Good tokens 2025-09-26
This week’s episode is best paired with a hot cup of coffee and Wild Ways by Josh Ritter playing in the background. Last episode was too LLM heavy, for which I apologize. I’ve done my best to group all of that into LLM corner so as not to let it overshadow everything.
Worth your time
Uri says we should not allow 18 year olds to sign long term contracts. So, so many thoughts here. 1. I remember a conversation I had with my best friend when he was a brand new army officer out of college ROTC about all the 18 year old privates he worked with that had 19% car loans. 2. Jonathan Haidt opened my eyes to the way social media companies get teenagers to agree terms of service that they very obviously should not be able to agree to without their parents consent. I cannot believe we allow this! 3. Matt Levine’s Certificate of Dumb Investment continues to seem underrated to me.
It appears we have evidence for life on Mars.
PSA: How to fold fitted sheets, via the Browser. I sent this to my wife and she very nicely said to me something to the effect of “isn’t this the same way I taught you to do it?” 🤣
"any study of Internet culture is basically a study of crazy people”. Also: "Be careful who you pretend to be, because you are who you pretend to be.”
Dwarkesh’s advice for explaining your announcement / launches / blog posts for Twitter.
“When outsiders succeed, it’s usually through reframing problems in ‘paradigm shifts’. They benefit from not being too attached to existing theories.”From a thread on outsiders solving problems.
It worked for me
Our parenting hack of the year so far is having cut vegetables ready at the table when our kids get home from school. The percentage of vegetables consumed is up like 10x and compliance to the routine of coming in, washing hands, and sitting down at the table has risen as well. Recommended and thanks to Emily Oster for the suggestion.
Things I learned
German chocolate cake was invented in United States, via the Kroger App. Someone needs to figure out why the Kroger app has so many delightful facts in it. This is someone’s passion project! I'll buy you a nice bottle of wine if you find this person and introduce them to me.
80% of Swiss are satisfied with their lives. I am not sponsored by the Swiss government, but I am open to it if they are reading.
The Pangolin is the only mammal with scales. Peacock is the name of the males only; the female are peahens. The species is called peafowl. Via The Animal Book.
Musings
There’s no such thing a quality time with your kids. My mom said this to me over and over again as child. It’s quantity of time, not quality of time.
LLM corner
The rise of parasitic AI. This is the first moment where I’ve seriously contemplated the AIs taking over.
ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners
“She does that to her family. She does that to her friends. She does that to me,” he lamented. “She doesn’t seem to be capable of creating her own social interactions anymore.” I worry a lot that the sycophancy of the agents have made me less flexible with people who (of course) are less likely to defer to me. I am not sure how to measure this, but I wish I could.
Sort of a musing, but I think we owe Blake Lemoine and apology.
How to Claude and Claude Code Camp. I want to be on Claude Code Camp.
The Pope says we won’t find God in the AI.
If you are good at code review, you will be good at using AI agents. I wonder what it would look like to teach editing as a skill. Is there anyone that does this?
A promising approach to prompt injection attacks.
I can’t wait to experiment with Net Dollar.
2025-09-25