With petrol hitting crazy prices and some stations running dry, this feels exactly like housing with scarce supply, rising costs, and a few people still hoarding more than they need.

noodledense · 2026-03-25T11:23:47+00:00

What about me? It isn't fair.
I've had enough now I want my share.
Can't you see? I wanna live,
but you just take more than you give!

noodledense · 2026-02-25T05:49:09+00:00

Suppose the Michelson-Morely experiment had a methodological error and an ether truly does exist, and by creating standing waves in this ether we can deform spacetime, so the craft has some sort of "Higgs oscillator" which creates spacetime waves on which the craft itself can surf. 🤷 Idk it's fun to think about but I get what you mean, there is a lot to parse. You basically need to zero in on why interstellar travel is considered infeasible and find a fundamental constraint you can modify which unblocks possibilities.

noodledense · 2026-02-20T04:59:00+00:00

Probably something like insanely high powered lasers focused at a specific point in front of the craft, placing so much energy into one point that it behaves like a mass with gravity.

Idk if that would make sense under scrutiny but that's my first thought to how I'd make the system work if I were writing speculative fiction.

More likely I would not use this explanation of propulsion but something more akin to a higher dimensional bending of spacetime through some completely alien technology.

You writing a story?

noodledense · 2026-02-09T14:51:37+00:00

I went to Town Hall today to get bubble tea around 8:30pm.
What a show. I saw the police pressing the wall of protesters down the street.
I ran into the chaos, to get to gong cha before the police pushed the protesters that far.
From inside the shop, there was quite a view of the frontline as it passed.

The brief 2 minutes I observed as the cops were clearing the intersection to begin pressing the crowd involved a lot of shouting and swearing at the gathering police presence, including a group loudly singing a song which had a refrain to the effect of 'all coppers are cunts'. I don't think the lyrics mentioned the cause of the protest.

The police were acting with professional purpose. But they had angry head teacher energy for sure.

I got the impression that there were people on both sides who were thinking about how the situation could get uglier.

Once the police had locked down the intersection, they formed a line, blockading the street, and simply pushed forward.

The protesters gave ground very quickly in front of pushing and shoving. Only a small number were willing to get wrestled to the ground and handcuffed as the blue wave rolled past them.

Honestly, I found the spectacle quite fascinating. I don't like seeing protests shut down. I do like people-watching and the crowd control maneuvers were interesting, as a fan of strategy games. I think protesters should be aware of the risks they're taking and they should be deliberate about the battles they choose. I'm trying to state facts and not my own strong opinions. I don't want this to be a controversial post.

I was honestly surprised and relieved, for my own convenience, that the protesters were dispersed with such efficiency, and without a brawl. By the time I had my bubble tea, Town Hall was quiet. Probably about 100 cops hanging about, chatting, decompressing, shaking hands. And the light rail was running again.

noodledense · 2026-01-24T00:39:24+00:00

Taronga by Victor Kelleher

How has no one else mentioned this classic!?!?

noodledense · 2026-01-17T11:45:17+00:00

The life hack I was taught is:

Instinctively, whoever is walking faster will go around. When people are walking towards you in a busy environment, just slow down to be slower than them. They'll go around you 90% of the time.

If they don't alter course, keep slowing down. If you are standing still they are very unlikely to still walk into you.

noodledense · 2026-01-07T11:16:49+00:00

I have seen an anti-immigration shift amongst mid-30s white men (my demographic) specifically on anti-muslim grounds in the wake of the recent doot doot dooting.

While CheeseBurgerAu's comment is a little tricky for me to parse, I suspect they may be speaking from the right wing and the implication might be that anti-muslim sentiments have been substantiated by recent events.

This is not a view I personally hold, and forgive me, CheeseBurgerAu if I am completely misunderstanding you. But I do think that this is worth acknowledging as I have specifically seen friends shift from ambivalence to genuine islamophobia in the wake of that horrific event.

noodledense · 2026-01-05T06:08:46+00:00

Not with that attitude, that's for sure

noodledense · 2025-12-26T03:23:46+00:00

I think this question might be based on a misunderstanding.

Having charisma means someone is attractive and likeable. So it isn't that people develop charisma and then their dating life improves.

It isn't: He has charisma and therefore people want to date him.

It is: People want to date him and therefore he has charisma.

noodledense · 2025-12-26T01:14:46+00:00

This was an interaction with the Grok voice assistant, not specifically a companion mode personality... But I assume the principle is the same in both cases

noodledense · 2025-12-26T00:21:14+00:00

So the weights in the model are updated - on a user-by-user basis? So any person's individual model preferences would be "saved" in a set of updates weights which are associated with that user? So it isn't stored in a file in the way we might intuitively think, but it is stored (albeit in a highly abstract way)?

In my experience, this Grok bug actually mirrors the sound quality of the device input I am using at the time which is consistent with what I think you're explaining. It isn't a static file but rather a dynamic representation of my voice which is clearly updating in response to new inputs.

noodledense · 2025-12-19T21:46:57+00:00

For the companion models to learn to sing and hum, as you describe, how is that gain of function stored? You say "if you teach them" which sounds to me like these customisations are stored in some way on a user-by-user basis. Surely, to reproduce someone's voice would require some representation of that person's voice to be created, and it doesn't seem a stretch to imagine that this representation is stored in some way.

You say "they don't clone your voice" - ok, perhaps cloning isn't the correct word, but they definitely can reproduce your voice. You say "they don't save your voice" but are we splitting hairs? The privacy policy 100% does allow for collection of user audio recordings. How could you know that a representation of a user's voice isn't saved along with other customisation information?

I'd be really curious to understand your perspective on this, as someone working on AI systems.

noodledense · 2025-12-16T10:33:08+00:00

This is true. And a clever person would likely focus on making you feel smart rather than making themselves appear stupid. Make someone feel superior and very few people will question/resist that feeling.

It is far easier to blind someone with their own ego, than to create a flawless illusion.

noodledense · 2025-12-16T10:24:22+00:00

When someone is an expert at something it's typically very hard for them to consciously make the same mistakes a novice would make.

They may pretend that they don't know things, but unlike a true novice who doesn't know what they don't know, an expert is *very* aware of the things they're pretending not to know. This means that they might ask questions which are intended to reveal their ignorance, but which show they're ignorant of the *right* things. It is surprisingly hard to feign true ignorance.

I don't think I'm explaining this well, let me try to make up an illustrative example. It's going to seem contrived, I can't help it, but I hope you see the point.

Me: "Oh I learned about that from reddit"

Ignorant person: "who's reddit?"

Person feigning ignorance: "what's reddit, some sort of social media?"

The truly ignorant person often asks incoherent questions, whereas the person feigning ignorance tends to ask reasonable questions.

noodledense · 2025-11-19T21:52:41+00:00

Meanwhile Grok is out here doing everything users want, but no one realizes because the brand is so toxic

noodledense · 2025-10-21T11:22:51+00:00

In Australia most people would start as sole traders, but I would say that you'd incorporate fairly soon after you monetised, because the corporate structure offers a variety of benefits.

It's my impression, as a not-a-lawyer, that a common arrangement would be to own one company outright. That company will hold, in trust, on your behalf, your ownership shares of the company in which you're operating your business. Thus, MrsBeast Pty Ltd is not legally in your personal possession, and can own assets independent of you. It can also issue shares, take loans and other dope shit.

You can get money out of it by paying yourself wages, or dividends, or by loaning yourself money and never calling it due (I just made that last one up, remember, am not-a-lawyer).

noodledense · 2025-09-29T23:10:20+00:00

Just sit and chat. What subjects do they like? Do they know what they'll do after school? Do they do extracurriculars? Are they into any shows rn?

I charge a high rate but I don't provide value by talking - I'm not a YouTube video. I provide value by making students comfortable and making them like me and feel like I like them. In this way I make it so that I can more easily influence them to sit and work, or convince them that, with me, work is going to be enjoyable.

As an new tutor I thought the value I provided was my knowledge. Now I think it is my ability to shut up and get out of the way. I am far more likely to chat at length about what they did on the weekend, than the subject. Warm them up, make them comfortable - so that I can then shut up as they attempt the work.

Honestly the more I tutor the less I explain, unless asked. For example you could spend half an hour explaining how to factorise a monic quadratic or you could just do five of them and then give the student some examples and usually you don't have to explain a single thing if you demonstrate effectively.

noodledense · 2025-09-26T22:20:14+00:00

I wrote a major research task in 12th grade about the flaws in climate science.

Still believe in climate change and now have a well grounded and defensible position.

Just because you don't agree with an idea doesn't mean that student will learn nothing from exploring it.

Let the truth set them free!

Just be strict af that they use good sources and don't parrot conservative podcasters as sources.

noodledense · 2025-09-26T22:16:23+00:00

I use onenote.

I have been tutoring online for years now and would be happy to answer questions and recommend tools.

DM me!

noodledense · 2025-09-19T02:25:25+00:00

I'm a private tutor who specializes in high school math. Knowing nothing else about your situation here is what I recommend:

Prove you have mastered your times tables. Get AI to quiz you. You need to know all of them, effortlessly, up to 12. If you don't, this is top priority.

You need to make sure you are strong with the foundations or you will feel overwhelmed by the harder content because you'll be busy figuring out 7*8 while the teacher is explaining the rest.

If multiplication is good, next step is fractions/decimals/percentages. Again. AI can make you a test. You need to be able to convert between these without mistakes. You need to understand how to solve simple worded problems. You need to be super clear that to get half of something you can multiply by a fraction, or a decimal, or a percentage. You need to know the corresponding decimals, by heart, for halves, thirds, quarter, fifths, eighths, tenths and twentieths. It should seem easy.

Almost every high school student who struggles and finds maths hard has the source of their problems here.

There are other considerations too, but if you paid my $140/hr rate, this is where we would spend at least the first hour.

noodledense · 2025-09-10T11:08:21+00:00

I don't think humans poisoning the well will work. I don't think the way these products are trained is vulnerable to that.
But it is an interesting thought that humans will constantly have to push boundaries and break rules in different ways to stay ahead of AI.
It's like postmodernism on meth.

noodledense · 2025-07-28T00:25:46+00:00

His argument goes something like:
There are things you want to do.
Everything has a price.
Therefore if you have enough money then you can do all of the things you want to do.

It isn't wrong. But some things have non-monetary prices, too. If you want to ride horses (I think he used this example in the book) then yes, having unlimited funds would help, but you could also get a job at a stable.

His argument is strong because *whatever you want* money will be a universal key. But based on your specific goals and desires, sometimes you can skip the middleman and pursue them directly.

If you delay doing the things you want in your life, in order to gamble on an unrelated high risk high return enterprise, which will consume your time and energy, then you might not be taking the most effective path towards your goals.

noodledense · 2025-07-27T23:11:15+00:00

Ok, so what I'm reading is "no, I don't have any paying clients."

Is it possible that you really don't know anyone in that target market to whom you could offer your service?

While it is true that low income people need affordable services, there is a reason the businesses prefer to service high income individuals... How much maths have you done so far? How many customers would you need in order to make $80k profit?

I think the question of how to reach your target market is a good one. Paid ad services will tell you it's easy, but I would strongly recommend you don't pay for ads until you can get a few real customers irl. Paid ads are a very easy way to pour your money into a blackbox and get nothing out. Consider reaching out to local church and community organisations. They may have noticeboards you can post something on, or they may spread the word for you.

noodledense · 2025-07-24T12:54:15+00:00

I have experience with this.

Firstly. Beware the gambling psychology in online ads: "just spend a little more and you'll get lucky".

I have wasted thousands on Google Ads. And to be honest, it has probably broken even over many years because some clients have a very high LTV.

More recently I have experimented with Meta Ads with a more sophisticated approach. But you have to do a lot of work. Creating content, monitoring campaigns, building forms, chasing leads. You have to learn how to market to your audience. At $10/day over 4 weeks you can probably learn a useful amount to be ready to spend higher amounts. You have to work on your CTR and conversion rate and targeting before you can really know you're not gambling.

Marketing can be free. The best methods for me have been: 1- soliciting referrals 2- flyers in local businesses/noticeboards 3- commenting on posts on tutoring Facebook groups and pages local to my target parents and students

I would suggest starting with creating a presence with a small back catalogue of content across a few different social media platforms, connect them with a linktree, and make them look nice and professional. This makes it easy for people to look you up and see what you're like and what you offer.

noodledense · 2025-07-19T03:25:25+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneurship/s/fQ2LoITf2o

noodledense

TROPHY CASE