Vasili Shynkarenka

Why working on Sundays feels different

I love how quiet and peaceful Sundays are. It could be because the construction site nearby is off on Sundays, but I think there’s more to it. There’s this unique state of ultra-calm and curious mind that I enter on Sundays that I just can’t access on

Don’t dismiss GPT-3/Stable Diffusion use cases if they don’t work right away

Over the past two years, I’ve seen the following happen at least a hundred times: A person has an idea how to use one of the foundation models. Say, Stable Diffusion to generate 2D avatars for a mobile game. They open one of the tools, try creating an image

Thoughts on Stable Diffusion 2

Models-turtles, retraining hurdles, and step towards ClosedAI.

Living your own biography

When I have a big decision to make, I ask myself: If someone wrote my biography one day, which option would I want to see in it?

Obvious advice on focused work

Why bother about stevia and skimmed milk in your coffee if all your meals come from McDonald’s?

Morning thinking practice

A daily thinking practice that has made a tremendous impact on my life in the past 2.5y.

The Ferrari problem

Don’t push the pedal to the metal on problems that don’t matter.

Reflections on Franklin’s autobiography

My thoughts on how to improve my life, inspired by Franklin’s autobiography. Should be valuable for anyone seeking self-improvement.

Thinking with my fingers

A simple yet effective thinking technique I’ve invented. Works by assigning ideas to fingers and holding them in working memory.

Learn words as concepts

To learn a word, reconstruct the concept it denotes and mentally compose a sentence that refers to self.

How to turn $2 million into $2 trillion, by Charlie Munger

“The company that needs a new machine tool, and hasn’t bought it, is already paying for it.”

8 questions for writing

The secret to good writing, as to any kind of knowledge work, is deliberate planning.

Good morning, bad morning

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” – William H. McRaven

Hacking Hacker News frontpage with GPT-3

In three weeks, I got to the front page five times, received 1054 upvotes, and had 37k people come to my site.

The psychology of learning to code

Build a habit of learning, find what you’re obsessed with, and crawl your way through The Suck.

The art of oatmeal

Instead of following your small set of passions, try to broaden them a little bit first.

Featured

How to remember what you learn

Make it time-based, apply metacognition & active recall, and learn what you’re curious about.

A letter to my future kids

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today because today is the first day of the rest of our life.

Featured

How to take meeting notes

How I trained myself to remember 95% of a 2h meeting.

Telling the good stuff you know

The act of discovery was not complete for him until he had taught it to someone else.

The writing matrix

How to transform a vague idea into a structured outline in less than 10 minutes.

Thinking backwards

The best way to think through problems is to begin from the end, from what you wanna get as a result. To start from the finish.

How to type 3x faster

How I’ve built a tool that increased my typing speed 3x, changed how I plan projects, and helped me develop a growth mindset.

Writing as a tool for thought

What would happen if our writing means were 3x slower?

Two-minute rule

A simple habit that keeps your next actions list short, prevents cognitive load, and improves decision-making skills.