Pinned
tal yarkoni
@talyarkoni.com
· Jan 1
“i'm really enjoying this book,” you think. “i'll just put it down on this table and go out and enjoy the lovely summer weather. i'll come back to it later.” you fool
the internet has decided that em-dashes are a hallmark of llm writing, which is *extremely* annoying to me, as someone who uses em-dashes all the time.
dear internet please consider the possibility that LLMs use em-dashes a lot because they're, like, good
dear internet please consider the possibility that LLMs use em-dashes a lot because they're, like, good
November 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
the internet has decided that em-dashes are a hallmark of llm writing, which is *extremely* annoying to me, as someone who uses em-dashes all the time.
dear internet please consider the possibility that LLMs use em-dashes a lot because they're, like, good
dear internet please consider the possibility that LLMs use em-dashes a lot because they're, like, good
so what happens now? do we all call each other comrade?
November 5, 2025 at 2:40 AM
so what happens now? do we all call each other comrade?
i'm out of town and my wife just called me up to tell me there are like 25 - 30 people standing on the sidewalk outside our building.
"apparently," she said, "there's a rare pokemon."
"apparently," she said, "there's a rare pokemon."
November 1, 2025 at 10:36 PM
i'm out of town and my wife just called me up to tell me there are like 25 - 30 people standing on the sidewalk outside our building.
"apparently," she said, "there's a rare pokemon."
"apparently," she said, "there's a rare pokemon."
i regularly see posts here now that i would have 100% responded to on twitter 10 years ago, and i'm not sure if (a) the discourse changed, (b) i've gained some sense in my old(er) age, or (c) i just don't have that kind of energy any more.
i lean towards c, and possibly b and c are the same thing
i lean towards c, and possibly b and c are the same thing
November 1, 2025 at 9:59 PM
i regularly see posts here now that i would have 100% responded to on twitter 10 years ago, and i'm not sure if (a) the discourse changed, (b) i've gained some sense in my old(er) age, or (c) i just don't have that kind of energy any more.
i lean towards c, and possibly b and c are the same thing
i lean towards c, and possibly b and c are the same thing
Reposted by tal yarkoni
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE OVER ZOOM TO MEET MORE OF THE TEAM
UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL ON THIS OCCASION, BUT WE HOPE YOU'LL APPLY FOR FUTURE POSITIONS WITH THE VAMPIRE
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE OVER ZOOM TO MEET MORE OF THE TEAM
UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL ON THIS OCCASION, BUT WE HOPE YOU'LL APPLY FOR FUTURE POSITIONS WITH THE VAMPIRE
November 1, 2025 at 6:34 AM
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE OVER ZOOM TO MEET MORE OF THE TEAM
UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL ON THIS OCCASION, BUT WE HOPE YOU'LL APPLY FOR FUTURE POSITIONS WITH THE VAMPIRE
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE OVER ZOOM TO MEET MORE OF THE TEAM
UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL ON THIS OCCASION, BUT WE HOPE YOU'LL APPLY FOR FUTURE POSITIONS WITH THE VAMPIRE
update: the platform is too powerful. i've been absorbed as one of their own. it was foolish of me to go there
currently trying my best to turn linkedin into tumblr. send help
October 2, 2025 at 2:23 PM
update: the platform is too powerful. i've been absorbed as one of their own. it was foolish of me to go there
currently trying my best to turn linkedin into tumblr. send help
October 2, 2025 at 6:13 AM
currently trying my best to turn linkedin into tumblr. send help
Reposted by tal yarkoni
This, to me, is Blueskyism
September 6, 2025 at 6:12 AM
This, to me, is Blueskyism
Reposted by tal yarkoni
The Onion News Network truck is currently stationed outside the Broadview ICE Detention facility just outside of Chicago.
September 6, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The Onion News Network truck is currently stationed outside the Broadview ICE Detention facility just outside of Chicago.
this is also my take. Yglesias is high-profile, very prolific, and iconoclastic, so it's easy for people to find strong takes to disagree with. but i think if you forced his critics to read everything he writes, the dominant response would be "meh, okay, i agree with most of that."
I don't really find Matt Yglesias as bad as a lot of yinz apparently do. I just disagree with him about a bunch of stuff. Important stuff, I grant. But still. In terms of, like, how evil or annoying I think people are, he doesn't really feature very highly at all for me.
September 5, 2025 at 3:34 AM
this is also my take. Yglesias is high-profile, very prolific, and iconoclastic, so it's easy for people to find strong takes to disagree with. but i think if you forced his critics to read everything he writes, the dominant response would be "meh, okay, i agree with most of that."
California is best understood as a Greek tragedy. arguably the most beautiful territory in the world, with a perfect climate, yet its stubborn attachment to cars, roads, and (tiny) back yards dooms it to endless affordability crises and NIMBYist apologism
i felt rage at this on a regular basis living in SV. single-family zoning throughout almost the entire peninsula. buildings capped at 2 - 3 stories right next to commuter rail stations. want to put a corner store on the ground floor of a residential mid-rise on a busy street? lol, move to tokyo
Nothing is more radicalizing than Silicon valley's land use, and sometimes I regret the fact that this intra-CA squabble broke containment and has people from other states participating in discourse. Y'all just don't get it. At best we can serve as a cautionary tale.
September 3, 2025 at 6:25 AM
California is best understood as a Greek tragedy. arguably the most beautiful territory in the world, with a perfect climate, yet its stubborn attachment to cars, roads, and (tiny) back yards dooms it to endless affordability crises and NIMBYist apologism
i felt rage at this on a regular basis living in SV. single-family zoning throughout almost the entire peninsula. buildings capped at 2 - 3 stories right next to commuter rail stations. want to put a corner store on the ground floor of a residential mid-rise on a busy street? lol, move to tokyo
Nothing is more radicalizing than Silicon valley's land use, and sometimes I regret the fact that this intra-CA squabble broke containment and has people from other states participating in discourse. Y'all just don't get it. At best we can serve as a cautionary tale.
September 3, 2025 at 5:45 AM
i felt rage at this on a regular basis living in SV. single-family zoning throughout almost the entire peninsula. buildings capped at 2 - 3 stories right next to commuter rail stations. want to put a corner store on the ground floor of a residential mid-rise on a busy street? lol, move to tokyo
Reposted by tal yarkoni
this story is delightful on so many levels
Newly Discovered Origami Patterns Put the Bloom on the Fold
www.nytimes.com
August 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
this story is delightful on so many levels
Reposted by tal yarkoni
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 AM
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
a song in every city was always a hopelessly ambitious goal, but two out of eleven ain't bad, right? here's my seattle song. lyrics in the description
soundcloud.com/sadboneinsti...
soundcloud.com/sadboneinsti...
August 6, 2025 at 7:29 AM
a song in every city was always a hopelessly ambitious goal, but two out of eleven ain't bad, right? here's my seattle song. lyrics in the description
soundcloud.com/sadboneinsti...
soundcloud.com/sadboneinsti...
many people who have no trouble understanding that evolution operates from the outside in, so to speak, seem to have trouble accepting that just because it's a language model on the surface doesn't mean it's a language model all the way down
I’m suspicious that LLMs don’t give you capable AI without more breakthroughs but TOTALLY puzzled by the people who are completely confident this is the case. Where does it come from?
July 31, 2025 at 3:59 PM
many people who have no trouble understanding that evolution operates from the outside in, so to speak, seem to have trouble accepting that just because it's a language model on the surface doesn't mean it's a language model all the way down
prolonged inspection of Gemini's chain of thought has been causing me to speak in the present perfect continuous tense
July 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
prolonged inspection of Gemini's chain of thought has been causing me to speak in the present perfect continuous tense
Reposted by tal yarkoni
All of NIMBY leftist housing policy is frustrated by the physical impossibility of building a used car.
July 26, 2025 at 3:34 PM
All of NIMBY leftist housing policy is frustrated by the physical impossibility of building a used car.
Reposted by tal yarkoni
Reposted by tal yarkoni
If we write coherently enough about what bad characters do and what good characters do, then we can align models by setting the bad vector to 0. Unfortunately, then we create the "dark side" where making it do any bad thing turns it evil.
June 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
If we write coherently enough about what bad characters do and what good characters do, then we can align models by setting the bad vector to 0. Unfortunately, then we create the "dark side" where making it do any bad thing turns it evil.
this is true, but fortunately, it's also easier for junior engineers to learn from AI code assistants than from curmudgeonly senior engineers
Yeah, I have seen easily a dozen or so senior engineers I follow that concede that it is easier to work with an AI code assistant than it is to hire new hands and onboard them. The way I view this sentiment is, more or less, as a gild member who is content with making journeymen suffer for decades.
June 20, 2025 at 9:36 PM
this is true, but fortunately, it's also easier for junior engineers to learn from AI code assistants than from curmudgeonly senior engineers
yes, and also, the little pockets are often abutted by other only slightly littler pockets whose entire identity revolves around the bigger pocket being utterly wrong, but nothing actually changes if either/both pockets go away, because the root sin is irrelevance and not incorrectness
Academia will form these little pockets -- people whose theorizing is outrageous & supported by methods outdated since the 90s -- but once it reaches a critical size those people just review each others papers & grants, form societies, hand out awards etc, like a self-contained parallel society.
June 7, 2025 at 9:36 AM
yes, and also, the little pockets are often abutted by other only slightly littler pockets whose entire identity revolves around the bigger pocket being utterly wrong, but nothing actually changes if either/both pockets go away, because the root sin is irrelevance and not incorrectness