Scott Taylor

perpetually curious

Worth your time.

Other people's writing that I keep going back to, and whatever is currently on the go. Anything marked reading is unfinished, so treat the note as a first impression.

Essays I read on a monthly basis

Rich Sutton · 2019 The Bitter Lesson Two pages that keep being right. I reread it whenever a clever hand-built approach starts feeling like the answer, which is roughly monthly. Richard Hamming · 1986 You and Your Research On why capable people mostly do unimportant work, and what the ones who don't have in common. Uncomfortable in the useful direction. Paul Graham · 2009 Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule The clearest account of why a single meeting can cost an afternoon. I reread it whenever the calendar starts winning.

Books

Annie Duke · 2018 · reading Thinking in Bets Separating the quality of a decision from the quality of its outcome. The habit the quant book taught me, written down properly.
James C. Scott · 1998 Seeing Like a State How systems built for legibility quietly destroy the local knowledge that made the thing work. Applies to governments, and to roadmaps.

Essays

Richard Gabriel · 1991 The Rise of Worse is Better The argument behind shipping the boring version, made thirty years before I worked it out for myself.

Blogs

Gwern Branwen Gwern.net Essays that are never finished, only revised — each one dated, versioned and argued with itself in public. The closest thing the web has to a working notebook kept honestly. Dan Luu Dan Luu Measures the things everyone else asserts. Reliably ends up somewhere less comfortable and more useful than the consensus. Simon Willison · reading Simon Willison's Weblog The most consistent primary source on what language models can actually do this week, written by someone who tries it rather than speculating about it.

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