I talked with a speech coach today — the ppl throwing an event I'm speaking at offered the service. She seemed very amused that I get so excited I forget to breathe, when I talk about things like R&D history Obviously suboptimal for public speaking...but I like that about myself

The difference in general level of amusement you hear in London chatter vs NYC chatter is huge. I feel like a Londoner complaining has more whimsy than an NYC person having a good time. To my ears at least.

I couldn’t be happier at this choice of Nobel. To those who apply Econ-adjacent brains to historical progress studies questions, it’s a welcome nudge for departments to do more to embrace this style of work. I obviously think it’s economics. But more importantly, it’s useful.

Cool! I’ve been whining for over a year, wondering why nobody had done this. Even if it only exists as a set of long-term goals, using ONET job task data to benchmark what might be done with AI is something that should have its own website, at least Very glad Kris | Crypto.com on the case!

Btw I’m at the progress conference in the Bay and will be around in SF Monday and Tuesday

Update: just had by far the worst old fashioned donut of my life in Berkeley. If you blindfolded me, I might not have even guessed it was a donut.

It was a blast getting to nerd out about Warren Weaver in front of so many people who could do some good with the information. As always, if any funder wants to chat about how to apply the best of Weaver's ideas to their own work, do reach out.

It’s such a treat that FreakTakes brings me in contact with so many scientists that are both R&D history nerds and willing to take career risks in service of their ambitions. There’s really not better company out there, for someone like me.

I appreciate Corin’s careful thinking on AIxScience It’s an area I have trouble parsing. But every time Corin says something on the matter, I feel 5% less hazy.

I travel too much.

Update: The board vandal has returned from pumpkin painting night

If I were looking to assemble an interesting operational history on early DeepMind — from founding through AlphaGo — what do I read? Any great early employees I should talk to. It doesn't have to be a public piece. I'd just like the knowledge in my head, to better advise orgs

Okay, so Ariana Grande obviously went hard here...but she gets dinged for not acknowledging the importance of incentives and institutions. 9.8 out of 10.