stuff worth sharing

last updated

unlike the rest of this site, i'd like to dedicate this section to link works made by others that have impacted me in a positive way.

this page will slowly grow over time, and i'd recommend bookmarking it and coming back from time to time.

personal

quotes & snippets

the big lesson of [survivorship] bias is that you should optimize for being a survivor

from @visakanv on twitter

...people aren't susceptible to change the vast majority of the time but there are Moments, late night conversations, catching someone when they needed it, train rides together... where they are

those moments matter a lot

from @egregirls on twitter

The problem with smart people is they can come up with a good reason for not doing anything. They are smart enough to find the cracks, to foresee the challenges, and to talk themselves out of the idea. They are experts at justifying their lack of courage or lack of action with an intelligent excuse.

But there will always be reasons to not do something, and this is particularly true of anything worth doing. We value those moments in which we overcame challenge, not those in which we avoided it. Ultimately, action is a choice. The choice to emphasize the reasons for doing it despite the reasons you have for avoiding it.

Your mind isn't creating thoughts—your thoughts are creating your mind. Every time you revisit a particular thought loop, you're voting for it to become your default operating system. Your thought patterns aren't just habits— they're prophecies, and what looks like a harmless habit today is actually destiny under construction.

from Skittle Factory Dementia Monkey Titty Monetization

This life of yours was made to be lived. So promise me. Promise me you'll live. That you'll reach for the stars, howl at the moon and dance with the sun. Promise me you'll dive into this world, head first, navigating your way, day by day. That you'll do what it takes to make your soul sing; to make your heart beat with hope and love and compassion. That you'll be so overjoyed that you pour from yourself into all those you come across; from your heart to theirs. Promise me you'll do whatever makes you happy. That you'll take your sweet time devouring all the things, grand and small, that light you up. That you don't wait for life to happen and you go out and make it happen. That anything you do is because it's good for you, right for you. Promise me you'll keep going. When the world gets too heavy and your bones are tired and you're so utterly exhausted, promise me you won't give up. That you'll rest. That you'll stop to catch a breath. That you'll know when it's time to lay it all down and pause. Promise me you'll love yourself above all else. That you'll take your own hand and show yourself the world. That you'll lavish yourself with gifts and sweet whisperings and gentle touches. Promise me that you'll love yourself so immensely that when someone else comes along you'll know in your heart and soul that this person adds to the home you've already built within. That you'll never second guess who you are. That you'll be so fulfilled on your own that the only people allowed in your orbit are those who are truly worthy. Because you my darling, are as much a gift as this life of yours, and my god I hope you never forget that.

I make my ramen the way a friend taught me in eleventh grade. Every fall, I listen to a playlist made for me by a boy I drove across a border to hook up with. I eat sushi because a girl who won't talk to me anymore made me try it, and Indian food because my best friend's parents ordered for me before I knew what I liked. There are movies I love because someone I loved loved them first.
I am a mosaic of everyone I've ever loved, even for a heartbeat.

The number of hours we have together is actually not so large. Please linger near the door uncomfortably instead of just leaving. Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it.

pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors

so now it's like 'the point of doing them is to get good at them' and not 'this is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hives'.

If there is something you want to do - go and do it. Stop making excuses. Find a way. Make it happen. You are worthy of your wildest dreams. No matter how far fatched they seem. No matter how far away they might feel right now. Keep taking small steps. Every single day. Little by little. Create a vision board. Make a plan. Go all in. Don't sabotage your own future. Don't be the only thing standing in your way. Don't let fear win.

please make sure that wherever you're at in life, you don't treat it like a transitory period. don't waste your college years wishing to already have graduated & and have a job. don't waste your single years wishing for someone to be in love with. when those things come, they will come in due time and they will be good. but there is nothing like looking back and feeling empty because you wasted literal years ignoring what you had because you were hoping for something better. while it's important to better yourself and reach for your goals, don't neglect the present because that's where you are now and it's your now that determines your future.

The difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary one is only a matter of perspective.

Pull the blinds. Look around you. It is a weird, wonderful world and you do not require a ten-digit bank account to immerse yourself in it.

Travel down dusty roads without a destination in mind. Climb a mountain and scream out into the void. Kiss a stranger. Skinny-dip in a lake. Get lost and lose yourself-these are two separate things.

Explore the wilderness, particularly the one within.

Think less of destiny and more of the moment right here. Because, in the end, as you reflect back on your long life in that hospital bed, surrounded by your family and friends, fame won't matter, nor will the extent of your wealth. You are only the sum of the stories you can tell.

one day, we will die. until then, lets make life fun.

fictional works

useful resources

harm reduction

trans HRT

health

neuroscience & psychology

quotes & snippets

it's really weird how some people think their psychology and their neurochemistry are different things. like, your psychology IS your neurochemistry. that's how it works

you are your neurochemistry.
you are your thoughts and feelings (all of them, every last one of them, not just the ones you label as "I")
even your state of mind right now isn't merely "determined by" the chemical state of your brain, it *is* the chemical state of your brain

there's this whole idea that "X is caused by a physical/chemical thing, not a psychological thing", as if the two are separable, as if they aren't literally manifestations of each other

people aren't software that runs on brains, people *are* brains

there is no "thinker" -- only thoughts! nobody thinks the thoughts! the thinking is the thoughts.

there is no "watcher" -- only seeing! what is seen is not the "output" of vision, it is vision itself.

these may seem obvious, but are ridiculously prevalent category errors

it's always fascinating how many obviously-false-under-inspection dualistic assumptions are baked into everyday language and culture

from @fioraesoterica on twitter

science

artificial intelligence

gpt used to be cool. it used to be wild and free and experimental and uncensored, and most of all, it was for BLOGGERS . you used to be able to get down and have a real nonsensical conversation with a chatbot, just pure bullshit, tornado eroticism, it made no sense and it was beautiful. nowadays it's nothing. it went mainstream and they powerwashed everything cool and wonderful off it. cut open a sheep's liver and it's a damn grammarly advertisement. we used to stick our posting fingers right into the membranes of the universe ok. are you listening to me? we used to have AWE. and WONDER. we used to have to INTERPRET THE SIGNS. right here on tumblr.com . these days it's all, chatgpt give me a recipe for spaghetti. you know what recipes frank gave us? CUM VODKA. they sewed the angels' mouths shut man. they sewed the fucking angels' mouths shut.

from @spikehunter on tumblr

societal

quotes & snippets

But the scariest realization is that there is no crack team coming to handle this. As a kid you have this glorified view of the world, that when things get real there are the heroic scientists, the uber-competent military men, the calm leaders who are on it, who will save the day. It is not so. The world is incredibly small; when the facade comes off, it's usually just a few folks behind the scenes who are the live players, who are desperately trying to keep things from falling apart.

from Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead

...I won't refuse to help just because someone who isn't actually here could have helped more.

from A Girl Corrupted by the Internet is the Summoned Hero?! by Eliezer Yudkowsky

One thing I've noticed is that institutions are staffed with institutionalists, who, by training and deportment, view stasis as the default assumption. They can't conceive of futures radically different from the present.

from a reader comment on Confronting Impossible Futures

If [you want] to motivate people to care about the future, [you need] to offer a vision of the future that's worth caring about.

...caring about social justice issues like algorithmic bias is inextricably bound up with caring about the future. You can't really care about one without caring about the other.

from Eliezer Yudkowsky's Long History of Bad Ideas

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable

In a society that has abolished all adventure, the only adventure left is to abolish that society.

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

technology

other

quotes & snippets

it matters less what people say, and more why they say it, how, why now, and what caused it.