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20 September
Mathematician at UCLA, working mainly in harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. Writes What's new, a long-running blog on their research, open problems and expository notes.
Why Do We Need Human Mathematicians Anymore? [This is a guest post by Po-Shen Loh, crossposted from his blog, where an illustrated version appears. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] Similar logic applies…
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19 September
Mathematician at UCLA, working mainly in harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. Writes What's new, a long-running blog on their research, open problems and expository notes.
17 September
Mathematician at UCLA, working mainly in harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. Writes What's new, a long-running blog on their research, open problems and expository notes.
A CERN for AI-assisted science? [This is a guest post by Dimitris Koukoulopoulos. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] At the 2026 World Cup semifinal, England led Argentina 1-0 with less than t…
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Why I didn’t sign the Fields medallists’ letter [This is a guest post by Timothy Gowers, crossposted from his blog. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] When I was around 11 I heard for the first time about Fer…
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Becoming a benchmark [This is a guest post by Talia Ringer. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] When I was wrapping up graduate school in computer science in Spring 2021, I was given…
benchmarks Related
16 September
Artist and developer who makes esoteric software, games and tools aboard a sailboat as part of Hundred Rabbits with Rekka Bellum; creator of the Uxn virtual machine and the Orca livecoding environment.
One of the first game we ever published for #Uxn was Donsol, five years ago, to celebrate, we've made a whole new version of the game with new monster sprites, better resolution and animations. We had originally made it with the Playdate in mind, but they didn't want it so we're making available to play it directly in the itchio page, or via your favourite Uxn emulator! https://hundredrabbits.itch.io/donsol We hope that you enjoy it. Have a good autumn. :) Rek & Dev Related
Front-end web developer at Paravel and co-host of the ShopTalk Show podcast; blogs at daverupert.com.
Happy macOS is updating soon so software starts acting quirky week to all who celebrate! Related
15 September
Clinical psychologist, EMDR consultant and yoga teacher in Boulder, Colorado. Author of The Complex PTSD Workbook and EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology; writes on trauma, attachment and the nervous system.
Check out my latest yoga class on YouTube - Vagus Nerve Yoga: Own Your Story At a Physical level, this class invites some challenging balance postures that are both grounding and an invitation to celebrate your aliveness. Related
9 September
American author of speculative fiction, including The Paper Menagerie and the Dandelion Dynasty series, and translator of Chinese science fiction. Also a programmer and lawyer.
Thank you to @fondalee.bsky.social, @harvardbookstore.bsky.social, and everyone who came to celebrate the launch of The Passing of the Dragon with me! It was an unforgettable night. A limited number of signed copies are available at the Harvard Book Store for anyone who couldn’t make it. Related
8 September
Co-founder and CEO of OpenAI; previously president of Y Combinator.
Software entrepreneur who bootstrapped and sold FeedbackPanda and now builds Podscan; writes The Bootstrapped Founder.
I see so many hot takes on the Theo video where it's obvious the person didn't watch it but felt it was appropriate to grandstand a contrarian argument to get clout with the dev crowd (while actually agreeing with what Theo says). Losing a lot of respect for people right now. Related
7 September
Founder and editor-in-chief of MacStories, writing about Apple software, iPad workflows and automation since 2009. He co-hosts the AppStories podcast.
The Once and Future App Store This week on AppStories, we celebrate the 500th episode of the show with a look at the App Store’s past, present, and future. On AppStories+, Federico and John pick some of their all-time favorite apps. Also available o…
Related
3 September
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals, and creator of Omarchy.
Their words
I'd rather celebrate people updating their priors than dunking on them for being late. Make it cool to change your mind when you realize the facts have changed!
Show the whole quote
@dhh on X x.com
1 September
American author of speculative fiction, including The Paper Menagerie and the Dandelion Dynasty series, and translator of Chinese science fiction. Also a programmer and lawyer.
Reminder: this is in ONE WEEK! Get your tickets now to help me celebrate my new collection! Quoting @kyliu99.bsky.social The wonderful @fondalee.bsky.social will join me at the Brattle Theatre on September 8, 2026, at 6:00 PM to help me celebrate THE PASSING OF THE DRAGON AND OTHER STORIES. Thank you to the @harvardbookstore.bsky.social for sponsoring the event. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/ken-liu-at... Related
Writer and consultant on formal methods and software correctness; author of Practical TLA+ and Logic for Programmers.
31 August
Designer, illustrator and CSS developer known for single-div CSS illustrations, a yearly portfolio redesign, and a set of single-topic side-project sites.
🎉 Nestflix turned 5 years old this month! Time flies, whew. To celebrate, I made some t-shirts! If you love movies within movies or shows within shows, you can grab one too. 👉 nestflix.fun
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26 August
Design engineer; formerly at Linear and Vercel; author of Sonner and Vaul; teaches animations.dev.
We are also hiring! What initially led me to apply was the trial week. It’s not just for the company to see if you are a fit, but also for you, as a candidate, to see if the company is a good fit for you. That way you can make a more informed decision yourself. It essentially reduces the risk of making the wrong decision, since you get more data points to base your decision on. It’s as if you are a part of the team for a few days. Quoting @linear Today we're announcing our second employee tender offer. We passed $100m ARR earlier this year and now have more than 40,000 paying customers. The tender lets our teammates participate in that success at a $2.5B valuation: Related
25 August
Machine-learning researcher on open language models; writes the Interconnects newsletter and the RLHF Book, after leading post-training at Ai2.
OOO for a bit, time to celebrate & rest :) Related
American author of speculative fiction, including The Paper Menagerie and the Dandelion Dynasty series, and translator of Chinese science fiction. Also a programmer and lawyer.
The wonderful @fondalee.bsky.social will join me at the Brattle Theatre on September 8, 2026, at 6:00 PM to help me celebrate THE PASSING OF THE DRAGON AND OTHER STORIES. Thank you to the @harvardbookstore.bsky.social for sponsoring the event. Tickets: eventbrite.com
Related
19 August
Art critic, broadcaster and author; wrote on art for The Independent and The Sunday Telegraph and presents BBC art documentaries. Author of Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane.
8th October sees the launch of Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found in paperback format - and to celebrate I will be at Conway Hall in London for 'Unveiling Vermeer - The Man and his Masterpieces'. I hope to see you there! eventbrite.co.uk
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Chief AI Scientist at Databricks, after its acquisition of MosaicML, where he was a founding team member; known for the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis from his MIT PhD (ICLR 2019 Best Paper).
An incredible way to celebrate the amazing PR partner who kindly allows the "Chief AI Scientist" at Databricks retweet Cookie Monster. Quoting @gracelynch (2/2) But it’s also so cool that I am 1) alive and 2) that I have a weird ass curly mullet right now. To celebrate, I’m donating to the #jimmyfund to #KCANCER. Join: Related
7 August
Co-founded Neuralink and founded Science Corp, which is building a retinal implant; writes about neural interfaces and biology.
Creator of the Keras deep-learning library and the ARC-AGI benchmark.
LLMs
Their words
However, looking ahead, I still do not believe that future AI (say, in 15 years) will be based on the LLM stack. I believe it will necessarily have to move closer to its optimal, final form -- symbolic learning. Obviously this is a risky and contrarian belief -- the safe bet would be LRMs. But let's see.
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@fchollet on X x.com
5 August
Economist at George Mason University. Writes Overcoming Bias on prediction markets, signalling and the far future, and wrote The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain.
3 August
Product discovery coach; wrote Continuous Discovery Habits and writes Product Talk.
29 July
Polyglot; founded Fluent in 3 Months and argues for speaking from day one rather than waiting until you are ready.
28 July
Software engineer; co-founder and former CTO of Tailscale, previously on the Go team at Google.
13 July
Computer science professor at Georgetown University and author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity; writes about focus, technology and work at calnewport.com and hosts the Deep Questions podcast.
6 July
Product discovery coach; wrote Continuous Discovery Habits and writes Product Talk.
1 July
American-Polish journalist and historian, staff writer at The Atlantic; author of Gulag, Iron Curtain, Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc.
7 May
Professor of finance at NYU's Stern School of Business, known for his work on valuation. He publishes his data, spreadsheets and classes free at Damodaran Online and writes the Musings on Markets blog.
Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO of Apple on Sept 1, 2026, after fifteen years atop the company. He has been critiqued for being too cautious, but I celebrate his restraint in my post on his tenure. bit.ly
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4 April
Author and clean-energy analyst who writes on solar cost curves.
14 March
Mac and iOS developer at the Iconfactory, where he has worked on apps including Twitterrific and Tot. He writes about development at furbo.org.
Your Mac and a Canon Printer Our trusty Brother MFC laser printer and scanner was getting long in the tooth and my wife wanted color printing. After a lot of research, she landed on the Canon MF644Cdw and placed an order. Initially, we were both ha…
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13 March
Founder and chief analyst of SemiAnalysis; reports on semiconductor supply chains, AI datacentre economics and what the chip export controls actually do.
Their words
but I think he can build the uh clean room. It'll take a year or two. Maybe initially it won't be super fast, but then over time you'll get faster and faster at it. But then the really complex part is actually developing the process technology and building wafers. And I don't think he can develop that uh quickly. I think that has a lot of built-up knowledge.
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youtube.com
17 February
Product designer and entrepreneur; author of Mobile First and Web Form Design; formerly a product director at Google; now building AI products.
25 November 2025
Medieval historian at the LSE; writes Going Medieval and The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, and spends a lot of it correcting what people think the period was like.
On contrarian history Unfortunately, though I have made the world’s best booty shorts and deployed them with great skill and aplomb, there are still those in our society who refuse to heed my message, and also to learn basic history. This fa…
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18 November 2025
Writer and former Substack product manager; publishes essays and interviews on technology, culture and China at jasmi.news.
26 September 2025
Reinforcement-learning researcher; co-wrote the field's standard textbook, wrote The Bitter Lesson, and shared the 2024 Turing Award.
From one piece
Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead end
2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
Their words
It's our choice whether we should say oh they are our offspring and we should be proud of them and we should celebrate their achievements or we should we could say oh no they're not us and we should be horrified.
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youtube.com
Their words
I I really view myself as a classicist rather than as a contrarian. I go to what what the larger community of of thinkers about the mind have always thought.
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youtube.com
12 September 2025
Professor at Berkeley working on robot learning; co-founded Physical Intelligence, and argues that robots will learn from data rather than be programmed.
Their words
So, I think it'll be the same thing that that we'll see an increase in the scope that we're giving that we're willing to give to the robots as they get better and better where initially the scope might be like there is a particular thing you do like you're making the coffee or something. Uh whereas as they get more capable, as their ability to have common sense and a broader repertoire of tasks increases, then we'll give them greater scope. Now you're running the whole coffee shop.
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youtube.com
2 August 2025
Writer and former Substack product manager; publishes essays and interviews on technology, culture and China at jasmi.news.
Their words
I initially started making Anki (well, Mochi) cards to keep track of Google DeepMind's LLM lineage—Gopher, Chinchilla, Gato, PaLM, Sparrow, Meena, LaMDA, Bard, Gemini, etc.
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jasmi.news
31 July 2025
Anthropologist; wrote Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and The Secret History of the Mongol Queens.
China Russia
Their words
If you have a nation of 1 million people and you are ruling over hundreds of millions of people, hundreds of millions of people, China, Russia, the Middle East, you do not do that through warfare. You conquer them initially through warfare, but you do not rule them through warfare. You've got to be offering something that they want, something that they like.
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youtube.com
19 January 2025
Growth advisor and operator who has led growth at Miro, Amplitude, Dropbox and SurveyMonkey.
Their words
And my contrarian opinion is that full-time jobs are not the best way to monetize the skill that you have. It's one of the packages that everybody should evaluate and take advantage of, but too many people blindly default to that package
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youtube.com
16 October 2024
Writer on a lost civilisation of the Ice Age; wrote Fingerprints of the Gods and presented Ancient Apocalypse. Archaeologists reject the claims, which he disputes at length.
Their words
Luis and Walter Alvarez, who made that incredible discovery, initially their discovery was based entirely on impact proxies, just as the Younger Dryas is. There was no crater. And for a long time they were disbelieved because they couldn’t produce a crater.
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youtube.com
31 December 2023
Programmer known online as technomancy; author of Leiningen, the Clojure build tool, and a maintainer of the Fennel programming language.
in which an escape route is discovered I was initially something of a skeptic when I first read about the Language Server Protocol. As a huge fan of REPL-based development, I thought it was a step back from the nREPL protocol, which had several years head st…
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23 July 2023
Pen name of the Canadian-American writer behind mrmoneymustache.com, a blog on frugality, early retirement and index-fund investing that has run since 2011.
The Comfort Crisis As with many things in life these days, it all started with an episode of the Peter Attia podcast. In this edition, our nation’s most Badass Doctor was interviewing a guest I initially dismissed as not overly applicable…
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1 April 2022
Software engineer who writes the blog Made of Bugs about performance, debugging and understanding computer systems. Previously worked at Anthropic on interpretability, at Stripe on Sorbet, and at Ksplice.
Transformers for software engineers Ever since its introduction in the 2017 paper, Attention is All You Need, the Transformer model architecture has taken the deep-learning world by storm. Initially introduced for machine translation, it has become the to…
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15 August 2020
Rust engineer at Google working on Android; maintains Tokio and works on Rust in the Linux kernel.
Nothing matches. Show everything
What is a korrent?
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Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public
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