What is moving will be still What is gathered will disperse What has been built up will collapse These lyrics are an adapted quote from Lama Sogyal Rinpoche’s Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Impermanence (aniccā in Pali) is an important idea in many forms of Buddhism. It is one of the three marks of…
The paradox of incentive
If something is incentivized too strongly, it becomes disincentivized. Extrinsic motivation has important social utility. It can both drive prosocial behavior and inhibit antisocial behavior. In many cases, extrinsic rewards are natural. Praise is a natural response to someone doing something we want them to do, for example, as is expressing anger towards someone for…
On learning by mimicry
Consider sports, music, and foreign language. Most people grow up being exposed to what these things are, and in particular often observe experts in action: professional athletes and musicians and native speakers of foreign languages. People also often have opportunities to engage in learning these things from a young age, and their education or training…
Feelin’ the vibes (literally)
Has this ever happened to you? You’re driving your car and pull up to a stoplight, and another car pulls up beside you absolutely blasting the bass from their sound system. That’s got to be an aftermarket subwoofer, you think to yourself. Even though the sound is muffled and you can’t hear a melody, the…
The magic of assertive communication
One often hears about “communication problems” and “communication skills” in regards to relationships. What is it that makes communication effective or ineffective? First, we have to answer, “effective for what?” All communication has a goal. What that goal is varies by situation. It could be to convey information, to seek out information, to make someone…
Stories in the history of written language (part 3)
In Part 1 and Part 2, we looked at some of the ways in which written languages have developed and creative ways in which they have been used. Here, we’ll look more into the interactions between languages and the relationship between language and speech. Writing another language’s sounds When two language communities come into contact,…
Ways of scrambling a message: Permutation polynomials over the integers mod n through the lens of monoalphabetic substitution ciphers
When Julius Caesar was on his military campaign in Gaul, he sent coded messages by courier back to Rome using a simple cipher. The so-called Caesar cipher is a letter shift by three places. In other words, every instance of the letter A gets replaced with the letter D, B gets replaced with E, C…
Why rockets don’t need to push against anything (it’s rocket science)
How can a rocket work in empty space without something to push against? While you may or may not be aware of the answer yourself, this question is perplexing to many people. I invite you to consider why this situation is confusing. I assure you it is not a matter of mere ignorance, and you…
I wrote a poem: “A first research experience in mathematics”
A dark fog surrounds me.I see that something is there,but I can’t make it out.I squint and the edges begin to sharpen,but then are lost again to the darkness.My eyes are beginning to adjust now.For a moment I seem to recognize the shape,but then it is gone again.I reach out for it.It’s too far away.As…
The failure of manosphere terminology
The “manosphere” is a loose collection of movements, groups, and ideologies that are connected by certain views on masculinity, femininity, and relationships. It includes the Red Pill, the Black Pill (a more extreme version of the Red Pill), MGTOW (“Men Going Their Own Way”), incel subculture, pick-up artists (PUA), men’s rights activists (MRA), GamerGate, and…
thoughts on mind 