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“Ah, yes, hindsight, always my weapon of choice.”
― And Put Away Childish Things
― And Put Away Childish Things
“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”
― The Martian
― The Martian
“If you want to be a good intuitive Bayesian—if you want to naturally make good predictions, without having to think about what kind of prediction rule is appropriate—you need to protect your priors. Counterintuitively, that might mean turning off the news.”
― Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
― Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
“In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we’re done with it, we may find—if it’s a good novel—that we’re a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it’s very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.”
― The Left Hand of Darkness
― The Left Hand of Darkness
“and here is where unsentimental history and statistical literacy can change our view of modernity, for they show that nostalgia for a peaceable past is the biggest delusion of all”
― The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
― The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
The Gunroom
— 367 members
— last activity May 30, 2026 05:06PM
A place where fans of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester can gather to drink grog and discuss nautical matters pertaining to the Age of Sail, such as ...more
Tom’s 2025 Year in Books
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