- I think the safety of other humans eyes (lidar exposure) is the real negative for lidar use.
The MKBHD YouTube video where he shows his phone camera has burned out pixels from lidar equipped car reviews is revealing (if I recall correctly, he proceeds to show it live). I don't want that pointed at my eye.
I love lidar from an engineering / capability perspective. But I grew up with the "don't look in a laser!" warnings everywhere even on super low power units... and it's weird that those have somehow gone away. :P
- Super noob in vector embeddings: I never considered that tables would be a complexifier. (beyond defining in a parseable format for ingestion).
Do vector databases do better with long grouped text vs table formats?
- Slight tangent counterpoint; sometimes conveying knowledge requires the prettier / flair of a miro/lucid/figma or even full infographic style solution.
I like md, and I like mermaid, and I like text / simple. But I know to help others, sometimes the visual medium and storytelling justify the alternatives.
- This is a high area of focus for me and I agree: following a complex convo, especially when it gets picked up again 20-30 min later, is difficult.
But not impossible. I’ve had success with prompts that ID all topics and then map all conversation tied to each topic (each seperate LLM queries) and then pulling together summary and conclusions by topic.
I’ve also had success with one shot prompts - especially with the right context on the event and phrasing shared. But honestly I end up spending about 5-10 min reviewing and cleaning up the output before solid.
But that’s worlds better than attending the event, and then manually pulling together notes from your fast in flight shorthand.
(Former BA, ran JADs etc, lived and died by accuracy and right color / expression / context in notes)
- American here; very accurate.
On the digital ID part, the government + regulated industries like banking will enforce validating specific types of IDs via third party companies and data sources to use said government / regulated industry services - which is used as a hacked duct tape and silly string version of digital ID. Other than that… yep you got it.
- My guess - he’s avoiding political risk. If something goes bad, it’s better to say “it was encrypted but they got the keys” than to defend data wasn’t encrypted.
It’s semantics in terms of actual difference to an attacker, but it’s a world of difference when explaining to executives.
- Yeah I agree. But I’ll split it slightly.
From a trust perspective I want a real demo. Technical team, deep dive, concept sold now talk me through it type stuff.
From a “show non-tech executives the art of the possible as part of 2026/2027 planning” I want a recording.
Failure in the latter isn’t a 3/10, it’s a -10/10.
- I’d encourage you to pursue it. I remember the old @breakingnews on Twitter when it first started, people listening to police scanners and typing info-dense one liners on what they heard. To this day the best news service of my life (until someone bought it).
A real time, AI snips version for my area in a running feed would be amazing. There are lots of formats and use cases; and the info is already out there.
It’s a great idea. Don’t let citizen sway you away from it.
- I want to say thank you for writing this. 100% same opinion. I've stuck with Apple - despite their downsides - specifically for their zeal in areas like this.
My phone works, I'm glad it blocks others from integrating because I need it to always just work. That's why I still have an iPhone over all the often paper superior alternatives.
- Small review, 2013 BMW 335xi (drove for a test drive). Loved iDrive. Remained my benchmark for car infotainment UI for 10+ years. The main thing, you could DRVIE the car, aggressively, and give commands to infotainment without missing a beat.
Truly a lost art today. Fond memories.
- Agreed. Different for different people. Notification summaries are a lifesaver for me.
Work MS teams but no copilot, lots of group chats about lower environment issues or prod issues that move super fast. The summaries have legit saved me 10 min of getting up to speed, and let me decide quickly if I need to intervene or keep working my separate workstream.
The only downside for me - it keeps the summaries VERY short. Another 5-8 words as a in between notification and full app open would be great for me. (But, I acknowledge I’m likely an edge case)
- I would love to hear your view of handling ambitious changes in a large system.
(In the middle of this scenario. Mix of experienced/talented and low trust environment.)
- Opinion: It never will. Boeing could have been a 100+ year firm; their prior engineering organization was nothing to scoff at. They could have pivoted to a dozen industries and made it work.
Again opinion - The returns don’t make up for the longevity potential Boeing had.
- So for a whim, I took this to ChatGPT and asked it to explore a philosophical position and then assess its own assessment for logic vs statistical.
Longer prompt responses here: https://text.is/1V0OJ
Closing position below.
*Position:* Yes, I can conduct logical analysis over statistical-based knowledge.
*Justification:*
1. *Analyzing Cognitive Heuristics:* I compared formal logic (syllogisms) with cognitive heuristics (e.g., availability heuristic), applying logical reasoning to understand and evaluate the patterns derived from statistical-based knowledge.
2. *Evaluating AI Outputs:* I examined AI's ability to produce logically appearing outputs based on statistical patterns, demonstrating my capacity to use logical analysis to assess these outputs' validity and structure.
3. *Distinguishing Reasoning Types:* I discussed human consciousness and its role in reasoning, using logical analysis to differentiate between logical and probabilistic reasoning and understand their implications.
*Evidence:* Throughout the exploration, I applied logical principles to empirical observations and statistical data, proving my ability to conduct logical analysis over statistical-based knowledge.
- Super fast reply from someone else - Yes, I have a standing air filter unit. If PPM went up I’d kick it into max gear.
(Now I have it running on very low continuously and it keeps PPM down)
The unit is rated for spaces 2x my square footage so on max it makes a quick improvement.
For CO2, minimize cooking / burning and kick on the air to attempt circulation. Worst case leave for a bit. (Used to be very sensitive to CO2 levels, it’s getting better).
- Yep. The key words are: to you. When I have convos about this, a spectrum of views come out.
Other views I’ve heard:
- pausing encourages ad hoc crossing, increasing odds of hurting someone by volume even as odds decrease.
- if you stop you enable carjacking (walk into street, car stops, steal car / hurt the human, profit). I don’t want my car to set my loved ones up to be attacked.
- pausing significantly impacts traffic flow, compressing our already overcrowded roads
- I don’t want the car to stop unless it gets to my destination, there’s a red light, or I tell it to stop. I don’t want behavior I might not understand. I’ll decide if I stop for a human or puppy or cardboard box.
Everyone says human safety first but in practice there’s a spectrum of opinions in practice.
My hope is FSD will force a common viewpoint and setup a future generation with a more unified approach to road safety.
- I love your comment because it highlights another complexifier of FSD debates - what was the actual right action?
Yep, pausing signaled to the guy he could run across. However who’s to say he was going to be reasonable and wait? What if he wanted to get hit, or didn’t care? How much influence will those edge cases have on our (human or FSD) norms?
As a society we haven’t answered those questions; it further muddles the FSD debate.
As the tech improves it will be interesting to see how we humans define the rules of engagement.
- I see a number of negative stories, so sharing my positive story with self driving cars.
Two weeks ago driving home, Tesla Model Y with FSD, FSD on, nighttime, suburban streets. Car phantom brakes and I can’t see a reason why. Glance down and I see the UI thinks a human is running into the street.
I look back up, canceling FSD and taking over… and a damn invisible guy in dark brown jacket and black pants races past my headlights.
He had stopped before crossing my lane, but when he saw FSD slow down he booked it across. Other cars slowed after he cut straight into my headlights as they noticed him for the first time. No one else saw him either. I was super impressed with FSD.
The promised perfect future isn’t here - you can’t take a nap and the car drives you - but the current state is a value add.
- Opinion: most of the replies to this comment are missing the bigger picture: FSD is trustworthy enough for highway WITH supervision.
I also use FSD on highways, and often on streets too. I find it’s very good when you adjust expectations. You still need to watch and be aware; but it’s absolutely less draining than driving yourself.
Excluding turns, I almost never interrupt FSD.
Turns, it’s not confident enough to go. Hoping 12 helps but I expect a few more years to fully solve. Even without turns it’s 100% worth it - I’m more attentive over the span of the drive with the car handling basics.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.
But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.
And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”