flâneur

Lada Nuzhna

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on the atlas — 32

highlights — 87

  • Christopher Alexander has an observation about problem solving that I like: you should always be focusing on solving the part that has the fewest degrees of freedom.
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  • “Sometimes, when we are very determined not to ask a question, we make a claim of having very decisively answered it.” ― Agnes Callard, Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life
    Agnes Callard Quotes (Author of Open Socrates)
  • Fine to be a bachelor poet chasing your heart through seaport bars and desert highways. Fine to be a family man who is neurotic about hiring the exact right babysitter. Fine to be a girlboss, fine to be a tradwife. As long as you understand the game you’re playing, your motives for playing it, and its likely effects on the world, and endorse it given the information you have.
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  • Another thing I’ve noticed about many people who’ve achieved outlier success: They are surrounded by people who they trust implicitly and who value loyalty and reciprocity. Essentially, their professional lives are one giant positive-sum game, where everyone is eager to do favors for one another.
    How to increase your surface area for luck - by Cate Hall
  • This is an important point, and a recurrent theme throughout these tips: If you are withholding your energy for use only in those situations where you know an interaction will benefit you, you are not increasing your surface area for luck at all. You are already failing the assignment.
    How to increase your surface area for luck - by Cate Hall
  • i don’t think we talk enough about emotional clutter. the way we carry old versions of ourselves, old hopes, old conversations that never ended right. things we don’t need anymore, but can’t quite throw away. we tidy our homes, but not our hearts. maybe peace is just learning how to let go without needing closure first. 4.7K 31 713
    gor (@goranshbharal): "i don’t think we talk enough about emotional clutter. the way we carry old versions of ourselves, old hopes, old conversations that never ended right. things we don’t need anymore, but can’t quite throw away. we tidy our homes, but not our hearts. maybe peace is just learning ho…"
  • You think “putting yourself first” is noble, even when it becomes a habit of leaving everyone else last. You want the rewards of connection with none of the inconvenience of participation. You flake and call it self-preservation. You ghost and call it peace. You don’t go to the birthday, don’t reply to the message, don’t leave your house, and then you cry about how no one checks in anymore. You’ve mistaken isolation for empowerment. You’re a bitch, and that’s why we lack community.
    you’re a bitch, and that’s why we lack community - by maisa
  • Curiosity has become inconvenient. Too slow. Too unstable. Too unmonetizable.
    The New Porn - by Abram Shaffer - This Is a Thesis
  • “I’d rather fail gloriously than succeed conventionally.”
    The New Porn - by Abram Shaffer - This Is a Thesis
  • Delusional goals rewire your brain. Your brain is literally reshaping itself right now based on what you're learning and thinking about, this letter included. When you imagine a better future, it activates the same brain networks as if you were experiencing them. Every single moment of focused attention is a chance to rewire your brain in alignment with the person you want to become. That's one of many reasons doomscrollers and those who don't manage their inputs (mental or physical) are digging their own grave one moment at a time. Beyond that, dopamine spikes more during goal pursuit than ac…
    These 3 decisions will determine if you get rich
  • This is a fairly common practice, crafting a ritual where you sit down at the same time every day, in the same chair, writing in the same kind of notebook, creating a repetitiveness that borders on self-hypnosis. This is what Hemingway did, it is what Mario Vargas Llosa does.
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • Grothendieck had a talent to notice (and admit!) that he was subtly bewildered and intrigued by things that for others seemed self-evident (what is length?) or already settled (the Lebesgue integral) or downright bizarre (as were many of his meditations on God and dreams). From this arose some truly astonishing questions, surfacing powerful ideas, such as topoi, schemes, and K-theory.
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • People show much more originality in solving problems than in deciding which problems to solve. Even the smartest can be surprisingly conservative when deciding what to work on. People who’d never dream of being fashionable in any other way get sucked into working on fashionable problems.
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • This experience is common in the childhoods of people who go on to do great work, as I have written elsewhere. Nearly everyone who does great work has some episode of early solitary work. As the philosopher Bertrand Russell remarked, the development of gifted and creative individuals, such as Newton or Whitehead, seems to require a period in which there is little or no pressure for conformity, a time in which they can develop and pursue their interests no matter how unusual or bizarre. In so doing, there is often an element of reinventing the already known. Einstein reinvented parts of statist…
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • An important part of the notes has Grothendieck meditating on how he first established contact with the cognitive space needed to do groundbreaking work. This happened in his late teens. It was, he writes, this profound contact with himself which he established between 17 and 20 that later set him apart—he was not as strong a mathematician as his peers when he came to Paris at 20, in 1947. That wasn’t the key to his ability to do great work.
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • But the point is: being exceptionally talented and trained was, in the long run, not enough to do groundbreaking work because they lacked the capacity to go beyond the context they had been raised in.
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • In June 1983, Alexander Grothendieck sits down to write the preface to a mathematical manuscript called Pursuing Stacks. He is concerned by what he sees as a tacit disdain for the more “feminine side” of mathematics (which is related to what I’m calling the solitary creative state) in favor of the “hammer and chisel” of the finished theorem. By elevating the finished theorems, he feels that mathematics has been flattened: people only learn how to do the mechanical work of hammering out proofs, they do not know how to enter the dreamlike states where truly original mathematics arises. To counte…
    Cultivating a state of mind where new ideas are born
  • This torment has a name in cognitive science: the "taste-skill discrepancy." Your taste (your ability to recognize quality) develops faster than your skill (your ability to produce it). This creates what Ira Glass famously called "the gap," but I think of it as the thing that separates creators from consumers.
    being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage
  • Repetition isn’t discipline. It’s identity installation. Habits aren’t tasks. They’re evidence. You’re not brushing your teeth. You’re becoming the person who doesn’t miss. You’re not journaling. You’re building a mind that confronts itself daily. You’re not working out. You’re shaping someone who treats their body like a responsibility, not an afterthought. Do it once, it’s activity. Do it daily, it’s a vote. Do it when you don’t feel like it, it’s who you are now.
    pathsofstoicism on Substack: "Repetition isn’t discipline. It’s identity installation. Habits aren’t tasks. They’re evidence. You’re not brushing your teeth. You’re becoming the person who doesn’t miss. You’re not journaling. You’re building a mind that confronts itself daily. You’re not working out. You…"
  • When you look at the field, the only time we've ever really been able to control or cure any viral infections with small molecules, it's been with a cocktail of drugs that hit several mechanisms at once (HIV, HepC). Which makes perfect sense, given viral mutation rates. I don't see how a single small molecule drug is ever going to be an effective antiviral by itself, at least not if it's working by the mechanisms we know now. And in the case of remedesivir, or ribavirin, or AZT or any other broad-spectrum-ish antiviral you can name, the chances of a single agent hitting a knockout blow are bas…
    Drug Repurposing: How Often Does It Work? | Science | AAAS
  • There’s a specific kind of mental fog that creeps in when you’ve been scrolling for too long. You feel tired but wired, overstimulated and undernourished. You sit down to do something, anything, and your brain slips through your fingers. You check your phone. Then your email. Then your phone again. You toggle between five tabs, but nothing really lands. And then the frustration hits: why can’t I focus? what happened to my brain?
    how to pay attention again (the neuroscience of focus in the age of everything)
  • I read about this idea from this article by Steven Pinker titled ‘The Source of Bad Writing’. In it, he wondered why intelligent people usually produce unintelligible writing. And his answer cuts straight into why teaching is such a difficult gig: we will always find it hard to imagine that someone else doesn’t know something that we know.
    Gmail
  • David Foster Wallace, on working your way back to writing for yourself and rediscovering the fun of the craft: At some point you find that 90% of the stuff you're writing is motivated and informed by an overwhelming need to be liked. This results in shitty fiction. And the shitty work must get fed to the wastebasket, less because of any sort of artistic integrity than simply because shitty work will cause you to be disliked. At this point in the evolution of writerly fun, the very thing that's always motivated you to write is now also what's motivating you to feed your writing to the wastebask…
    Henrik Karlsson on Substack: "David Foster Wallace, on working your way back to writing for yourself and rediscovering the fun of the craft: At some point you find that 90% of the stuff you're writing is motivated and informed by an overwhelming need to be liked. This results in shitty fiction. And the shit…"
  • In mid-2015, Matthew Nelson and colleagues published a groundbreaking paper. They found that when the mechanisms of different drugs were also implicated in genetic studies, the odds that those drugs would be approved were doubled (OR = 2.1).
    The 23andMe Deal - Cremieux Recueil
  • Repetition rewires Repetition rewires Repetition rewires Your brain rewires what you repeat - for better or worse. Neuroplasticity doesn’t know the difference. Be mindful of what you repeat.
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  • Be bored more often. Go for long walks. Meditate. Journal your thoughts. Read new books. Spend time alone without devices. You would get to understand yourself a lot much better. Your brain gets the best ideas when it is left to wander. In those quiet moments, you'll uncover clarity and inspiration that can't be found in constant stimulation.
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  • Best mental reset I’ve learned: If your mind is loud — Write. If your mind is empty — Read. If your mind is racing — Walk. If your mind is tired — Sleep. If your mind is sharp — Build. Most problems are just mismatched energy. Get the inputs right, the rest follows.
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  • For me, "solving the epigenome" means building a generalizable framework to create any healthy cell type in the human body.
    Cellular alchemy - by Zack Chiang - cellular alchemy
  • “Imagine that 30 years ago, a funder were working toward understanding and mitigating the fundamental causes of aging. Our intuition is that they would want a large share of their effort to go toward supporting very basic work on gene sequencing, microscopy, the areas of cell biology that have led to the field of epigenetics, and topics in cell differentiation that led to the discovery of stem cells – rather than work that might fall under the auspices of ‘aging research’ per se. We suspect something similar is still true today.” – Open Philanthropy, Mechanisms of Aging
    Cellular alchemy - by Zack Chiang - cellular alchemy
  • Again and again, when things work out, I realize it’s a result of simply prioritizing getting things done. A rebrand? Pinterest board ready. Testing out a new service within my business? Just added it to the website, it’s out in the world now. I want to learn more about creative direction? I’ve reached out to 3 different people to connect and I’m making my way through every free resource. Many times, the most impactful things you can do for your career are free. It’s just a matter of not waiting. When you wait, you lose momentum. And momentum is incredibly powerful because when you’re inspired…
    literally just do things - by Erifili Gounari
  • Too many pilots die because they test utility without validating relevance. Instead of asking “Does it work?”, companies should ask “What does this mean in our context, and to our users?”
    How to Innovate When Nothing is Defensible Anymore
  • But in a world full of similar ideas, solutions alone won’t cut it. What’s needed is sense-making. Startups aren’t just sources of tech. They’re partners in reframing the new meaning for corporates.
    How to Innovate When Nothing is Defensible Anymore
  • you are what you re-read 471 24 82
    Anu Atluru on Substack: "you are what you re-read"
  • Courage and irresponsibility are two sides of the same coin; only the outcome will reveal which you’ve flipped.
    Danny Oak on Substack: "Courage and irresponsibility are two sides of the same coin; only the outcome will reveal which you’ve flipped. I have 3 months to get the same recurring revenue that I did after 17 years at my 9-to-5. Suggestions are welcome! 😎💪😬"
  • Boomers/Gen X have a focus on' “putting in the hours” whereas Gen Z, as Mr Beast wrote, will be much more “the amount of hours you work is irrelevant… you will be judged on results, not hours”.
    The Mr. Beast Memo is a Guide to the Gen Z Workforce
  • Boldly ask for things. Send more cold emails. Ask for things to the point of rejection. Proactively hold difficult conversations. Follow-up with polite persistence. Figure out who can help you get where you want to go faster. Balance all of this with respect, decency, and a generous spirit. Expand your network. Relationships allow you to grow through multiplication instead of addition. Find a way to draw like-minded people towards yourself. Put yourself in positions to benefit from serendipity. Develop a bias towards action. Don’t wait for permission. Remove friction to help you move faster. D…
    How to Practice the Skill of Agency - by Mike
  • Whatever it is, assume it can be learned and that the task is to figure out the best way to do it.
    How to Practice the Skill of Agency - by Mike
  • In every closed system entropy goes up. But we are not closed systems. If need be you can replace cells with externally made cells.
    José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente on X: "@chaklaia In every closed system entropy goes up. But we are not closed systems. If need be you can replace cells with externally made cells." / X
  • Parabiosis would argue a large chunk is cell extrinsic. If going all in on cell intrinsic mechanisms, I would prioritize cells that make their own organs/tissues through proliferation-HSCs, and organs that are highly secretory (making the environment) like liver.
    Andrew Brack on X: "@ArtirKel Parabiosis would argue a large chunk is cell extrinsic. If going all in on cell intrinsic mechanisms, I would prioritize cells that make their own organs/tissues through proliferation-HSCs, and organs that are highly secretory (making the environment) like liver." / X
  • Cell & gene therapies were 2.5x more likely to receive FDA approval after entering Phase 1 than other drug types according to research by the NEWDIGs initiative at Tufts Medical Center h/t
    Pearl Freier on X: "Cell & gene therapies were 2.5x more likely to receive FDA approval after entering Phase 1 than other drug types according to research by the NEWDIGs initiative at Tufts Medical Center h/t @DrPHanley & @alliancerm . @NatRevDrugDisc paper below 1/n https://t.co/DN4k7qWrAt" / X
  • Every company has a dissolution value – the amount of cash that could be returned to shareholders simply by winding down, selling off whatever can be sold, and paying off liabilities. Under normal circumstances, it’s easy to assume this value is $0/share because we’re focused on the value of success. If a stock is trading at $20/share and investors are hoping that its trial works so that the company might be worth three times as much, it doesn’t much matter to investors whether there will be $0.20/share or $2/share of cash left over if the trial fails. To anyone holding that stock at $20 a sha…
    Biotech’s Dulcius Ex Asperis: The Way Through This Downturn — RApport
  • financing overhang, a phenomenon whereby a stock supposedly performs poorly when a company clearly has to raise money because investors hesitate to buy, possibly figuring they can wait for a financing at a discount.
    Biotech’s Dulcius Ex Asperis: The Way Through This Downturn — RApport
  • our moral mettle will be tested by dilemmas so small that they’re nearly imperceptible
    Gmail
  • Going deep into any field/subject allows us to go vast. We are trained to think that going deep, spending too much time in one area, would lead us to have narrow ideas and limited knowledge. But the world is more complex and interconnected than we understand. To go deep, we must understand a field's fundamental nature, which necessitates finding bridges to other fields.
    Why are we missing awe in our life - by Utsav Mamoria
  • Find something that interests you, and go deep into it. Explore rabbit holes at will, and give yourself permission to be lost in them. Spend your energy, time and even money on exploring this interest. Do this with some degree of regularity. Sacrifice some pointless doom-scrolling and say to yourself “I like this, and I am going to do more of this.”
    Why are we missing awe in our life - by Utsav Mamoria
  • In the process of re-creating with our own hands what lies before our eyes, we seem naturally to evolve from observing beauty in a loose way to possessing a deep understanding of its constituent parts and hence more secure memories of it.
    Why are we so tired all the time? - by Utsav Mamoria
  • Writing or reading poetry (or any form of art, actually) helps the brain create new narratives and stop replaying the same worrying thought patterns over and over. It activates neuroplasticity processes in the brain - by making a memory and learning new things, you are making some synaptic connections stronger and some synapses weaker. You are building a circuit that did not exist.
    Why are we so tired all the time? - by Utsav Mamoria
  • Pick ten goals/things/milestones you want to achieve in 2025. Write them down in order of importance. Do this on a sheet of paper. Now strike out the bottom seven. The three that remain on the top are the only things you should focus on. They are the ones that matter to you.
    Why are we so tired all the time? - by Utsav Mamoria
  • When the lines keep going up and to the right, it’s easy to assume that’s just what they do, and to forget that every increase ultimately comes from our expanding stock of knowledge.
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  • There is only one way that we improve our lot over time: we get more knowledge. That’s it. Everything that has ever made our lives better has come from collecting, cultivating, and capitalizing on information.
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