I still want to do a story generator. Something that just creates a world, creates characters, creates stories between them. And from all this generates history.
Possibly with a little guidance and balancing from a human input. I'm thinking they would be useful as an assistant GM in tabletop games. Just randomly generate a character on the fly, based on existing information, but it won't be as visionary as a human would.
Really technically advanced open source projects at the intersection of Python, C, and operating systems. For example, today, I'd probably work on Apache Arrow or a C-optimized Parquet implementation for Python. I just love that kind of stuff.
You should check out the Weld project (https://www.weld.rs)! It’s a JIT compiler/runtime geared toward data science and analytics that we’re developing at Stanford. It’s at the intersection of all of the things you mentioned!
If I had 'enough' free time, I'd find a way to make people pay the costs of their actions or choices, regardless of where they land in the social/economic hierarchy.
Too many people who do bad things get away with them, and too few who do good are rewarded.
We're not born equal yet some great minds never reach their potential (I've been one of them for a good 3,5 decades). I'd love to have that problem solved, and I believe the information technology (computer, networking, etc) revolution can contribute to fix this inequality. What I'd like to do is use my 2 ct to contribute to fixing the problem. I don't believe I can fix it all by myself, but I'd love to contribute my little bit towards it.
Not the OP, but in my mind I want a system that rewards members who are improving the health(mental and physical) of the largest possible group of other humans. The anti axis of this would be producing pain in the smallest set of other humans possible.
The way to punish behaviors that are scoring worse on the above would be to reduce the total number of connections possible to other humans. You would need a recovery sensor to catch run away cascading punishments and isolate for rehab.
So you find someone who has healthy relationships and you empower them. You someone with unhealthy relationships and you isolate them and rehab.
Someone who can maintain large n umbers of healthy relationships is a leader.
We already do a less granular version of that in the US (it was developed before the ubiquitous surveillance necessary to implement the fine-grained version)--our mechanism for punishment-by-constrained-relationship-options is prison.
Our system was developed with an eye towards penitence (this started with Eastern State penitentiary in Pennsylvania). Forced penitence is a flawed concept to begin with which renders our penal system almost ineffectual in its current state. The fact of the matter is that certain people are better off separated from society while other people could do with a brief respite coupled with some therapy.
This is most aparant in non-violent cases involving drugs. The war on drugs has ruined more lives than conceivable and this is while our government has realized the bad effects of prohibition for almost a century now (there is an entire constitutional amendment). The war on drugs has the effect of granting criminal organizations a monopoly over vices. While vices might not be attractive, they are necessary and granting the monopoly to violent organizations is at best gross negligence on our government's behalf.
This is a concerning comment. Are you thinking about doing anything which may cause harm to yourself or others?
Sorry if that sounds cliche or something but if you find yourself overly concerned with retribution then any action you take is likely to cause more harm to yourself and your loved ones than anyone from which you extract retribution.
Please feel free to discuss this with someone you trust or failing that I'm here.
If you see society's problems as caused by bad actors in an otherwise working system, I can see why you'd be so angry at individuals. I'm angry too but when I have a shelf full of bad eggs I don't whip the chickens, I call a fridge technician.
Find an alternative approach to selling software, the benefits of managed software that SaaS offers but with the ease of use of adding a library to your code. No syncing data back and forth in order to really get the benifit
This or possibly a projec that would attempt to find an common Set of AST definitions that could be serialised & deserialised into most of the common languages, then store source code in this definition rather than any one language, allowing the “same” program to be shown as C#, or java, or F# or python or javascript ... even maybe individual functions... the syntax essentially just becoming a display preference, but the tooling (source control & diffing & static analysis etc) would all work at the AST level
The theory of chemistry from the perspective of information theory. Since we can equate energy and information and since chemical reactions are largely governed by energy landscapes and (quantum) thermodynamics, we should be able to reformulate the energy theories into information theories. Sometimes a change of variables or parameters introduces a more convenient representation for discovering new phenomena.
I’d love to work professionally doing music production, composition, and sound engineering, especially for films and video games. I also like doing music transcription and transposition because I have a decent ear and use it to learn a lot of the music that I play (ps I’m a classically trained pianist of over 20 years).
Personally, I’d like to be in better shape. I’m not in horrible shape but I definitely do not have the time currently to undertake any sort of consistent exercise routine.
you don’t have 40 minutes a day for 3 days out of the week? That’s all the exercise-time it takes to get in great “athletic” shape. With visible results in only a few months to half a year (you may or may not be where you want to be at that time, but you will see results and progress in the mirror)
I commute an hour both ways, work 9-10 hours, and have a young child who has sports on the weekends. I also have a spouse with whom I would like to spend time. I also need to eat and sleep.
So, no, currently I don’t have that time available.
your situation is not all that different from many others who are making it right now.
One hack that’s very popular is waking up, eating a quick high-energy snack such as a banana (would be enough energy to get through a 40 minute workout), and then taking a shower in the gym (and putting on your work clothes there) instead of at home. You can keep a locker to make it a very comfortable process.
There’s a few other adjustments that make a big difference if it’s something you want to accomplish, but I’d have to know more about you. But the main message is that it’s doable, your situation is really not as unique or limiting as you think it may be, and many others in your situation are doing it, without killing themselves in the process.
I'd be working on much of the same VR/AR stuff that I'm currently working on, but I'd also be out giving talks and I wouldn't be wasting time on corporate compliance training modules.
More specifically, I'd like to build a VR development environment with built-in teleconferencing: a virtual office.
Advanced Physics Research. Or an OS for the 21st century which discards the warts accumulated by the mainstream ones over the decades — which they refuse to discard for backwards compatibility.
Honestly? Pretty much everything. And thus in effect I get nothing done in my current level of free time as I'm jumping back and forth between dozens of fun projects.
I'm aware this may not be a satisfying answer, but it's the truth, for better or for worse.
It's satisfying for me, it's an honest answer, and as good as any other.
With enough free time there wouldn't be much need for a direction. And after a while I would probably figure out something I liked doing more than other things.
Only issue is that in my eyes, enough is probably pretty close to immortality.
Largely because I would like to understand the breathd of the human condition, and how language makes us think differently. That probably requires getting to native speaking ability in maybe 100’s of languages, and also the patience to wait for the likely needed cognitive augmentation to be able to do that.
I would also very much like to visit a few stars and nebulae, which could take a while.
If I only had a couple of decades or so, I might take a stab at building tools to make programming the job it should be, but isn't now.
Systematize online business creation. For example, if you have an idea for a product, it helps you raise money, develop prototypes, find manufacturer, build ecommerce site, do fulfillment, and online marketing.
I do a lot of music right now, because I feel like I have a whole separate emotional energy reserve for that.
If I had more free time though I’d like to think I would work more on the browser I’ve been writing along with other small side projects (d&d charecter sheet validator, open street map renderer etc.) and maybe try to teach myself more math.
I’d also spend more time at art museums and hanging out with my friends though which I’d argue is at least equally important but probably more important.
Write a native Slack client for OS X which has identical functionality to the official version but doesn't chew through CPU cycles like they're going out of fashion. I would call it "Slick".
I’d start with studying more math. So many other interesting doors open up as a result of better math skills. Plus it’s just gratifying for its own sake; feels like getting a deeper glimpse into the structure of the universe....
99 comments
[ 6.8 ms ] story [ 173 ms ] thread- finally learn data science (and more python along with it)
Possibly with a little guidance and balancing from a human input. I'm thinking they would be useful as an assistant GM in tabletop games. Just randomly generate a character on the fly, based on existing information, but it won't be as visionary as a human would.
http://www.storytron.com/
If I had 'enough' free time, I'd find a way to make people pay the costs of their actions or choices, regardless of where they land in the social/economic hierarchy.
Too many people who do bad things get away with them, and too few who do good are rewarded.
We're not born equal yet some great minds never reach their potential (I've been one of them for a good 3,5 decades). I'd love to have that problem solved, and I believe the information technology (computer, networking, etc) revolution can contribute to fix this inequality. What I'd like to do is use my 2 ct to contribute to fixing the problem. I don't believe I can fix it all by myself, but I'd love to contribute my little bit towards it.
The way to punish behaviors that are scoring worse on the above would be to reduce the total number of connections possible to other humans. You would need a recovery sensor to catch run away cascading punishments and isolate for rehab.
So you find someone who has healthy relationships and you empower them. You someone with unhealthy relationships and you isolate them and rehab.
Someone who can maintain large n umbers of healthy relationships is a leader.
This is most aparant in non-violent cases involving drugs. The war on drugs has ruined more lives than conceivable and this is while our government has realized the bad effects of prohibition for almost a century now (there is an entire constitutional amendment). The war on drugs has the effect of granting criminal organizations a monopoly over vices. While vices might not be attractive, they are necessary and granting the monopoly to violent organizations is at best gross negligence on our government's behalf.
Sorry if that sounds cliche or something but if you find yourself overly concerned with retribution then any action you take is likely to cause more harm to yourself and your loved ones than anyone from which you extract retribution.
Please feel free to discuss this with someone you trust or failing that I'm here.
Personally, I’d like to be in better shape. I’m not in horrible shape but I definitely do not have the time currently to undertake any sort of consistent exercise routine.
the rest is nutrition.
So, no, currently I don’t have that time available.
One hack that’s very popular is waking up, eating a quick high-energy snack such as a banana (would be enough energy to get through a 40 minute workout), and then taking a shower in the gym (and putting on your work clothes there) instead of at home. You can keep a locker to make it a very comfortable process.
There’s a few other adjustments that make a big difference if it’s something you want to accomplish, but I’d have to know more about you. But the main message is that it’s doable, your situation is really not as unique or limiting as you think it may be, and many others in your situation are doing it, without killing themselves in the process.
More specifically, I'd like to build a VR development environment with built-in teleconferencing: a virtual office.
All sorts of shit. There's so little time for anything anymore. I'm considering retiring a few years early to get some hacking done.
I'm aware this may not be a satisfying answer, but it's the truth, for better or for worse.
With enough free time there wouldn't be much need for a direction. And after a while I would probably figure out something I liked doing more than other things.
Only issue is that in my eyes, enough is probably pretty close to immortality. Largely because I would like to understand the breathd of the human condition, and how language makes us think differently. That probably requires getting to native speaking ability in maybe 100’s of languages, and also the patience to wait for the likely needed cognitive augmentation to be able to do that.
I would also very much like to visit a few stars and nebulae, which could take a while.
If I only had a couple of decades or so, I might take a stab at building tools to make programming the job it should be, but isn't now.
Similar for sass.
If I had more free time though I’d like to think I would work more on the browser I’ve been writing along with other small side projects (d&d charecter sheet validator, open street map renderer etc.) and maybe try to teach myself more math.
I’d also spend more time at art museums and hanging out with my friends though which I’d argue is at least equally important but probably more important.