Beliefs and General Principles

Composability §

That all things in life can be decomposed into their primitives and axioms.

All human endeavor, be it artform, science, or philosophy, is a matter of Composability, building incrementally from simple to complex:

1. Art is the byproduct of composing shapes, sounds, figures, colors, words, etc… on a medium to convey a message.
2. Science is a byproduct of composing previous knowledge about the world through the lens of replicable, empirical thinking.
3. Philosophy is the same as Science but through the lens of logic and reasoning. The same can be said of Mathematics and its Axioms.
4. Experience in itself is built on the primitive of Causality. X causes Y to happen. This applies even if the person is not mentally sound.

Practically this means:

1. All skills, knowledge, and creativity follow from composing the primitives. The only prerequisite to mastering these is time and patience.
2. Understand presuppositions and implicit assumptions. Even stating the obvious can help uncover these.
3. Never underestimate simplicity that through composition gives rise to complexity.
4. Treat Randomness and Chaos as a primitive of the human experience by virtue of Entropy. Take it as a given that things never work 100% the way they are intended to work.

Meaning of Life §

There is no inherent meaning to the Universe and to human life. That it is up to one’s own dispositions to formulate what life means to them.

All things humans believe, Philosophy, Politics, Science, Religion—are means to cope with the prospect of Nihilism., as this raises the question of “If life never mattered, why am I still living?”

People are entitled to these beliefs as stipulated by their free will, but they must bear the consequences of their reactions. That the alternative of having no free will is a reality where we are all slaves, and where choosing has no meaning.

Even with the Freedom given by such a Relativistic environment, we are bound to the consequences of our beliefs. We may still have reservations about the beliefs of others, but in no way do these justify our stance as the “only way to live life.”

• Nothing inherently matters and the world is meaningless, but it is this which gives us freedom and reassurance that our mistakes too are meaningless

That a more meaningful life for me is one that lives on Knowledge and Creativity.

Power §

For as long as two people are alive, Power rules over them both. There will be someone who dominates and someone who is ruled over.

Those in power have no incentive to help those beneath them, unless it furthers their own plans. These plans are rooted in the desire to keep a position of power for all the luxury it brings.

In this sense, even moral behavior is to be treated as having an agenda behind it. No man is truly selfless as people act when they are concerned about something weighing on their mind. This does not mean that all men are bad, only that all men act when they have a reason to.

Even if one does not wish to rule over others, one is forced by virtue of human nature, to play the Game of Power.

Without Power, You are Nothing.

Productivity §

• Speeding up development: A collection of tips

  • Feel good and keep stress to a minimum
  • Keep yourself focused
  • Allocate specific times for emails
  • Do not answer your colleagues within 5 minutes. Let them find the answer themselves
  • Use quick win labels — short term victories and strategically placed low hanging fruit
  • Automation
  • Gain more knowledge.
  • Be an expert in what you do.

• Get things done.

Learning §

• Metalearning—Learning what, why and how to learn a subject improves the pace of self-learning*

• In learning, Understand the Definitions. It is important to know exactly what is being referred to before understanding how they interact. It lets one communicate in the language of the experts; a more precise language.

• Motivation decreases as you talk about what it is you’re trying to do. In general this translates to using the language as a substitute for action. If you have the urge to talk about it, channel that urge to action. If you talk about it reinternalize it

• Strive to be a Polymath

Machine Learning §

• It is interesting how most of the advances in Machine Learning try to copy the advances in Biology NNs simulate real biological networks; RNNs via LSTMs try to simulate our ability to remember; and Attention Mechanisms simulate our ability to focus on certain things. Even the manner of learning mimics real life. This leads to the conjecture that The next advancements in AI as a whole will likely necessitate understanding and simulating our cognitive and human aspects

• As of writing (2023), this field has been rapidly growing. While there are ways for it to be used poorly, it can also finally bring about a better society overall—a change in values and way of thinking; more convenience, and more time for people to pursue their passions for their own sake, while letting machines do the rest.

• Disruptive technology will be seen as bad by the masses (i.e., how AI is seen in 2023) out of fear that people will be replaced by machines. Yet, machines free our minds to think of more meaningful things. Perhaps a radical cultural shift, a maturation of our society is needed to accept these changes.

• Automated Theorem Proving and Mathematical Reasoning is very interesting. Maybe we’ll have an ML model that will be as good as a mathematician.

• [Silicon-based Photonics is a promising future for running large AI models in a more efficient way]((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0yj4hBDUsc)

• As of June 2023, the development of LLMs has felt stifled due to alignment concerns. In my opinion that shouldn’t be the case considering we are limiting the potential advancement of ML towards AGI

Others §

• Happiness is a byproduct of living well

• Be more deliberate about what you consume, because you don’t have time to consume all of it

• People who tell you what to do in a bad, unempathetic way are doing it for an ego boost. People who tell you what to do in an understanding and subtler way are much more convincing and persuasive. People tend to like those that are perceived as unselfish

• Be wary of your own biases and lines of reasoning.

• Subjectivity is baked into human intelligence because if intelligence requires discernment, and humans are incapable of building a perfect model of the world, then inherently we are making judgments based on imperfect models (i.e., discernment implies subjectivity).

• Be a systems thinker.

• Collective stupidity and collective madness are manifestations of a collective uncertainty where members of the society try to copy each other and end up going nowhere.

• My main blocks for ideation are emotional.

• Maintain a space (an Excalidraw board or a notebook) just for ideation. To remove the filter that prematurely kills ideas, the goal of the space is simple — to fill it with as many ideas as possible. In this way, deleting ideas from the board is counterproductive