1Contents

2Disclaimers

Contents and URLs may change without notice.

Updates are irregular, but usually at least once a week.

If you have good eyesight, you may want to zoom out by pressing Control-minus. The fonts may be too big.

I may err. Read cautiously. Compare with other independent sources. Do not trust me without thinking for yourself. Use your own judgement.

I am not responsible for what other people write in their comments, but I can remove comments from my website. People are free to say whatever they want, and people are free to disagree with whatever others say, as long as they do that in a civilized manner.

I may change. I am not attached to our beliefs. Things I wrote in the past should not be solely used to judge my present self.

Most pages are messy drafts.

3Managing communities

3.1Code of conduct

  • Don't be an asshole.
  • Don't do things that you don't want to be done to you.
  • Talk in cyberspace as you talk in meatspace. If you won't say it to someone you are talking with, don't write it on the Internet. Remember that others are people like you.

People nowadays get offended too easily. It is possible to disagree without fighting.

What is an asshole? If many people in the same room hate you, then maybe you are an asshole.

Swearwords show passion. But if you use swearwords too often, they lose their meaning and impact.

Maybe sprinkle some smilies when you use swearwords.

But swearwords don't add meaning?

3.2How to deal with toxic people

  • Alienate them until they change: Do these three steps in order:
    • Tell the offender politely in one short sentence that his/her behavior is unacceptable (remember: the behavior, not the person).
    • Do not respond any further to that toxic behavior.
    • Prevent others from responding to that toxic behavior.
    • But the damage has been done to the offended newbie? Both the offender and offendee have bad habits due to some problems growing up. the offendee writes poorly and is too easily offended. Pathological behaviors are reinforced by attention, because the attention of others rewards one's brain. Hypothesis: The offender has learned that he/she has to misbehave in order to attract his/her negligent parents' attention. Giving them attention sparks up their brain's reward circuitry.

3.3How to help newbies: commands, not options

  • Commands, not options.
  • Commands can be given in friendly manner.
  • t'Hooft's advice does not command enough. It is more like a syllabus (what) than a curriculum (how). Although the intention is noble, it looks like "fuck off" to newbies. Newbies need commands, instructions, not suggestions, let alone options.
  • Options confuse newbies because they don't know which ones are better.
  • Newbies must be given explicit commands, clear sequences, no branching, no options, no choices.
  • Do not present options to someone who does not have sufficient knowledge to decide which option is better.

4My story?

<2019-12-12>

I am torn between many unrelated desires lingering in my mind for too long. I want to understand consciousness. I want to create a programming language. I want to understand physics. I want to compose music. And so on; I wrote down my desires, spanning several pages.

Why do I want those? Why can't I just want one thing? Do I really want those, or do I just want to be busy; do I just want to want, and not actually do what I want? Even though I am not a materialist, I am no better than materialists; Both of us are tormented by our own desires.

Materialism and capitalism have outlived their usefulness and overstayed their welcome.

I think nations hamper scientific research. There should be either one world government, one currency, and one law; or there should be none at all.

I made a plan, but I didn't stick to it. Aim for the moon, they say. I enjoyed aiming too much and never took a shot. I enjoy my imagination more than my reality. I can stay at bed for hours just imagining pleasant things; why can't I live in my own imagination? Am I not imagining things strong enough?

I don't think I ever have any strong urge to live. I am interested in the afterlife.

I want to know the truth.

5Elaborate, rewrite, or discard?

5.1<2020-01-14> Men's clothing doesn't have to be so boring

If women can dress like men without being judged, then men should also be able to dress like women without being judged.

5.2What?

Rewrite?

Discard?

what45

<2017-05-25>: Thanks to David Ensinger's code, Jekyll can generate sitemap.xml without plugins.

<2018-12-25> Migrating from Jekyll to Pandoc broke some things. The generated page All pages does not include Pandoc-generated pages. Sitemap.xml is also broken in the same way.

5.3Notes for future AI recommender

Dear machine, please find me people whose interests are similar to mine. These are some example of such people, mostly professors or ex-professors. I have not met these people. I have only seen publicly available information.

Why is there no professor search engine? Why is there no Semantic Web ontology for research interests? Idea: We can query6 Wikidata to find professors whose research interests intersect ours. <2019-01-08> I tried that, but Wikidata does not have much data relevant to that query.

5.3.1Intersecting in two topics

Prof. Sanjeev Arora7 is a member of Princeton theory-of-computation group8, Princeton ML Theory Group9, and Arora Research Group10.

https://www.quora.com/How-good-is-Princeton-at-machine-learning

https://www.math.ias.edu/theoretical_machine_learning

5.3.2Intersecting in one topic

  1. Computational complexity theory

    Prof. Neil Immerman1112 wrote the "Descriptive complexity" book13 published in 1999. He is also a member of UMass CS Theory Group14 which has interesting theoretical researches.

    https://www.quora.com/Which-professors-research-groups-are-working-on-mathematical-theoretical-understanding-of-deep-learning

    Prof. Oded Goldreich15

    Prof. Eric Allender16

  2. Programming language theory

    Prof. Philip Wadler17

    Prof. Simon Peyton–Jones18

  3. Artificial intelligence and machine learning

    Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber19.

    Prof. Elad Hazan20

  4. Philosophy of computer science

    Prof. William Rapaport21.

    Prof. Brian Cantwell Smith22.

5.4Which inquiries intersect?

My inquiries often intersect. file:philo.html and file:intelligence.html intersect in modeling, mind, consciousness. file:intelligence.html and file:social.html intersect in trust. Philosophy of mind + logic meet software engineering + Prolog at "formal concept analysis"23. Philosophy, software engineering, and business modeling meet at "triune continuum paradigm"24. I disclaim any understanding.

5.5Site map (was goal tree)

Goal tree is similar to work breakdown structure25 and product breakdown structure26.

  • WBS = goal tree + 100% rule + mutual exclusivity + procedural.
  • PBS = WBS - procedural + declarative.

<2019-07-06> I am tired of planning and thinking top-down. Now I'm trying to think bottom-up, reactive, improvisatory, opportunistic.

5.6Ideas that don't work?

5.6.1<2019-08-21> Cooling with ice bottles

Should we just buy a portable air conditioner, or a big fan with misting capability?

https://web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/FALL/thermodynamics/notes/node118.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/27yfbd/cooling_a_room_with_ice_and_a_fan_does_it_even/ https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-calculate-how-much-ice-you-need-to-cool-down-a-room-using-thermodynamics https://burakkanber.com/blog/cooling-a-room-with-2-liters-of-ice-calculation/

Ignoring humidity, we want to cool 10x3x3 = 90 m3 of air from 33 deg C to 27 deg C using ice blocks.

Assume that the heat capacity of air is 0.001 J / cm3 / K = 1 MJ / m3 / K https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capacity#Table_of_specific_heat_capacities

Thus we have to remove 90 m3 * 6 K * 1 MJ / m3 / K = 540 MJ of heat from the air in the room.

Some thermal conductivity parameters at 1 bar in watt per meter per kelvin

5.6.2<2019-08-27> On the nuclear option

There have been several nuke-related ideas: Nuke subduction plates to prevent big earthquakes; Nuke hurricanes to stop them27; Nuke asteroids to prevent them from crashing into Earth. But they all suffer from one problem: The nuke we have in 2019 is too weak for those purposes.

<2019-08-19> Idea: Explode atomic bombs at subduction plates to prevent bigger earthquakes. Won't work28

But isn't it just a matter of making bigger bombs? It is possible in principle. We can leave it to the engineers; it's just a matter of time before they build a bomb big enough to move subduction plates.

It reminds me of George Carlin's saying: "The planet is fine. The people are fucked."

5.7<2019-07-06> Best laughters

5.8<2019-07-06> Knots

Knots are complex. Seemingly dead knots in my shorts can suddenly untie when tugged some time after they were tied.

5.9My doomer music playlist

5.9.1To sink into the ocean of doom

May these musical pieces be of some consolation to fellow doomers.

"Oblivion", by Astor Piazzolla.

"Can't say goodbye to yesterday", by Rika Muranaka, sung by Carla White.

These two songs are American songs with lush orchestral background.

"Yesterdays", sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

"My romance", Mel Tormé. Mel's suave light voice and the lush orchestral background.

"Yesterday", The Beatles.

"Yesterday when I was young", sung by Matt Monro.

"Fragile", by Sting.

"Gabriel's Oboe", by Ennio Morricone.

"Lacrimosa", from "Requiem", by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

"Seacht suáilcí na Maighdine Muire", Aoife Ní Fhearraigh.

"The best is yet to come", by Rika Muranaka, sung by Aoife Ní Fhearraigh.

"Sorry seems to be the hardest word", Blue featuring Elton John.

"God rest you merry gentlemen". For this song, I prefer the Aeolian mode, some inverted chords, a tempo of about 60 bpm, and a conservative solemn arrangement that does not try too hard to impress the listener. There is also Annie Lennox's interesting arrangement, although I would prefer its harmony to be in Aeolian mode.

"My way", Elvis Presley.

"End of the world", Aphrodite's Child.

5.9.2To float in the ocean of doom

These are a little upbeat.

But no matter how hard one tries, one eventually sinks into the ocean of doom, into eternal oblivion, into the nothingness that he came from.

"The unsung war", Ace Combat 5.

"Liberation of Gracemeria", Ace Combat 6. An interesting rhythmic invention; that syncopated ostinato is genius. It still feels satisfying even after many replays.

"Follow me", Pat Metheny.

"Fairy tales", Anita Baker.

"Are you real?", Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.

"I'm Mr Jody", Marvin Sease.

"All rise", Blue.

"Asman", Gulnur Satylganova.

"Wakare no yokan", Teresa Teng.

"Toki wo kakeru shoujo", Harada Tomoyo.

The NAAFP (National Association for the Advancement of Fat People) anthem from Family Guy. Beautiful harmony. I love the IV-III7-vi progression (in the "god's man-boobs are flabby and they hurt when he jogs" part).

Movement 1 of BWV 1052 (Harpsichord concerto in D minor), Johann Sebastian Bach.

Russian national anthem.

6Games

6.1<2019-08-24> How does the player know what kills Crash in Crash Bandicoot?

Although the game never explicitly instructs players about what things would kill Crash, players seem to have an instinct or intuition about such things. For example, animals, traps, fires, and falling would kill Crash. Players seem to just know how to play the game. But that is only because the dangerous things in the game world correspond to dangerous things in the real world; thus players already know. It seems that most adult humans know some ways of avoiding death: If doing something kills you, then simply don't do it.

The polar opposite is Minecraft: Even with instructions, players still take time to find out how to play the game.

6.2<2019-08-21> On Factorio

"SparenofIria" gives the strongest argument for left-hand drive, the argument that cannot be refuted without changing game mechanics:29

Reason: You always exit trains to the left, and it's better to exit onto empty space than to exit onto another track or between tracks.

7Finance

7.1Financial research articles

On stocks, their prices, and their financial valuation

On financial valuation

7.2On valuation

Aswath Damodaran – Laws of Valuation: Revealing the Myths and Misconceptions (FULL PRESENTATION) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c20_S-QgvsA 4:25 corporate life cycle: from birth to death Valuation is a bridge between numbers and stories In a young company, story matters more than numbers In an old company, numbers matter more than story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5chrxMuBoo pricing (momentum, emotion) vs valuation (asset, growth, reinvestment, liability, risk, story) 51:32 investing is more luck than skill? 1:01:01 Interesting point of view: "[…] Don't overreach. You don't get rich by investing. You get rich by doing whatever you're doing, and investing is about preserving what you made elsewhere and growing it. It's when you get greedy about trying to make that killing on your investment that you tend to overreach." [emphasis mine]

Aswath Damodaran: "The Value of Stories in Business" | Talks at Google https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH-ffKIgb38 12:50 the story should be possible, plausible, and probable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcmHhbYeNY Valuation is not pricing. Venture capitalists do pricing not valuation.

8Other things

8.1Why do you make this website?

Because I find thinking, writing, and planning fun. This website contains questions that I think should be answered.

I think of myself as three different people:

  • my past self
  • my present self
  • my future self

This website is a way for those three people to communicate.

8.2Who are you?

I am an independent30 researcher from Indonesia, with too many interests, mostly theoretical, because theoretical research is low-cost and can be done at home31, because I don't have the resources for experimental research. Most of my writings involve applied analytic philosophy, mathematics, and computers. (Applied analytic philosophy is the careful usage of words to discover the essence of things.)

My last formal education degree, if you care, is a Sarjana Ilmu Komputer32 degree bestowed in 2011 by the Fakultas Ilmu Komputer33 of Universitas Indonesia34 for four years of undergraduate education.

8.3Should I trust you?

No, you should not. Anyone can put anything on the Internet. Judge for yourself. More disclaimers follow.

8.4How should I interact with you?

You can pick one of these:

Expect long delay. If you don't get a reply after waiting for a few days, try resending your message. It does get lost sometimes.

If you are in Jakarta, we may meet in some meetups.

8.5Where else are you?

I may also be found at these places, but I rarely check them:

8.6What are some similar websites?

These are some websites similar to this website and their differences.

kevinbinz.com is more like a blog than a wiki.

en.wikipedia.org does not want original content. (Also, if Kelly Kinkade's answer is true, then it's worrying that so much human knowledge is stored in such unparseable MediaWiki markup language.)

TheBrain: the idea is good, but the app is slower than static web.

brainpickings.org: too social, too much content, too little navigation, too little structure; pop science content is too much pop and too little science.

<2019-11-05>

Glenn Elert writes online hypertext books similar in spirit to this website.

8.7Why we don't computer to be "smart"

Because we can't fix them when they're wrong.

For example, Org Mode turns a link to an image if the URL ends with an image extension like jpg, svg. But I want a link. And Wikimedia Commons URL has image extensions but refers to an HTML page displaying an image file, not the image file itself. I can't do that because Org tries to be too smart. Org should have required the user to explicitly tell whether the user wants an image.

9Bibliography

  1. <2019-11-27> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_scientist↩

  2. <2019-11-27> https://www.nature.com/articles/nj7647-747a↩

  3. <2019-11-27> https://researchwhisperer.org/2017/08/15/patreon/↩

  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science↩

  5. Map of Computer Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzJ46YA_RaA↩

  6. https://query.wikidata.org/↩

  7. https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~arora/↩

  8. http://theory.cs.princeton.edu/↩

  9. http://mltheory.cs.princeton.edu/↩

  10. http://unsupervised.cs.princeton.edu/↩

  11. https://www.cics.umass.edu/faculty/directory/immerman_neil↩

  12. https://people.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/↩

  13. www.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/book/descriptiveComplexity.html↩

  14. http://theory.cs.umass.edu/people.html↩

  15. http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~/oded/↩

  16. https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/faculty/eric-allender↩

  17. http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/↩

  18. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/simonpj/?from=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fpeople%2Fsimonpj↩

  19. http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/↩

  20. https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring16/cos511/↩

  21. http://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/faculty/emeriti/rapaport.html↩

  22. https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/brian-cantwell-smith/↩

  23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_concept_analysis↩

  24. "The triune continuum paradigm is based on the three theories: on Tarski's theory of truth, on Russell's theory of types and on the theory of triune continuum." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_continuum_paradigm↩

  25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure↩

  26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_breakdown_structure↩

  27. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49471093↩

  28. https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/4825/will-a-nuclear-bomb-stop-an-earthquake-from-happening↩

  29. https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/9wxjxc/why_lefthand_drive_rail_is_more_efficient_for/e9p3mkd/↩

  30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_scientist↩

  31. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armchair_theorizing↩

  32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Computer_Science↩

  33. https://www.cs.ui.ac.id/↩

  34. https://www.ui.ac.id/↩