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Showing posts from April, 2023

Will there be another tech boom soon? writing from 2023

 Unless there is another XEROX PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) moment, we will not see any boom in tech for the next decade or so. I know this sounds pessimistic, but before you get your arrows out, know that I am a programmer who has never worked in big tech, so this issue affects me greatly also.  While big tech companies, and many small tech companies following in a copycat manner, are posturing to investors by firing employees, which is a very bad sign for future growth, all this posturing will not result in a resurgence of tech because there is a problem at the roots, of which consequences we are observing now.  So what is the deep problem at the roots causing the current destruction of value in the tech market, ignoring the temporary green we see from time to time that pops up in the stock? It is an excessive focus on value extraction and very little given to wild creative exploration.  Sometimes too much structure can lead to restriction, tech companies mostl...

Why you should write often

 Any creative activity, that is activity that requires more than passively absorbing data is very hard. That is because by default it requires far more energy to create something than to just consume or destroy as the case may be.  Writing is a creative activity, and it is hard to do. It doesn't matter what you are writing, either words, codes or equations. Bringing stuff out of your mind is very hard, and I believe that it is the core part of what we call general intelligence because it activates the processes that utilize knowledge rather than just passively absorb and store it.  You could augment memory by using a notepad to store some of the facts that you record, but it is harder to augment the ability to create something new or express your solution to some problem, which is what all true creativity is about.  Writing also requires some of the highest level of focus you can summon, for instance writing computer programs or mathematical proofs require the larges...

Human intelligence is more about knowledge utilization

There are two significant phases of intelligence, the first is the knowledge acquisition phase and the second is the knowledge utilisation phase. The knowledge acquisition stage is available by default in many animals but what makes humans unique is that our ability to utilize knowledge is far higher than most mammals.  But even humans individually and as a whole utilize only a very tiny fraction of the available knowledge. For an individual your acquired knowledge base, that is knowledge you have acquired both consciously through study or unconsciously through just existing, is far more than what you are able to utilize.  This is also similar for humanity as a whole, the knowledge we possess both in written form or in other forms far outweighs our ability to utilize it.  The core part of what we could call general intelligence is really more about knowledge utilization and less about acquisition. Because what is useful is only what we can utilize, the rest is just memory...