We're stuck on a local maxima of software.
We're stuck on a local maxima of software. The software isn't very good, it's not aligned with our interests, and the amount of the software is a tiny fraction o...
Topic: stuck
151 mentions · 37 chunks · 32 episodes
25.1× distinctiveness vs baseline
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How much more common this term is here than in ordinary English. Higher values mean the topic is more characteristic of this corpus.
2.2x burst in 2025 Q3
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Peak quarter intensity across the topic's active span. Higher values mean attention was concentrated into a shorter stretch rather than spread evenly over time.
Topic summary
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A short read on the topic's time range, peak episode, and strongest associations. Use it as the quick orientation before drilling into examples.
- stuck appears in 37 chunks across 32 episodes, from 2024-05-06 to 2026-08-03.
- Its densest episode is Bits and Bobs 2/18/25 (2025-02-18), with 2 observations on this topic.
- Semantically it travels with local maxima, react, and principal agent, while by chunk count it sits between wild west and Radagast; its yearly rank moved from #113 in 2024 to #43 in 2026.
Over time
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Raw mentions over time. Use this to see absolute attention, not relative rank among all topics.
Observations
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The primary evidence view for this topic. Sort it chronologically when you want concrete examples behind the larger pattern.
Beware climbing the foothill.
...ill in front of the main one. You're climbing a smaller hill that you could get stuck on. Once you've climbed it, the only way to make progress is to go downhill… something very hard for an organization to do. You're moving in the righ...
You can't hill-climb your way to a good architecture.
...your way to a good architecture. If you only do fast 1-ply thinking, you'll get stuck in local-maxima with no good exits. The two major labs have inherited a culture that puts extreme focus on short-term execution over medium-term clar...
Docs, spreadsheets, email, and calendar are all stuck in how businesses processes worked in the 80s.
Docs, spreadsheets, email, and calendar are all stuck in how businesses processes worked in the 80s. Not personal needs, and not modern.
Use the "reform" moment to move into pioneer mode.
...e forward looking, not backward looking. If you're backward looking, you'll get stuck in an infinite reform loop.
Zero based thinking helps you not get stuck in your confirmation bias.
Zero based thinking helps you not get stuck in your confirmation bias. Otherwise, that bias is an asymmetry that keeps doing what you were doing, all else equal. Zero-based thinking helps you n...
Idealists can sometimes get stuck in a cycle where they don't improve.
Idealists can sometimes get stuck in a cycle where they don't improve. In contrast, people who are not missionaries but mercenaries need to get good at their skill to be marketable. I...
If you ship too fast you get stuck in a niche.
If you ship too fast you get stuck in a niche.
Some actions help in the short term but harm in the long term.
... in a long-term hole. You moved fast, you solved problems… and you got yourself stuck in a deep hole.
When you're stuck in a relentlessly dull world, you don't even realize it's dull.
When you're stuck in a relentlessly dull world, you don't even realize it's dull. Everything is gray. Nothing stands out. So you don't even realize anything could stan...
When you're stuck with something for life, you don't just give up as easily.
When you're stuck with something for life, you don't just give up as easily. Especially if there are a finite set of options so the opportunity cost is high. You push ...
You aren't stuck in traffic, you are traffic.
You aren't stuck in traffic, you are traffic. When you use an aggregator, you're lending your energy to a thing you don't think is good for society.
One way to not get stuck in fast-twitch information streams: get your news from newspapers.
One way to not get stuck in fast-twitch information streams: get your news from newspapers. A day after it happens, not as-it-happens. That gives some time for synthesis and ...
AI is healthier when there's no "face."
... face, everyone will treat it like a human even if they shouldn't. This can get stuck in various bad outcomes. With AI-as-software, no one thinks it's human, because there's no face. Once you give the LLM a name, you're already stuck.
If you don't think that other humans are ends in and of themselves, then you can get stuck in some dangerously antisocial beliefs.
...u don't think that other humans are ends in and of themselves, then you can get stuck in some dangerously antisocial beliefs. For example: "Techno Feudalism is inevitable so we should lock down megaphones so the plebes can't complain."...
LLMs started with one snapshot of society.
... have this self-replicating technology? We're never getting rid of React! We're stuck for it for all time now. Apparently alphabets stopped morphing when dictionaries were published.
Vibecoding can lay down code but not do self-directed refactoring well.
...t do self-directed refactoring[df][dg] well. What structure you lay down you're stuck with. So each layer you lay down, you have to make sure it is good to accrete on top of.[dh] Very hard to evolve and fix later.
Meta thinkers who are curious could get stuck in the sycosocial hall of mirrors more easily than others.
Meta thinkers who are curious could get stuck in the sycosocial hall of mirrors more easily than others. I randomly came across a Claude artifact produced by someone about multiple levels of emer...
Tying models to UX from that model provider is dangerous.
...rous. If the models are tied to the UX from the vertical integration, users get stuck to a single model. That requires that one model to be "perfect," which is impossible and dangerous to shoot for. But if you can swap models, then fin...
If you think someone you care about is stuck in a sycosocial relationship, send them this guide from Less Wrong: "So You Think You've Awoken ChatGPT"
If you think someone you care about is stuck in a sycosocial relationship, send them this guide from Less Wrong: "So You Think You've Awoken ChatGPT"