spontaneous symmetry breakdance
@t8erboi.bsky.social
a.k.a. Matt. Physicist, conformal bootstrapper, and #1 Leonid Kantorovich respecter. Idaho → Colorado → Connecticut → Italy. he/him.
Unionize the radiation lab!
Unionize the radiation lab!
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the specific post quoted here is absolutely describing a real thing that people with the specific kind of OCD/autism that Scott Alexander and I both clearly have, and also very much not how most guys who are exposed to this kind of discourse react
this is someone saying a lot of things they should have said to a therapist who should have gently nudged them into treatment for their obsessive moral thoughts and strongly suggested an antidepressant, which is known to mitigate them scottaaronson.blog?p=2091#comme...
Walter Lewin
Yesterday I heard the sad news that Prof. Walter Lewin, age 78—perhaps the most celebrated physics teacher in MIT’s history—has been stripped of his emeritus status and barred fro…
scottaaronson.blog
November 23, 2025 at 10:40 PM
the specific post quoted here is absolutely describing a real thing that people with the specific kind of OCD/autism that Scott Alexander and I both clearly have, and also very much not how most guys who are exposed to this kind of discourse react
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yep, it genuinely is racist to implicitly assume that Chinese people or Indians or some indigenous group are incapable of rigorous, reproducible science! Like it unironically is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Reflecting further on this point: all cultures have produced revelationist (woo) and systematic-observational knowledge traditions. Any association in between woo and nonwestwern ideas is an artifact of western revelationists invoking nonwestwern traditions to appeal to secular westerners
This will be a battle because there’s a lot of well meaning anthropologist types who really do believe it‘s racist to say that eg: traditional chinese medicine is mostly bullshit, but it’s a fight well worth having.
November 23, 2025 at 7:10 PM
yep, it genuinely is racist to implicitly assume that Chinese people or Indians or some indigenous group are incapable of rigorous, reproducible science! Like it unironically is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
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Reflecting further on this point: all cultures have produced revelationist (woo) and systematic-observational knowledge traditions. Any association in between woo and nonwestwern ideas is an artifact of western revelationists invoking nonwestwern traditions to appeal to secular westerners
This will be a battle because there’s a lot of well meaning anthropologist types who really do believe it‘s racist to say that eg: traditional chinese medicine is mostly bullshit, but it’s a fight well worth having.
I'm all for woke 2 as long as we agree woo-woo is out, I want aggressively pro-science and medicine thanks
November 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reflecting further on this point: all cultures have produced revelationist (woo) and systematic-observational knowledge traditions. Any association in between woo and nonwestwern ideas is an artifact of western revelationists invoking nonwestwern traditions to appeal to secular westerners
go bulldogs or whatever
November 22, 2025 at 11:02 PM
go bulldogs or whatever
when you think about it, Catholicism is really just guilt hedging. You accept a lower baseline level of guilt, but if you feel REALLY guilty about a specific thing, you go to confession
November 22, 2025 at 5:56 PM
when you think about it, Catholicism is really just guilt hedging. You accept a lower baseline level of guilt, but if you feel REALLY guilty about a specific thing, you go to confession
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frankly i'd rather buy the cursed chapbook of rfk jr's felching poetry than subscribe to ryan lizza's substack
November 22, 2025 at 5:19 PM
frankly i'd rather buy the cursed chapbook of rfk jr's felching poetry than subscribe to ryan lizza's substack
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The thing about Trump is that he’s a totally unreliable partner who is also dumb, impulsive, and easily manipulated. So it makes sense to play nice with him, but only if you don’t cede ideological or political ground, because you know he’s going to screw you over later.
November 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
The thing about Trump is that he’s a totally unreliable partner who is also dumb, impulsive, and easily manipulated. So it makes sense to play nice with him, but only if you don’t cede ideological or political ground, because you know he’s going to screw you over later.
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The Mamdani-Trump summit is fun but c’mon, it’s not the vindication of the left/right-populist or red/brown alliance stuff.
November 22, 2025 at 4:56 PM
The Mamdani-Trump summit is fun but c’mon, it’s not the vindication of the left/right-populist or red/brown alliance stuff.
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As mayor of New York Mamdani controls access to the one thing Trump values above all else: tickets to CATS.
November 22, 2025 at 1:09 AM
As mayor of New York Mamdani controls access to the one thing Trump values above all else: tickets to CATS.
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yeah but if you think Marjorie Taylor Greene is representative of anything but fascism you're a fucking tool who should donate your organs to someone worthy of them
I can’t quite put it into words, but Trump praising Mamdani on the same day that MTG resigns in opposition to “big Tech, big Pharma, the war complex and big donors” feels like a harbinger of realignment.
There is a political earthquake trembling beneath the surface waiting to break through.
There is a political earthquake trembling beneath the surface waiting to break through.
November 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM
yeah but if you think Marjorie Taylor Greene is representative of anything but fascism you're a fucking tool who should donate your organs to someone worthy of them
This won't happen, but if it does, I am joining the side of "big Tech, big Pharma. the war complex and big donors"
I can’t quite put it into words, but Trump praising Mamdani on the same day that MTG resigns in opposition to “big Tech, big Pharma, the war complex and big donors” feels like a harbinger of realignment.
There is a political earthquake trembling beneath the surface waiting to break through.
There is a political earthquake trembling beneath the surface waiting to break through.
November 22, 2025 at 5:21 AM
This won't happen, but if it does, I am joining the side of "big Tech, big Pharma. the war complex and big donors"
logging of until this is resolved, bc this site is a massive time sink when I'm not on meds. Will check DMs/notifications intermittently.
Random question: If I had a medication regimen that worked great for me (Adderall) but can no longer see my old psych, what's the quickest/easiest way to get a new prescription?
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
November 21, 2025 at 8:26 PM
logging of until this is resolved, bc this site is a massive time sink when I'm not on meds. Will check DMs/notifications intermittently.
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We should build a muon collider.
November 21, 2025 at 8:02 PM
We should build a muon collider.
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The "tetraethly lead made gen X into fascists" idea is so much funnier once you look at the chemical structure
November 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
The "tetraethly lead made gen X into fascists" idea is so much funnier once you look at the chemical structure
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Replace the B-52 with the Leviathan guy and then it is more clear what the stakes are. Yes, you are voting for who has a monopoly on violence. What did you think you were doing?
November 21, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Replace the B-52 with the Leviathan guy and then it is more clear what the stakes are. Yes, you are voting for who has a monopoly on violence. What did you think you were doing?
Random question: If I had a medication regimen that worked great for me (Adderall) but can no longer see my old psych, what's the quickest/easiest way to get a new prescription?
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Random question: If I had a medication regimen that worked great for me (Adderall) but can no longer see my old psych, what's the quickest/easiest way to get a new prescription?
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
Insurance doesn't kick in until next month, so I'm fine paying out of pocket for the first visit.
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I hate this sort of meme.
“The only difference between the parties is whether the power to destroy human civilization rests in the hands of leaders who think gays, women, and black people should have their rights acknowledged.”
Even if true, how is Rainbow B-52 not infinitely preferable?
“The only difference between the parties is whether the power to destroy human civilization rests in the hands of leaders who think gays, women, and black people should have their rights acknowledged.”
Even if true, how is Rainbow B-52 not infinitely preferable?
November 20, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I hate this sort of meme.
“The only difference between the parties is whether the power to destroy human civilization rests in the hands of leaders who think gays, women, and black people should have their rights acknowledged.”
Even if true, how is Rainbow B-52 not infinitely preferable?
“The only difference between the parties is whether the power to destroy human civilization rests in the hands of leaders who think gays, women, and black people should have their rights acknowledged.”
Even if true, how is Rainbow B-52 not infinitely preferable?
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The other thing I’ll say about the UCSD stuff is that I’ve seen absolutely nothing that makes me think removing SATs wasn’t a huge mistake, should really go back those.
November 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
The other thing I’ll say about the UCSD stuff is that I’ve seen absolutely nothing that makes me think removing SATs wasn’t a huge mistake, should really go back those.
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"you say you want deterministic builds? lol, fuck you, doing constexpr mersenne twister!"
November 19, 2025 at 1:46 AM
"you say you want deterministic builds? lol, fuck you, doing constexpr mersenne twister!"
C++: Because no one writes FORTRAN libraries anymore
C++ is for little worms
November 19, 2025 at 1:13 AM
C++: Because no one writes FORTRAN libraries anymore
Wikipedia should really have a page on SymTFT
November 19, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Wikipedia should really have a page on SymTFT
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My bus driver just called out the people watching videos on speaker and I think we should make him mayor
November 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
My bus driver just called out the people watching videos on speaker and I think we should make him mayor
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I hate that “I wish the head of the New York Times had the same self-awareness as a crackhead failson” is a factually true sentence.
The thing about Hunter's benders is that he didn't want to invite elites to them because he was, on some level, ashamed of his own behavior in a way none of the elites ever were.
November 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
I hate that “I wish the head of the New York Times had the same self-awareness as a crackhead failson” is a factually true sentence.
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“No way to prevent this” says only language where this regularly happens
November 17, 2025 at 11:11 PM
“No way to prevent this” says only language where this regularly happens
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alias Sisyphus "virtualenv venv; source venv/bin/activate"
November 17, 2025 at 11:09 PM
alias Sisyphus "virtualenv venv; source venv/bin/activate"