Mark
@arkmashton.bsky.social
"[O]f all the emotions – and indifference, too, because even indifference is an emotion of a sort – only love sees the unveiled truth."
– Gene Wolfe, Return to the Whorl
https://prayercards.online
– Gene Wolfe, Return to the Whorl
https://prayercards.online
Pinned
Mark
@arkmashton.bsky.social
· Feb 28
Evil is a form of stupidity
Whenever I do work I’m proud of, I’m struck by how much stuff I throw out. Not talking “kill your darlings” here, rather false starts, restarts, just completely trashing and reworking large pieces.
February 10, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Whenever I do work I’m proud of, I’m struck by how much stuff I throw out. Not talking “kill your darlings” here, rather false starts, restarts, just completely trashing and reworking large pieces.
It's a little weird, because I love word games and pattern-matching. I might be getting there, though, I got genius yesterday and today. It just took a while.
February 10, 2026 at 7:47 PM
It's a little weird, because I love word games and pattern-matching. I might be getting there, though, I got genius yesterday and today. It just took a while.
It’s a horror story imo
February 10, 2026 at 5:50 PM
It’s a horror story imo
I think journalistic sites like Ars take every pain to avoid the appearance of endorsement, and they know that search engines are available and work pretty well
February 10, 2026 at 5:29 PM
I think journalistic sites like Ars take every pain to avoid the appearance of endorsement, and they know that search engines are available and work pretty well
It’s weird that there’s no “give up, show me the words” button
February 10, 2026 at 4:36 PM
It’s weird that there’s no “give up, show me the words” button
It is a pretty good fantasy name generator though, just cross your eyes and start typing out phonemes
February 10, 2026 at 4:28 PM
It is a pretty good fantasy name generator though, just cross your eyes and start typing out phonemes
I’ve been doing NYT games lately and they all seem to get very easy very fast, except for Spelling Bee, which I find unaccountably frustrating. Finally got a genius score yesterday but it is very slow going.
February 10, 2026 at 4:28 PM
I’ve been doing NYT games lately and they all seem to get very easy very fast, except for Spelling Bee, which I find unaccountably frustrating. Finally got a genius score yesterday but it is very slow going.
Basically an electric HiAce, be still my beating heart
February 10, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Basically an electric HiAce, be still my beating heart
February 10, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Aauuuuuuugh I bought a car too early
February 10, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Aauuuuuuugh I bought a car too early
I think the hidden connection here is the Netflix series F1. I wish I would show up on this thing so I could find out if I show up in the Catholic Morons cluster
February 10, 2026 at 4:18 PM
I think the hidden connection here is the Netflix series F1. I wish I would show up on this thing so I could find out if I show up in the Catholic Morons cluster
Personally I love how rule by the whim of a demented megalomaniac and his evil sycophants is going
February 10, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Personally I love how rule by the whim of a demented megalomaniac and his evil sycophants is going
I have great news for you, he is alive and well
February 10, 2026 at 4:15 PM
I have great news for you, he is alive and well
Mystery slow period in the early afternoon after my enormous lunch
February 10, 2026 at 12:02 AM
Mystery slow period in the early afternoon after my enormous lunch
Astronaut pistol meme
February 9, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Astronaut pistol meme
Why would the Japanese people be so passive-aggressive toward me, specifically
February 9, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Why would the Japanese people be so passive-aggressive toward me, specifically
I guess my caveat here is that they’re already writing a lot of code and doing a pretty good job at it.
February 9, 2026 at 6:55 PM
I guess my caveat here is that they’re already writing a lot of code and doing a pretty good job at it.
I think in the long run we’ll see if they actually in the aggregate are useful for people to make more sense of things, if our usage of them descends into solipsism, if they just result in the creation of an even-more-confusing, ever-ramifying information landscape, etc
February 9, 2026 at 3:40 PM
I think in the long run we’ll see if they actually in the aggregate are useful for people to make more sense of things, if our usage of them descends into solipsism, if they just result in the creation of an even-more-confusing, ever-ramifying information landscape, etc
This should in no way be read as a claim that using an LLM is a substitute for reading, processing, and understanding on the part of a human.
February 9, 2026 at 3:34 PM
This should in no way be read as a claim that using an LLM is a substitute for reading, processing, and understanding on the part of a human.
Here is where I’m starting to lean with LLMs: a tool is useful if it helps a human overcome a limitation. It’s a truism that our problem now isn’t too little information, it’s too much. LLMs can read, process, and summarize far more than a person can, and they never get tired of answering questions.
February 9, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Here is where I’m starting to lean with LLMs: a tool is useful if it helps a human overcome a limitation. It’s a truism that our problem now isn’t too little information, it’s too much. LLMs can read, process, and summarize far more than a person can, and they never get tired of answering questions.
One thing I do find comforting and consistent with my beliefs is that if my consciousness is an epiphenomenon of unthinking matter interacting in predictable ways, that is still fairly miraculous and wonderful.
February 9, 2026 at 3:07 PM
One thing I do find comforting and consistent with my beliefs is that if my consciousness is an epiphenomenon of unthinking matter interacting in predictable ways, that is still fairly miraculous and wonderful.
Not “make mistakes” exactly, but behave non-deterministically. Inconsistent behavior with the same inputs looks a lot like error, but in the real world it’s maybe more like experimentation.
February 9, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Not “make mistakes” exactly, but behave non-deterministically. Inconsistent behavior with the same inputs looks a lot like error, but in the real world it’s maybe more like experimentation.