Hey y'all, thanks for subscribing and listening in on my commitment to write publicly in 2024! I've moved everything to Substack, and will only be publishing there from now on. If you're interested in continuing to read, please take a look here: https://gunaydinson.substack.com/p/motivations-approach-vs-fear

In the last 24 hours, I "wrote" a screenplay. More to come soon on the *how* of this as well as what I learned and discovered along the way. Without further adieu, I present... FADE IN: EXT. SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY A quiet, tree-lined street with well-maintained houses. A car pulls up in front of a modest two-story home with a mani...

“I must accept shame, but... Shame is the vibrancy-killer. Shame is the little-shackle that prevents total self-expression. I will embrace my shame. I will permit it to be heard and felt across my body. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see what it had obscured. Where the shame has gone there will be everything. O...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the how & why behind starting to write every day (with the exception of yesterday). I've tried this for this "sprint" of project work, and wanted to explore some lessons learned throughout. Side note: yes, I'm agile in my personal life... [to be updated: stat placeholder for when I want to prioritize review...

The following chart of Go decision quality over time has been making the rounds. In short, the development of AlphaGo and its domination in the Go world has seemingly catalysed an increase in the decision quality for Go players worldwide: Or maybe you’ve seen this video of a dog “stuck” behind an open sliding glass door which needs to ...

🚨Spoiler alert🚨 This film really stuck in my head. I find myself missing the feeling of being absorbed in it, so will indulge myself here a bit further. A brilliant coming of age tale, I loved how each new setting, its unique aesthetic, and a tight plotline concisely described different stages of development across a flowing story arc....

Wow, what a trip. 🚨CAUTION🚨Spoilers on aesthetics and themes, but no spoilers on plot elements. Alternating between 1) unsettling scenes punctuated with sharp, primal movements by the actors with a background of discordant instruments, and 2) vibrant, joy-filled, euphoria and the experience of reliving awe and wonder from discovery of ...

I love collecting mental models and applying them across different areas to see if they’ll fit. It’s a puzzle and an experiment at the same time, and one of the more intellectually stimulating things out there. There's one in particular that stood out to me today - the Double Diamond model of design and innovation. It's particularly re...

Today was my first back to the office since the end of May in 2023. Not my office - I was brought into a tech company’s office as a guest and enjoyed their wifi, view, and food for the day. I hadn’t experienced this type of environment in a while, and it was a nice “coming home” moment. I knew exactly what I wanted to work on this afte...

Yesterday, Scott Alexander released a piece on the discourse on human primacy, or whether humanity could and should be replaced by superior species like artificial general intelligences. You may have heard of this argument from "e/acc's" (Effective Accelerationists) as stop/pause/accelerate arguments are made regarding artificial gener...

Last week, I wrote about how moving out of the U.S. made it clear which cultural aspects I wanted to keep and let go of as I settled into London. One of the aspects that I have absolutely kept is my love for Costco. I will tell anyone who will listen how amazing it is to buy 2kg bags of black licorice, and oh so much more, in a giant w...

For the first 6.5 years I've been in the UK, I lived in the most central bit of central London. So moving to a suburb 9 miles south of city centre has been quite the shift. I wasn't sure how I'd adjust, but I knew I was ready for the change so I packed up my old place, had lovely goodbyes with wonderful neighbours I had known since bef...

I’ve just returned from a “fitness salon” run by Ben Fleming where we covered a wide array of health & fitness areas while tangenting off into relevant philosophy, history, and even AGI topics. Learning about our bodies and how they work consistently triggers feelings of awe and wonder. I loved the mix of physical movement with deep le...

I’ve just returned from a meditation and ritual at the local Buddhist center, and I’m finding their concept of “middle way” does just feel right. It also feels like an easy cop-out, a way to not commit to a strong opinion on something. That part is a challenge as having, testing, defending, and implementing strong opinions is highly ce...

Last night's discussion on neuroscience reminded me that I want to dive back into Andy Clark's Surfing Uncertainty where he posits that "Perceiving, imagining, understanding, and acting are now bundled together, emerging as different aspects and manifestations of the same underlying prediction-driven, uncertainty-sensitive, machinery"....

Until five minutes ago, I was vaguely planning to write privately a bit more exploring various ideas before deciding on another topic to publish a second post on. We had just wrapped up at our weekly discussion group (often philosophy; sometimes science and technology too). It started as an interesting discussion about neuroscience and...

So one of the goals that I set for 2024 was to write publicly. And what better way to start than sharing my experience of becoming a British citizen today. I considered building this up slowly rather than starting with this meandering, major post; perhaps I’d give my take on a book or film I’ve experienced recently or share a meta-post...