /columns/2026/survivors-bias/
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-What is consciousness? The thing that leaves the body when your head's cut off.
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-Don't think - just do. That's the future.
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-I hate to think that I'm already too old to make something of myself.
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-The winners write history - Survivor's bias
-
-This reads like productivity porn: inevitably falling from one pile of money into another

columns/2026-05-31-weak-model.md

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+Is there enough substance to an individual, for them to tune in and resonate with truth? What do we say to the one anchored to the earth as their mind soars off into some unseen world? But then what does the mob have to say. What truth can they align with, while roiling in a boil?
+
+We put tremendous emphasis on the individual's experience. As if truth were not divined statistically, but by those blessed few.
 
 what I think I understand about the world is a weak model.
 

columns/2026-06-06-marketing-to-agents.md

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-Marketing to agents / AI - I imagine that sometime soon, purchasing will be delegated to an agent, who will manage services, subscriptions, ad-hoc purchases on behalf of their subscriber.
+Marketing to agents / AI - I imagine that sometime soon, purchasing will be delegated to an agent, who will manage services, subscriptions, ad-hoc purchases on behalf of their subscriber? Does the agent get an affiliate link?

columns/2026-06-09-harvard-material.md

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-title: Harvard Material
-date: 2026-06-09
-layout: column.njk
-tags: [column, society]
-permalink: /columns/2026/harvard-material/
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-Knicks lost. Do I care. I bothered to watch the broadcast, and get swept up in the excitement.
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-Anyway, why I'm here - what would it take to never have to babysit an update again? How could we have our software transparently swap in new modules / components / dependencies / etc without needing a handler?
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-I struggle with the chat interface - the agent dumps so much material, and I have to recall it while asking questions and clarifications.
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-How does anyone form an original, defensible opinion about anything? Religion sells the idea that the answers can be found in the book, at the end of the chapter, sometimes. But what does it take to look at a situation and have an informed opinion? How do I look at a problem, and rather than bash my head against it, step back and see where the barriers are? How do I modulate the desperate urge to survive, by doing the "necessary thing," no matter the cost? The belief that I have to push through, mindlessly. This might be good in the beginning, as a survival tactic, but what comes next, when you don't die? You survived - what now?
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-We're looking for a new fit, sure we can squeeze in or through, but when we're changing shape, where does it chaffe? Where does it constrict and limit our motion? What isn't obvious or clear?
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-Not knowing the answer isn't strictly a sign of ignorance - but you have to write the story. Sometimes it highlights the limits or shortcomings, the blind spots. Is the truck driver stupid because he can't see around corners?
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-We should be ashamed that most students aren't Harvard material.But we quickly write it off as a moral failing - the student was lazy, or indifferent. It wasn't that our process failed to create successful pupils, that our learning apparatus is defective, and we've framed a success rate less than 5% as a mark of excellence, rather than a sign that something is wildly ineffective.
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-Maybe deliberately so.