John WentworthThe Simple Solow Model of Software EngineeringOptional background: The Super-Simple Solow ModelApr 8, 2019Apr 8, 2019
John WentworthConstructing GoodhartA recent question from Scott Garrabrant brought up the issue of formalizing Goodhart’s Law. The problem is to come up with some model…Feb 3, 2019Feb 3, 2019
John WentworthBiochemical Signalling as Programmable LogicIn cellular and molecular biology, we tend to think of chemical circuits as hard-coded. Metabolism is a good example: most metabolic…Feb 1, 2019Feb 1, 2019
John WentworthWhy Linear-ish Runtime MattersIn academia, much weight is given to the difference between exponential and polynomial-time algorithms. The former are generally…Jan 30, 2019Jan 30, 2019
John WentworthSQL is Bad for CachingClaim: 100% of database usage is either caching or logging.Jan 18, 2019Jan 18, 2019
John WentworthDisneyland Shanghai ReviewI recently visited Disneyland Shanghai for the first time. I’ve visited both the Orlando and California parks multiple times, and the…Oct 25, 2018Oct 25, 2018
John WentworthTwo Kinds of Technology ChangeGutenberg wasn’t the first to build a printing press with movable type. So why didn’t the technique catch on when his predecessors tried…Oct 11, 2018Oct 11, 2018
John WentworthCapital and the Rise of CivilizationEpistemic status: speculative.Jul 9, 2018Jul 9, 2018
John WentworthProblem Solving with Mazes and CrayonI want to talk about a few different approaches to general problem solving (for humans). It turns out that they can all be applied to…Jun 19, 2018Jun 19, 2018
John WentworthWhen Will Tokens Become Money?An interesting question from MR: when do tokens turn into money?Jun 2, 2018Jun 2, 2018