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Michael Nielsen

Published podcast speaker

Claims
44
Episodes
2
Shows
2
Named items
0

Claim ledger

What Michael said.

44 transcript-backed records

04 / belief

Michelson-Morley is the famous result often presented as this experiment that was done in the 1880s that helped Einstein come up with the special theory of relativity a little bit later, changing the way we think about space and time and our fundamental conception of those things.

“Michelson-Morley is the famous result often presented as this experiment that was done in the 1880s that helped Einstein come up with the special theory of relativity a little bit later, changing the way we think about space and time and our fundamental conception of those things.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

05 / belief

I’m certainly interested in the fact that new types of progress keep becoming possible. But I think even there, there does still seem to be some phenomenon of diminishing returns.

“I’m certainly interested in the fact that new types of progress keep becoming possible. But I think even there, there does still seem to be some phenomenon of diminishing returns.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

06 / belief

What fraction uses linear representations versus a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional representation? I think the answers to these questions are just not at all obvious.

“What fraction uses linear representations versus a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional representation? I think the answers to these questions are just not at all obvious.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

11 / observation

Then you’re going to start by doing the simplest possible stuff. It just turns out that a lot of that stuff doesn’t work very well, so you’re forced to go through these steps where gradually it gets more complicated, and it’s wrong in a variety of ways.

“Then you’re going to start by doing the simplest possible stuff. It just turns out that a lot of that stuff doesn’t work very well, so you’re forced to go through these steps where gradually it gets more complicated, and it’s wrong in a variety of ways.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

14 / evaluation

Young people flood in because you can be twenty-one and make major breakthroughs rather than having to spend twenty-five years mastering everything that’s been done before.

“Young people flood in because you can be twenty-one and make major breakthroughs rather than having to spend twenty-five years mastering everything that’s been done before.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

15 / belief

If I think about things like — Ron Sexsmith, I think his name is — a composer in Toronto, has made these musical pieces based on the different periods in the solar system.

“If I think about things like — Ron Sexsmith, I think his name is — a composer in Toronto, has made these musical pieces based on the different periods in the solar system.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

17 / belief

I think seeing so many people who are doing very worthwhile things which have no or very little institutional chance of support, being amplified — that I care about a great deal, and it seems like EV is one of the places that is doing that the best.

“I think seeing so many people who are doing very worthwhile things which have no or very little institutional chance of support, being amplified — that I care about a great deal, and it seems like EV is one of the places that is doing that the best.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

21 / belief

Famously, what was it, he asked for $3,000 a year when he moved to the IAS, and they gave him $15,000. I think he wasn’t very good at negotiating.

“Famously, what was it, he asked for $3,000 a year when he moved to the IAS, and they gave him $15,000. I think he wasn’t very good at negotiating.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

22 / belief

” I think that people who are good at identifying people who are able to expand boundaries like that — they need to have some sense of that edge.

“” I think that people who are good at identifying people who are able to expand boundaries like that — they need to have some sense of that edge.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

25 / belief

An interesting, unsuspected way — that would be terrific and I think is not completely out of the question, but it probably doesn’t affect anything about consciousness or anything like that.

“An interesting, unsuspected way — that would be terrific and I think is not completely out of the question, but it probably doesn’t affect anything about consciousness or anything like that.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

27 / observation

The problem is, of course, it’s very helpful for motivational reasons to have answers to that, but your answers never turn out to be what the correct answer was.

“The problem is, of course, it’s very helpful for motivational reasons to have answers to that, but your answers never turn out to be what the correct answer was.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

30 / commitment

For me, the reason I do spaced repetition and the reason I will come on a podcast with somebody like you who asks very interesting questions — it’s the same.

“For me, the reason I do spaced repetition and the reason I will come on a podcast with somebody like you who asks very interesting questions — it’s the same.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

31 / belief

If you look at, say, the culture around Jupyter Notebooks in machine learning, I think having those very openly available and widely available really has driven a lot of progress.

“If you look at, say, the culture around Jupyter Notebooks in machine learning, I think having those very openly available and widely available really has driven a lot of progress.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

32 / belief

You denied saying this, but somebody once said to me that travel is the only education, and it’s really stayed with me as expressing some deep truth. I think mostly just the world is so incredibly deep.

“You denied saying this, but somebody once said to me that travel is the only education, and it’s really stayed with me as expressing some deep truth. I think mostly just the world is so incredibly deep.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

37 / recommendation

I think that’s why it’s very important not to have people who work for you — lots of 70-year-old physicists have 23-year-old students — but actually to have 23-year-olds, 28-year-olds who you really learn from and you regard as your mentors.

“I think that’s why it’s very important not to have people who work for you — lots of 70-year-old physicists have 23-year-old students — but actually to have 23-year-olds, 28-year-olds who you really learn from and you regard as your mentors.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

38 / evaluation

I think he didn’t really believe in them, or actually understand just how difficult they are to solve, how difficult it is to supply public goods and these kinds of things.

“I think he didn’t really believe in them, or actually understand just how difficult they are to solve, how difficult it is to supply public goods and these kinds of things.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

40 / evaluation

They don’t suffer like large organizations that have all kinds of bloat and all kinds of problems. So many of those problems are gone away there, partially because when you’re on a boat, it’s not so easy to empire build, like there are real reasons to trim fat.

“They don’t suffer like large organizations that have all kinds of bloat and all kinds of problems. So many of those problems are gone away there, partially because when you’re on a boat, it’s not so easy to empire build, like there are real reasons to trim fat.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

41 / evaluation

I still don’t find that compelling, I think, because we’ve always known that there seemed likely to be fairly contingent facts about the universe.

“I still don’t find that compelling, I think, because we’ve always known that there seemed likely to be fairly contingent facts about the universe.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

42 / evaluation

Yes, you’re right again, it’s very attractive for a few years, but over 50 or 60 years, it’s terrible. I think that’s certainly part of the issue with quantum gravity.

“Yes, you’re right again, it’s very attractive for a few years, but over 50 or 60 years, it’s terrible. I think that’s certainly part of the issue with quantum gravity.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

43 / uncertainty

Whether or not this is going to eventually result in a diminished ability to build personal brands and then capture value from that, I don’t know.

“Whether or not this is going to eventually result in a diminished ability to build personal brands and then capture value from that, I don’t know.”
Speaker
Michael Nielsen
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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