Making Sense of Science, Tech, Money & Society

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• Successful scientific research is a journey with the final destination of a clearer understanding of the Science and the Universe.
• Bright thoughts cannot be forced out; one’s attempt to “churn out ever more science” is a wasteful game for all.
• Let’s agree: faking data is the last thing a scientist would do.
• Learning is a never-ending battle for a complete understanding; a school grade is an indicator of neither.
• Pain is always perceived with a larger bias–it is an existential signal not to miss. Yet, in any true research, ~90% of all attempts fail, and it is that 10% which will re-motivate one to embark on a new journey. But is there a contradiction?
• Never fully trust your instincts when it comes to science–they are tools of survival. Most discoveries are simply unintended, or they wouldn’t be called this way.
• Scientists who stopped learning are left with teaching. The paradox is that they try teaching others how to learn.
• 2 questions: is getting funding more important than making a scientific progress the funding is requested for? Then why are we striving more and more for the former?
• We write to publish, but who is the reader? AI? Still, better write less, but better.
• Scientific journals and funding agencies outsource the most important tasks–the quality control of one’s work and the decision making, the latter often boils down to reviewer’s voting ( number of yeas vs. nays). We, the authors, trust the process as if a) voting holds keys to science and b) editors are to delegate wisely. Any evidence of either?
• Citation indexes are mostly popularity indicators as they are silent on the scientific quality and importance of one’s work. I, instead, prefer time to be a judge.
• Scientists, and professionals, in attempt to explain concepts often resort to convoluted terminology, only at the end to cause more confusion.

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• Police is to discipline society, and learning is an attempt to discipline thinking.
• The primary motif of technological innovation is to increase productivity either with the help of new knowledge (drivers) or through the disruption of inefficiencies. Moore’s law is an example of the latter.
• Watch out: while AI is still learning how to learn, its goal is to know you.
• The Earth is awash with energy, but not all energy is  equal or useful.
• Information processing, self-assembly and even rewiring electrons during chemical reactions are tightly related to energy flows only to lead to Entropy increase, on a global scale. This is the agreement we forge with the Universe when we engineer systems.
• We are wired for a progress. Technology supplies “exponential” drivers. Try to resist.
• Classroom-based teaching is a cost-optimization strategy. Only a few are happy:  this is not how we have evolved as a species.
• With the deeper proliferation of computers, we might start losing our ability to socialize and speak. Brain readers is the next step ?
• On “single parameter metrics”: convenient to use?–Absolutely. But the cost of the consolidation is a loss of critical information. Just think about judging a picture based on the sum of the intensity of its pixels.

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• There is no learning in an inaction: it is better to try and fail than to fail to try.
• As “inclusion + exclusion=0” (a zero sum game) any social engineering striving for fairness but ignoring this fact is an unfair game in itself and likely with a net detrimental outcome.
• Looking at the fire, some might see a plasma, Sun energy that was finally liberated or electrons undergoing rewiring. Others would thank it for our existence. This is how diverse we are.
• Loyalty tends to pay less in return: we always value more what we don’t have.
• Money cannot be a purpose as it is a means. No point chasing it but always be careful with a debt.
• Money in the saving account can also be also a measure of one’s unrealized potential.
• Paper vs. digital currency: the digital one you cannot even see, but still, we trust in both, equally.
• Scarcity is to generate demand, even if it is just a string of digits. Bitcoin is a case in point.
• Don’t know what to invest in? Invest in yourself and you will rarely go wrong.
• A fiat currency is owned by a political system and for that reason it will always be short-lived.
• One thing is certain – the future is always uncertain. We just need to learn how to live with this fact. Trends can help.
• With no goals set, it is easy to become a victim of an ideology. Many have.
• As the world is never the same, one is to face the choice: to change or to be changed. The latter is as a rule more painful. Nevertheless, the majority will choose just that.
• Corporations are mini-societies, with their own culture, bi-laws, monitoring, investigating , and managing agents. To fit, you must comply with all the rules.