Links post # 2
Half the links before the paywall, as always
Ahoy friends! I’ve been unusually quiet the month of April, with only one post, for which I apologize. I’ve been tied up with some life stuff and a few other writing projects, and my backlog ran dry as my morning writing habit worsened.
That said I should be back in the saddle and the habit groove as of May, so more posts coming, including one on the takes I consider contrarian, the current state of longevity research and practice, one on the conquest of Peru (which is one of my favorite countries), and possibly a post on how better discovery and winner take all dynamics has led to greater divergence in outcomes with no change in the underlying talent distribution.
But until that time, links!
First up is Rohit Krishnan’s absolutely amazing vibe coding project where he had Claude analyze Roman Egypt government complaints.
And the github link.
Did you know in WWII, 30k Japanese soldiers bicycled to Singapore via Malaysia and took the 80k English army there, which had been given orders to fight to the last man? It was the largest surrender in all of British history.
Nabeel S Qureshi’s Life Principles - absolute banger of a “level up” interventions post:
Grades don’t matter at the Ivies, but they could - an analytical dive into grade inflation in the Ivies, and why if you’re there you should actually WANT to stop the grade inflation, featuring such lines as “Your grades at Harvard are supposed to convey something about where you fall within that top 3 percent, not the fact that you are going to Harvard in the first place. And when 66% of Harvard students are getting A’s, it tells us virtually nothing that getting into Harvard didn’t tell us already. And at that point, why bother with the charade of grading at all?” Which, yes. An astute commenter pointed out this is really about attaining a “less work” equilibrium for everyone, from students to profs.
Glasswing, Claude Mythos’ bug finding consortium, found a bug in ffmpeg - brew update && brew upgrade guys.
The N=2M meta-analysis that showed that high cholesterol is the least predictive of CVD and all cause mortality, and may even cross the axis (cholesterol the middle of the trio).
You’re probably taking the wrong painkiller, why tylenol dominates ibuprofin in safety:
Dan Frank’s post on Why I love flash frozen food and you should too - it’s fresher, and most “fresh” fish and the like was flash frozen then thawed for you on the store shelf, so it lasts longer for you too if you buy frozen.
And another “lifetime half off” coupon, for anyone who wants to subscribe and see the rest of the links. I don’t care about the money (I’m set at the cheapest sub fees Substack allows), but bumping paying subs help grow a broader readership, because Substack promotes people more when Number Go Up:So if you too enjoy Numbers Going Up, or want to see the other half of various links posts, please avail yourself and enjoy!
https://performativebafflement.substack.com/d023342c
