Jun 1, 2020Three ways to avoiding hurting your back when your kids ask you to pick them upEver since Berkeley schools closed in mid-March, my kids and I have been seeing a lot more of each other. They’re 4 and 7 years old (4 and 6 when the lockdown started), and they love being picked up. It’s always a pleasure to spin them around, or to actively…4 min read
Jan 21, 2020The Mission of Unbox ResearchTwo years ago I started a machine learning–powered company called Unbox Research. Our goal is to advance the state-of-the-art in machine intelligence without profit-oriented conflicts of interest. In a larger context, our mission is to explore a rare funding model for research. Let’s see why the current state of research…Technology6 min read
Published in Breaker·May 30, 2018Find your new favorite podcast with personalized recommendationsHow Breaker finds podcast doppelgängers and data sciences the shit out of them. — Breaker has always been an amazing social podcast app, thanks entirely to impressively hip and unnervingly attractive listeners like you. Recently, you may have noticed a fun new feature at the top of the Discover tab — personalized recommendations. …Podcast6 min read
Apr 23, 2018A Model of Human Thought: PhilosophyWhat does it mean for something to be true? What can we do to verify that something is true? How can we discover new truths? This article is about a conceptual model of truth that may help answer these questions. I’m personally motivated to consider these questions because I’d like…Philosophy13 min read
Nov 5, 2017Your happiness wasn’t made for youThis post explains an interesting theory of happiness that occurred to me today. For context, my official field of study is machine learning rather than emotion; I’m interested in understanding emotions as they’re critical to sufficiently human-like machine intelligence. I enjoy trying to better understand why humans (and other animals)…Happiness3 min read
Sep 9, 2017Make your code scriptableIn which we take a whirlwind tour of Lua’s C API, including but not limited to: writing a Lua interpreter in C and writing your own Lua mini-API from C. Kind of a sneak peek at my O’Reilly ebook, Creating Solid APIs with Lua. Good languages tend to be great…Programming9 min read
Feb 26, 2017A Theory of ConsciousnessThis article explains a theory of consciousness that is new to my admittedly-imperfect knowledge. The core idea is that consciousness arises from a feedback loop in which a mind’s ability to externally communicate an idea connects internally with the same mind’s ability to receive ideas from others. …Artificial Intelligence17 min read
Jun 19, 2016Field notes on fatherhoodLogbook entry, day 1,171 — The locals have yet to realize that I’m completely unqualified for the position they have bestowed upon me. I still wonder when my wife will discover that, whereas my resume boasted of “near-fluency in child-rearing techniques,” the reality was merely “occasional babysitting in high school.” Nonetheless, I have managed to…Parenting4 min read
Jun 17, 2016I wrote a post every 12 hours. Here’s what happened.A week ago, I publicly committed myself to posting something on Medium by noon and midnight each day for a week. This is the final of the 14 posts I’ve written for that commitment. …Writing3 min read
Jun 16, 2016What it’s like to be internet preprefamousI hate bragging, and I only secretly like humble bragging, but there’s something pretty unique about myself that most people might find interesting: I’m internet preprefamous. This post is about such a rare experience. First you might be thinking, “Tyler, what is this fancy word preprefamous? I’m so confused!” It’s…Humor3 min read
