What Is A Project? Can you really manage one? (more)

correlations that turn out to be misleading/meaningless - see data dredging and http://www.tylervigen.com/ (now with GenAI explanations) (more)

Data dredging (data fishing, data snooping, equation fitting, p-hacking) is the misuse of data analysis to find patterns in data that can be presented as statistically significant, thus dramatically increasing and understating the risk of false positives. This is done by performing many statistical tests on the data and only reporting those that come back with significant results... Conventional tests of statistical significance are based on the probability that an observation arose by chance, and necessarily accept some risk of mistaken test results, called the significance. When large numbers of tests are performed, some produce false results, hence 5% of randomly chosen hypotheses turn out to be significant at the 5% level, 1% turn out to be significant at the 1% significance level, and so on, by chance alone. When enough hypotheses are tested, it is virtually certain that some falsely appear statistically significant, since almost every data set with any degree of randomness is likely to contain some spurious correlations. If they are not cautious, researchers using data mining techniques can be easily misled by these apparently significant results. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging

Good interview with Mark Bernstein, capturing some of the early days of East Gate, StorySpace, and HyperText fiction. Also some advice on Writing A Book (rather, on writing a big "publishable" HyperText): Acquire whatever skills you need to create what you have in mind. Do not rely on vague ideas of Collaboration or appropriation to supply what you currently lack. Be prepared to learn new things: Computer Programming, figure Drawing (Sketching), medieval Italian, narratology, or the intellectual life of Victorian parlor maids. Master your computer, and know how to use your tools well. Look for new tools and techniques that can improve your work or open new Creative opportunities. (more)

Steve Ersinghaus's experience in authoring HyperText (in StorySpace). It takes time to understand that in Storyspace, editing is a non-linear process, where linking can take the place of idea moving. In Storyspace, the writer doesn’t move a paragraph, though this is possible to do, he or she simply relates it to something else via a link. Interesting question: what do you leave in, even if shunted off to a part of the bits-network that might never get read? In TLGS, there are many areas of the text the reader will never see because they are simply bypassed. They are a sort of idea-based archaeology, bits of broken pottery that over time, I found no use for in the paths of the novel, such as a stretch of action that appeared at one time to supply the answer to a quandary, but that become too burdensome to keep in the possible flow.

Mark Bernstein sees parallels between Ted Naos' CutUp CardDecks and HyperText. See also https://www.eastgate.com/catalog/TedNaosCollection.html (more)

Umberto Eco on EBooks, memory, HyperText. At the opening of the Library Of Alexandria. WE HAVE THREE TYPES OF MEMORY. The first one is organic, which is the memory made of flesh and blood and the one administrated by our brain. The second is mineral, and in this sense mankind has known two kinds of mineral memory: millennia ago, this was the memory represented by clay tablets and obelisks, pretty well known in this country, on which people carved their texts. However, this second type is also the electronic memory of today's computers, based upon silicon. We have also known another kind of memory, the vegetal one, the one represented by the first papyruses, again well known in this country, and then on books, made of paper. Let me disregard the fact that at a certain moment the vellum of the first codices were of an organic origin, and the fact that the first paper was made with rugs and not with wood. Let me speak for the sake of simplicity of vegetal memory in order to designate books.

John Seely Brown and Estee Solomon Gray: The People Are the Company. Revolutions start in the most unexpected places and with the most unlikely heroes. Who would imagine that the conventional wisdom of the Industrial Age would be challenged by copier repair technicians - "tech reps" - at Xerox? (more)

John Ohno: Guidelines for future hypertext systems. The world-wide-web is merely the most popular of hundreds of earlier systems, most of which were technically superior. (more)

a cluster of Wiki pages (more)

Rival Voices: Fuck it, we ball: on rats, postrats, metarats, nrx what distinguishes and generated them. As some of you know I’ve recently (yesterday) had a small spat with the putanumonit guy. (more)

I tried to be a magazine writer, mathematician, and stand up comedian. Now I just write a blog with math and jokes. https://putanumonit.com/ (Putanumonit)

aka Pareto's Law. Management consultant Joseph Juran developed the concept in the context of quality control, and improvement, naming it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noted the 80/20 connection while at the University of Lausanne in 1896.[4] In his first work, Cours d'économie politique, Pareto showed that approximately 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The Pareto principle is only tangentially related to Pareto efficiency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: AI #111: Giving Us Pause. Events in AI don’t stop merely because of a trade war, partially paused or otherwise. (more)

A market where prices reflect all available information. (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: AI #110: Of Course You Know... Yeah. That happened yesterday. This (Trump Tariffs) is real life. I know we have to ensure no one notices Gemini 2.5 Pro, but this is rediculous. That’s what I get for trying to go on vacation to Costa Rica, I suppose. I debated waiting for the market to open to learn more. But f** it, we ball.* (more)

Patrick McKenzie: Bet on it: Zvi Mowshowitz on professional gambling, trading, and AI futures. This week I interviewed Zvi Mowshowitz, who I Internet-met 30+ years ago in middle school then became acquainted with for real through his recent public intellectualism on covid-19. We talked about his interesting career path through Magic, professional gambling, and equities trading, which are very different but rhyme in important ways. (more)

app built by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade

Richard Hanania (born August 28, 1985) is an American political science researcher and right-wing political commentator.[3] He is the founder and president of the think tank Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI).[4][5][6] He has written for The Washington Post,[3] The New York Times, The Atlantic,[5] and Quillette.[5] He wrote The Origins of Woke and publishes his newsletter on Substack. Between 2008 and the early 2010s, Hanania wrote for alt-right and white supremacist publications under the pseudonym Richard Hoste.[6][7] He acknowledged and disavowed his writing under the pseudonym when it was reported in 2023.[6][5] A number of journalists have said that Hanania continues to make racist statements under his own name.[4][8] Hanania was a contributor to Project 2025 regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.[9] Since then, he has become more critical of the second Trump administration and the MAGA movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hanania (more)

Christopher Ferguson Rufo (born August 26, 1984) is an American conservative (new right) activist,[1][2] New College of Florida board member, and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.[3] He is an opponent of critical race theory. He is a former documentary filmmaker and former fellow at the Discovery Institute, the Claremont Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.[4][5][6] Rufo has been involved in Republican efforts to restrict critical race theory instruction or seminars,[5][7] which he says "has pervaded every aspect of the federal government" and poses "an existential threat to the United States".[5] Rufo's appearances with Tucker Carlson on Fox News reportedly influenced President Donald Trump to issue an executive order in 2020 banning some topics from diversity training for the government and contractors; the order was rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Rufo (more)