Krzysztof Szafranek

Today I switched to Brave as my new default browser. I started using Mozilla Suite in 2002, then moved to Firebird, now known as Firefox. I converted people to use it, blogged about it, and contributed to Bugzilla, so recent policy changes really feel like a heartbreak.

This overnight success has been decades in the making, but the last few days feel like a watershed moment for the global balance of power. In one week, the US announced a half-trillion-dollar investment in AI, only for a tiny Chinese startup to erase more than that from NASDAQ.

1. LLMs are just tools, like programming languages or frameworks. They can solve a wide array of problems but not all of them. It's more helpful to think about what I can use them for rather than complaining about things they can't do.

2. LLMs are lossy compression artifacts of human knowledge. A small local LLM can still be useful, e.g. as an offline, low-fidelity copy of the internet.

In the years I spent on The Other App, New Year's Eve has been a moment for me to look back at the books I finished in the last 12 months. Here is my list for 2024:

Głupie ptaki polski by Marek Maruszczak. I'm a bird photographer and originally from Poland, so it was an obvious gift idea for me. The sarcastic and profane tone of the book didn't click with me, but it gave me a few laughs and is beautifully illustrated. www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

In the years I spent on The Other App, New Year's Eve has been a moment for me to look back at the books I finished in the last 12 months. Here is my list for 2024:

All Tomorrows by C.M. Kösemen. It could easily be classified as science-fiction creepypasta and a guilty pleasure. That's fine. It was mesmerizing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Tom...

In the years I spent on The Other App, New Year's Eve has been a moment for me to look back at the books I finished in the last 12 months. Here is my list for 2024:

The Idiot by F. Dostoevsky. I read it after hearing Lex Fridman praising it as one of his favorites. No book by Dostoevsky has been a disappointment and this one got me to listen to H. Dreyfus' lectures on Brothers Karamazov. www.goodreads.com/book/show/12... www.youtube.com/watch?v=usxv...

In the years I spent on The Other App, New Year's Eve has been a moment for me to look back at the books I finished in the last 12 months. Here is my list for 2024:

So I just did that and ChatGPT all of the sudden turned into a therapist with a set of thoughtful follow-up questions. Despite its warmth, I couldn't shake off the feeling that it's a commercial product eliciting personal responses for the benefit of its corporate overlords, but...

...I do really want from Santa a local, powerful, highly personalized model that can play this role. A model that that becomes better with each conversation, knows me, my story and quirks, so it can provide personal insights.