drcwpl

It is always a good reminder...

Incidentally, I agree with you on Night. I have visited Auschwitz 3 times, read widely on the horrors. It is a disheartening, horrible, read and experience to visit, but something more should do, maybe we would have more peace in our world... although I doubt it.

I can see how my exploration of the Mensa list might come across differently than intended. My aim wasn't necessarily to endorse this specific list or the 'IQ club,' but rather to explore the experience, the friction and challenge, that comes from engaging with demanding texts, wherever they are found. For me, it was less about surrendering judgment and more about using the list as a specific, challenging prompt to sharpen critical thinking against difficult material. Perhaps 'exercise regimen' isn't far off, but ideally one that builds perspective rather than just ticking boxes.

Thanks for the recommendation on Christopher Nguyen's "Value Capture".

Great point on the European/American spectrum.

haha - yes, in senior/high school my teachers were the same!

Thank you for sharing the link, I embedded it a few times. How the list is interesting (alphabetical) - I wonder how they are rated by Mensa grade 9-12 year olds overall

Anything by Lem and some early Wells still provide great joy at the age of 61!

Excellent catch, although I loved that book!

That is true... I certainly did not have that awareness when I was that age. I had a period locked in my room between 17 and 19 reading anything I could Bram Stoker, Dickens, 1st World war history and so on... but did for the joy and was not fully aware of the impact until much later.

I should add that point as a comment on the essay, thank YOU - I will link to it

Fabulous, I did not know about those resources, thank you. Will review carefully.

Exactly the point I made in the essay.

Paul G's post - https://x.com/paulg/status/1885001767525499301

Sam Altman replied why not 100x

Overall - People often hate asking themselves questions that threaten their comfort zone or self-image—like whether they’re truly happy, living up to their potential, stuck in fear-driven decisions, or repeating the same mistakes. These questions are unsettling but can spark significant personal growth.

Agree wholeheartedly, it was unfortunate that the author did not use a good image generator, or even correctly prompt Dall-E to get better images, his take on using AI then became rather flimsy. I gave up at this point!

I find their critique compelling, particularly their emphasis on the disconnect between CoT’s algorithmic mimicry and true cognitive exploration. The authors illustrate this with examples from advanced mathematics, such as the "windmill problem" from the International Mathematics Olympiad, a puzzle whose solution eludes brute-force sequential thinking. These cases underscore the limits of a framework that relies on static datasets and rigid generative processes. CoT, as they demonstrate, falters not because it cannot generate solutions, but because it cannot conceive of them in ways that mirror human ingenuity.

As they say - "Superintelligence isn't about discovering new things; it's about discovering new ways to discover."

I used to work on robotics, then left to focus on AI - now without question robotics is the place to be.

Excellent, thank you for that

I did not know that, I have not read The Gift, will do now. I read Nabakov's biography (my version Speak, Memory) and do not remember him mentioning Chernyshevsky there either. I will re-read. Thank you.

Excellent, thank you

Thank YOU

Concerning "thinking more deeply and for longer periods." There is a WSJ article about drugs for focus but how addictive they are

"As Mark Moran was facing another 90-hour week as an investment-banking intern at Credit Suisse in New York, he knew he needed help to survive the rest of the summer. His colleagues gave him a tip: Visit a Wall Street health clinic and tell the staff he had trouble focusing.

Ahead of his first appointment, he filled out a five-minute questionnaire. One of the questions asked if he had trouble staying organized, another, if he procrastinated. He then met with a clinician who said his answers suggested he had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He left with a prescription for Adderall."

https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/young-banker-finance-adh...

Wow - this is great, thank you

You are right, the 'watch' ones are outlier podcasts, eg Lex Fridman, Rogan, Dwarkesh Patel, Tyler Cowen, The Diary of a CEO, Machine Learning Street Talk, Hoover Institute, and so on, but it is building momentum.

IQ will continue to decline driven by over-reliance on LLM output and the majority watching video shorts.

Nevertheless, long form podcasts will continue to grow, although still watched by less than 1% of the population

Excellent, thank you - great resource, and nice meme :-)

Fantastic photo - you made me think about getting a telescope

This is a superb version. Thanks for sharing

It is filled with meaning and evokes so many feelings - so glad you enjoyed it.

Very well said "people gravitate toward the simple and assume the difficult is impossible." I often get grief for saying people are lazy - I will use your careful tone

100% agree "The Drop that Contained the Sea" is a masterpiece - as you say phenomenal. These should be widely known and embraced