useful hands and a cheerful heart | @_torontosociety

Toronto
Joined October 2011
I'm giving a talk next Thursday. For anyone who came to the discussion a while back on tacit knowledge, in some ways this is a continuation of that conversation. An update on what I've been researching and thinking about in the interim. I would love to see you there.
Join us next Thursday for a new experimental series of Toronto Society Talks. An original thesis, rigorous questions, food, drinks and a party. The first talk is from @_benjaminparry Why Everyone Should Study Theology wygo.world/society-talks-1
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Benjamin Parry retweeted
America would be better off if everyone had a half-cooked theory about the economic life of their city.
Come for the writing, lifestyle content, tinned fish, and cooking… stay for the half-cooked commentary on the economic redevelopment of Philadelphia
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Cannot imagine a better opportunity for an apprenticeship in new media
I’m hiring a full time creative operator I made this video in 48 hours, I will teach you how Must enjoy talking to AI researchers and hollywood cinematographers. In-person 6 days a week in SF. Get equity in top companies. 5k referral bonus. Duties may include:
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This evening starting at 6:30pm at the Ambition office part of the Toronto Carpet Factory. Looking forward to starting the experiment.
Join us next Thursday for a new experimental series of Toronto Society Talks. An original thesis, rigorous questions, food, drinks and a party. The first talk is from @_benjaminparry Why Everyone Should Study Theology wygo.world/society-talks-1
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The plot thickens
Patient Zero: @Alex_Danco preaching The Magic Mountain on April 4, 2025
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Replying to @MarathonFusion
In 2025, we published a bold proposal to use fusion reactors for gold production. And now we’ve done it: Mercury transmuted into stable gold, using fusion neutrons, at 10x the record set by CERN in 2025. We’ve reduced alchemy to a series of difficult but tractable engineering problems.
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The first Toronto Society Talk is tomorrow. Sponsored by @ambitionlabsinc and hosted at their office in the Toronto Carpet Factory. The night will be phone-free starting at 6:30pm including the talk, Q&A, drinks, snacks, pizza, and conversation long into the evening. We hope to see you there to help us shape this new series.
Join us next Thursday for a new experimental series of Toronto Society Talks. An original thesis, rigorous questions, food, drinks and a party. The first talk is from @_benjaminparry Why Everyone Should Study Theology wygo.world/society-talks-1
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Slides are starting to come together. Excited to discuss with everyone this Thursday.
Join us next Thursday for a new experimental series of Toronto Society Talks. An original thesis, rigorous questions, food, drinks and a party. The first talk is from @_benjaminparry Why Everyone Should Study Theology wygo.world/society-talks-1
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Benjamin Parry retweeted
Time to start sharing: I'm working with an unbelievably talented team to build @cypress__labs
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Benjamin Parry retweeted
web design & brand refresh for @_torontosociety by me 🤍
A new home for the Toronto Society on the internet. Check it out at thetorontosociety.com
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A new home for the Toronto Society on the internet. Check it out at thetorontosociety.com
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Nathan Fielder is inverted kayfabe
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Join us next Thursday for a new experimental series of Toronto Society Talks. An original thesis, rigorous questions, food, drinks and a party. The first talk is from @_benjaminparry Why Everyone Should Study Theology wygo.world/society-talks-1
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Benjamin Parry retweeted
interpretability might be the most important scientific problem in the world right now, as I don't think we can solve alignment if we don't know what we're building. I think I have good news about it. I co-authored early work in mechanistic interpretability at OpenAI and came away pessimistic, because neural networks appeared to fold into arbitrary tangled knots. years later, I started openai's first large-scale automated interpretability project, finding about 2% of neurons legible with the primitive tools we had with modern agentic tools and a much closer look, the picture looks totally different. the vast majority in models up to trillions of parameters are legible, and their circuits beautiful. many famous examples of tangled neurons turned out to be misunderstood. The roadblocks I expected mostly aren't there. I now think ambitious interpretability will be solved by the time we need it most, and possibly quite soon, as automated scientists keep improving. it may be a bitter lesson for interpretability: the simple thing, at absurd scale, works already-clean.goodfire.com/
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But also look at this beauty
How can you not love these places
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Benjamin Parry retweeted
Great conference at @rootsinprogress this weekend, as has been true in '24 and '25. What works here: 1) Everyone is on board with "high-agency, high-progress, high-optimism", but conditional on that, huge differences in field of work, political preferences, country of origin. 1/4
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Clement is a true original
Clement Leung makes food videos as insta.noodls. He is an investigator and storyteller whose focus is uncovering dishes and cuisines worth trying. We started by cooking Shin Ramyun on the table, and he showed us his hack: crack two eggs into the leftover broth and microwave it. Clement walked us through how he started documenting food and why. Then we talked about Toronto, which Clement thinks might be the best food city in the world because it's the most diverse. We got into the economics of running a restaurant, how competitive it is to start one, and the food court stalls of Markham. Clement also reflected on the journey of documenting food, shared the stories he's picked up from getting closer with restaurant owners through his work, and told us what helping Mark Wiens taught him about what makes something legendary. The Other Stuff is hosted by internetVin, filmmaker and entrepreneur and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. Timestamps 00:00:00 Becoming the Ramen Guy 00:04:25 Cooking Shin Ramyun 00:23:30 Gong Zai Mein and Curry Cubes 00:31:28 Stitching Through the Noodle Era 00:42:16 Best Food City in the World 00:56:29 A Map Drawn by Immigration 01:10:00 The Plaza Is a Tournament 01:22:24 No Ratings, No Free Meals 01:30:40 One More Year, Then Mary Brown's 01:45:37 Bifana, Shawarma, and Knafeh 01:57:22 Mark Wiens 02:16:59 Mark's Legendary Toronto Crawl 02:38:09 China, Ten Years Ahead 02:47:46 Eating Through China 03:01:30 Respect the Dish
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How can you not love these places
North America’s Big Three skylines.
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This was great fun. Amazing to continue to watch @buildcanada go from strength to strength.
Building a brighter future for Toronto starts with showing up. 🙋 Thank you to everyone who joined us tonight at @ada_cx HQ to chat about the bold ideas that will build the Toronto of tomorrow. 💙
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Keep it simple, stupid
Jensen Huang has a message for the UK
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