An Educated Guess

An Educated Guess, by neuroscientist and author Jeroen van Baar, explores societal challenges through a scientific lens. It delves into climate change, mental health, economic inequality, and the impact of modern lifestyles, aiming to make complex academic insights accessible and relevant to everyday life.

Climate Change Mental Health Economic Inequality Modern Lifestyles Data Visualization Social Science Nutrition Political Polarization Public Health Social Connection

The hottest Substack posts of An Educated Guess

And their main takeaways

Making Peace with LLM Non-determinism

5 HN points • 07 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Software Engineering Hardware design
  1. Non-determinism in language models can be frustrating because you can't always expect the same output each time you input the same prompt. This unpredictability often stems from the way language itself works.
  2. You can reduce some of this unpredictability by using techniques like seeding and selecting better models. These methods help control how outputs are generated and make them more consistent.
  3. Understanding that language is inherently complex can help you see the random outputs as part of the model's nature, not just flaws. Embracing this chaos can lead to surprising and interesting results.

Coming soon

0 implied HN points • 21 May 23
  1. Barry Z has a Substack newsletter coming soon.
  2. The newsletter is called The Finest Tuners.
  3. Readers can subscribe on barryzhang.substack.com.