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So basically people think there’s an unlimited supply of free, quality healthcare that we’re all being prevented from accessing by evil corporations?

I was wrong. Thank you to all the commenters who took the time to inform me that there are many countries that have free unlimited healthcare because if I pay the government for something it’s free and if the government rations something it’s unlimited

The state dept’s advice for travel to Somalia is wild. It includes: -draft a will -discuss funeral wishes with loved ones -make a plan for custody of your children -pick a family member to be point of contact for hostage-takers -leave DNA samples with your medical provider

They also noticed that kids in honors classes did better in life, but in this case the response was to get rid of honors classes in order to reduce inequality

TIL the reason Google Maps doesn’t have a “most scenic” walking route option is is force people to walk through low-income communities

Imagine creating a product so bad that people would prefer to pay $40,000 to use a competitor rather than using yours for free That’s public school in a nutshell

It’s really quite simple, if you don’t want clowns like me charging $500/month to teach kids to read, then have schools do it instead I’m literally begging you to bankrupt my company

In SF there’s been a 10-year battle just to let 8th graders learn algebra. When we were doing the kindergarten lottery there, I asked every school how they would support a 4th grader who was ready for algebra. They all told me “no acceleration allowed”. In Palo Alto, one of the best school districts in the country, kids who are ahead in math are told to just read books quietly during class time. Our current WA school district's gifted program provides "enrichment, not acceleration", so in order to be allowed to continue progressing in math, my 3rd grader had to physically leave his classroom for an hour a day to teach himself. But if the idea that high-achieving students are unsupported in schools is a strawman, someone please let me know! Tell me where the schools are that are willing and able to support kindergarteners doing 4th grade math, because I'm wasting my life if all these kids' learning needs are already met.

How it started vs. How it's going

Q: how can you tell that someone has never actually been exposed to top-tier talent? A: they think the best companies in the world should be reaching out to recruit and train them based on a handful of mid-tier accomplishments that wouldn’t even pass a first-round hiring screen

Scale AI just announced their commitment to hiring for MEI: merit, excellence, and intelligence. Check out the difference between the Twitter comments and the LinkedIn comments

Grad school was where I first had the experience of maxing out my cognitive horsepower. I was one of the dumbest EE majors. There was a very clear hierarchy. [Generalizing heavily] the EE majors weren’t as smart as the stat majors, who weren’t as smart as the math majors. There was no value judgement about it. It didn't make anybody "better" than anybody else, it was just a blindingly obvious fact of life while we were there, like noticing that some people were taller than other people. I took the intro level stats course that every 1st-year stats grad student took, and I barely understood half of it. I didn't take it for a grade, and it's a good thing because I probably wouldn't have passed. The next year, I tried to take the intro level math class that every 1st-year math grad student took, and I had to drop it. It wasn't an issue of not studying enough. The concepts were just too abstract and no matter how much time I put in, I couldn't make them make sense in my head. On the other hand, for some of my friends (who also happened to be IMO gold medal winners), the class was totally intuitive. It just made sense to them, but as much as they tried, they couldn't break it down for me in a way that I could understand. It's a humbling experience to experience at a deeply visceral level, exactly HOW much smarter than you other people are. More people should have that experience. Maybe we all will with AI. Long tails can be very long.

As the parent of a smart kid, you will encounter an endless stream of "education experts" who will say to your face that is impossible for your child to do what they are currently doing, and that "research" says your child should be forced to learn slower. Ignore these morons.

“there’s no talent shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the talent you want” “there’s no housing shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the house you want” “there’s no food shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the food you want”

1) Many middle schoolers are capable of doing college coursework 2) They would enjoy it more than the boring busy work they're currently saddled with 3) We should let them take the college courses they're ready for 4) These should not be controversial statements

Today I learned about Seattle’s “first-in-time” law requiring landlords to rent to the first qualified applicant Have there been any studies on the impact on rental prices since the law went into effect at the end of 2019?

So basically people think there’s an unlimited supply of free, quality healthcare that we’re all being prevented from accessing by evil corporations?

I was wrong. Thank you to all the commenters who took the time to inform me that there are many countries that have free unlimited healthcare because if I pay the government for something it’s free and if the government rations something it’s unlimited

They also noticed that kids in honors classes did better in life, but in this case the response was to get rid of honors classes in order to reduce inequality

> “it’s AI generated pictures, don’t take work away from illustrators” Our Alphabet Sounds book has 149 pages with about six pictures per page, that’s almost 1000 images. Each image would be about two hours of work for an artist (including back-and-forth feedback and iteration) so that would be about $50,000 to create this book with human illustrators, not even including the hundreds of hours of time spent giving feedback and direction If we didn’t use AI, we would have to sell the hardcover for about $200 just to have a chance of breaking even. In other words, you would not have bought this book and we would not have made it. Instead, using AI art allows us to give away the PDF for free and sell the hardcover for $30. (We make $0 per book, the entire cost goes to Amazon to pay for printing and shipping.) Because of AI art, this book exists, and now thousands of kids will have an easier time learning to read

Q: how can you tell that someone has never actually been exposed to top-tier talent? A: they think the best companies in the world should be reaching out to recruit and train them based on a handful of mid-tier accomplishments that wouldn’t even pass a first-round hiring screen

I just learned quite a few people dislike our character design (lots of interesting feedback in the linked thread if you follow the branches) I want to dig deeper. Please share your opinion below: 1) Do you like our characters? 2) How would you rank them, best to worst?

TIL the reason Google Maps doesn’t have a “most scenic” walking route option is is force people to walk through low-income communities

It appears that my posts about AI have angered artist twitter I am sorry that technology has made it possible to end childhood illiteracy without paying you off Can't we all just get along

In SF there’s been a 10-year battle just to let 8th graders learn algebra. When we were doing the kindergarten lottery there, I asked every school how they would support a 4th grader who was ready for algebra. They all told me “no acceleration allowed”. In Palo Alto, one of the best school districts in the country, kids who are ahead in math are told to just read books quietly during class time. Our current WA school district's gifted program provides "enrichment, not acceleration", so in order to be allowed to continue progressing in math, my 3rd grader had to physically leave his classroom for an hour a day to teach himself. But if the idea that high-achieving students are unsupported in schools is a strawman, someone please let me know! Tell me where the schools are that are willing and able to support kindergarteners doing 4th grade math, because I'm wasting my life if all these kids' learning needs are already met.

“there’s no talent shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the talent you want” “there’s no housing shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the house you want” “there’s no food shortage, just double your offer and you’ll get the food you want”

Imagine creating a product so bad that people would prefer to pay $40,000 to use a competitor rather than using yours for free That’s public school in a nutshell

Scale AI just announced their commitment to hiring for MEI: merit, excellence, and intelligence. Check out the difference between the Twitter comments and the LinkedIn comments

At this point the “no screens” thing is just self-sabotage virtue signaling. You can buy some overpriced artisan wooden blocks to make yourself feel superior, or accept that new technology is more convenient, more effective, and more useful in a broader variety of environments

The state dept’s advice for travel to Somalia is wild. It includes: -draft a will -discuss funeral wishes with loved ones -make a plan for custody of your children -pick a family member to be point of contact for hostage-takers -leave DNA samples with your medical provider

How it started vs. How it's going

Ok cool I guess I got my answer