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gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Word2Vec received 'strong reject' four times at ICLR2013

Oh, I do completely agree and didn't mean to imply otherwise. I have had experiences where reviewers have given me great ideas for new experiments or ways to present things. But the most useful ones usually are the "wtf?" type comments, or comments that suggest the reviewers completely misunderstood or misread the text. While those are initially infuriating, the reviewers are usually among the people in the field that are most familiar with the topic of the paper--if they don't understand it or misread it, 95% of the time it's because it could be written more clearly.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Word2Vec received 'strong reject' four times at ICLR2013

I agree. My own most influential paper received strong rejects the first time we submitted it, and rightfully so, I think. In retrospect, we didn't do a good job motivating it, the contributions weren't clearly presented, and the way we described was super confusing. I'm genuinely grateful for it because the paper that we eventually published is so much better (although the core of the idea barely changed), and it's good because of the harsh reviews we received the first time around. The reviews themselves weren't even particularly "insightful", mostly along the lines of "this is confusing, I don't understand what you're doing or why you're doing it", but sometimes you just really need that outside perspective.

I've also reviewed and rejected my share of papers where I could tell there is a seed of a great idea, but the paper as written just isn't good. It always brings me joy to see those papers eventually published because they're usually so much better.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: What companies have blown you away with their customer support?

Delta. I was having a nightmare of a travel day (not caused by the airline) and had to call to rebook my flights. The customer service rep was one of the sweetest people I've ever talked to. She rebooked my flight with no issue but she also just chatted with me about my bad day, about what I was looking forward to on my vacation, etc. I'm not normally one to talk to strangers, but this was genuinely the one bright part of that whole day.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: How to be successful as a research mathematician? Follow your gut

I think it may also be missing a step 0, which is "Identify that there exists a problem". I find that this is often an entirely distinct step from Step 1, which is it's own hill to climb.

I'm in CS research (with most of my work being applied to biological problems), so I'm a few steps removed from pure math, but I can completely related to this. It's why I find writing grants so difficult -- because they generally require you to identify and describe the problem and propose some potential solutions. But that's like 90% of the work for the whole thing!

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: ASK HN: What’s a small thing you’ve purchased which has made your life better?

I know HN skews largely male so this might not be interesting to many, but an Ethnotek crossbody purse. It's the most well-thought-through bag I've ever used, especially for travel. Everything has a place and is secure (so I don't worry about pickpockets), but is still easily accessible when needed. And it's expandable for a water bottle or jacket but rolls up small when empty.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Universal Paperclips

I've had to institute a blanket "no clicker game" policy for myself because I find them way too addicting. The frustrating thing about most (but not all) clicker games is that for me, they usually don't even feel good (e.g., relaxing, mentally stimulating, satisfying). They just make me feel like I'm an addict that needs my dopamine drip. There are definitely non-clicker games that hit the same spot for me, but almost every clicker game I've tried manages to completely suck me in.

I would put Universal Paperclips and A Dark Room as exceptions though in the sense that they're still fully engrossing, but there's a little bit more depth and discovery than just "click the thing until you have enough clicks to get the next thing".

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Universal Paperclips

I played it first a few years ago and was totally engrossed. A few months ago, I remembered it and thought "well maybe I'll find it again and play for a few minutes"... and then I did nothing else for the rest of the day.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Have attention spans been declining?

I'm not the person you were responding with you, and I completely agree with you, but I think there is a more charitable reading of that statement which I also think is true.

There is no form of society in which ADHD is an advantage. But I think there are forms of society in which ADHD is less of a disadvantage. Another way of putting it is that ADHD is inherently a disability on it's own, but there are ways that a lot of our society is set up that exacerbate those problems. Just as there are ways to improve accessibility in spaces for those with physical disabilities, and that doesn't stop them from being disabilities, there are also ways that there could be cultural shifts and choices made to improve accessibility for those with ADHD.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Rise of pill-popping tech execs

The expiration date on most medications functions differently than the expiration date on something like food. It's more about effectiveness than it is about safety. It's the date that the manufacturer can guarantee full potency of the drug. After this date, the drug may have lost some potency. However the vast majority of drugs are still effective, even 15 years after the expiration date [1], if they've been stored correctly. There are some exceptions which either degrade quickly or can gain toxicity post expiration (e.g., nitorglycerin, insulin, liquid antibiotics, biologics), but something like ibuprofen would generally be safe even years after expiration though it may be marginally less effective.

[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expirati...

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Oregon finally legalizes pumping your own gas

I lived in New Jersey for about 4 years. When I first moved there I thought it was the dumbest thing that we couldn't pump our own gas. Now that I've left, it's one of the few things I miss from NJ. Standing out at a gas pump when it's like 10 degrees and windy outside is miserable.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics

Of course, I'm not saying that the lower order skills are not important -- as you say, they're foundational. And I'm not even saying that it's a bad idea to test lower order skills. But they're not the only important thing, and "teaching to the test" tends to treat them like they are and prioritize them over critical thinking, synthesis, and creative skills.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics

The problem is that there are plenty of valuable skills that are difficult to test in a standardized way. Most standardized test questions focus on Bloom levels 1-3 (remember, understand, apply) and struggle to test higher order skills (analyze, evaluate, create). Those questions are harder to write, usually take much longer for students to answer, and it's hard to format them such that they can be graded in a standardized manner (e.g., how do you test the skills ability to "create", to generate new ideas, to plan, to design, using a multiple choice question?)

Placing a heavy emphasis on teaching to standardized tests means that teachers spend less time fostering higher order thinking skills.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: What to do if your house is overflowing with books

I suppose one consequence of being a serial renter that has moved around every 1-3 years is that it changed my relationship with having a large volume of books. Seeing a bookcase full of books does bring me joy but it simultaneously makes me think "oh, I'm going to have to lug all those boxes up and down stairs during the next move". I still have a shelf full of books, most of which I have a particularly fond emotional connection with. But otherwise, I resist the urge to buy more (I have a fantastic library nearby) and shamelessly pare, donate and give away anything I do acquire.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: US Supreme Court's dog toy ruling puts parody products on notice

Thanks, this helps clarify it a lot. I went and looked up a few more articles, and I think I still remain confused a bit about the second quote you list -- specifically what it means to use "a trademark as a trademark", as it seems like the decision written by Justice Kagan hinges on this concept.

gms7777 | 2 years ago | on: Convex Optimization (2004) [pdf]

Usually, language that tries to simplify or put things in layman's terms is missing important detail for fully specifying the problem. It's like watching the 3 minute version of a recipe on YouTube and thinking you have a good understanding of how it works, but then when you go to make it, you realize they didn't tell you if they used whole-wheat or all-purpose flour, or if they bake at 350 or 450, or in a glass or aluminum pan. If you try to follow the recipe, you might end up with something significantly different. It's not that the quick, intuitive version isn't useful, you can gain a lot of insight and get a high level picture often much quicker than you would reading the complete, fully specified recipe. But if what you want to do is reproduce the recipe exactly, you need the fully specified version. Personally when I'm writing technical documents, I prefer to include both the intuitive overview and the fully specified technical version.
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