tnecniv

10 ms·

121.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Q* is an incredibly common notation for the above version of the Bellman equation. I think it’s stupid to call an algorithm Q* for the same reason it is to read too much into this: it’s an incredibly nondescript name.
122.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Eh the free energy principle isn’t that magical and that comes from someone who likes it quite a bit. At the end of the day extremizing the free energy is a relaxation of constrained optimization. There are ways it’s used I find very appeal
123.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Well I think it’s a bit harder to parse out for most people. Effective altruism is easily seen as garbage when you learn the definition. AI Safety is a bit more nuanced. I think there’s a lot of issues that are nonsense like having an “alig
124.
by tnecniv 3y ago
I mean by that logic we should still be using FORTRAN for our research code and there’s no point developing new languages because the space is explored at this point. Really I think the main thing holding it back are the lack of templates s
125.
by tnecniv 3y ago
In the US, “daily fantasy” games were legal before general sports gambling because they were argued to be games of skill. In daily fantasy, you pick players you expect to do well that day and enter the line up into a pool of opponents with
126.
by tnecniv 3y ago
In the US, “daily fantasy” games were legal before general sports gambling because they were argued to be games of skill. In daily fantasy, you pick players you expect to do well that day and enter the line up into a pool of opponents with
127.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Does Fortran have decent auto diff tools? You now got me wondering if I should switch from using Python for my numerical work to Fortran for my own enjoyment
128.
by tnecniv 3y ago
I just moved to a new city. It’s the first time I’ve moved somewhere without it being for school and having a cohort of people also looking to make friends. I’m a pretty chatty guy that can talk to strangers in a bar, but I’ve had a hard ti
129.
by tnecniv 3y ago
OP did not say they would pass the exam. They said they would pass the math portion. Most of us wouldn’t pass this exam because even if we took Latin we probably didn’t take Greek. However if we were applying to Harvard in 1899, we probably
130.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Yes that would have been common for students to knowledge for students from upper class families who would be applying to Harvard. I don’t know how much of that was taught in public schools at the time, but an education in the classics was
131.
by tnecniv 3y ago
I’m a big fan of Crooks and thermodynamic computing in general, but I’d like to see a plot comparing against traditional methods in terms of real seconds. I don’t expect them to beat GPUs given how mature GPUs are but the big promise is tha
132.
by tnecniv 3y ago
You just triggered a memory of the first time I swung my feet up on the monkey bars and got on top through the space between two. It was terrifying and exhilarating
133.
by tnecniv 3y ago
The benefits of a classical action movie education
134.
Ask HN: Favorite way to typeset mathematical notes?
4 points by tnecniv 3y ago|5 comments
135.
by tnecniv 3y ago
That’s not a requirement for universal approximation. It might make your life harder when you have to train the network, but that’s just an implementation detail anyway /s
136.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Benzos and SSRIs are different things. The former is a CNS depressant that acts instantly. The latter builds up in your system over a month to increase the seretonin levels in your brain. They’re not really related except that someone with,
137.
by tnecniv 3y ago
The withdrawal can also kill you outright. Most other drugs can lead to a fatal withdrawal due to complications, but the withdrawal process itself isn’t lethal, like with benzos. I take them occasionally for panic attacks and my god they ar
138.
by tnecniv 3y ago
It’s a trade off. Crazy geometry to try and make the physics of the plasma less crazy. At least that’s my understanding from my friends who study plasma physics
139.
by tnecniv 3y ago
That was my path and that first introduction was awful. Axler made everything finally make sense to me.
140.
by tnecniv 3y ago
I self studied from this book as an undergrad. I was an EE major and took linear algebra as part of the mandatory ODEs class but didn’t “get it.” At a certain point, it became clear that if I wanted to learn the more advanced applied math I
141.
by tnecniv 3y ago
I know more math than the average bear, but I think the parent has a point even if I don’t totally agree with them. Take for instance the dual space example. The definition of it to someone who hasn’t been exposed to a lot of math seems fin
142.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Rome certainly did that at different points when funding was needed
143.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Harvard’s Divinity School is basically why the university exists in the first place and is very real. The cost of tuition for undergrads at schools is certainly ridiculous and a way to siphon money from the government though. That said, I t
144.
by tnecniv 3y ago
It’s really all a professor does. You’re the boss of 5-10 people that are researching your half baked ideas Turing them into quarter baked ideas. Managing them + other obligations take up all their time. Very little is spent getting their h
145.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Universities are the best at creative accounting. PhD students get charged “tuition” but that is normally (hopefully) out of the pocket of their advisor or another fellowship. So your pay is valued at 120k despite you seeing a quarter of th
146.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Often, no, but some are particularly prestigious due to the lineage of individuals who had held the chair. Others have some special requirements like any endowment. Mostly, it is not really meaningful though.
147.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Two reasons why you probably had to study those: 1. Chaos Theory was all the rage in the 80s. My dynamical systems prof said “you couldn’t go to a cocktail party without talking about it.” Clearly I’ve been going to the wrong cocktail parti
148.
by tnecniv 3y ago
Part of the challenge is how individualized the struggle can be. There are certain common trends you can find across a large population of grad students, but the details an individual is confronted with have to do with their subdiscipline a
149.
by tnecniv 3y ago
8 / 10 applied to my PhD life. As a postdoc, it now feels like somewhere around the 7th sequel to Friday the 13th. Boring and tired, but the writers haven’t gotten bold enough to get really wacky and send me to space yet.
150.
by tnecniv 3y ago
This has a practical aspect that is different from software though. Bringing a drug to market requires a huge amount of capital and very specialized manufacturing. It’s very difficult for a small company to do that. I’m not saying it’s a go

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