near.blog
I do independent research, machine learning, investing, programming, and other creative work.
Most of my work revolves around the topics of longevity, biology, VR, infosec, finance, music theory, anime, and rationality
it seems to me like the most impactful field is AI right now, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon despite many prospects being overhyped. longevity, bioengineering, coordination mechanisms, and VR/AR also seem to be really important this decade
if you’re reading this, feel free to send me a message anywhere you see me! you can DM me on Twitter, email me at near at this domain, or submit anonymous feedback on this page. This page was last updated on Sep 28th 2024.
This Blog
my most popular posts are:
- Links
- Supplements
- How to Twitter Successfully
- Personal Finance Tips
- Personality Basins
- LLMs Are Strangely Shaped Tools
- Types Of Memetic Information
- Take More Flights
- Unusual Holidays
- Productivity Tips
some other posts that readers have found interesting include:
- Blueprint 1.0 Review
- Where Are The Builders
- Allulose: The Best Sugar Substitute
- The Bouba/Kiki Effect And Sound Symbolism In CLIP
- Does 17α-estradiol/estrogen extend male human lifespan
- Against ReCaptcha
- This Anime Does Not Exist
- Pascalian Longevity: Why not
- Free Alpha By Design
- Leveraged ETFs
- Fact Checking Is Really Hard
- Optimal Webcam Setup
Personal
I’m usually based in the US and recently spend much of my time reading, learning, and programming. I post about AI and other things I find interesting or funny on Twitter (hereafter known as X). if you want to get an idea for what I’m into intellectually, check out my large links post
I love music, actively play piano, and can play several other instruments. a few of my favorite genres of music are artcore (examples: Xi, An), symphonic video game music (examples: FFXIV OST, Nier:Automata OST), progressive, instrumental, melodic, and djent metal (examples: Animals as Leaders, Uneven Structure, Undead Corporation, Arch Enemy), Jazz, and Japanese/Weeaboo (examples: Touhou remixes, anime OP/EDs, Made in Abyss OST). I enjoyed Death Note, but my name has no relation to the character in it or I’d have picked L instead. If you’ve noticed my home page’s theme song in the bottom right, it’s from Lain
I grew up playing far too many MMOs like Runescape, WoW, FFXIV, and VRChat, then gradually realized that if I applied the effort I put into these games into other areas, society would reward me 100x more, so I slowly moved more and more into the ‘real’ world as a result. if you see me in a professional context with an anime avatar, that’s probably why, although smoothing social norms also helps to improve the wildly inefficient job market for others too
my favorite thing about America is that it is by far the most antifragile country, and I feel lucky to have been born here
the most important things I’ve learned is that the ability to learn skills and self-modify is far more general and far more powerful than almost anyone thinks, time spent doing nothing without electronics is valuable, and the heuristic that you become the average of your five best friends is astonishingly powerful given its simplicity
there’s a lot left to discover and build – feel free to message me and say hi if you got this far, I don’t bite (unless angered)