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Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

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Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#61

Post by chii »

yosito wrote: post #53
koheripbal wrote: post #10

I would like $100k to work on the Collatz conjecture for 6 months. I have an idea that will probably fail, but if I had that money I would quit my job work my ass off for six months to flesh it out. But I have no credentials, no way to write a grant proposal, and even I wouldn't invest in myself. ....and yet if we did this sort of experiment 10000 times over, humanity might make some big breakthroughs because some of…

> I would like $100k to work on the Collatz conjecture for 6 months > I have no credentials Then why would you need $100k to work on mathematics?

> why would you need $100k to work on mathematics?

it's to live off, and support dependents while doing something that would not bring in traditional forms of profit.

That's why it's usually called a grant, rather than an investment - because the granter isn't going to see a direct financial return (but would want to see a societal return such as knowledge or something cultural etc).

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#62

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

ok_dad wrote: post #33

I would love to work on open source, well designed, free software to control distributed energy resources and building load. Currently I've worked for several companies doing this, but I think that closed source, non free software will never allow us to truly reach the full electrification and decarbonization we need, and the power grid, both generation and transmission, is only getting more complex to manage with th…

"... (no add trolls please, it's just an example)."

What is an ad troll.

Is it like someone who believes advertising revenue "makes our modern world spin".^1

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29186326

That is interesting because advertising spend is probably one of the least certain investments. It's causal effectiveness online is difficult if not impossible to measure. It is like suggesting casino receipts are what make the modern world spin.

Adtech is, IMO, not a "major path to innovation". Unless one adopts a very narrow view of what innovation looks like.

It is wonderful to hear someone claim "I want to do X, but I have to do Y to feed my family", where X is "something important to the world" and Y is not.

However, if doing Y is diverting attention away from X, or possibly even causing harm, then maybe "not doing Y" is also "something important to the world".

No doubt people working for companies who were selling massive quantities of opioids were feeding their families, and arguably they were not violating any laws. Unfortunately, these criteria were not by themselves enough to stop them from doing harm.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#63

Post by porkbrain »

A searchable index of multidisciplinary projects and motivated people working on them is something I'd support financially. I was recently searching for such a community outside of academia to network withim my area of interest but failed to connect. This would be a good place to start.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#64

Post by koheripbal »

axelsvensson wrote: post #54
koheripbal wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have tried that, but people online don't really have an open mind. I'll tell you right now... I feel like there is a way to model the 3n+1 system of equations (or really any such generalized system) using Godel numbering as a representation of each operation, as a prime number based programming language of nature, and then try to glean something from the output primes to see if there is something that predicts the…

I feel like that would fail. The reason is that Gödel numbers are rather arbitrary, and will therefore be rather far from a form that insights can be gleaned from. They are a representation of a representation, using the fundamental theorem of arithmetic only as a trick to encode any string of symbols into one integer. As an example of just how arbitrary Gödel numbers are, consider the expressions `((3*n)+1)` and `((…

In your example, the Godel number works out to be the same when you multiply them out - but your underlying point is valid that the assignment of primes to variables and operators cannot be as arbitrary as Godel used them as.

...a better example is just "x 1". You could add that ad infinitum to any equation and it cannot change the meaning of the outputted Godel number. ...but remember that getting a different result does not mean the interpretation of the Godel number is different. For example, multiples of ten are also even. 64 and 9 are different numbers, but they are both perfect squares. ...and the goal is to find something descriptive of the resultant number - not the number itself.

...but that's one of the main areas to explore. There are different types of primes to experiment with to see if anything meaningful can be discovered.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#65

Post by nathancahill »

koheripbal wrote: post #58
yosito wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would like $100k to work on the Collatz conjecture for 6 months > I have no credentials Then why would you need $100k to work on mathematics?

I'm saying I have no formal credentials in Math specifically, not no professional credentials in any field. 100k for six months would be a pay cut for me, but maybe you're right... Maybe I'm being greedy at the opportunity to make a real contribution. At the end of the day I still need to feed/house a family of five so the 100k is still ballpark, but maybe I can set aside a few more than 6 months. 10? Not that it mat…

> Even I wouldn't fund me.

I mean, that's the heart of it right there. You're netting $200k+ but you wouldn't set aside six months expenses and take a sabbatical to work on your idea. So why would someone else?

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#66

Post by generalizations »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #62
ok_dad wrote: post #33

I would love to work on open source, well designed, free software to control distributed energy resources and building load. Currently I've worked for several companies doing this, but I think that closed source, non free software will never allow us to truly reach the full electrification and decarbonization we need, and the power grid, both generation and transmission, is only getting more complex to manage with th…

"... (no add trolls please, it's just an example)." What is an ad troll. Is it like someone who believes advertising revenue "makes our modern world spin".^1 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29186326 That is interesting because advertising spend is probably one of the least certain investments. It's causal effectiveness online is difficult if not impossible to measure. It is like suggesting casino receipts are…

> However, if doing Y is diverting attention away from X, or possibly even causing harm, then maybe "not doing Y" is also "something important to the world".

I think this kind of analysis discounts the importance of family. Maybe, "not doing Y" is less important than "keeping my family fed".

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#69

Post by greyface- »

nathancahill wrote: post #65
koheripbal wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying I have no formal credentials in Math specifically, not no professional credentials in any field. 100k for six months would be a pay cut for me, but maybe you're right... Maybe I'm being greedy at the opportunity to make a real contribution. At the end of the day I still need to feed/house a family of five so the 100k is still ballpark, but maybe I can set aside a few more than 6 months. 10? Not that it mat…

> Even I wouldn't fund me. I mean, that's the heart of it right there. You're netting $200k+ but you wouldn't set aside six months expenses and take a sabbatical to work on your idea. So why would someone else?

> So why would someone else?

Because different people have different marginal utilities of money. It's not implausible that there is someone (or a group of people) out there who is interested in seeing the Collatz conjecture proven, who places less value on the $100k than koheripbal does.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#70

Post by dnautics »

Curious what the structure of this is. Is this supposed to be many->one? Where many people with small amounts of $ get together and give one person a grant? One->many, where many people get small amounts of $ from one relatively wealthy person? Or many->many?
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