579: MDMA brain states, 11 words for love, and an artist residency database
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I’m in NYC for the rest of the month after spending the weekend just outside Amsterdam at a Sandbox retreat. My last NYC post remains one of the top on this blog, so stay tuned for the next one.
I learned that most AMS red light district sex workers charge 50 euros for 15 minutes as the start of a negotiation, and usually don’t include kissing(!)
Dutch saying: ‘God created the world, but the Dutch finished it.’ (cuz waterworks)
Technology
Techies have rediscovered the jhanas, an ancient Buddhist practice ignored as a dead end to enlightenment that feel like an MDMA trip on demand. Vipassana’s not cool anymore, I guess :).
Matchbox sells a matchmaking algorithm to…matchmakers? Didn’t know that demographic could carry a market tbh!
Given that my last startup was in professional matchmaking and failed, it’s interesting to see where the field is headed. I suppose the dating vertical has its own distinct needs from that of professionals, although the matching principles are the same.
Andrej Karpathy is one of the big guys at OpenAI, so watching him share how he uses LLMs in a two hour long behind the scenes video is a treat. Several of his mental models around LLMs as having the Internet of a few months ago, to semantic tokens, have stuck with me and affected how I use LLMs since.
Ideologies
A European scientist, no less, was first to inform me both that RFK is my current Health Secretary, and that Trump is cutting federal funding to scientific studies that use woke aligned words like ‘diversity’, ‘affirmative’, or even ‘woman’. This is the most dystopic thing I’ve seen yet. :(
Relatedly, this book by one of the few German Jews to survive WW2 relatively unscathed (he converted, had an Aryan wife, and had fought in WW1) explores the ways the Nazis changed the German language to support their beliefs. Euphemisms, neologisms, recurrent words - all tactics we see deployed on both sides of the culture war today. :/
In lighter fare, everyone loves even more Greek words for ‘love’, but how about mapping them on an axis of fear to abundance?
Memes
The Anti Advertising Zone encourages vandalism of public advertisements into art as a reclamation of the public gaze. Their recent winners list is a fun view.
This site aggregates all the artist residency houses around the world for easy discovery and exploration. Some beautiful properties on there.
This SF software engineer earned so much money that they decided to establish a grant system called Francisco San where you fill out a google form and they send you thousands of dollars if they like it. Not unlike Helium Grants or Awesome Grants.
I guess techies with too much money patronizing the arts is a good thing? idk, this one feels odd to me, although the grantees are undeniably heartwarming.