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May 4, 2020

May 2020

The Importance of Saying “Oops”

Source: LessWrong | By: Eliezer Yudkowsky

“Not every change is an improvement, but every improvement is necessarily a change. If we only admit small local errors, we will only make small local changes. The motivation for a big change comes from acknowledging a big mistake.”

Don’t let small adjustments take you in the wrong direction, correct often and sometimes make big corrections.

Pick of the coronavirus papers: Immune system shows abnormal response to COVID-19

Source: Nature (the paper/publisher)

Probably best place to look for news on research surrounding COVID-19.

Lee Kuan Yew’s Rule

Source: Farnham Street

“Does it work?” That is the question that the modernizer of Singapore asked himself.

“I do not work on a theory. Instead, I ask: what will make this work? If, after a series of solutions, I find that a certain approach worked, then I try to find out what was the principle behind the solution. So Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, I am not guided by them…I am interested in what works…”

How uniform is the neocortex?

Source: LessWrong | By: zhukeepa

“The neocortex is the part of the human brain responsible for higher-order functions like sensory perception, cognition, and language, and has been hypothesized to be uniformly composed of general-purpose data-processing modules.”

Based on the current knowledge about the brain, and AI research, the author (and I too) think the idea that the brain is using prediction (and input) and is quite uniform, as quite likely.

Interview with Aubrey de Grey

Source: LessWrong | By: emanuele ascani

Some interesting questions, but not much I didn’t know. We need to solve ageing, and for that to happen need to solve all the aspects/problems.

AI and Efficiency

Source: Open AI

“We’re releasing an analysis showing that since 2012 the amount of compute needed to train a neural net to the same performance on ImageNet1 classification has been decreasing by a factor of 2 every 16 months. Compared to 2012, it now takes 44 times less compute to train a neural network to the level of AlexNet2 (by contrast, Moore’s Law3 would yield an 11x cost improvement over this period). Our results suggest that for AI tasks with high levels of recent investment, algorithmic progress has yielded more gains than classical hardware efficiency.”

Dithering and Open Versus Free

Source: Stratechery | By: Ben Thompson

Open doesn’t equal free exactly, email is open but you can have it be paid (as he does). Subscription are important to have a steady income (vs hoping for hits).

The rest discusses how these dynamics play out and how Spotify is aggregating podcasts (also discussed earlier).

“…Spotify still is not open: they can take down your content or choose not to play it, just as Facebook could not show your page unless you were willing to pay-to-play.”

“…That, by extension, means not agreeing to Spotify’s terms for Exponent, and accepting that leveraging RSS to have per-subscriber feeds makes having the Daily Update Podcast on Spotify literally impossible. More broadly, owning my own destiny as a publisher means avoiding Aggregators and connecting directly with customers.”

Studies on Slack

Source: Slate Star Codex

A great piece on slack (in the system) and how evolution and other systems can be explained by this.

Literature Review For Academic Outsiders: What, How, and Why

Source: LessWrong | By: namespace

Good article on how to do a literature review. Could be useful later to see if I can apply some of these things to my review of psychedelics literature.

Chips and Geopolitics

Source: Stratechery | By: Ben Thompson

When the technology isn’t good enough, you want to be the best (features), when it’s better than needed (e.g. phones now), you want to be the most flexible/quickest.

The rest of the article explores this and TSMC’s geopolitical issues.

The EMH Aten’t Dead

Source: LessWrong | By: Richard Meadows

Interesting article that challenges the view that the efficient market hypothesis (the EMH in the title) isn’t dead. Good arguments and analysis of how it’s working in this Corona-time.

Did actually expect more about government-backing of large companies and some discussion about the listed companies (some of them, tech) not really being affected that much by the situation (read: less personnel that is able to work from home).

OpenAI Finds Machine Learning Efficiency Is Outpacing Moore’s Law

Source: SingularityHub | By: Jason Dorrier

Already read this somewhere else, but interesting to read again. The efficiency of AI is going faster than Moore’s Law. This means both that the big ones can get better, and that we can incorporate AI in smaller things (you know, like the size of our brains). Still not really attacking the correlation vs causation arguments, but still very good.

And they built the 5th most powerful computer on Earth.

My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since the 1990s

Source: Gwern

Really cool blog about what has improved in our lives, focus on the daily/small things like VHS tapes, fast internet, group chats (vs telephoning each friend separately, etc).

Fun to read and makes me think about those small things that are now better, e.g. always hot water when you shower (vs only having X minutes, for the whole family).

Post-Prozac Nation

Source: NYT magazine | By: Siddhartha Mukherjee

“The writer Andrew Solomon once evocatively described depression as a “flaw in love” — and certainly, the doctors using Raudixin at Duke had seen that flaw emerge grimly in real time: flaws in self-love (guilt, shame, suicidal thoughts), love for others (blame, aggression, accusation), even the extinction of a desire for love (lethargy, withdrawal, dullness). But these were merely the outer symptoms of a deeper failure of neurotransmitters. The “flaw in love” was a flaw in chemicals.”

About the love, and falling out of love, story of antidepressants. And our understanding of the brain and how it functions.

Studies on serotonin levels showed that higher or lower levels were both found (in depressed populations) and a chemical intervention (lowering serotonin concentration) didn’t affect mood. But maybe the effect is only so in the (chance-of-being) depressed population.

Yet, 75-82% of the effect (depending on the studies included, see article), of antidepressants could be caused by the placebo effect. “But for patients with the most severe forms of depression, the benefit of medications over placebo was substantial. Such patients might have found, as Andrew Solomon did, that they no longer felt “the self slipping out” of their hands. The most severe dips in mood were gradually blunted.”

“Prozac’s positive effects, in other words, depended on the birth of nerve cells in the hippocampi of these mice.” So looking not at serotonin, but the growth of new brain cells.

“Might depression also be a degenerative disease — an Alzheimer’s of emotion, a dementia of mood?”

“If an answer to these questions exists, it may emerge from the work of Helen Mayberg” … “Tracing such sites led her to the subcallosal cingulate, a minuscule bundle of nerve cells that sit near the hippocampus and function as a conduit between the parts of the brain that control conscious thinking and the parts that control emotion.“

“A remarkable and novel theory for depression emerges from these studies. Perhaps some forms of depression occur when a stimulus — genetics, environment or stress — causes the death of nerve cells in the hippocampus.”

Very interesting, something I want to learn more about. Start at Helen Mayberg?

Platforms in an Aggregator World

Source: Stratechery | By: Ben Thompson

Interesting (again) analysis of Shopify (that is shop, not spot) and how it competes with other companies (mainly Amazon and Facebook) and the choices they have made. At Queal, we’re on Woocommerce (the open-source version) but I do see where they are at and what they are trying to do.

Why Remote Work Is So Hard—and How It Can Be Fixed

Source: The New Yorker | By: Cal Newport (from Deep Work)

An in-depth analysis of the history of remote work and why it’s hard and what we can do about it.

It’s hard because there is less face-to-face (spontaneous meetings that Apple designed into its new mega donut, uhh office). This relates to both tasks/meetings, and social cues/praise. It’s also hard to do long focussed work at home (you need to separate yourself/your space).

“In many offices, tasks are assigned haphazardly, and there are few systematic ways to track who is working on what or find out how the work is going. In such a chaotic work environment, there are profound advantages to gathering people together in one place.”

Newport makes the analogy with adoption earlier technologies and argues that we get stuck because we try and adapt the new one in the old system. With the current pandemic, we might have such a large shock that we can start fresh.

Personal productivity tips are given (see the book linked above). Blocking time and having office hours (and happy hours?) are also valuable.

Good article overall, and we will see where things take us. Finally also a mention of the ‘tour of duty’ idea from The Alliance.

Effective Altruism and Meaning in Life

Source: EA Forum | By: anon

Good musings on EA and the meaning of life (well, that’s the title). I took away from it that EA isn’t the whole purpose of your life. There is more to it (e.g. love) and more to your career (doing other things).

Note: from June 2020 onward, I’ve been adding interesting links to an Obsidian file, may start this again later if still necessary/useful.

May 1, 2020

The Psychedelic Renaissance

Originally published on Blossom Analysis

—

The Psychedelic Renaissance by Ben Sessa offers an enthusiastic, level-headed, and much-underappreciated overview of psychedelics and their potential. Written by psychedelics enthusiast, consulting psychiatrist, and co-organizer of Breaking Conventions. The book offers a good overview of what we know about psychedelics, what policies and counter-culture there has been, and what the current renaissance is poised to bring to the table.

The publication of this book in 2012 didn’t reach as wide an audience as Michael Pollan‘s How To Change Your Mind, but one could argue that it’s at least as well informed and good of an introduction as the latter. Or as one other reviewer wrote: “Broad in scope, honest in execution.“

Summary

Introduction

Psychedelics have been viewed through many different lenses. A negative framing sees them as brain toxins or dangerous drugs of abuse. Another framing revers them as sacramental gifts. And, as you will read later on, tool to do research with and better understand the world around us (and inside us).

Chapter 1 – Personal Reflection

Ben Sessa missed the summer of love (albeit he was around for the second one in 1988-9 in England). He did have a stint as a hippy and later recounts sleeping atop an ancient Aztec pyramid. But he is better known for pursuing the research of psychedelics. Far from ‘career suicide’ (he is a child psychiatrist by trade), this has made him one of the main figures in this new field.

Chapter 2 – The Experience and the Drugs

Describing all psychedelics and their respective effects is quite the task. So for specifics, one would do better to go to Erowid or other sites that provide information about a specific psychedelic. Yet, in this chapter Sessa does a good job of describing the effects of psychedelics in general:

  1. Physiological effects: mostly mental, but heightened heart rate and blood pressure are common
  2. Heightening or distortion of perceptions in all sensory modalities: seeing more clearly (‘more 3-D’) or synesthesia (senses mixing)
  3. Altered sense of space and time
  4. ‘Cinematographic’ effects: seeing movies/stories play out (even with eyes closed)
  5. Regressive behavior and an increased recall of childhood memories
  6. Increased sensitivity to the feelings of others
  7. Religious or spiritual experience
  8. Being at one with the universe (oceanic boundlessness)
  9. Psychotic/delirious changes

The rest of the chapter deals with another classification and highlights the importance of set and setting. The chapter ends with a classification (and description of the most popular drugs) that is akin to another good introductory text Magic Medicine, which describes most psychedelics within roughly the same classification schema.

Chapter 3 – Early Pioneers of the First and Second Psychedelic Eras

There are three great eras of psychedelic culture.

  1. Around the start of the 19th century (1880-1930)
  2. The flower-power era of the 1960s (or 1980s in the UK)
  3. The current era starting around the turn of the 21st century

The first era was rather limited in scope and focussed mostly on mescaline.

The second era started with the discovery of LSD (Albert Hofmann) and also featured lots of therapeutic research being done with psychedelics (including MDMA). Most of the work was done with LSD and was used, amongst other things, to treat alcohol dependency. Aldous Huxley, Stanislav Grof, and Timothy Leary were others who were active in that period of time.

The LSD therapy around that time was quite successful. Although research standards and protocols were not what they are today, with over 50.000 sessions, with 4303 patients, there were but a handful of incidents. Alas, the recreational use of psychedelics is what got them banned eventually (chapter 5).

Chapter 4 – The Prehistory and Ancient History of Hallucinogens

Ben Sessa is very down to earth (spiritual, but not religious) and reflects with an open mind on the theories of Terence McKenna (Food of the Gods) and others who’ve ‘seen God’ through mushroom use. Religion and psychedelics might have originated at the same time (the former being influenced by the latter).

The chapter also recounts some of the psychedelic plants that might have been available to people at those times.

Chapter 5 – Hippie Heydays, Ravers and the Birth of Ecstasy

There were many reasons for the ‘rise’ of the hippie movement (end of second world war, Vietnam, wider distribution of LSD, etc). This first manifested itself in the US in the 1960s, but only later did so in the UK in the 1980s. The second era also did find its continuation in MDMA (with the ‘rave’ culture). Alas, this also gets banned (for the wrong reasons) and the research side of psychedelics starts a long period of hibernation (the illegal use, of course, is unfazed). It will be up to Rick Doblin (MAPS) and others to revive the research.

Chapter 6 – Psychedelic Creativity

“There are clear similarities between the typical traits of creative people and the subjective psychological characteristics of the psychedelic drug experience.” (here Sessa links to one of his own papers ‘Is it time to revisit the role of psychedelic drugs in enhancing human creativity? (2008)’.

The research back from the 1960s can, by today’s standards, only be seen as anecdotal. But the signs point towards a link between psychedelics and enhanced creativity.

Divergent thinking and the the ability to form novel ideas are part of creativity. This is enhanced by the presence of psychedelics (i.e. via changes in frontal lobe activity).

One of the studies mentioned is one by Oscar Janiger on creativity of visual artists. The 60 artists produced more creative (more expressionistic, sharper colors, more emotional) paintings. The painters also found the LSD experience to be “artistically and personally profound.”

Also see James Fadiman‘s book The Psychedelic Experience for more on creativity and psychedelics.

Chapter 7 – Modern Uses of Natural Plants and Fungi Psychedelics

Mushrooms, ayahuasca, cannabis, and ibogaine have been used for over 5000 years and we would be remiss to forget that. Sessa makes a strong statement at the start of the chapter that our current (Western) way of life wont do the planet (and ourselves) any good.

The latter part of the chapter also highlights lesser known psychedelic substances like the venom of a toad (5-MeO-DMT), Kava, Agara Leaves, and more.

Chapter 8 – The Psychedelic Renaissance Part One: Movers and Shakers

The chapter and the next look at who the people and studies are that are bringing back psychedelics to the forefront. The following lists are soon outdated and in the 2012 print (used here) is probably already very much updated in the 2017 version. Click on the links to learn more about them.

Organizations:

People:

Chapter 9 – The Psychedelic Renaissance Part Two: Contemporary Studies

It costs a lot of money to take a drug to market. Some quote numbers into the billions, but for MDMA it’s looking like it will be done for about $40 million. Rick Doblin, mentioned above, is the one leading the charge here. It’s interesting to see that in 2012 Sessa predicted 2022 as the year MDMA therapy would be available, this looks to be about right.

The research really has taken extraordinary leaps forward in the last 8 years. This chapter does provide a good snapshot. But you can better look at current publications or summaries of research.

And/or search for papers here on our website.

Chapter 10 – Psychedelics Caught in the Crossfire of the War on Drugs

Maybe the most dangerous thing about doing drugs is being jailed for doing so. It’s a billion-dollar war being fought against the population, against free thought, against changing your mind. So it’s to be expected that policy isn’t based on (exact) science, it’s based on what a politician read in the Daily Mail (newspaper) and sometimes justified with (bad) science.

In the chapter, Sessa focuses on on MDMA and how that has been banned. You can read more about that in Ecstacy.

Harm reduction services are getting more attention and who knows that one day some drugs will be available to use in therapy, or even recreational without fear.

Conclusion

“Psychiatry needs psychedelics, and psychedelics need psychiatry.”

It’s possible to heal/help people with psychedelics and Sessa’s (and my) hope is that the science and practice will combine and that some day soon psychedelics will become a part of our global consciousness again.

The introduction needs to be slow, even boring. Sessa argues that we might even need another name for them (but it’s doubtful that this can happen). And slowly we might go from the medical model (bad to ok) towards also using them for exploration, expansion, joy (ok to great).

April 23, 2020

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a great short (3.5h) introduction to astrophysics. It touches upon the size of the universe, the elements and where they originate from, and gives us humans a somewhat larger perspective.

One thing that was interesting/new to me was that the rate at which stars move away from us (making our ‘reachable’ universe (imagined as an inflating balloon) smaller, is quite slow. At a few stars per year (of the billions).

April 23, 2020

Food of the Gods

Originally published on Blossom Analysis.

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence McKenna is one of the most famous books in psychedelics. It explores our human history through the lens of psychedelics (psilocybin specifically) and forms a theory (stoned ape) that is both loved by some and not accepted in scientific circles. McKenna also argues that we have to restore balance to nature and ourselves (archaic revival).

Quick Take

The book is divided into four parts that describe the history, present, and future through McKenna’s lens:

  1. Paradise – How we used to live in balance with nature and how psychedelics co-evolved with us
  2. Paradise Lost – How the balance got lost and ‘dominator culture’ took over
  3. Hell – Critique of current day society and (synthetic) drugs
  4. Paradise Regained? – Ideas about ‘archaic revival’, getting back to nature

What stands out most is the confidence that McKenna has about his theories. He puts them forward as the answer for our evolution and for the cure to our current predicament. Yet a careful reading may question many of his assumptions. The idea that psilocybin may give you a broader perspective and new experience could very well be true. But that it may help with visual acuity is questionable, that you will be more sexual is not everyone’s experience, and traditional cultures were far from more peaceful than our current system (one needs only read a few pages in anything Steven Pinker has written).

Thinking or arguing that everything was better in the past also makes me think back to Plato. At that ancient time, and many times since, they thought that we had fallen from grace, that our current life was but a mere dud of the full potential. What I think is missing there, and with Food of the Gods too, is a recognition that we don’t have the answers, that there is no perfect society.

Many things are bad, even terrible, about our current society. But thinking back to a time where childbirth was the norm, a small infection meant death, and where war with the next tribe or city over was a given, doesn’t seem to be the answer.

The book is recommended to gain more insight into McKenna’s thinking and the broad set of ideas that one can have about psychedelics. But I would urge the reader to stay critical and take from the book what is useful.

April 13, 2020

The Precipice

The Precipice by Toby Ord is a great birdseye view of the biggest challenges that we humans face in the future. Challenges that have the possibility of extinguishing our potential, threats that may make us go extinct. As could be predicted, these threats are currently mostly man-made.

I found this review by Scott Alexander very good. Do read it if you want to get a good overview of the whole book.

Also see this review by Theron Pummer on Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

The biggest things that stood out to me were:

  • Risk from AI is one of the largest (1 in 10 change in next 100 years)
    • I can agree on that point, but also think that there are some very good arguments that we will create benevolent AI or at least AI that has ‘good’ goals and that we can manage that
    • See Human Compatible for more about AI
  • Engineered pandemics seem very relevant at this moment (1 in 30)
    • Killing everyone would seem difficult, but it could break down society by killing 99% (or even 70% I would guess)
    • The knowledge seems difficult to get, but maybe would only be used one time
    • Can we even prevent/cure something like this (here my knowledge is lacking most)
  • Unforeseen anthropogenic (man-made) risks (1 in 30)
    • At every step Toby Ord understands the ‘unknown unknowns’ and also here accounts for them
  • There is 5/6 chance that we will make it through the next 100 years
    • But making the 1/6 smaller (to 1/6,1) may be very valuable and we’re not doing enough at this moment
  • The future potential of us humans is so vast (exploring the galaxy, making more art, discovering new things about nature, etc)
    • In the last chapter Toby Ord does a great job of making you want to see the bright future that we need to protect
April 9, 2020

Making Music

This is the essay for the third theme of my 2020 goals.

I’ve always appreciated good music and have a very diverse set of musical genres that I like to listen to. For some years I’ve played saxophone and someday (when not living in the city) I hope to resume doing that.

Next to playing the saxophone, I haven’t really made music myself. Because I enjoy electronic music (techno, house, etc), I plan on learning how to make some of that myself.

This reminds me of a time when I was about 14 years old. My brother and I got a dj-set on which you could mix music together. We used it for a while but sold it to a friend within a year or two. The friend eventually became quite a reasonable dj.

My two goals for this project are, 1) be able to create music myself, 2) by this process learn to enjoy/appreciate music even more (by knowing what goes on ‘behind the curtain’).

Plan of Attack

  1. Find a program to make it in (I now have FL Studio 20)
  2. Find tutorials on how to use the program
  3. Find samples/edit them and make my first song
  4. Make more songs with these ideas:
    1. Classical music and techno beats
    2. Melodic vocals and techno beats
    3. Movie/tv series quotes and techno beats
    4. A more funky ‘tropical house’ beat
    5. Synthesizer number
  5. Find a way to easily host them (e.g. on this site and/or soundcloud)
  6. Design a workflow/system that I can keep on making music after this initial project is done

What I’ve Learned

I’m subscribed to SkillShare (referral link) and there I’ve found over 10 courses for FL Studio 20. I’m going to start with ‘FL Studio 20 Beginners Course – Learn How to Make Beats in FL Studio’

First session: 1.5h

  • Select ASIO driver (f10, audio), you can change the version if one doesn’t work well
  • Increase buffer length (f10, then audio, buffer) if the pc can’t keep up. Smaller buffer length if pc can do it well
  • Resampling quality (can do lower quality whilst making it (f10, audio)), put at maximum when exporting song
  • Undo history at 100 (f10, general), knob tweaks also enabled (both were already at this setting)
  • Autosave frequently – because chance of crashing highest during playback (f10, file) and changed save folder to large drive (D)
  • Press f1 to go to help (webpage by FL Studio)
  • How does it work?
    • You create patterns, loops
    • You add these to the playlist, this creates the song
    • You choose when and where the patterns play (arrange them)
    • In the mixer you can adjust the loops (mastering, audio painting, transition, filters)
  • If you have your own sounds, you can drag them into the ‘browser’ (on the left), just drag the folder there
  • F2 – rename and colour a pattern (loop)
  • Ctrl + x (when selecting parts of your loop, you cut them)
  • F4 – new pattern
  • + / – go to next / previous pattern (1-9 ditto)
  • ! paste in snares etc (in your pattern – from other pattern)
  • play buttons – channel rack (is only pattern), playlist (is all)
  • ! Bar at top of pattern is (I think, looks different than tutorial) how much they ‘miss’ the perfect mark
  • Shift + ctrl + c = clone a pattern (or right click on the pattern name (in top bar)
  • If you have an instrument, right click on it to go to piano roll
  • Ctrl + click (slepen) is highlighting
  • Shift + click to duplicate that what you selected

Second session: 1h

  • Middle-mouse click on loop to rename (and colour – F2 when that is selected)
  • Knobs on left of loops are left-right (first knob), and volume (second knob)
    • Panning can also be done in in mixer
  • Highlight sounds (loops) by left/right-click, alt (arrow up/down), shift+click, clicking on them (so everything that makes sense)
    • If multiple selected, can do gradient
  • In the mixer (down), you can assign your sounds, shift+ctrl+l and start from your first/top sound (auto-fills the rest after that)
  • Alt+delete (is delete loop)
  • If you drop a sound, drop it at bottom or in between other sounds (otherwise it overwrites the other one)
  • In loop/channel-panel, the III (three bars) icon is where you can make the sounds/tunes more human (same as thing in piano roll (bottom)) – called the graph editor
  • In loop/channel-panel – you have a loop feature (somewhat confusing – looping stuff that isn’t as long as everything or something)
  • (that was step-sequencer, now playlist)
  • Ctrl+a, del = empty whole playlist
  • select patterns with number pad (1,2,3)
  • then plus (or minus) to go to next/previous pattern
  • hover over top bar (with numbers), ctrl+click-hold to select that part, ctrl+b to copy-past that part
  • magnet (also top bar), you can select beat/bar to change where the loops snap to (how fine-grained)
  • (working with audio clips), good, but for drums etc use fl studio things (not audio clips)
  • alt (and move a loop in playlist freely) instead of snapping to the ‘grids’
  • alt+shift (right side), you can cut a part (and then delete the part you don’t want with right mouse)
  • Shift+Q, quantise = snap to grid

Third session: 1.5h

(piano roll)

  • F7 to open, ENTER to make full screen
  • Quarter beat/half-step (in magnet) to show the right amount of zoom/snaps (shift to mini-adjust time, alt to mini-adjust volume)
  • Ctrl+q is making everything snap (quantize) to gridlines
  • (trying out some things in piano roll)
  • if ghost notes enabled, double-right-click on notes to go to the other (ghost) instrument
  • via edit, allow resizing from the left (seems reasonable)
  • control (bottom) can adjust volume and pan (alt and hover over note you want to edit)
  • Not too useful for piano/guitar, but can be cool for snare or other things you want to edit in volume/pitch

(how to use the mixer)

  • Route sound (loop) to mixer (d/q to play that sound and check if the volume etc is moving on the right mixer)
  • ctrl+shift = higlighting multiple mixers
  • dry signal, going to master directly, wet signal is one that is going via other mixer (e.g. the reverb)
  • “mixer takes beat (loops) to next level

Fourth session (75min):

(sounds)

  • Make folder where you save everything
  • Be organized
  • Buy/have some sounds, but don’t need too many
  • (downloaded and unzipped some drum kits)

Fifth session (45min):

(plugins, backups, snaps)

  • More technical discussion things

Good info for first song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AXzP3hs98g

April 7, 2020

Green Roof & Solar Panels

Why: Because our bedroom gets really hot in the summer. A green roof might help. Solar panels too, and of course will give us sustainable energy.

The questions I want answered:

How much does a green roof help with heat?

Not really clear from websites. But do all say that is has this effect and also keeps in the heat in the winter.

Best info here (Living Roofs). Heat under roof is not 32, but 17 C.

How much does a green roof costs? Could I get the neighbour(s) involved?

This website (GroenDak) looks best. Here is an instruction on how to put it on the roof yourself.

Costs are €41 per m2 (DIY)

Roof is m2 (or m2 if only our own part)

How much do solar panels cost? How does long does it to earn them back?

Based on zonnepanelen.net website calculator (which first gobbles up your email and then wants more).

3200 kWh per year energy based on 12 panels.

That is very good, our usage is 1700 kWh or lower.

Size of panel is 165- or 196x99cm (so about 2m2).

€60 euro per month savings/money earned (guesstimate).

Based on GroenDak website, costs are around €2500 for 8 panels.

Can I combine both?

Coolblue says no (for green roof and installing solar panels).

Is there a subsidie available?

This one for green roofs Rotterdam. (links to this page)

  • €15 per square meter
  • 8 weeks after improvement (or earlier)
  • minimal 20 m2 (roof is possibly a bit larger than that)
April 7, 2020

Dog Food

Max is currently eating Acana dog food. I wanted to know if it would be easier/cheaper to make it myself (and make it vegetarian). After researching that, I eventually found out that the best solution is to buy vegetarian dog food.

I first dismissed the latter because I thought that this would be much more expensive. Only at the end of my research, I found out that the vegetarian dog food was cheaper than the one I was buying until now.

Previously – Acana

80 euro per bag of 17kg

€4,71 per kg

€1,13 estimated costs per day

DIY

€2,10 estimated costs per day

Based on list of ingredients adapted from this blog.

The mix I made consisted of 23% protein.

The costs per 700kcal would be €1,82 (so per ‘normal’ meal, so not too expensive and quite healthy)

(for myself: file is saved under personal – archive)

New – V-Dog Flakes / Crunchy Nuggets

53,50 per bag of 15kg

€3,57 per kg

€0,86 estimated costs per day

note 1: calories per gram estimated to be the same

note 2: Flakes is cheaper, but is Crunchy Nuggets are ‘brokjes’ so the same as Max has now

When I run out of the current food, I will be switching Max over to this food.

April 5, 2020

Public Commitment 2020 – Update 1

This year my theme is Upgrade. The goal is to use the things I already know, and apply/improve/renew it to build more new things.

The two big things that have come out of the first quarter are the two essays:

I’m happy with how the blogs have turned out.

As feedback for myself, I would say that I was way more focused on the first blog (spending upwards of an hour per day on it, on many days). Whilst for the second blog I needed quite some time to get started. I think that if that happens again, I should use my bi-weekly reminder as a real decision point, to continue or switch topics.

In the coming quarter I will continue to work on new topics. The next one I plan to tackle is to make some music myself (on the laptop). After that I will see again.

Now onto the goals.

Goal 1: Write Nova (and possibly other short stories)

This is on hold until later this year. I will maybe write a short story as a one-day project this quarter.

Goal 2: Improve this website

I’m really happy with the changes I’ve made recently. The website now looks much better with some ‘cards’ that display where I’m at with certain topics and themes. Check out the homepage to see more.

Goal 3: Do something crazy for love

Not happened yet, but I did install Sims 4 and Lotte is really happy with that (and instantly addicted).

Goal 4: Write essays about 6 topics

Two down, 4 more to go. I can say that I like the essay form and it enables me to think longer about a problem and connect more things (and link back where necessary and reread some of my notes on that topic).

Goal 5: Start a new and successful venture

You can check out the progress/projects under this venture at Blossom Act.

I’m still really in a creator-mode (making sure everything works), but soon I will start going into promotion/connection mode (and of course these things overlap). I’ve made some good connections already and will try and actively engage even more the coming months.

Next to the things that are live now, I’ve also had even more ideas and over time I think I can really keep working on Blossom for 10 years or even a lifetime (70 years).

Alright, that is it for this update. Check back with you next time.

April 5, 2020

April 2020

No, You Didn’t Just Lose Half Of Your Retirement Savings

Source: Mr. Money Moustache |By: MMM

Over time, we can be optimistic. You won’t take out all your money now (don’t do it), so just wait it out and things will get better.

The next software revolution: programming biological cells | Sara-Jane Dunn

Source: Youtube / TED Talk | By: Sara-Jane Dunn

Pogramming cells will be the next computing language. This is a way in which we can tackle diseases, make living software, revolutionalize agriculture.

E.g. crops that have double yield, fend of pests themselves, etc. The same goes for immunity of humans.

Other than most code, it’s self organising (without a ‘brain’ – bottom-up).

Research into embryonic cells, make naive ones again from muscle/other cells.

Made a tool that looks at cells, what leads to what (A => B v C)

Then probed the cell, to learn what is best/fastest way to get the cell back to naive state.

Now working on getting ‘computational biology’ to be a field that has great impact (bridge between software and wetware).

Episode 991: Lives Vs. The Economy

This episode of planet money talks about how much we value a life. The number is $3.000.000 in the US. Because of political reasons there is no difference between saving a kid (with many years to live) or extending an older persons life with 1 year. The price is based on (amongst other things) how much extra we pay people with dangerous jobs (e.g. company pays people 3.000 more per year, and chance of dying on the job is 1/1000 = 3M).

This ties back into the coronavirus measures and how it’s very much worth it now to keep things closed. More discussion also on Sam Harris’ podcast with Paul Bloom.

We can, and should, put a value on life, but calculating it (and all the externalities) is very difficult. And, of course, very unfair. Since we can still save so many lives from neglected tropical diseases (malaria, worms, vitamin c deficiency, diarrhea) for pennies on the dollar.

How Tech Can Build

Source: Stratechery / Ben Thompson

Great review and original opinion by Ben Thompson on how we should be building things again. About taking risk. About not being complacent. His three parting pieces of advice are:

  1. Tech should embrace and accelerate distributed work
  2. Invest in real-world companies that differentiate investment in hardware with software
  3. Find an investment model that works (less upside, but also less risk)

The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics

Source: Jaibot (Jia), fellow EA

“… it’s okay to notice a problem and only make it a little bit better. If everyone did that, the world would be a vastly better place. If everyone “exploited” opportunities where they could benefit and alleviate people’s suffering at the same time, we’d all be better off.“

Nutrition, Programming Burpees, Supplements and Form, Let’s talk about it

Source: Iron Wolf

Discovered this YouTube channel. Awesome burpee content, and this one specifically about food, supplements, etc.

Newtonian Ethics

Source: Slate Star Codex

“We can confirm this to the case by investigating inverse square laws. If morality is indeed an unusual form of gravitation, it will vary with the square of the distance between two objects.”

Interesting take on ethics and something that EA tries to combat (make us not consider the distance). Could be used as a talking point when introducing people to EA (effective altruism).

The Anti-Amazon Alliance

Source: Stratechery

Good article about how to find customers and how different platforms (Amazon, Shopify, Google) are working on that and what is important there. Relevant as Google Shopping will become free to use in the future (EU).

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