31 January 2025
Generative Models Focus On Decoder Architecture
The influential LLM model milestone to come to light that popularized to some degree the cascade of generative models was the GPT-1 with decoder architecture and eventually followed into GPT-3. Since then, there has been a trend for LLM models to be more decoder focused. Other models that have played significant roles include: Bert, Transformer-XL, ELMo, ULMFiT, and LaMDA. T5 has been one of the few exceptions for an encoder-decoder architecture. You would wonder why this is the case.
Why Decoders Dominate:
- Autoregressive Generation: Decoders are good at predicting next item in a sequence. This autoregressive approach is fundamental to generation for coherence and novel content.
- Sequential Processing: Decoders process information step-by-step building on past generations which gives them long-range dependency capabilities to create complex and structured outputs.
- Task-Specific Optimization: They can handle complexities in grammar, semantics, and context.
- Simplified Training: Decoder-only models are simpler to train as they only need to learn the conditional probability distribution of next token given the previous ones. No need for a separate encoding step.
- Focus on Sequence-to-Sequence Tasks: Early successes on sequence-to-sequence tasks showed that for generation tasks the decoder component was most important and the computationally expensive aspect.
- Efficiency: For tasks that mainly require generating new content, you could achieve comparable or better results with just a decoder-only model and with less computational cost.
- Attention is All You Need: Decoders, by their nature, already used self-attention and adapting to a decoder-only setup was straightforward and highly effective.
- Scalability: Decoder-only Transformers scale well paving the way for very large models to generate highly coherent and creative text
- Computational Cost: Training encoder-decoder models is more expensive and often prohibitive especially for companies on limited budgets.
- Performance Gains: For generative tasks, performance gains were not seen as substantial with the introduction of an encoder step to justify the additional computational cost.
The Role of Encoders: While decoders are used for generation, encoders are used for understanding and representation of inputs.
- Contextual Understanding: Encoders provide for rich representations and capture meaning and context that enables better relevancy to decoder generation tasks.
- Feature Extraction: Encoders extract key features which the decoder can then use to generate context-specific output.
Gemini and T5: These models use both encoder and decoder architectures as a balance for better context understanding and generation.
- T5: This model takes in input and output as texts in a unified architecture where the encoder understands the input and the decoder generates the output.
- Gemini: This model supports multiple modalities where the encoder provides understanding and representation from various modalities and generates a more context-specific output in a specific modality.
GPT Recap
- GPT-1 (2018): demonstrated potential of decoder-only transformer architecture with 117 million parameters
- GPT-2 (2019): scaled up with 1.5 billion parameters, this increase led to improvements in text generation quality and coherence, raising concerns for misuse
- GPT-3 (2020): massive step forward with 175 billion parameters, scale up achieved greater performance, wider coverage on NLP tasks for text generation, translation, and few-shot learning
Throughout this process training techniques and model architectures were improved. Eventually, this effort shaped the advancements of LLM and the trend towards more versatile models.
30 January 2025
Dumb Things Companies Do With Candidates
- Asking candidates to take a series of tests, why do they need to take a test if they have X amount of experience? Do you ask CEOs, accountants, managers, and lawyers to take tests before hiring them?
- Stating you have a specific need on the Job Application, then trying to test the candidate on completely different things
- Stating you have a specific need on the Job Application, then trying to test the candidate, if you can test them on the matter then you already have the skills, what do you need them for?
- Stating you need someone for X because they need to up skill their candidates, but then also stating that your team has the necessary skills, so which is it are they unskilled, do you have incompetent team even after such detailed tests at interview?
- Rejecting candidates because you are looking for specific keywords
- Rejecting candidates because you don’t like how they look
- Rejecting candidates because of diversity, inclusion, and equity reasons, so you specifically looking for a transgender woman? So, basically the opposite of practicing diversity, inclusion, and equity?
- Companies that post ghost jobs to frustrate applicants
- Trying to play games with candidates during interview stages and during offer stages to put them off the role and turning it into a wasted time
- Part way through an interview process putting the job on hold or filling the job internally
- After successfully interviewing and going through the stages telling candidates that they couldn’t secure funding to hire
- Getting candidates to interview for a different role than the one they applied for because you think you know more about a candidate's skills and they would be more suitable for the other role
- Not acknowledging candidate application and then violating GDPR
- Not providing candidate feedback along the interview process and then again violating GDPR
- Using candidate CV/Resume as a scratch paper during the interview which again violates GDPR, especially if you throw it away in the bin in front of them
- Using racist, biased, and discriminatory language during an interview with candidates
- Rejecting a candidate before interviewing them or had a chance to get to know them
- Making assumptions about a candidate application, if you had to make an assumption then what is the point of interviewing them?
- Rejecting a candidate because they like a different football team, even if they had the skills to do the job, like how is that relevant to the role?
- Rejecting a candidate because they didn't use the correct pronouns
- Rejecting a candidate's test because they used american english instead of british english?
- Trying to expect candidates to answer based on a script
- Rejecting a candidate because they gave a different model answer than what you are expecting, even though the candidate answer was likely better than the model solution that you were expecting
- Rejecting a candidate because they make you feel insecure in your own role
- Rejecting a candidate because there aren't enough whitespaces on their CV/Resume
- Run candidates around in circles of red tape and politics
- Not willing to provide the right offer and on time
- Being stingy with job interview feedback
- Showcasing to candidates about how bad it is to work there, especially through employee feedback
- Not using an accurate job ad that reflects the reality of the job
- Talking about cultural fit like you looking to slot fill candidates rather than hire for their skills
- Expecting the candidate to have all the free time in the world and should be completely flexible
- Constantly changing interview dates with candidates, especially at the last minute
- Being too flippant and pedantic
- Refusing to shake hands with candidates during an on-site interview
- Being more curious about the background wallpaper they used on a virtual interview
- Having children running around in the background while conducting a virtual interview
- Asking the same question over and over again to the candidate, especially if the candidate has already answered it in full
- Being patronizing towards the candidate just because they are of a different race or have specific credentials, like what has any of that got to do with the job?
- Mixing up job applications and rejecting the wrong candidate
- Trying to offer a lower compensation to a candidate because they are of a specific racial background then making it obvious
- Rejecting a candidate because you think the candidate doesn't have the right to work in a specific location even when the candidate has provided proof that they do
- When interviewers are extremely late to interview a candidate and keep them hanging without any courtesy of excuse
- Being distracted with other things while interviewing a candidate
- Ghosting on candidates
- Giving preferential treatment to certain candidates over others while stating you practice diversity, inclusion, and equity
Music Generation Papers
- Wavenet: A Generative Model for Raw Audio
- Music Transformer
- Jukebox: A Generative Model for Music
- MusicLM: Generating Music from Text
- Simple and Controllable Music Generation
- Generating Music from Recurrent Neural Networks
- A Neural Network That Can Learn To Play the Piano
- DeepBach: A Steerable Model for Bach Chorales Generation
- It's Raw! Audio Generation with State-Space Models
- Interpreting Graphic Notation with Music LDM: An Improvisation of Cornelius Cardew's Treatise
- Exploring Tokenization Methods for Mutitrack Sheet Music Generation
- MuVi: Video-to-Music Generation with Semantic Alignment and Rhythmic Synchronization
Major World Events 2025
The following are major events that will shape 2025, worldwide, with social, political, and economic implications.
Geopolitical Shifts:
- G7 Summit
- NATO Summit
- Potential for Increased Global Tensions
- Shifting Alliances
- Reforms to International Organizations
Economic Developments:
- Global Economic Slowdown
- Energy Transition
- Technological Advancements and Breakthroughs
- Metaverse and Web3
Social Trends:
- Climate Change Impacts
- Social and Political Polarization
- Demographic Changes
Major Elections:
- Several Key Elections
Global Events:
- Expo 2025
- WEF 2025
Resource Scarcity and Geopolitics:
- Water Stress
- Food Security
- Critical Materials
Technological Disruptions:
- AI Development and Regulation
- Cybersecurity Threats
- Space Race
Global Health:
- Pandemic Preparedness
- Antimicrobial Resistance
- Global Health Security
Social and Cultural Shifts:
- Migration and Displacement
- Growing Inequality and Unrest
- Evolving Social Norms
Unforeseen Events:
- Natural Disasters
- Political Upheaval
- Alien Encounters (?)
29 January 2025
28 January 2025
Nova, LLama, Mistral, DeepSeek, and Gemini
Amazon Nova
- Focus on Practicality: Real-world applications for balance of accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness
- Multimodal Capabilities: Strong across data types
- Cost-Effectiveness: models that are affordable and highly performant
- Weakness: new model and full performance benchmarks are yet to be determined
- When to use: priority for practical applications, cost-effective, and strong multi-modal capabilities in Amazon ecosystem
Llama
- Open Source: useful for research and innovation as a way to access and build upon the model
- Strong Performance: consistently high performance across benchmarks
- Large Community: growing community of users and contributors and has been used across applications
- Weakness: potential for misuse for generating harmful content and malicious activities
- When to use: open source, balance of performance and accessibility, extensible
Mistral
- High Performance: Strong benchmarks and beating many competitor models
- Focus on Safety: Strong emphasis on safety and bias mitigation
- Efficiency: performance with efficiency in computational resources
- Weakness: full performance benchmarks are yet to be determined
- When to use: high performance, safety, and efficiency
Gemini
- Advanced Capabilities: cutting-edge capabilities in reasoning, code generation, and multimodal understanding
- Strong Backing: support from Google that provides significant dedicated resources and expertise
- Weakness: only available through Google services, limited accessibility and flexibility for independent developers and researchers, tends to be prone to gaps in hallucinated responses, threads of related responses are brittle
- When to use: advanced capabilities within a Google ecosystem of services
DeepSeek
- High Performance: state-of-the-art performance on benchmarks and surpassing many proprietary models
- Open source: Built with an open community in mind for continuous innovation and development
- Focus on Reasoning: strong in reasoning tasks, understanding, and solving complex problems
- Weakness: relatively new model and full performance benchmarks are yet to be determined
- When to use: open source, high performance, strong reasoning, extensible
Weakness of OpenAI Compared To DeepSeek
Cost: OpenAI models are expensive as they are proprietary that require higher computation limiting their accessibility to wider individuals, researchers, and businesses who are on a budget. DeepSeek is open source and provides a more cost-effective option.
Transparency and Control: OpenAI models lack transparency for users. DeepSeek allows for greater accountability and transparency, customizations, and ability to adapt to different constraints.
Hardware Dependency: OpenAI models require more computational resources with specific high-end hardware and GPU that limits accessibility and cost to deployment. DeepSeek provide greater degree of efficiency and development of models without reliance on high-end hardware and more cost-effective options.
Data Privacy: OpenAI has privacy and security concerns on use of data which may be used to train and improve models. DeepSeek provides a greater degree of control on data to users, but may not be completely secure as they may also use data for training and improving models.
Weakness of Gemini Compared To DeepSeek
Cost: Gemini is more expensive for large-scale applications with a proprietary license and higher computation. On the other hand, DeepSeek is open source and offers a more cost-effective and accessible option.
Multimodal Capabilities: Gemini is good with multimodal tasks. Whereas, DeepSeek focuses more on text-based reasoning. Gemini is more versatile for images, audio, video, and text. DeepSeek has recently extended the capabilities with Janus-Pro to enable multimodal AI.
Community and Support: Gemini comes with a big Google backing, community, and support. Whereas, DeepSeek is relatively new with a smaller community of users.
Maturity: Gemini has taken a longer time to develop. DeepSeek is still under development and largely influenced from reengineering and lacks sufficient refinement.
An open source model will always facilitate for a larger community of users due to accessibility and a sporadic cycle of development. In many cases, an open source model may out pace the proprietary model. DeepSeek model is showing multimodal strengths and may eventually outshine its competitor models. Although, it has already challenged the competition with some serious capabilities.
27 January 2025
Super Bowl 2025
Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to star in the Super Bowl 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The predictions are overwhelmingly in favor of Chiefs winning. Chiefs have a strong offense and a track record. Eagles have an equally strong offense and defense making them a serious contender. This is likely to be a close game with defensive battles.
26 January 2025
China Economic Challenges
Although, the economy of China is quite complex. It faces significant economic challenges. The emergence of tariffs and sanctions are likely to hamper the economy of China with export restrictions. The issue is further compounded with lack of consumer spending as household wealth is largely in the property market. Before the property crisis, this accounted for a third of China's economy. Reforms and policies have been made to stabilize the property market but there are too many empty homes and commercial properties that make for a problematic oversupply and forcing down prices. Furthermore, there is focus on private sector to push for investment and innovation that could increase income and job outlook to improve consumer confidence. A high public debt and unemployment have affected savings and spending. Businesses are also not looking to China as new production forces and as a leader in goods manufacturing. This is again a result of uncertainties which has subdued foreign business investment. Key areas that will make significant difference in how China's economy plays out in near to long-term future include: technological advancements as a global leader, large domestic market for consumption, government intervention to establish policies that address the economic challenges, global economic conditions, and geopolitical relations.
- Property Crisis: severe downturn which impacts construction, consumer confidence, and economic activity
- Debt Issues: high debt levels in local governments and state-owned enterprises that increase risks to financial stability
- Aging Population: strain on social security systems and slower economic growth
- Geopolitical Tensions: tensions with USA, trade disputes, and greater technology competition
- Slowing Growth: concerns on sustainability of development model
DGL vs PyG
DGL (Deep Graph Library) and PyG (PyTorch Geometric) are libraries for deep learning on graphs. They provide useful abstractions for building and training graph models like GNNs using graph-structured data. However, the libraries differ in a few ways.
Backend:
- DGL: support for PyTorch and Tensorflow with greater flexibility
- PyG: support mostly for PyTorch
Graph Representation:
- DGL: support for flexible graph representations from heterogenous, multi-graphs, and more complex graph structures
- PyG: mostly focused on homogenous graphs with limited heterogeneity
API:
- DGL: support for low-level customizations with more control on graph computation
- PyG: support for higher-level and more user-friendly for common GNN architectures
Performance:
- DGL: better performance for large-scale graph datasets
- PyG: slower than DGL but performance has been improving
Community and Ecosystem:
- DGL: strong community with tutorials, examples, and third-party libraries
- PyG: large community with better ecosystem of tools and resources
When to use:
- DGL:
- When you need support for multiple backends
- When you require flexibility across a wide and complex graph structures
- When you prioritize performance and scalability
- When you need fine-grained control over graph computations
- PyG:
- When you are primarily focused on PyTorch
- When you are prototyping and need easy to use API
- When you mostly work in homogenous graphs
25 January 2025
24 January 2025
WEF 2025 AI
Key Topics for WEF 2025 for AI:
- Responsible AI Development and Governance
- AI Impact on Industries
- AI Role in Addressing Global Challenges
- Future of Work in Age of AI
- Building Trust in AI
- AI and Geopolitics in Competition and National Security
- AI and Environment in Climate Action and Conservation
- AI and Human Rights in Bias, Discrimination, and Human Dignity
- AI and Future of Healthcare in Personalized Medicine and Healthcare Delivery
- AI and Creativity in Generated Art, Music, and Human Creativity
- AI and Education in Learning, Teaching, and Workforce
- AI and Industry in Smart Factories, Electric Vehicles, Supply Chain, and Agentic AI
- Ethical Implications of AI in Superintelligence and Singularity
23 January 2025
Firebase Alternatives
- AWS Amplify
- Parse
- Backendless
- Kuzzle
- Supabase
- appwrite
- Nhost
- Kinsta
- Hasura
- DigitalOcean App Platform
22 January 2025
21 January 2025
Dumb Things People Say to Each Other
- Walking up to someone sleeping and asking them, "are you asleep?"
- Calling someone and saying, "you're not asleep", like would they really be picking up the phone if they were?
- Asking someone in the morning, "are you awake?"
- Giving some wholesome advice like, "Why don't you just get a better job?"
- Asking someone, "how are you", especially when they are sick
- Asking someone, "are you ok", when they obviously don't look ok
- Telling someone who has lost everything, "it'll be ok."
- "I know exactly how you feel", when they have never experienced it before
- Telling someone, "you'll find someone better", after a breakup
- Someone getting told, "you look tired"
- Using phrases like, "you should just..."
- "I am here for you if you need anything", coming from someone who is never there for you
- "I'm not racist, but...", then followed by a racist statement
- When someone says, "you should just...relax"
- "It's all in your head", because nothing is ever in your head
- "I'm just being honest", like they are never honest
- "I'm not good with names", used especially when someone can't be bothered with your name
- "I'm sure you'll get over it"
- "I'm not a fan of..."
- "I'm just being realistic", does that mean they are usually unrealistic
- "You should just try to be happy"
- "I told you so"
- "Just be yourself", when are you ever not yourself?
- "I'm not sexist, but...", then followed by a sexist statement
- "Trust me...", like that is all the more reason not to trust you, pretty much the only time someone says that is when they doing something dubious, and why should you trust someone you don't even know just because they expect you to blindly trust them
20 January 2025
Consumer Electronics Taxonomy
By Function:
- Home Entertainment
- Audio
- Speakers
- Headphones
- Receivers
- Turntables
- CD/DVD/Blu-ray Players
- Video
- Televisions
- Streaming
- Projectors
- Game Consoles
- Communication
- Smartphones
- Tablets
- Laptops
- Desktop
- Wearables
- Smartwatches
- Fitness Trackers
- Smartglasses
- Home Phones
- Landline Phones
- Routers & Modems
- Home Appliances
- Refrigerators
- Washers & Dryers
- Dishwashers
- Stoves & Ovens
- Microwaves
- Vacuum Cleaners
- Smart Home Devices
- Smart Bulbs
- Smart Thermostats
- Smart Locks
- Smart Speakers
- Photography and Imaging
- Digital Camera
- Camcorders
- Drones
- Printers
- Scanners
By Form Factor:
- Portable
- Smartphones
- Smartwatches
- Tablets
- Laptops
- Headphones
- Portable Speakers
- Cameras
- Wearables
- Home-Based
- Televisions
- Home Theater Systems
- Desktop Computers
- Refrigerators
- Washing Machines
- Dishwashers
By Technology:
- Audio
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi
- High-Resolution Audio
- Noise Cancellation
- Video
- 4K
- 8K
- HDR
- OLED
- QLED
- Computing
- Processors
- Memory
- Storage
- OS
- Connectivity
- WiFi
- Bluetooth
- 5G
- Cellular
- Ethernet
By User:
- Professional
- Laptops
- Desktops
- Monitors
- Printers
- Cameras
- Audio Interfaces
- Personal
- Smartphones
- Tablets
- Laptops
- Headphones
- Smartwatches
- Televisions
- Game Consoles
- Home
- Smart Home Devices
- Home Appliances
- Home Theater Systems
19 January 2025
Most Corrupt Entities In World
- USA
- Israel
- Ukraine
- India
- Germany
- France
- Syria
- Canada
- Argentina
- Saudi Arabia
- UAE
- Australia
- UK
- Egypt
- Jordan
- Czechia
- Hungary
- Italy
- Greece
- Ghana
- Nigeria
- Kenya
- Eritrea
- Denmark
- Armenia
- Turkey
- Paraguay
- Guatamala
- Myanmar
- Togo
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
- Micronesia
- Nauru
- Panama
- Tonga
- Marshall Islands
- Honduras
- Romania
- Ethiopia
- Philippines
- Serbia
- Albania
- Azerbaijan
- Poland
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Angola
- Liberia
- Zimbabwe
- Uganda
- Turkmenistan
- Zambia
- Vietnam
Most entities that support a genocide are corrupt. There is no logical reason to finance and arm an entity that instigates and justifies violence on women and children. And, any nation or entity that continues to perpetuate and support this violence is corrupt. USA tops the list of the biggest contributor and sponsor of genocide. Also, the biggest profiteer from war, global conflicts, actively violating sovereignty, and interfering in politics of foreign governments. They have largely ignored the needs of their local taxpayer population in times of natural disasters, homelessness, gun violence, economic instability, cost of living, and many other situational events.
Quantum Computing and RAG
Quantum Computing:
- Leverage Quantum Mechanics: superposition and entanglement for calculations that are infeasible for typical computers
- Potential Applications: drug discovery, materials science, finance, cryptography, and others
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation):
- Improves LLM: combine LLM with knowledge sources
- Benefits: access information, enhance factuality and accuracy, context awareness
Combination of Quantum Computing and RAG:
- Quantum-Enhanced Information Retrieval: faster more efficient search across large datasets, improved relevance to identify connections and patterns
- Quantum-Powered RAG: enhanced LLM capabilities for accuracy in responses, complex reasoning, inference, and enhanced creativity for better original content generation
- Challenges: Qubit limitations, high error rates, lack of access to quantum hardware, complexity in effective interfaces, complexity in integration between quantum data and LLM training/inference
- Applications: scientific discovery, financial modeling, personalized medicine, AI safety and alignment
 |
| RAG for Technology: Use Cases, Impact, and Solutions |
17 January 2025
Aggregate News Sources
- GNews
- GDelt
- CCNews
- newsapi
- newscatcher
- oPoint
- worldnewsapi
- newsdata.io
- rapidapi
- eventregistry
- mediacloud
- webz.io
- aylien
Free Sources For Financial Market Data
- Yahoo Finance
- Google Finance
- FRED
- Quandl
- AlphaVantage
- Investing.com
- IEX Cloud
- Stooq
- Finnhub
- SEC Edgar
- World Bank Open Data
- Eurostat
- TradingView
- Intrinio
- OpenFigi
- Tiingo
- Polygon
Companies Involved In Illegal Activities
- Facebook: allegations of privacy violations, data misuse, and anti-competitive practices
- Amazon: accused of anti-competitive practices, tax avoidance, and mistreatment of workers
- Google: accused of anti-competitive practices, data misuse, and censorship
- Apple: accused of tax avoidance, anti-competitive practices, and misleading consumers
- Tesla: accused of safety violations, discrimination, and misleading investors
- JPMorgan Chase: involvement in mortgage crisis scandal, accused of manipulating energy markets, and faced fines for money laundering
- Wells Fargo: massive scandal involving creation of millions of fake accounts for customers
- Boeing: scrutiny and legal action after two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft, raising concerns about safety and regulatory oversight
- Pfizer: lawsuits and investigations related to marketing and pricing of its pharmaceutical drugs
- Nestle: criticism for marketing of infant formula in developing countries and its sourcing of palm oil
- Volkswagen: major emissions scandal, where they installed software in their diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests
- Uber: scrutiny over its business practices, including allegations of sexual harassment, data privacy violations, and anti-competitive behavior
- Monsanto: lawsuits and controversy over the safety of its roundup weedkiller which contains glyphosate
- Philip Morris: lawsuits and scrutiny over health risks of smoking and its marketing practices
- Walmart: allegations of bribery and corruption in Mexico and other countries as well as lawsuits related to wage and hour violations
- ExxonMobil: criticism for its role in climate change and accused of downplaying risks of global warming
- Johnson & Johnson: lawsuits and scrutiny over safety of talcum powder which has been linked to ovarian cancer
- Goldman Sachs: criticism for its role in 2008 financial crisis and has been accused of engaging in predatory lending practices
UN List of businesses linked to Israeli settlements
UN List of companies involved in illegal israeli settlements
List of entities with detected signs of illegal activities
List of Named Tax Avoidance Schemes, Promoters, Enablers, and Suppliers
13 Major Companies Involved in Deforestation
Top Books on Eschatology
From Jewish Standpoint:
- The Jewish Annotated New Testament
- The Messianic Idea of Judaism
- The World to Come: The Ideas of the Afterlife in Judaism
- The Book of Zohar
- The Writings of the Prophets
- The Messianic Era in Jewish Thought
- Jewish Apocalyptic Literature: A Comprehensive Introduction
- The World to Come: Studies in Jewish Eschatology
- From the Maccabees to the Mishnah
- The Eschatology of the Dead Sea Scrolls
From Islamic Standpoint:
- Signs of the Hour
- The End of Time
- The Book of Tribulations
- The Gardens of the Righteous
- The Path of the Righteous
- The Messiah, The Quran, and the Akhir Al-Zaman
- The Quran, The Great War, and the West
- The Quran, Dajjal, and the Jasad
- The Dajjal, The Quran, and Awwal AL-Zaman
- Constantinople In The Quran
- Jerusalem in The Quran
- Explaining Israel's Mysterious Imperial Agenda
- An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern World
- The Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham
- The Caliphate, The Hijaz, and The Saudi-Wahabi Nation-State
From Christian Standpoint:
- The Shack
- The City of God
- Revelation and the End of All Things
- A New Heaven and a New Earth
- The Coming of the Kingdom
- Paradise Now and Not Yet
- The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology
- The Millennium
- The Eschatology of the New Testament
- The Day of the Lord: Studies in Biblical Theology
From Non-Religious Standpoint:
- Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
- The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century
- Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World
- Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
- The Industries of the Future
13 January 2025
Why Plastic Surgeries are Bad?
Health Risks:
- Surgical Complications:
- Infections
- Bleeding
- Anesthesia reactions
- Blood clots
- Scarring
- Potential death
- Dissatisfaction with Results:
- May not meet expectations
- May lead to more procedures and more dissatisfaction
- Psychological Harm
- Body dysmorphia
- Mental health over perceived flaws
Societal and Ethical Concerns:
- Unrealistic Beauty Standards
- Financial Burden
Unemployability:
- Actors/Actresses:
- Typecasting: significant changes can limit visible emotions and their ability to play diverse roles
- Age-appropriate roles: facial alterations make it difficult to portray characters of certain ages
- Models:
- Brand Image: some brands prefer natural appearances
- Specific looks: altering a feature may negatively impact their career
- News Anchors/Broadcast Journalists:
- On-Air Image: affect on natural and trustworthy appearance
- Ageism: excessive alterations might make them look older or younger and affect credibility
- Politicians:
- Public Image: affect on authenticity and relatability could alienate voters
- Teachers/Educators:
- Role models: unnatural changes raise concerns on judgement and values
- Lawyers:
- Client trust: unnatural appearances hinder ability to build rapport and client confidence
- Surgeons/Doctors:
- Patient trust: unnatural appearances will make them seem more distant and less trustworthy
- Pilot/Flight Attendants:
- Maintaining approachable image is important for passenger safety
- Unnatural appearances makes passengers uneasy
- Social Workers/Therapists:
- Potential loss of empathy and authenticity
- Unnatural appearances makes clients feel uncomfortable and less open
- Sales Professionals:
- Building a rapport and trust is crucial for conversion
- Unnatural appearances hinders connection with customers
- Customer Service Professionals:
- Unnatural appearances makes customer service difficult and may even intimidate customers
When does it make sense to get Plastic surgery?
- For reconstructive surgery and not cosmetic surgery: The aim is to restore appearance after illness, injury, or birth defect. These types of plastic surgeries are often covered by insurance as a medical necessary. Cosmetic surgeries are not covered by insurance as they tend to be for aesthetic reasons. Examples of reconstructive surgeries include, but not limited to:
- Burn reconstruction
- Cleft lip and palate repair
- Breast reconstruction after mastectomy
12 January 2025
Unique Experiences of Korea
- Hanok Village: beautifully preserved traditional Korean villages to experience Korea's past
- DMZ: a sobering experience in a heavily fortified border between south and north Korea
- Jjimjilbang: chance to relax and rejuvenate in Korean spa
- K-Pop and K-Dramas: experience the Korean pop and drama culture and their fandoms
- K-Wave: extends from Korean pop, drama, cinema, food, fashion, beauty, and other cultural expressions
- Korean BBQ: chance to grill your own meat in a social and interactive dining
- Korean Temples: a peaceful escape into Buddhist temples
- Jeju Island: volcanic landscapes, fabulous beaches, on a picturesque island
- Korean Festivals: colorful festivals celebrated throughout the year with unique Korean traditions
- Korean Calligraphy: meditative practice that has been passed down through generations
- Convenience Store Culture: diverse stores that offer hot meals and even beauty products
- Unique Museums:
- Trick Eye Museum: optical illusions and interactive exhibits
- Mr Toilet House Museum: history of toilets
- Haewoojae Museum: shaped like a gigantic toilet
- National Museum of Korea: collection of comprehensive Korean artifacts
- Gyeongju National Museum: showcase of artifacts from the Silla Kingdom
- Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art: contemporary works of art
- National Palace Mueseum: exploration into Korean royal court
- War Memorial of Korea: tells a story about the Korean War the impact it had on the country
- Seoul Museum of History: time travel into the history of Seoul
- National Folk Museum of Korea: explores the Korean traditional life
- Seodaemun Prison History Hall: story of Korean independence and the struggles against the Japanese colonial rule
- Korean Beauty Culture:
- Sheet Masks: innovative skincare products
- 'Glass Skin' Trend: flawless and translucent skin
- Technology Hub:
- Fast Internet: fastest internet speeds
- Mobile-First Culture: digitized society with heavy use of smartphones from payments to communication
- Unique Traditions:
- Doljapi: first birthday celebration where the child chooses their future profession from table of symbolic objects
- Jeong: complex concept of loyalty, affection, and moral obligation in social relationships
- Talchum: traditional masked dance drama with satirical and irreverent performance
- Seol: major holiday with sharing rice cakes, and playing yut nori
- Beyond BBQ:
- Kimchi: fermented cabbage in many varieties
- Bibimbap: rice dish with mixed vegetables, meat, and fried egg
- Fried Chicken: crispy chicken served with sauces
- Beyond Kimchi: fermentation is deeply ingrained in Korean cuisine from soybean paste, red pepper paste, and unfiltered rice wine
- Banchan: feast with side dishes served alongside rice
- Gochujang: the magical spice of life used in countless dishes that also has regional variations
- Hansik: traditional cooking methods with emphasis on seasonal ingredients
- Tteokbokki: chewy rice cakes stir-fried in spicy gochujang sauce with fish cakes and vegetables
- Bulgogi: Thinly sliced marinated and grilled beef with lettuce leaves, rice, and other side dishes
- Kimbap: similar to sushi maki
- Jjigae: favorful stews, come in varieties
- Nature and Scenery:
- Seoraksan National Park: mountain scenery with hiking trails, waterfalls, and Buddhist temples
- Gamcheon Culture Village: hillside village in Busan with murals and artistic atmosphere
- Yeouido Hangang Park: famous for Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival
- Seokchon Lake Park: picturesque reflection on the lake with pedestrian path lined with cherry blossoms
- Jinhae: renowned for Jinhae Gunhangji Festival
- Hadong: breathtaking sight of cherry trees
- Chimsangjeong Pavilion in Daegu: stunning backdrop of cherry blossom clouds and scenic stone staircase
- Jirisan National Park: Korea's largest national park with dense forests, cascading waterfalls, hiking trails, and diverse wildlife
- Modern Marvels:
- Seoul Forest: urban oasis with themed gardens, wildlife center, and marsh
- Starfield COEX Mall: underground shopping mall with shops, restaurants, aquarium, and library
- Bad Cultural Practices:
- Conformity and social pressure that leads to anxiety and stress
- A very fast paced life that has an emphasis on efficiency, speed, and promptness as a result of competition for education and workplace as well as from rapid economic development
- Hierarchical social structure based on age and social status that leads to inequality
- Huge emphasis on materialism and beauty standards which creates a very artificial and unhealthy lifestyle especially with plastic surgery and mental body image issues
- Nightlife scene can be an issue for women as there is growing problem with rape culture at night and the way women are viewed in general in Korean society
- Superstitions are very common in Korean society
- The day a baby is born is essentially regarded as 1 yr old as they include the time spent in the womb and everyone turns a year older on the 1st of January and not on their date of birth (in 2023 a new law was passed to scrap this method of counting age)
- Pushing and shoving is part of the culture and quite unapologetically
- You don't hug you bow, to some this may be awkward and a contradiction with their religious sensibilities
- Air pollution has become an issue in the outdoors
- The language barrier can be a real issue to people that don't speak Korean. However, in places like Seoul and Busan you can get by with English.
- Korean weather can be extreme across the four seasons. Winter can be harsh with freezing cold temperatures and snowfall. Summers can be unbearably hot and humid. However, most places have air conditioning and underfloor heating.
- Korea is a conservative society which is also reflected in how you show affection to your partner in public and the way you dress.
- Koreans are obsessed with hygiene habits. Brushing teeth after every meal. They even carry around toothbrushes with them to work, business meetings, and even friendly lunches.
- Korea has a high suicide rate as a result of a high-stress society with extreme competition in education and professional work culture that leads to depression and anxiety.
- Apartment blocks and skyscrapers seem to be everywhere. But, they tend to be built with small spaces.
- Koreans enjoy spitting, slurping, and burping
- There are animal cafes everywhere from hello kitty, figurine, poo themes and many others.
- Social life seems to start at noon on weekends otherwise it may feel like a ghost town where people stay up till very late
- Koreans are crazy about plastic surgery especially with eyelid, nose, anti-aging, and face shapes
- Koreans are crazy about skin care, lighter, youthful, and smoother skin tones are treated better than other races, the skin privilege really does apply
- Korea has a mandatory military service for men
- No distinction between 'my' space or 'your' space.
- Korean clothes sizes can be smaller than western standards
- Traffic lights can be very slow moving and you cannot jaywalk
- Expect lots of stares if you are not Korean or don't speak the language
- Leave your shoes outside. Although, this is a nice practice it can sometimes mean your shoes might get stolen in public. So, carry a shoe bag.
- Discrimination against women and how they are treated both in public, in private, and workplace can be a bit unconcerting.
- There is generally lack of diversity in workplace and some apparent discrimination against minorities.
- Some public places give priority to Koreans over non-Koreans, as race mixing is actively discouraged
- Korea has a rising prostitution problem that is connected to abuse and violence against women
- Koreans consume a lot of pig meat in comparison to lamb and beef which is considered a luxury. Most products will likely contain pig-based gelatin which may be an issue for some people.
- Koreans can be quite loud and noisy but this is generally part of the spoken language and the way they work. Soft spoken people may find it rather intimidating.
11 January 2025
7 January 2025
6 January 2025
4 January 2025
What makes a person ugly or beautiful?
Cultural Standards:
- Societal Ideals - this varies across cultures and shifts through time
- Media Influence - promotes unrealistic and narrow-minded ideals
Biological Factors:
- Symmetry - defined facial symmetry, often influenced by the golden ratio
- Averageness - closer to the average are perceived as more attractive
- Health Cues - features that signal good health
Psychological Factors:
- Personality - positive traits that aggregate into attraction
- Confidence - inclined to be more assertive
- Individual Preferences - subjectivity based on different perceptions
- Inner Beauty - positive traits that are considered more important for the long-run
Top Books on Philosophy
Classics:
- Meditations
- The Republic
- Nicomachean
- Meditations on First Philosophy
Modern/Contemporary:
- Being and Time
- The Myth of Sisyphus
- Existentialism is a Humanism
- The Ethics of Ambiguity
- The Order of Things
- The Interpretation of Dreams
- No Logo
Intros:
- Sophie's World
- The Story of Philosophy
Deep Dives:
- Critique of Pure Reason
- Being and Nothingness
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Ethical/Political:
- The Prince
- Utilitarianism
- On Liberty
Consciousness:
- What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
- The Conscious Mind
- Consciousness Explained
- I am a Strange Loop
- The Enigma of Consciousness
- The Astonishing Hypthesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul
- Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Nihilism:
- The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
- Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction
- The Trouble With Being Born
- The Will to Power
- The Gay Science
- The Stranger
- Notes from Underground
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- The Myth of Sisyphus
Stoicism:
- Letters from Stoic
- Discourses and Selected Writings
- How to Be Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life
- The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
- A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
- The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
- Meditations
Existentialism:
- Fear and Trembling
- Existentialism is a Humanism
- The Myth of Sisyphus
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Being and Nothingness
- The Plague
- Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
- Notes from Underground
- The Stranger
Metaphysics:
- Metaphysics
- Critique of Pure Reason
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- Being and Time
- Naming and Necessity
- On the Plurality of Worlds
- Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction
- The Metaphysics Within Us: The Hidden Dimensions of Our Everyday Lives
Epistemology:
- The Problem of Philosophy
- Knowledge and Its Limits
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- Gettier Problems and the Analysis of Knowledge
Philosophy of Mind:
- The Mind-Body Problem
- Consciousness Explained
- I am a Strange Loop
- Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension
Ethics and Morality:
- The Republic
- Nicomachean
- Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
- The Moral Limits of Markets: The High Price of Putting a Price on Everything
- Utilitarianism
- On Liberty
- Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
- The Ethics of Ambiguity
- Beyond Good and Evil
- On The Genealogy of Morals
3 January 2025
AI Tools for Development
- Aider: rapid prototyping
- Cline: rapid prototyping
- Cursor: refinement
- Devin: build projects and scrapers
- Copilot: quick edits
- Tabnine: integrate with IDE for code completion
- Kite: high-quality suggestions
- Codeium: autocompletions
- Polycoder: code assist in teams
- Ghostwriter: custom code enhancer
- Bolt: project starter and initialization
- AutoGPT
- Pandora
Why does the west hate Islam?
- Media perpetuates anti-Islam hate through a pre-defined mainstream narrative
- Cyclical perception influenced through negative portrayals
- Media and Entertainment industry is divisive in labels, black vs white, and demonization
- Lack of tolerance, understanding, and inter-faith dialog
- Perceptions of backward stereotypes and biases that contradict western values and beliefs (although one can question, what are western values and beliefs?)
- Fear of the unknown
- Lots of collective judgement and generalizations that breeds prejudices, biases, and discrimination
- Looking for someone else to blame or scapegoat for the issues in their lives
- Trigger of tribalism of us vs them
- Fear of sharia law (even though, this is not really a required practice)
- Extremism and terrorism which is propagated, financed, and perpetuated by the West. This is indicative of the fact that conflicts and wars are profitable to the West.
- Historical context in the crusades
- Direct financial motives connected to natural resources and religion. Many pre-dominantly Islamic countries are rich in natural resources, centers of trade routes, and rich in traditional values.
- Cultural complications with dietary restrictions, freedom of speech, treatment of women, religious attire, and many other cultural practices are seen as odd and incomprehensible
- Perceived as a threat to western cultural norms (what exactly are western cultural norms is anyone's guess where people are confused about what gender they are?)
- Bad perceptions and intolerance feeds further negative views and hate like a vicious cycle
- The fact that many muslims are fixed in their beliefs and unwilling to change makes it incompatible with modern values of social progress, democratic participation, and resistance to scientific thought
- The perceptions that Islamic societies have an intolerance for other religions
How do you counter this?
- The West likely needs to stop interfering in foreign politics, economics, and conflicts
- The West should focus on their own taxpayers
- The West should stop trying to colonize other countries that don't conform to their ideals to steal land and natural resources
- Respect other people, their cultures, and values
- Provide more objective mainstream narrative and mindful use of language with journalistic ethics and responsibility so people can decide for themselves
- The West should let countries flourish and grow
- Stop bombing their countries so they don't turn into refugees and cause a western immigration crisis
- Increase tolerance through understanding and inter-faith dialog
- The understanding that every one has the right to liberty and security wherever they are in the world
- The understanding that basic human rights are accorded to people in every civilized society
- Stop being so greedy with the colonial mentality
- The West should stop selling weapons and equipment, if there are no real conflicts, who'd need the budgets for defence?
Work Better and Smarter
Prioritize Ruthlessly
- Find your Key Objectives
- Use the Pareto Principle
- Use the Eisenhower Matrix
Optimize Your Workflow
- Block time slots
- Batch Tasks
- Minimize Distractions
- Learn to Delegate
Continuous Learning and Improvement
- Develop Skills
- Get Feedback
- Experiment and Iterate
Cultivate a Growth Mindset
- Take on New Challenges and Deal with them Head On
- Focus on Solutions
- Accept Mistakes and Learn From Them
Take Care of Yourself
- Prioritize Sleep
- Develop a Healthy Diet, Exercise, and Routine
- Take Breaks
Things LLMs Cannot Do
- Lack of True Understanding:
- They operate on probabilities and patterns based on the training data
- They have no understanding on the meaning of language
- They have no grasp of concepts on the basis of which they generate grammatically correct sentences
- Hallucination and Bias:
- They have the propensity to generate incorrect and nonsensical information
- They mimic the biases in their training data that leads to unfair or discriminatory output
- Sensitivity to Input:
- Minor changes in input can drastically alter output that makes it difficult to control response
- Lack of Common Sense and Real-World Knowledge:
- They lack true common sense and worldly experience, the most they can access and process is the information based on their training data
- They fundamentally lack the understanding of everyday situations and interactions
- Ethical Concerns:
- They can be used to generate misleading and even harmful content
- They can be misused that have ethical implications
- Limited Creativity and Originality:
- They lack basic sense of creativity that is outside the fold of the patterns in training data to generate truly original concepts and ideas
- Emotions and Consciousness:
- They lack feelings, self-awareness and have no way of experiencing emotions
- Reliance on Data:
- They are only as good as the data they have been trained on and are a reflection of it
- Physical Actions:
- They are software programs in the digital realm and cannot interact with physical world
Why ex-Googlers make the worst hires?
- Lots of arrogance but very little to justify it in performance
- Mostly come with sexist, racist, and misogynistic attitude
- Lots of biases for minority hires so your diversity initiatives will suffer
- Lots of biases for pay, work, and benefits
- They significantly effect the team culture through negative attitudes
- Questionable skills and experience
- They will question everything with unconstructive ways of working and the solutions they come up with are usually bookish, unproductive, inefficient, and uncreative
- They lack pragmatism and common sense
- They want to interview people in convoluted ways which have no context nor relevancy to the role just like how they did at Google
- They want to make your organization function like Google like a mirror to their past
- They drive a toxic culture, whatever was bad at Google they bring to every other organization or team
- They like to harass other employees
- They look at others in a team as lesser individuals and make the collective team feel miserable
- Why did they leave Google to come to work at your organization if Google was so great?
- They demand higher compensation packages just for working at Google, while their pay at Google was at best mediocre
- If they are part of the team that has to screen candidate applications they seem to be stuck on where the candidate got their degree and their racial backgrounds then end up interviewing them with racist stereotypes and biases
- They lack job relevant experience and skills because they didn't exactly do much at Google
- They don't want to be interviewed the same way as other candidates, treated like special candidates for some reason (maybe special candidates with disabilities?!)
- You have to flex your entire organizational handbook to meet their ridiculous expectations
- They lack basic work ethics, integrity, and fundamental sense of professionalism in the workplace
- Pretty much every ex-Googler talks and acts like they are still in school or university with emotional immaturity
- They act like spoiled and pampered brats in the workplace
- They lack basic skills of being able to think outside the box
- They tend to be unwilling to learn new things or new ways of doing things
- They tend to frustrate easily on tasks and require a lot of micromanagement
- They tend to be resistant and unwilling to listen to constructive feedback, at times repeat the same mistakes without learning from them by overcompensating with a false sense of overconfidence and lack of experience
- They tend to waste people's time by pontificating and procrastinating
- Habitually putting people down to artificially inflate their egos and prop themselves up
- They tend to be the biggest cynics of other employees in workplace especially if they are not ex-Googlers
- Sometimes they can act as saboteurs or moles out of pure jealousy and resentment
2 January 2025
Cybertruck
Possibly, one the ugliest cars on the market. It is now also the deadliest after exploding outside of Trump Tower. The design especially is impractical, lacks usability, comfort, and a safe driving experience. This car falls short on a number of areas.
- Unconventional Design: angular stainless steel exterior that is easy on dings and dents
- Limited Visibility: narrow windows are problematic on visibility and safety
- Ride Quality: stiff suspension, mostly for off-road use, with uncomfortable driving experience on roads
- Interior Aesthetics: ugly interior to compliment the ugly exterior
- Unproven Technology: questionable, hit and miss technology
Worst Companies to Work For
- ServiceNow
- Salesforce
- NextEra
- S&P Global
- McDonald's
- Starbucks
- Burger King
- Whole Foods
- Walmart
- Union Pacific
- Signet
- Caffe Nero
- JD Sports
- WH Smith
- Betfred
- Zara
- Taco Bell
- Comfort Call
- Eden Futures
- Tim Hortons
- Max Spielmann
- Bodycare
- Poundstretcher
- Choice Care
- Victoria's Secret
- Valorum Care
- McColls
- Hertz
- Family Dollar Stores
- Steak n Shake
- Speedway
- The Children's Place
- Regal Cinemas
- The Fresh Market
- Rent-A-Car
- Forever 21
- Belk
- Alorica
- CompuCom
- Frontier Communications
- Dillard's
- CVS Health
- Kraft Heinz
- Dish Network
- Sears
- Kroger
- Tyson Foods
- Kmart
- TJMaxx
- Genesis Healthcare
- US Security Associates
- LA Fitness
- Charter Communications
- Amazon
- Tata
- Wipro
- Infosys
- HCL
- Tech Mahindra
- NTT
- Dell
- Cargill
- Reliance Industries
- Comcast
- Wells Fargo
- Bank of America
- Subway
- Shein
- Dollar General
- ExxonMobil
- Balenciaga
- BP
- Spirit Airlines
- Meta
- Tesla
- Fox Corporation
- Trump Organization
- Pfizer
- Coca Cola
- Tesco
- Microsoft
- Disney
- OpenAI
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)