September 6, 2024

"Who are you?"

This independent publication hopes to remain totally anonymous, both for intellectual integrity and for safety purposes. Rest assured that I am speaking my mind.

"What do you write about?"

Short answer: Whatever interests me.

Long answer:

  • To paraphrase the 2008 paper Driven by Compression Progress, "interestingness" maps to learning curve steepness. Following my interests optimizes my personal gradient descent.

  • The book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, based on my understanding after reading half, claims the optimal success algorithm to be: searching for novelty by diving into interesting things and welcoming serendipity.

  • Since re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I've started to believe in following my sense of "quality" — even if I can't define the sense.

  • In his autobiography Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Feynman describes how he did research which led to his Nobel Prize: he pursued seemingly pointless work just for the sake of having fun.

More importantly, quantity has a habit of producing quality. Ed Sheeran's writing advice: "When you turn the dirty tap on, it's going to flow sh*t water out — for a substantial amount of time — and then clean water's gonna start flowing."

I'll persist to clean water only if writing is an interest-driven joy rather than a chore with an agenda.

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Give man a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

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Give man a mask, and he will tell you the truth.