All posts, including hidden.
LLMs are fundamentally stochastic, but that's not new — the whole ML field always was, and it worked. The interesting question is how to ground stochastic computation in deterministic domains. Two paths: build a deterministic shell around the model (coding), or apply it directly where the domain itself tolerates noise (recruiting, marketing, design).
Mainstream type systems are simultaneously too strong (closed-world assumptions hurt during change) and too weak (can't say "positive integer" or "age between 0 and 200"). For startups in unsettled domains, duck typing wins — types are a luxury you afford after product-market fit.
Two quotes about data and intuition. "I trust your data, and my intuition" subtly inverts the knowledge hierarchy and subjugates domain expertise to authority. Bezos's version — when anecdotes disagree with data, investigate the measurement — is the better instinct.
Eight questions to ask before introducing a new process. People overestimate how much process helps, underestimate the cost of maintaining it, and assume it'll work just because it exists. And remember, processes rarely die on their own — the ritual often outlives the purpose.
Judgment slips when decisions become emotional — when you're defending a person, a past call, or a principle rather than solving the problem in front of you. Four signals to watch for in yourself, and four ways to guard against them.
Notes from the IEEPA tariff oral arguments. "Regulate importation" can plausibly mean tariff — but the power to tax is squarely Congress's, the Major Questions and Non-Delegation Doctrines bite, and the one-way ratchet of presidential power makes this near-unanimous against the administration.
Notes from judging a high school parliamentary debate. The opposing side isn't an adversary, it's a collaborator in a joint quest for truth — and the kitchen-sink approach loses on me every time. Logos 70%, ethos 20%, pathos 10%.
Andrew Grove treats management as a production system, but the deeper claim is that information workers are managers — their raw material is information, their output is influence. In modern Big Tech, being "a manager" isn't a promotion. It's just different work.
Read narrowly, Wong Kim Ark's actual holding only covers children of permanent legal residents. For 127 years, every branch followed the broader dicta instead — until now. A close reading of holding versus dicta, reliance interest, and what the Court is likely to do.
Healthcare's fragmentation isn't an accident — it's federalism plus misaligned incentives, where EHR vendors profit by locking customers in. NexHealth's Synchronizer attacks the problem at the technical layer, with the law (and a recent 4th Circuit ruling) on its side, eventually.
