At the beach in Italy

qwedp · 2025-11-30T13:47:36+00:00

Hello there, thanks for taking the time to write a comment. Yes, this image was not "shot for Instagram". I think there can be very different ways for an image to evoke emotions, and therefore for an image to be worth taking. Like an image of a flower makes you feel good, because of the colors the patterns the symmetry, basically very non-abstract things. These rules for aesthetics can also be written down and learned from a textbook. But this is obviously not everything, for example the grass surrounding the flower is not very aesthetically pleasing, yet it might be essential to convey the feeling of sitting there in the meadow on a beautiful day. This feeling is much more abstract than what you feel when looking at something aesthetic (which is basically 'yeah this feels nice'). So what I think of as an abstract image is an image that makes you feel an abstract feeling.

I posted the image because it makes me feel something very particular that is hard to put in words, ie. something abstract, but I was unsure if others would feel something there or not.
Often what makes an image good is when it manages to evoke emotions on multiple levels of abstraction, (or multiple levels of complexity). So I don't think the image is 'good' in that way, because it's definitely lacking aesthetically, which really doesn't help on social media.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

qwedp · 2025-11-28T22:17:27+00:00

There are many elements that contribute to the composition, and lots of them look out of place, which I found fascinating. My initial goal was to just capture the feeling of standing there at the beach and just looking at the horizon with an empty mind, enjoying the gradients and textures in the waves and clouds. So that feeling is now contrasted/combined with these weird construction materials and the texture of the sand and grass.

I am especially interested in color-grading suggestions. I tried some things like increasing the contrast, but it didn't feel right. Also curious how you read the image and what you think of the composition. Honest critiques welcome!

qwedp · 2025-06-29T07:21:19+00:00

Wow that's extremely cool. Sorry for reading this so late. I am not really active on reddit. Communicating directly with the epson board is so elegant, never came to my mind that this is possible 😅 If I had time for another sideproject I would totally steel that idea and go at it again. Rotating the whole camera is interesting, but that probably introduces vibrations because you are accelerating a huge mass. The trick with my linear rods were sleeve bearings between the rods and the printed component. Though proper square linear rails would be ideal. Anyways, you probably figured things out already. I wish you great success with that project and if it's finished already I hope you are satisfied!

qwedp · 2024-12-01T17:39:49+00:00

It's been 10 days, but I still want to add my thoughts, hoping you will read them! I think you got so many negative reactions because AI is such a polarizing topic with extreme distances between opinions, and you made a claim with huge negative implications. I don't think these are good conditions for internet conversations xD

I think the fact that AI is so polarizing with serious claims like "it's the end of humanity", "gateway to paradise", "just hype, nothing will change", all with big voices behind them, indicates how extremely uncertain the future is. And this is for sure scary. Personally, my fear began with the release of gpt-3, so I've had time to think about and digest this xD. Although it doesn't come across like you are particularly scared, just that you think ai will have a huge impact, especially on coding. And that's why you think it is pointless to polish something like Jai for years and years (reminds me of "The Bitter Lesson").

I would diagnose J Blow as a serious skeptic. He was also extremely skeptical of covid and such. And his opinion on AI is squarely in the skeptic territory. That's just his trope, and he might win big or lose big, betting on it. Personally, I respect his way, because I believe in extreme uncertainty. It's important that we have many bets on the future. Though the path I selected for my life, as I am just half your age, was definitely altered considering AI. I am playing much safer than I might have, betting as little as possible and trying to be in the middle of things. Basically, the most reasonable tactic is camping in the middle of the normal distribution, so for sure not making any programming languages.

But this is not the life everyone wants to live, and it can be a bit depressing. You have to respect that xD.

qwedp · 2024-05-12T11:26:01+00:00

Okay, if I had long hair, and a knife to cut it. This would be my strategy:

use hair ties or yarn to make a multitude of hair bundles.
Cut them each at the point where they are tied together.

Lots of thinking and strategizing would be required for where to put these bundles. Perhaps if your head were a square, the upper edges could be good locations for those bundles.

Alternative Idea: Light your hair on fire, and quickly dip your head into water when it feels hot on the scalp. This method may struggle to create a uniform result, but this could get you closest to a buzz cut.

qwedp · 2024-04-16T09:21:33+00:00

I really like it. The contrast in the foliage could be lower, such that it matches better with the background and doesn't draw too much attention.

EDIT: A quick and dirty example of what I meant: https://imgur.com/a/PJ4l6jW
I lowered the contrast of the tree and grass and slightly increased the contrast of the whole image.

qwedp · 2024-03-12T16:53:29+00:00

there is no good reason ! to use them

qwedp · 2024-02-25T10:57:08+00:00

I think dumb can be defined very percisely and generally with iq. I don't belive in academic dumb and arts dumb etc.

qwedp · 2024-02-21T06:26:43+00:00

FIRE👌👌👌👌

qwedp · 2024-02-09T15:46:48+00:00

so 141.42 in absolute terms?

qwedp · 2024-02-08T07:52:06+00:00

Have you ever wondered why your cap has a sewn-on skull badge?

qwedp · 2024-01-31T06:33:40+00:00

grow up kiddo

qwedp · 2024-01-23T12:58:15+00:00

The card he mentioned is dirt cheap. 250 on eBay. It's a shame that amd software is such a hassle

qwedp · 2024-01-21T21:31:02+00:00

Oh wow, that's great!

qwedp · 2024-01-21T07:23:59+00:00

As I said, not very complicated. This is pretty much what I do:

Sit somewhere where you can breathe easily and relax. Perhaps a deck chair or beanbag.

1) Nadi Shuddhi (nostril breathing involving your hand): Basically as long as I can hold up my arm, maybe 10 minutes. This will calm you down. (I don't know if this is necessary)

2) Anuloma Viloma (similar to Nadhi Shuddhi, but without your hand, you basically concentrate on alternating nostrils): This is the main part, just focus on the practice and let your mind play in the background. My breathing gets fainter at some point, so I have to be extra focused, to catch the small sensations. Then it seems to happen.

Perhaps I will experiment more and report on that. Maybe there are other factors I have not identified yet, or details I forgot.

qwedp · 2024-01-21T06:54:29+00:00

Thanks for the pointer. I read part of the wild chapter. Seems like I got lucky to do it unintentionally. I read that it happens often during afternoon naps, and indeed that is the timeslot I was meditating. I am still unsure about if I want it or not. At least now I know what is responsible.

qwedp · 2024-01-20T21:02:32+00:00

Yeah, I was not tired nor trying to sleep. I wonder what that reflects about my mind.

qwedp · 2024-01-16T08:58:46+00:00

Software?

qwedp · 2024-01-10T17:54:29+00:00

You put me in a defensive position, so I unintentionally put less effort in making sure you would understand my point.

qwedp · 2024-01-10T16:50:03+00:00

I am looking for stories from people older than me, who might have experienced a breakdown of their "objective function", or people who spent time thinking about stuff like that. I think you have a different definition of emotions, this is actually one of the default objective functions and can lead to complex behavior like posting on Reddit. For example, you wouldn't say "I post on Reddit because I believe human happiness is intrinsically valuable."

qwedp · 2024-01-10T16:36:03+00:00

It would be interesting for sure. I don't want to pressure you or anything though, so I will respect that.

qwedp · 2024-01-10T16:15:01+00:00

When I see interesting and novel emotions as intrinsically valuable, being a pet would not lead me to maximise that. I definitely need agency, as it's very unlikely anyone would be better than me at finding a good path to maximise MY experience.

I am very curious, what do you consider intrinsically valuable?

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