Microposts

Finished reading: The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian is a fascinating and very well written overview of the current state of AI research. I was particularly struck by how much of the challenge with safe AI is based on our poor understanding of our own intelligence 📚

As a benchmark for upcoming training, my coach had me run a 5k time trial. This is also useful for determining my heart rate training zones. I started off too fast and paid for it near the end, but managed to hold a good pace from KMs 2 to 5 🏃‍♂️

A map shows a running route along a waterfront area with stats of a 5.0 km run at a pace of 4:19 per kilometer, completed in 21 minutes and 38 seconds.

Finished reading: This seems to be the consensus, so I won’t belabour the point: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman is a powerful book. If you feel overwhelmed by busyness or slightly adrift, it is well worth a read. There are some tough messages in it, though, that require contemplation 📚

As an update to my earlier post about using MindNode for task management, I’ve refreshed my areas of focus and projects for work. I still find MindNode really helpful for this, especially for seeing the balance of projects across the areas of focus. In this case, I can see that I have many Process Improvement projects, which makes sense, given my company has a big push on Lean at the moment.

Screenshot of areas of focus and projects as a mindmap in MindNode

Now I can fill in next actions for each project and then sync with Reminders.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin is a really interesting story about two different worlds and a physicist that tries to bring them back together. As with most good science fiction, the story is about the people, rather than the science, but the sci-fi setting accentuates the morals of the story 📚

Although a time and concentration commitment, I enjoyed this 3Blue1Brown video. Showing how to approach a problem from a computational or generalizable direction is interesting and provides a good lesson on the importance of diverse approaches.

After 2.5 years of faithful service (which, honestly, is far too long), I’ve updated my trusty Sauconys with a new pair. The red is a bit flashier than my usual style, but they’re comfortable 🏃‍♂️

A pair of worn Saucony ISO Series running shoes with blue accents is placed on a tiled floor.A pair of black Saucony running shoes with red accents and laces sits on a tiled floor.

How to fix the disaster of human roads to benefit wildlife | Aeon Essays

Unbelieveable:

…about a million individuals of all species are killed every day on the roads of the US. In North America overall, the cumulative scale of all this roadkill now surpasses hunting as the main cause of death in larger species

As bad as that is, the impact roads have on dissecting land up into small islands is even worse for species’ habitats. The article goes on to describe some of the initiatives underway to reduce the impacts of this “sprawling web”.

I’m slowly making my way through Pragmatism, and Other Essays by William James and was amused to see:

I offered this as a conciliatory olive-branch to my enemies. But they, as is only too common with such offerings, trampled the gift under foot and turned and rent the giver. I had counted too much on their good will.

Some things haven’t changed since 1909 📚

I really like the idea of Screen Time and want to use it to manage my behaviour. And then I get something like this: apparently I stared at aeon.co (a great website) every minute from midnight to 6. I’m certain I was actually sound asleep then

A screen displays app usage statistics with a daily average of 7 hours and 38 minutes on aeon.co.

After likely too much deliberation, I’ve registered for the Ironman 70.3 in Tremblant. Although “only” half an Ironman, it is still daunting enough to make me both nervous and excited (nervouscited, as my daughter often says) 🏊‍♂️ 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️

I really enjoyed season 1 of Foundation. Definitely a departure from the books, which was totally necessary. The companion podcast was interesting too 📺