vivekviswanathan.bsky.social
@vivekviswanathan.bsky.social
By far the biggest positive impact LLMs have had thus far has been making software engineering dramatically easier.

Programmers are 20 to 50% more productive depending on the study and these are with older models. The improvement is likely quite a bit better now.
There are a lot of critiques of LLMs that I agree with but "they suck and aren't useful" doesn't really hold water.

I understand people not using them because of social, economic, and environmental concerns. And I also understand people using them because they can be very useful.

Thoughts?
April 28, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Just finished reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Powerful and very convincing case for a muscular government that grows, builds, governs, invents, and deploys.

(I listened to it on Spotify for free with premium. Kind of feel bad.)
April 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted
I have to go meet with the Department of State tomorrow because someone reported the science communication I do as “practicing medicine without a license” to the state medical board.

In their “report” it’s abundantly clear I do nothing of the sort & my degree & profession is obvious.

1/
March 20, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically that Americans just accept it as normal.

We can’t let them. I’m headed to the Senate floor right now to lay out the story of 6 weeks of stunning, brazen White House corruption.
March 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted
This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell.

This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.
March 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted
On behalf of many Americans, don’t thank us we THANK YOU Ukraine for your work.
February 28, 2025 at 6:04 PM
You can donate to the Ukrainian war effort here:

u24.gov.ua

We have to stand up to tyranny and aggression.
UNITED24 - The initiative of the President of Ukraine
UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of...
u24.gov.ua
February 28, 2025 at 9:09 PM
At the risk of sounding like old man yelling at cloud, microwaves should have numeric buttons where you press the time you want and "Start" to turn it on.

No knobs and no "press 1 for 1 minute." The system was already optimal! There is nothing to change!
February 6, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I tried using DeepSeek's R1 for a relatively involved SQL question but nothing too crazy and it got caught up in double backing and overthinking and never hit upon an answer.

Anyone having better results?
January 27, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted
Polio survivor Leader McConnell responds to RFK Jr aide Aaron Siri — who has called for the authorization for the Polio vaccine to be pulled — reviewing candidates for top jobs at HHS

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...
December 13, 2024 at 10:54 PM
Reposted
If you want to understand why healthcare pricing is horrific, the first thing to know is that our system puts 100% of the credit risk for deductibles, copays and co-insurance on hospitals and doctors. That's insane.

We have turned them into Sub Prime Lenders 🧵
December 10, 2024 at 6:46 PM
Reposted
I think everyone should read this piece about Kash Patel. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Man Who Will Do Anything for Trump
Why Kash Patel is exactly the kind of person who would serve in a second Trump administration
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:58 AM
Reposted
“The American people voted for cheaper eggs,” writes David Frum. “They’re going to get only noise, conflict, and chaos”:
A Constitutional Crisis Greater Than Watergate
Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel threatens to turn the FBI into an instrument of personal presidential power
www.theatlantic.com
December 1, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Reposted
"The three individuals from China are the first people with autoimmune disorders to be treated with engineered immune cells created from donor cells, rather than ones collected from their own bodies. This advance is the first step towards mass production of such therapies." 🧪⚕️#ImmunoSky
World-first therapy using donor cells sends autoimmune diseases into remission
The treatment’s success in three people raises hopes for mass production of cutting-edge CAR-T therapies.
www.nature.com
October 17, 2024 at 5:26 PM