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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    John Backus‏ @backus Jul 8

    John Backus Retweeted Dorian Taylor

    Curiosity = desire to better compress knowledge by finding regularities others missed. "This drive maximizes interestingness, the first derivative of subjective beauty or compressibility, that is, the steepness of the learning curve." Explains drive to learn in infants & expertshttps://twitter.com/doriantaylor/status/1016193565234421760 …

    John Backus added,

    Dorian Taylor @doriantaylor
    thinking about "interesting is the first derivative of beauty" https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.4360 
    10:49 PM - 8 Jul 2018
    • 9 Retweets
    • 57 Likes
    • Gabriel D Vine🛸 rogerclark Alasdair Phillips-Robins Ben🔚🔜⤵️📛 Siva Dave Craige⚡️ meta squid jeet🐊 not cute just psycho
    7 replies 9 retweets 57 likes
      1. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 8

        Related: When Twitter is abuzz w/ new outrage, it feels like we're crowdsourcing the best compression of the ideas everyone wants to express. Each entry is scored by Twitterverse via likes/retweets and within a few weeks we converge on a narrative and framing.

        4 replies 1 retweet 16 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. Dorian Taylor‏ @doriantaylor Jul 8
        Replying to @backus

        this may sound stupid but ever {g,b,7}zip something big and be really satisfied by how much smaller the output was?

        1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 8
        Replying to @doriantaylor

        Definitely. I also intuitively feel what the author is talking about. The ideas I've felt most obsessed over learning more about were the ones that dramatically simplified how I reasoned about something

        1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
      4. Dorian Taylor‏ @doriantaylor Jul 8
        Replying to @backus

        i think about feynman talking about how every once in a while in physics there is this great simplification

        1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
      5. shiva‏ @aiyyoshiva Jul 9
        Replying to @doriantaylor @backus

        do you remember the source/where he expands on this?

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      6. Dorian Taylor‏ @doriantaylor Jul 9
        Replying to @aiyyoshiva @backus

        uhhh it's probably this:https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/pleasure-finding-things-out/ …

        0 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
      7. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Meng Weng Wong‏ @mengwong Jul 10
        Replying to @backus

        Or irregularities

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 10
        Replying to @mengwong

        Irregularities are a sign that an existing compression is wrong and you can find a more regular form to compress

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Visakan Veerasamy‏ @visakanv Jul 8
        Replying to @backus

        Cc @callumflack

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Callum Flack‏ @callumflack Jul 9
        Replying to @visakanv @backus

        Yes yes yes, thanks Visa! I like Dorian's writing too. (sorry for the redacted tweet before)

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Callum Flack‏ @callumflack Jul 9
        Replying to @callumflack @visakanv @backus

        Just realised I've been recommended the article @doriantaylor spoke of, and I've forgotten to read it…

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Visakan Veerasamy‏ @visakanv Jul 9
        Replying to @callumflack @backus @doriantaylor

        Once we’ve developed a half-decent radar / directional thrust, the things that we ought to look at have a way of coming back to us 🤓 (developing the former then becomes a great way to reduce creative consumption FOMO)

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      6. Callum Flack‏ @callumflack Jul 9
        Replying to @visakanv @backus @doriantaylor

        Damn good pt. And moving from lurker to participant (as I am slowly) is also important for the boomerang to work in one's favour

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      7. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Ben Standefer‏ @aguynamedben Jul 8
        Replying to @backus

        With infants/toddlers re “regularities others missed”... 1-2 year olds find currency in gossip (irregularities others missed). My 2yo daughter has repeated “shocking gossip” (“Luke bit my finger”) months after it actually happened because at day care that is v. juicy gossip.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Ben Standefer‏ @aguynamedben Jul 8
        Replying to @aguynamedben @backus

        Teacher is like oh yeah, that’s one of the crazy things but it’s normal... lots of tall tales for shock value.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. Ben Standefer‏ @aguynamedben Jul 8
        Replying to @aguynamedben @backus

        It is interesting the whole episode can be compressed by a 20 month old human to “Luke bit my finger”. Humans are crazy!

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. End of conversation
      1. Jay Cross‏ @jaycrosstweets Jul 9
        Replying to @backus

        Also explains the fatal flaw of school, which is that it is based on the notion that kids need to be "required" or "motivated" to learn. When the foundation is that, the roof, walls, and windows don't really matter.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Ashish‏ @reflect_ion Jul 8
        Replying to @backus

        Above explanation is correct from the 'outcome' point of view. I think genuine curiosity comes from the place of care for something we deep down want to change or relate to emotionally. What's makes it interesting the way we present it like compressibility, as mentioned by you.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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