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Polyglot who speaks twenty languages and co-founded LingQ; argues that comprehensible input, not study, is what does the work.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Learning from input does not mean refusing grammar books; the point is to notice patterns, not to master the rules.

  Their words

  Some people think CI means you reject grammar books. I disagree. I often reference grammar materials and find these explanations useful. However, the focus of my learning is not to “master the rules”. Grammar resources simply help me notice and make sense of patterns in the language.

  blog.thelinguist.com

Novelist and critic, author of The Body Scout and Metallic Realms; writes the newsletter Counter Craft on fiction craft and the publishing industry.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The traditional five-part POV taxonomy is organized around grammatical person rather than narrative effect.

  Their words

  It's not that the categories are wrong exactly. But they are rooted more in grammar than narrative.

  There Are More than Five POVscountercraft.substack.com

Historian of maritime strategy at the US Naval War College; wrote The Wars for Asia and works on why continental and maritime powers fight differently.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The continental playbook is to take your neighbours one at a time — destabilise the rising, ingest the failing, wait to pounce — and that is Putin's game.

  Russia

  Their words

  You set them up to fail, you destabilize the rising, you ingest the failing, and you set up buffer zones in between, and you await the opportune moment to pounce and absorb. This is Vladimir Putin's game.

  youtube.com

Polyglot who speaks twenty languages and co-founded LingQ; argues that comprehensible input, not study, is what does the work.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Learning a language happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand; classroom drills feel productive and build nothing.

  Their words

  Classroom activities like grammar drills and vocabulary tests feel productive. You are doing something. But none of it builds the network your brain actually needs.

  What Is Second Language Acquisition?blog.thelinguist.com

Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, co-director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, and author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The distinct flavour of panpsychism implied by IIT, whereby space and time are tiled with substrates of proto-consciousness, is not problematic for the theory.

  Their words

  Second, we describe with nuance the distinct flavour of panpsychism implied by IIT - whereby space (and time) are tiled with substrates of (proto-) consciousness - and find this is not problematic for the theory.

  arxiv.org

Writer and artist, author of Steal Like an Artist; publishes a weekly newsletter and an annual list of the books he read.

• Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  The Grammar of Fantasy: An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories

  Their words

  One of the most gorgeously-produced books I read, with illustrations by Matthew Forsythe.

  austinkleon.com

Writes Don't Worry About the Vase, a near-daily account of what is happening in AI and what they think it means. Former Magic: the Gathering pro and trader; unusually willing to put a number on a belief and to grade their own past calls.

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  Slow Boring

  Their words

  He takes a very proto-rationalist, practical approach to this, that I very much appreciate, complete with yearly predictions. The writing is consistently enjoyable and clear.

  thezvi.substack.com

Director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology; an OpenAI board member until November 2023, and writes Rising Tide.

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  Nonproliferation is the wrong frame for AI misuse; the workable strategy is to use the gap before a capability spreads to build defences against it.

  Their words

  We should think of the gap between frontier models and proliferated models as an adaptation buffer: a limited time window when we know what bad actors will soon be able to use AI for, which gives us a chance to implement defensive measures that increase society’s resilience to the danger.

  helentoner.substack.com

Writer on the intersection of technology and finance. Author of the Bits about Money newsletter and host of the Complex Systems podcast; previously at Stripe.

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  The Social Network

  Their words

  The Social Network is substantially made up, more a source for vibes rather than a source for facts. Even the vibes fail to cohere with reality. And yet it convinced many proto-founders to put in YC applications.

  bitsaboutmoney.com

Programmer; founded comma.ai and tinygrad, and was the first to unlock the iPhone.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Reproduction is the thing life is built on and the thing machines cannot do; for all its progress, the silicon stack is nowhere near reproducing itself.

  Their words

  There’s two stacks of life in the world. There’s the biological stack and the silicon stack. The biological stack starts with reproduction. Reproduction is at the absolute core. The first proto-RNA organisms were capable of reproducing. The silicon stack, despite, as far as it’s come, is nowhere near being able to reproduce.

  youtube.com