I finally found a well-written no-bullshit book about CS. It says, among other things: There is no need to define a representation of the values False and True in terms of values of some other type. Conceptually, values of type Bool are simply (denoted by) the expressions False and True. Of course, the computer’s internal representation of Bool and all other data is in terms of bits, but we don’t need to know any of the details of how that works to write programs....

A small disclaimer: I’ve lived in India for a few years, I have some good friends there and I think I begin to really understand the some cultural aspects which govern this vastly complex and spontaneous society. Nowadays everyone, it seems, is either a programmer or an AI researcher or both. When they are not a crapto “engineers”, of course. Just like chef Gusteau from the Ratatouille movie famously proclaimed – “Anyone can cook”....

It is more or less obvious why AI and LLM bubble is so huge - imagine just charging money for every https request to a RESTful API, without, literally, being responsible about the quality of the responce (it is not out fault if a LLM returned bullshit to you, or, which is much worse – a highly sophisiticated, convincing subtle bullshit). Again, there is not enough good code to train a model on it....

Have you ever thought why the Set Theory and Predicate Logic looks “the same” when being visualized using Venn and Euler diagrams? Are these partitions is the most fundamental abstract building block? Most of the examples which are used to explain logic has been drawn from “natural categories” of biological species - mammals, reptiles, men. These are distinct partitions indeed, but how they came to be as they are? It is because somewhere in the past a literal “fork”, a mutation (or a whole set of these) occurred (and the resulting population survived)....

There are something (a generalized class of algorithms) called “backtracking search”. The main property is that an algorithm goes back onse a dead end is reached, or a certain threshold of maximum steps. There are two “strategies” for these algorithms (of how to expand the “fringe”) - one is called “depth-first”, another – “breadth-first”. The first one goes “fast” and “narrow” (inforamaly), where another one goes “slowly”, and “layer after layer”....

Special concern for precise definitions, clarity and brevity (omitting of what is clear from the context), high level of abstraction, and proper generality (just like Sets or Numbers). Both algebraic types (“products” and “sums”), could be used “like tables”, with new columns being added without affecting any code that is already out there. This implies a by name instead of position-based (offset) access. This, in turn, is the fundamental, definitive property of structs over tuples....

These are just assorted notes for now, which shall become something ready to be formalized. Non-bullshit The objective is to train a NN which captures subtle recurrent patterns among many well-chosen (and well-defined) features. The proper set of features that, in turn, captures the most relevant aspects of reality is what determines the distinction between a modest success or a total failure of this ML approach. All the features should be actual “measurements” of something real, like “Open Interest” or the “Long/Short ratio” and other obvious measurements like “Volume”....

The skill beats luck - fortune favors the prepared. Shooting is to study the mind (observation, introspection, control). through practice and experience (not reading or watching). The ancient practice of knowing your self. The ancient exercise in self-discipline, introspection and self-knowing (know thyself). Each shot reveals what you are (to you). Each shot reveals you as a living Buddha or a tense fool. Hitting a target with an arrow is a small vehicle; attaining enlightenment with an arrow is a big vehicle....

I has been struggling with this very annoying bug when code blocks in the org mode are messed up badly when the global-whitespace-mode is enabled. This global-whitespace-mode is especially important to see the actual mess which is usually invisible (like decease causing bacteria). My “quality benchmark” is how my configuration renders Sacha.org, you know. So, here is how to fix it. Doom themes (as a standalone package) (use-package doom-themes :demand :hook (after-init ....

The ~org-mode~ package is abused and misused in so many ways, that it can be seen as a distinct psychological phenomena in itself. The underlying mechanism is satisfaction (a dopamine release reward) from repeatedly doing supposedly “the right thing”, which, in turn, is the neurological basis of all repetitive religious rituals. These “very smart” guys just maintain an elaborate system of mechanistic and semi-automated rituals to reinforce their deeply held unwarranted belief, on which their self-identification is based upon, that they are “very smart”....