GODEL is a large-scale pre-trained model for goal-directed dialogs. It is parameterized with a Transformer-based encoder-decoder model and trained for response generation grounded in external text, which allows more effective fine-tuning on dialog tasks that require conditioning the response on information that is external to the current conversation (e.g., a retrieved document). The pre-trained model can be efficiently fine-tuned and adapted to accomplish a new dialog task with a handful of task-specific dialogs. This repository is based on Huggingface Transformers... (Update 10/23/2022) We have released GODEL V1.1, which is trained on 551M multi-turn dialogs from Reddit discussion thread, and 5M instruction and knowledge grounded dialogs. It has shown significantly better results on our benchmark, especially in the zero-shot setting. https://github.com/microsoft/GODEL (chatbot) (built in Python)

LGBT is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender." In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for certain sexualities and gender identities.[1] The LGBT term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which began to replace the term gay (or gay and lesbian) in reference to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s.[2] When not inclusive of transgender people, the shorter term LGB is still used instead of LGBT.[3][4] It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.[5] To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.[6] The initialisms LGBT or GLBT are not agreed to by everyone that they are supposed to include. (also LGBTQIA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks that seeks to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1] These three notions (diversity, equity and inclusion) together represent "three closely linked values" which organizations seek to institutionalize through DEI frameworks.[2] Some frameworks, primarily in Britain, substitute the notion of "equity" with equality: equality, diversity, inclusion (EDI).[3][4][5] Other variations include diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB),[6][7][8] justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI or EDIJ),[9][10] or diversity, equity, inclusion and access (IDEA or DEAI). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity,_equity,_and_inclusion

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (/ˈɡɜːrdʒiɛf/; Russian: Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, tr. Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, IPA: [ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf]; c. 1866–1877 – 29 October 1949)[2] was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, born in Gyumri, Armenia (then Alexandropol, Russian Empire).[3] Gurdjieff taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential. Gurdjieff described a method attempting to do so, calling the discipline "The Work"[4] (connoting "work on oneself") or "the System".[5] According to his principles and instructions,[6] Gurdjieff's method for awakening one's consciousness unites the methods of the fakir, monk and yogi, and thus his student P. D. Ouspensky referred to it as the "Fourth Way". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff (more)

Sufism (Arabic: ٱلصُّوفِيَّة), also known as Tasawwuf[1] (ٱلتَّصَوُّف), is a mystic body of religious practice within Islam characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism... it is precisely because it is historically proven that "many of the most eminent defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, such as Abdul-Qadir Gilani, Ghazali, and the Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn (Saladin) were connected with Sufism"[74] that the popular studies of writers like Idries Shah are continuously disregarded by scholars as conveying the fallacious image that "Sufism" is somehow distinct from "Islam." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism (note "dervish") (more)

The Reagan era or Age of Reagan is a periodization of recent American history used by historians and political observers to emphasize that the conservative "Reagan Revolution" led by President Ronald Reagan in domestic and foreign policy had a lasting impact. It overlaps with what political scientists call the Sixth Party System. Definitions of the Reagan era universally include the 1980s, while more extensive definitions may also include the late 1970s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and even the 2020s. In his 2008 book, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008, historian and journalist Sean Wilentz argues that Reagan dominated this stretch of American history in the same way that Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal legacy dominated the four decades that preceded it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_era (more)

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909[1] – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force major general who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Despite his loss of the 1964 U.S. presidential election in a landslide, many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics, which helped to bring about the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the American libertarian movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

The Loophole That Made Cars in America So Big. Few trends have been worse for the environment than the dramatic growth of the SUV market in recent decades. (more)

How a school board race in the blue state of Illinois became a nationally funded cage match. BARRINGTON, Il — This leafy, affluent village outside Chicago is known for its suburban amenities. (more)

You Have No Idea How Much Better You Can Feel. We have to periodically mess with our status quo. To shake up the snow globe. If someone says some new way of living changed their life, just try it. See what happens. (intervention roulette) (more)

Gardening Your Multi-Stakeholder/Single-Dev-Team Product Process - a special case of Gardening Your Product Process. Relevant to me in 2023. Relevant to many start-ups.

John Cutler: The Basics. I’m not a process freak, but I do believe teams should have their house in order. You can get by with very little process overhead. (This reminds me of the "Joel Test" checklist from Joel Spolsky.) (more)

http://www.joelonsoftware.com (more)

Org Writing Practices of keeping many documents down to 1 page in length, to (more)

Practice of driving a Product Team via the Feedback of a single metric. (more)

Paying Attention (focus) (and investing hard Resources) to the Most Important Thing or BottleNeck. Ideally to get Compounding results. (more)

I have an occasional need/desire for making/viewing a graph in 3D - not fake-3D-chartjunk, but 3 actual dimensions (ideally with the ability to rotate my view). (more)

Benjamin H. Bratton (born 1968) is an American sociologist, architectural and design theorist, known for a mix of philosophical and aesthetic research, organizational planning and strategy, and for his writing on the cultural implications of computing and globalization.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] He is currently Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego and Director of The Center for Design and Geopolitics think-tank at Calit2, The California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_H._Bratton (more)

In political and social theory, accelerationism is the idea that either the prevailing system of Capitalism, or certain technosocial processes that have historically characterised it, should be expanded, repurposed, or accelerated in order to generate radical social change... Accelerationist theory has been divided into mutually contradictory Left-wing and Right-wing variants..."Left-accelerationism" attempts to press "the process of technological evolution" beyond the constrictive horizon of capitalism, for example by repurposing modern technology for socially beneficial and emancipatory ends; "right-accelerationism" supports the indefinite intensification of Capitalism itself, possibly in order to bring about a technological Singularity... Prominent theorists include right-accelerationist Nick Land. The Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), an unofficial research unit at the University of Warwick from 1995–2003, of which Land was a member, is considered a key progenitor in both left- and right-accelerationist thought. Prominent contemporary left-accelerationists include Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, authors of the "Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics"... Focusing on how information technology infrastructures undermine modern political geographies, and proposing an open-ended "design brief", Benjamin H. Bratton's book The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty is associated with accelerationism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism (more)

In The Stack, Benjamin H Bratton proposes that these different genres of computation—smart grids, cloud platforms, mobile apps, smart cities, the Internet of Things, automation—can be seen not as so many species evolving on their own, but as forming a coherent whole: an accidental megastructure called The Stack that is both a computational apparatus and a new governing architecture. We are inside The Stack and it is inside of us. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/stack (more)