A life in words

  • Lemmata

    Shocking fact: computers can’t do everything. I know, I know, all of those years living in delusion. But get up off the floor, it’s not that bad. You see, what a computer can’t do tells us at least as much about the computer as what it can do. Actually, to be more exact, what a…

  • Priority

    In Bayesian statistics [based on those opening words I know I’ve already lost 50% of you] there is a concept of a priori and a posteriori beliefs. A prior probability distribution (also simply called a prior) indicates that prior to making an observation I already have some beliefs about the nature of the system being…

  • So Open It’s Closed

    There is a point at which an open mind becomes so open that it closes in on itself. At least, that’s what I think. At some point, the willingness to consider any and every thought as at least initially equivalent can wash out any willingness to evaluate the accuracy of those viewpoints. At that point,…

Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself.Tara Westover, Educated, p. 197