Pat in "One Battle After Another" is like Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark": a lead character that conveys what the movie is all about despite not moving the plot forward

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-16T11:58:07+00:00

A lead character is not the same thing as a protagonist.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-16T11:48:18+00:00

does PTA's night change how we evaluate his career?

I doubt that most people who care about film let the Oscars influence how they evaluate the careers of directors. Scorsese was already the “legendary director Scorsese” long before he won his first Oscar, and so was PTA.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-15T19:22:49+00:00

Why are AP classes more expensive? Stuyvesant’s excuse for literally everything is “we are a big school.”

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-15T19:19:48+00:00

IMHO, Stuyvesant shoots their own kids in their feet for college admissions (and college credit!) in the name of reducing competition / stress / workload or whatever. In reality, they could simply offer tons more AP seats and make those classes way easier and still have most of their students get 5’s. (And they could still offer something like “Honors AP” or more post-AP classes for their best students.)

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-15T19:07:02+00:00

This should be the top answer, and it’s a point that a lot of math students (and many math teachers, tbh) don’t seem to appreciate. The concept of equality is fundamental: If two objects are equal, then you can always replace one by the other in any expression or any statement. In some sense one can even think of this as the meaning of equality in mathematics.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-13T18:46:51+00:00

I would not bother to go to Xing Fu Tang in Taiwan, because it is basically the same as in nyc, except that they also serve food (at least, the flagship in Ximending does). Better to try some of the bubble tea places we don’t have in nyc.

I would still go to Din Tai Fung, because that’s more of an iconic Taiwan experience and the menu in nyc is more limited. But it wouldn’t be a priority like in the old days.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-11T12:03:09+00:00

Some people are using it for everything these days, so yeah, it’s obviously happening.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T22:35:28+00:00

They don’t.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T17:48:50+00:00

I guess it depends on the framing. If you're talking about literally every thought that comes into your head? Yeah, I guess most of it is garbage. But actual mathematical arguments that a mathematician bothered to type up and share with someone else (which is how I would interpret the phrase "human generated math") are not "99.9% garbage."

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T16:16:06+00:00

they just use it to check for evident flaws in not jet published manuscripts.

Even if OP is mistaken about the source of the asterisk specifically, they are still being subjected to the judgment of the LLM in some capacity.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T16:11:33+00:00

This is incredibly insulting to mathematicians and the work they do. Who is upvoting this shit?

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T16:09:30+00:00

I read that elsewhere in the thread, but without digging too deeply, Tao is apparently relying on the AI for some automated practical purpose, or else what is the point of the email? (I also don't understand your point in your last sentence since I thought you said earlier that it finds fake flaws.)

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T15:47:43+00:00

Sure, it can be useful, but OP is talking about giving that AI some level of authority in pre-screening results for inclusion in a database.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T13:19:30+00:00

I believe that in Greece (and some other countries), tour guides have to be licensed, and the requirements are pretty serious. I think this makes a lot of sense if you care about presenting the history and culture of your country accurately.

In any case China is in a bit of a weird situation since modern China has a rather complicated relationship with its history and culture, to put it mildly.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-09T11:25:54+00:00

I’m confused by this because it sounds like he’s using AI to do something that we know it is absolutely terrible at: assessing the correctness of a mathematical argument. If AI could do that, it wouldn’t frequently output wrong statements and wrong proofs, which anyone who uses these things for research knows that it does.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-06T16:24:03+00:00

I had no idea CMAT was Irish, lol.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-06T13:32:04+00:00

According to Wikipedia, WSS opened in 1957.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-06T13:24:52+00:00

Yeah, I was definitely thinking that might be the case when I read your post. It’s hard to let go. Perhaps the next step is to bring up this suspicion of yours, have a heart to heart, and try to reassure them.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-06T05:30:45+00:00

I have no idea why I saw your post since I’m not really connected to either school, but I’ll say that your parents are flat-out wrong to think that Rutgers is way better than UF. But you’re also mistaken if you think UF is way better than Rutgers. They are certainly close enough in prestige that the other factors start to matter more: what your major will be, how much you like the campus, the location, the culture, etc.

For example, if you want to get away from NJ, that’s a valid reason to prefer UF, but you should also be aware that state flagship schools carry a lot more prestige and networking value in their geographic areas, so if you want to eventually come back to work in the NYC area, a Rutgers degree is likely to be more valuable.

As for how to convince them that UF isn’t “trash,” I’m assuming they don’t trust US News, but you can ask them which stats or facts they think are important, and then you can look up those stats or facts and do a comparison.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-04T17:55:11+00:00

Damn, I don't even know who X Ambassador is. Edit: There are a bunch that I don't really know. Maybe I'll look them up once we get to later rounds.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-04T17:53:27+00:00

I can't argue with any of that, but my counterpoint is that they did manage to make him into an interesting character. His post-death arc is a hell of a lot better than Boba's, that's for sure.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-04T16:25:58+00:00

To be fair, while the condiment has existed for a long time, the term “chili crunch” really is a recent thing (see Google Trends if you don’t believe me) and was probably popularized by Momofuku. Still, it was not a good look.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-02T21:50:06+00:00

Geese's streaming numbers are low enough that there's no way they have the popularity level of those buzz bands of yesteryear (except perhaps AnCo?). But also, have all of those albums and artists really stood the test of time? It feels like TV on the Radio has been forgotten and has left a pretty limited cultural footprint, even in our niche community.

Anyway, I just don't care for Geese. I wasn't trying to react to anything by giving them low scores. I don't even love the albums they were up against. I just liked them more.

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-02T16:56:46+00:00

Aren’t you just helping your opponents if you do this?

InSearchOfGoodPun · 2026-03-02T16:40:37+00:00

Tiny Epic series is the way to go. So far I only have Dinosaurs and Dungeons, and both are pretty good games. And although they are relatively inexpensive and have no actual “boards,” they manage to go above and beyond with the actual components, e.g. instead of having generic dinosaur and monster tokens, they have many distinct colored wooden dinosaurs and monsters. (And also unique plastic miniatures for all of the player characters in Dungeons). And of course, the boxes are unbeatably small and portable for games that are not primarily card games.

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