2026-03-14
minor update 2026-03-15
Skyscrapers, is that it?
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Main
- I've been increasingly thinking about what environment is most conducive for me to do great work.
- Obviously the people you surround yourself with are the most important thing. First degree and second degree, in-person connections.
- That being said, I have also been considering other stuff like good food, lighting, ensure no substances in my environment, etc.
- Was just browsing through SF street views on google maps and I'm like, yes it's cleaner, and there's more skyscrapers, but that's it?
- I visited some skyscrapers in Singapore, it was grand, but I'm pretty sure I'll get bored of it in approximately two weeks.
- I've lived in multiple places now, across multiple cultures, so I do have some sense of what it's like to get bored of a place, atleast physically.
- I almost want to rant lol.
- What kind of retarded civilisation have I been born into? Our physical infrastructure is this shit, and we're literally building gods in our computers.
- Thiel's argument on progress in bits not atoms is too intellectual lol. Like, do you have any idea how different it would feel, physically, to have progress in the world in the world of atoms not bits? Can you imagine?
- Holy shit these people are going to fuck up everything. Grief. I'm just sad, yet again.
<long pause>- I'm back
- Have you seen those videos, where they speedrun construction of buildings? Forgotten the proper name for it. If energy prices drop by even one OOM, from $0.10/kWh to $0.01/kWh, I just imagine that turned up 10x. 10x as many buildings and 10x bigger. I know the actual math is not so simple but it's fun to imagine. Humans building their equivalent of anthills basically.
- If we had faster elevators, I still think it would be a cool experience to live in a skyscraper though. The way things currently are though, descending 50 storey elevator thrice a day just sounds like a pain in the ass. There's incentives to just stock up more stuff so you never have to leave your room.
update
- found the tallest building in bangalore. will go there today to sit and cry lol. or imagine a nuclear explosion. or forget about everything. who knows.
- I want an optimal height I think. Not airplane-level height, or Burj Khalifa height, but still high enough that you can see individual people from the top.
update
- motherfucker these people ruined the place with party music. no offence intended to them
- lol I seem to generally prefer venues without other people, be it cafes or places to eat or even just places at a height, from where I can see stuff. median human vibes are just ... bad. like, I am implicitly assigning high probability that median human doesnt know or care about ASI risk. And then I'm like, get out of my face lol.
- the place is beautiful otherwise. sunlight is amazing, view is amazing, and yes it satisfies my optimal height criteria. Initial thoughts are yeah, I wouldn't mind living in a place like this. Not my priority but also, couldn't hurt.
- has anyone figured out white noise that doesnt suck? or is this an unsolveable problem?
update
- some thoughts
- I am sad I dont know the hundreds of thought streams going through the hundreds of people in all the cars I can see. I dont know how to put words to the emotion I feel watching each of them die, in my mind's eye.
- I wonder what it would feel like to have direct access to their thought streams. I realise yet again that humans are the most violent species on this planet, and this is connected to their endless ability to play reputation games and scheme with each other. Every single person I can see right now is playing a reputation game with someone or the other. Most of them are doing it to endlessly accumulate capital. Some are doing it for other reasons.
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