This is a hardcore quote from Horrace Mann who said this at a college graduation ceremony. Not everyone will agree with it. I suspect everyone has the desire to do something great and leave their mark on this world, but most don’t end up doing anything. And oftentimes it is very hard to change anything.… Continue reading “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”
The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life
There are many definitions of intelligence and this is something I think about often, especially from the point of view of artificial intelligence. From the point of view of society, I love this quote from Naval Ravikant: “The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.” From this… Continue reading The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life
Notes on “Grid-like and distance codes for representing word meaning in the human brain”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921001531 I just read the paper, some interesting points on testing cognitive maps with language and seeing if grid codes will fire. Their experiment consisted of creating audiovisual objects (words, shapes, and associated sounds) and had them mapped onto a 2D space. 31 participants were recruited and trained on 4 tasks and then finally tested… Continue reading Notes on “Grid-like and distance codes for representing word meaning in the human brain”
Notes on “No Free Lunch from Deep Learning in Neuroscience: A Case Study through Models of the Entorhinal-Hippocampal Circuit”
I just finished reading this paper. It is very relevant to the work I’m doing now on grid cells as I just reimplemented “Vector-based navigation using grid-like representations in artificial agents” in pytorch. I got similar results as in the paper, namely that only in specific circumstances could I get grid cells to appear in… Continue reading Notes on “No Free Lunch from Deep Learning in Neuroscience: A Case Study through Models of the Entorhinal-Hippocampal Circuit”
Prepare for every meeting you attend
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” — Benjamin Franklin In modern companies, meetings are one of the main ways you work, communicate, and make progress. This is especially true for technology companies and white-collar work. Meetings can be very painful to people because they may be thought of as a waste of… Continue reading Prepare for every meeting you attend
word2vec notes
I was amazed when word2vec first came out and it facinated me that such a powerful language model could be built so easily. I wanted to get a deeper understanding of the math behind it because I have some ideas on potential changes to it, so I thought I would try to implement the original… Continue reading word2vec notes
On Richard Feynman and your core questions
Richard Feynman famously wrote: “You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every… Continue reading On Richard Feynman and your core questions
Book review of “The Power of NOW”
This is one of my favorite books, I read it at least once a year. I like the writing style and the way Eckhart Tolle explains practicing presence. This won’t be a full book review, but there are a few specific areas I do want to mention. “The key is to be in a state… Continue reading Book review of “The Power of NOW”
Notes on “A unified theory for the origin of grid cells through the lens of pattern formation”
I just read the paper, I’m still processing it, but here are some of my notes, thoughts and questions. https://papers.nips.cc/paper/2019/hash/6e7d5d259be7bf56ed79029c4e621f44-Abstract.html 3 Main models types in neuroscience: Descriptive explanations delineate an abstract characterization of aphenomenon, while mechanistic and normative explanations bridge abstractions of different levels.Mechanistic explanations show how a phenomenon emerges from lower-level components (e.g., howcircuit… Continue reading Notes on “A unified theory for the origin of grid cells through the lens of pattern formation”
“$100m offers” book review
I just read “$100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No” from Alex Hormozi. https://www.amazon.com/100M-Offers-People-Stupid-Saying-ebook/dp/B099QVG1H8 I like his writing style. Here are my notes from the book: Main theme from the book: “Make people an offer so good they feel stupid saying no”. This offer is what he calls the… Continue reading “$100m offers” book review