Pavel Sokolovsky

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tech, startups, internet · Jan 2025

AI prompts as Product Requirements Documents.

“The PRD contains the output of a conversation between product & engineering - what is to be built within a few leaves of digital paper. Perhaps similar to the conversation one might have with a chatbot about a product feature.” ~ learn more

better doing · Jan 2025

I talk to robots while driving.

“We jumped from discussing Cooper Flagg’s basketball stats at Duke to comparing Carlo Rovelli and Brian Greene’s competing theories of physics to talking about the history of San Francisco. In a daring feat of economic analysis, I asked it to calculate if the after-tax returns of two ETFs were statistically significant & to compare the energy portfolios using the 13-Fs of a few hedge funds for investment ideas. When a…

tech, startups, internet · Jan 2025

Gary Marcus decides he deserves a victory lap.

After news of GPT improvements slowing down broke, the famous machine learning scientist who some call a skeptic writes: “For years I have been warning that “scaling” — eeking out improvements in AI by adding more data and more compute, without making fundamental architectural changes — would not continue forever.” My view is that all educated opinions are worth reading, and he certainly has one. ~ learn more

fun facts · Jan 2025

People are having less sex.

I didn’t want to believe it, but it may be true. About the study: “We used data from 14- to 49-year-old participants in the 2009 and 2018 waves of the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), a confidential U.S. nationally representative survey that is conducted online.” ~ learn more

fun facts · Jan 2025

Were iron nails so valuable that arsonists burned houses to recover them?

I read this “fact” in a book and tried to validate it. “Here’s a good illustration of how a myth gets started. Ken Schwarz, Colonial Williamsburg’s blacksmith since 1982 and the master blacksmith since 2003, says he hears this one every time they make handwrought nails at the Anderson Forge. It’s not true, yet there is a nugget of fact if you dig deep enough…” ~ learn more

fun facts · Jan 2025

That one time the Nobel prize committee really screwed up.

Marie Curie had already one a Nobel prize, and was on the verge of receiving her second. The committee asked her not to come because she was involved in an affair with a married man. “The Swedish Academy need not have fretted; not only did dinner go smoothly, but before King Gustaf's reign was over, he, too, would be accused of a love affair, also with a married man.” ~…

under the microscope · Jan 2025

A new algorithm for uncovering causality in complex systems.

Created by a team of MIT engineers, “The algorithm determines the specific nature of that relationship, such as whether two variables are synergistic—meaning one variable only influences another if it is paired with a second variable—or redundant, such that a change in one variable can have exactly the same, and therefore redundant, effect as another variable.” ~ learn more

under the microscope · Jan 2025

Detecting lung cancer by breath.

“When the human body breaks down fat in a process called lipolytic cholesterol metabolism, isoprene is released in exhaled breath. As it turns out, a decline in isoprene can indicate the presence of lung cancer. The team, led by researchers at China's Zhejiang University, leveraged this insight through its work and developed an innovative gas sensing material to create a screening process.” ~ learn more

retail therapy · Jan 2025

New bookstore business model rents shelf space.

“The concept brings back the joy of browsing real books to communities where many bookstores have shut, and gives readers more eclectic choices than those suggested by online sellers’ algorithms, its proponents say. “Here, you find books which make you wonder who on earth would buy them,” laughs Shogo Imamura, 40, who opened one such store in Tokyo’s bookstore district of Kanda Jimbocho in April.” ~ learn more

to your health · Jan 2025

What goes on at a longevity clinic?

“Think of it as a high-tech health spa. These clinics offer everything from genetic testing and cellular rejuvenation to IV drips and hormone therapy—all in the name of living longer, healthier lives.” ~ learn more