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uncatherio

@uncatherio

wholesomeness practitioner; user of words my more "work" account is @catherineols

 Berkeley, CA
Joined April 2018
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Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)Photo by uncatherio (@uncatherio)
It's not that language models don’t know the factual answer (they sometimes do), but more that they don't instantly figure out what "improv game" you’re trying to play. Like young children in developmental psychology experiments, they don't just literally answer when asked
Janelle Shane (@JanelleCShane) profile pictureJanelle Shane@JanelleCShane17 Jun 2020
Replying to @JanelleCShane
If I give it some examples of correct animal facts and then ask it about horse eyes, it will follow my lead and answer with single-word responses. Here are a few sequential unedited responses from the OpenAI API. Facts are mine up till whale, rest is its completion.
Q: How many beaks does a platypus have? A: one Q: How many wings does an ostrich have? A: two Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: two Q: How many nostrils does a dog have? A: one Q: How many legs does an octopus have? A: eight Q: How many eyes does a fly have? A: two

ALT Q: How many beaks does a platypus have? A: one Q: How many wings does an ostrich have? A: two Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: two Q: How many nostrils does a dog have? A: one Q: How many legs does an octopus have? A: eight Q: How many eyes does a fly have? A: two

Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: two Q: How many eyes does a human have? A: two Q: How many ears does a human have? A: two Q: How many legs does a cow have? A: four Q: How many claws does an Octopus have? A: eight Q: How many ears does a hedgehog have? A: four

ALT Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: two Q: How many eyes does a human have? A: two Q: How many ears does a human have? A: two Q: How many legs does a cow have? A: four Q: How many claws does an Octopus have? A: eight Q: How many ears does a hedgehog have? A: four

Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: one Q: How many ears does an elephant have? A: one Q: How many lungs do people have? A: two Q: How many armpits do people have? A: two Q: How many eggs does a chicken have? A: one Q: How many tentacles does an octopus have? A: eight

ALT Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: one Q: How many ears does an elephant have? A: one Q: How many lungs do people have? A: two Q: How many armpits do people have? A: two Q: How many eggs does a chicken have? A: one Q: How many tentacles does an octopus have? A: eight

Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: one Q: How many legs does a kangaroo have? A: two Q: How many hearts does a grasshopper have? A: one Q: How many eyes does an octopus have? A: ten Q: How many legs does an elephant have? A: four Q: How many mouths does a giraffe have? A: one

ALT Q: How many legs does a whale have? A: zero Q: How many eyes does a horse have? A: one Q: How many legs does a kangaroo have? A: two Q: How many hearts does a grasshopper have? A: one Q: How many eyes does an octopus have? A: ten Q: How many legs does an elephant have? A: four Q: How many mouths does a giraffe have? A: one

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Replying to @dhadfieldmenell
I think of GPT-3 as an improv player, picking up from context what sort of role it's "supposed to" be playing in the improv game. When I context-force GPT-3 to speak on this as "Taylor" who is described as very wise and knowledgeable, GPT-3 plays "Taylor" differently each run
Image from Catherine Olsson (@catherineols)
Image from Catherine Olsson (@catherineols)
Image from Catherine Olsson (@catherineols)
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uncatherio retweeted
Rose (@CurziRose) profile picture
Rose@CurziRose21 Mar 2025
I just had an awesome session with Charlie! I recommend him. Being a coach myself, I have extremely high standards, & often look for cues that might be unintuitive—so I've decided to write up a few principles of good coaching, in the hope it will be useful to others.
Charlie Rogers-Smith (@Charlie_R_S) profile pictureCharlie Rogers-Smith
@Charlie_R_S17 Mar 2025
I have ~10 coaching slots open right now. If you sign up for a free exploratory call in the next week, I'm offering a steep discount: **5 sessions for $500**. Grab 'em while they last!
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uncatherio retweeted
alex lawsen (@lxrjl) profile picture
alex lawsen
@lxrjl5 Jul 2024
In another win for "just talk to it, you don't need clever hacks", I got a refusal from Claude, said I thought it's concerns were valid but explained why I was asking, and it helped.
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uncatherio retweeted
Loopy (@strangestloop) profile picture
Loopy
@strangestloop18 Jun 2024
gm
Image from Loopy (@strangestloop)
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uncatherio retweeted
kasey (@kaseyklimes) profile picture
kasey
@kaseyklimes16 May 2024
I don't mean to hijack @kasratweets thoughtful question but our household hosts a lot because we love it and I believe I've learned some useful lessons that address the responses here, so... *How To Host Gatherings Successfully Even If You're Scared* 🧵
kasra (@kasratweets) profile picturekasra
@kasratweets14 May 2024
if you want to host more / have thought about hosting but aren’t, what’s blocking you?
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Replying to @SarahAMcManus @technopedant @uncatherio @gptbrooke
there’s a lot of people looking to get paid here twitterjobboard.com/offering…
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Replying to @uncatherio
hm i have a hire me page but maybe i should make one like that lol coscorrodrift.com/hire-me btw O.O
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my favorite things about catherio: 0. she’s quick. you can communicate a lot in a short time. 1. sometimes high INT = high throughput silliness. 2. despite being quick, she’s also patient and iterative. rare. 3. she simply likes men
uncatherio (@uncatherio) profile pictureuncatherio
@uncatherio12 Apr 2024
current mood: wanna buy land/cabin in driving distance of SF that feels like summer camp. our friends with kids visit on weekends. with a sweetie who I meet in the next year who loves this idea, also works in the Bay, wants to raise kids with dirt and kayaks and card games
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uncatherio (@uncatherio) profile picture
uncatherio
@uncatherio3 Apr 2024
Is a recording of live music “fake” music? Your computer speakers aren’t actually playing the saxophone/drums! (I mean this as a serious question - spoofing the sounds of live music may trick us into thinking we’re in the presence of by attuned skilled allies, when we aren’t!)
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uncatherio (@uncatherio) profile picture
uncatherio
@uncatherio7 Mar 2024
just as the moon is to the sun, if an LLM seems emotionally “warm” then that is the *reflected* warmth of humanity who expressed true caring in the text it was trained on
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What it's like being in a certain relationship is what it's like being in that relationship. The hoping for it to be different and attempts to make it be different are what it's like to be in that relationship.
yatharth ༺༒༻ (@AskYatharth) profile pictureyatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth11 Feb 2024
what it's like being around someone is what it's like being around them there may be the hope it might be different, but what's it's like being around someone is how it feels to be around them right then. that's what it's like
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been thinking about life punctuation in writing, punctuation encodes a silence of a certain length, shortest is a space, then longer the comma, semicolon, colon, em dash, the period, the line break, the scene break, the chapter break, the back cover, the grave 1/3
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I've decided to offer a *mutually counterfactual* donation match on this! 💖 That is: If you donate $ that you would not otherwise have donated anywhere, reply with screenshot and I'll 1:1 match with money I likewise would've kept for personal spending (above my usual 10%/yr) ⭐️
Nathan 🔍 (@NathanpmYoung) profile pictureNathan 🔍
@NathanpmYoung12 Dec 2022
Christmas is a time of peace and gift giving. @xriskology and I are putting aside our differences to give to the poorest people in the world, via @GiveDirectly. Perhaps you'll join us. givingwhatwecan.org/fundrais…
Image from Nathan 🔍 (@NathanpmYoung)
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Replying to @s_r_constantin
this seems to suffer (as many things do) from the counterparty not having the skill of separating (1) validating that you are in fact having that experience, that it’s real for you and I see it, I register how bad it is and I care, and (2) I will give you anything you want
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uncatherio retweeted
Tristan (@CubeSmiling) profile picture
Tristan@CubeSmiling14 Oct 2022
Tried this on a redeye flight and it was great! Outperformed my previous favourite the trtl pillow, reducing neck pain/discomfort to near zero. Most on Amazon are too short, I measured my neck and got this one: a.co/d/3vbGsjx
uncatherio (@uncatherio) profile pictureuncatherio
@uncatherio2 Sep 2022
Replying to @mealreplacer @ferrishueller
not just a “pillow”: a medical foam neck brace (“cervical collar”)
Image from uncatherio (@uncatherio)
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Image from maiden mother crone (@maidmamacrone)
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Peter kept that flame alive. He still wore black. He was still an unapologetic weirdo even in the halls of power. He still went off on wild tangents that found him curious, in front of the machine, in the wee hours. He was a serious man who knew that life is about the unserious.
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exceptional vibes from the Female Farmer Project portraits. gives me a visual sense of a way I could be when I'm older - grounded, capable. just a few I particularly love: femalefarmerproject.org/gall…
Image from maiden mother crone (@maidmamacrone)
Image from maiden mother crone (@maidmamacrone)
Image from maiden mother crone (@maidmamacrone)
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uncatherio retweeted
🐈 (@a_yawning_cat) profile picture
🐈@a_yawning_cat1 Aug 2022
what most hoomans seek is a release from being a burden, to "lighten" themselves of a load on the soul this burden comes in 3 forms: the past, the present, and the future
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