Statistically, the person reading this is a lurker; to them I say you should write more online. You should join the side of the internet that is insane. You should join Twitter specifically, and chat with me, and provide value to me, and read my stuff. You should be checking up on what these humans are up to. The internet is a place you can edit, not just learn from; and you learn a lot more by giving yourself write-access to it! Join us.

People to follow on Twitter

  • Gwern: papers; annoyed tips on how to not mess up using LLMs; strange puns and jokes; a warning every time Gwern.net harbors a new post; predictions that end up coming true impressively often; ability to interact with him (locked account) and ask him questions1; curiosity-driven questions his future self will answer in 5-7 years after coming up with something. (Do not be deterred by his bio, which claims he will not take on new followers because of Twitter UI. He keeps it there because if he edits it, he’ll lose his “Present time, present day. Ahahahahahaha” joke. I’m told some people have trouble getting accepted as a follower; I think he might do a light pass over your account to ensure you’re not bellicose or stupid, in which case all the more reason to write more—and better—on the internet.)
  • Gavin Leech: papers; thread of real-life-cyberpunk, in the style of “humans don’t notice gradual change, and reading about gradual change all on the same page feels impressive”; digs up good blogs/essays, excellent google-fu and stylometric truesight; odd, potentially-scottish puns

Note that these are not “passive” follows. The point of this post is to emphasize that most are way too passive about the internet, and that includes the need to write more and “de-lurk” but ALSO actually doing something with all the content you’re bombarded with. Open links! Read things! Spend 5 minutes by the clock thinking about how to apply the knowledge you’re gathering instinctively like nuts in Autumn. This is the cure to “doomscrolling”. To doomscroll is to handcuff yourself to the inside of a cage with a dangerous beast in it! Why would you do that to yourself? Why immerse yourself in a world in which terrible things beyond your control are happening, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it? People have drawn up hells on this concept.2

An excellent post recently popped up all over my dashboard, about Gemini 3 cracking handwriting-transcription. ~2 weeks before people on my Twitter timeline were already talking about it! I just didn’t… do anything about it. This feels like an important leap in LLM ability, yet instead of looking into it I took it in stride—this is the kind of error I want to stop making when navigating my internet. As Gwern puts it:

  1. For what it’s worth you can also email him at gwern@gwern.net. Like most impressively prolific internet writers, he’s surprisingly responsive. ↩

  2. Obligatory warning when it comes to Tòmas B. stories is that I myself cannot stomach them, even when I find his ideas cool—I would suggest feeding the stories into an LLM if you’re similarly sensitive. ↩