ncase
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My "Creative Cyborg" talk + more!
🕑 Added 2024-09-03 01:34:30 +0000 UTCHi all! Regular update for you regular supporters: (again, thank y'all so much!)
Last month, Aug 2024:
1) 🙀 AI Safety for Fleshy Humans: Part 2 launched, if you didn't see!
. . .
2) 🤖 I gave a mini-talk at the final XOXO conference, on AI, Art, and "creative cyborgs"! The talk wasn't recorded, so here's the slides & transcript! (~9 min talk)
Here's a few choice slides:
. . .
3) 📣 Here's July+August's Signal Boosts! (reviews of misc stuff I liked recently)
Worth highlighting here, coz they may be of huge urgent interest to you:
The deadline to apply for MATS (a research code-camp for AI alignment, they pay you a stipend if chosen) is Sept 27. So if you're fresh outta high school or college, or you want a change of career, or you know someone who does, read their FAQ & see if you'd like to apply! (I did! Fingers crossed for me. 🤞)
My Signal Boost post has a quick, sloppy literature review of "drug-free" nasal sprays to prevent Covid (& other annoying airborne diseases like "common cold", influenza & RSV). My current verdict: needs much more study, but so far, very-low-cost yet very promising! There's a Covid wave this summer, & winter is coming. If you or an old / immuno-compromised friend are concerned, I recommend reading my mini-review above, and consider drug-free nasal sprays!
The most personally-useful use of LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, etc) I've found so far: You can use them to automatically generate Anki flashcards for you! New school year's starting up soon: if you or someone you know needs to super-charge their learning, consider AI Tutors + Anki flashcards! See my above blog post for details.
. . .
4) 😠 Patreon Housekeeping Crap:
This time, the bullshit is not Patreon's fault. It's Apple's. Apple's forcing all apps to use their in-app purchase system, which takes a 30%(?!?!) cut. Patreon has to bend to this or get kicked off the App Store.
This will NOT affect current subscriptions. But be forewarned: DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO NEW CREATORS ON PATREON ON iOS AFTER NOV 2024. Use the Patreon website instead. (This advice applies to any other apps on iOS: if you can subscribe with $, try doing it outside of Apple first.)
I'll update my Patreon page's banner on Nov 2024, to warn iOS users to NOT back me via iOS.
. . .
5) Plan for this month, Sep 2024:
Get a head start on AI Safety Part 3 so I don't miss my self-imposed deadline (Halloween 2024)
? Prototype a thing using LLMs for Hack Club
? Publish some "original research" on AI stuff? (maybe a project on my Backlog?)
. . .
6) 🎉 My 30th birthday is coming up in nine days! To celebrate, I'll navel-gazingly write a blog post titled, "Welp, I'm 30. (30 tips for 13-year-old me)". Stay tuned for that!
In the meantime, audience participation question! (for those of you above 30):
What's one of two pieces of advice, that you really wished you'd known much earlier?
Let me know in the Patreon comments! Thank you!
😸 Cheers!
~ Nicky Case
Comments
Laura
I love the "Use Sunscreen" talk for age-related advice, and just because I'm going through the process right now: You are allowed to leave, be that relationships or events or jobs (switching jobs now). You are allowed to say No. It's a very powerful word and life in general is not a race or a thing to be won. It's not a competition. And: time passes anyway, so even if it takes long, do the thing, because time will pass anyway.
Brittany B.
+1 to the "start stretching, stop drinking" advice. I hate how much time I literally wasted in my 20s on drinking (frequently alone) and smoking weed (often alone). Using those substances as a stand-in for "recreation" became a daily habit and made me miserable and depressed. What a huge waste of time and money. Now I have found a legitimately engrossing and productive hobby: knitting! (And crochet... And spinning... Probably soon dyeing wool and weaving at some point ...) Just think of all the cool things I could have made when I was literally just rotting my brain instead. (I'm sober now.) Anyway, I guess my advice boils down to: if you don't have a hobby, get one. Do something with your hands every day. Give yourself challenges to make new things and try new techniques. Learning is exhilarating! And my other advice is: if you're depressed and/or anxious, take stock of your life. Don't blame it on "brain chemistry" as if you have no control over your life. Eat real food. Get a good sleep; you should not regularly wake up feeling tired. Get outside the house (even when it's cold). Let the sun touch your skin. Move your body every day. Stretch. SEE YOUR FRIENDS! make new friends (see also: get a hobby).
Colin
Just turned 39 here. 1. Mentally, agree that age isn't to be feared. I am happier, wiser, more fulfilled etc now than at 29. 29 year old me did not have his shit nearly as together as I do, and I have no doubt 49 year old me will say the same thing. 2. Physically, it keeps getting harder, so take care of your body. Injuries are especially bad, take forever to heal and some may be with you forever, so be careful.
Nicky Case
Thank you for sharing! [realizes my posture right now is terrible, does a big stretch]
PlayguePals
Age is not a number to be feared, it's just a checklist of rotations. Thirties allow you to either grow in the skills you have already established or realize that you would like to refocus on new ones and use your forties to master them. You have not failed, you have not lost, you are living your life in your way. Also, it would be a good idea to start stretching and stop drinking.
