Inside Out

Pixar’s Inside Out presents a simple, fun, and somewhat useful model of our brain and personality. 

I created this diagram that brings together the various concepts and their relations as described in the movie:

Popular posts from this blog

Elon's goals and answer to the most fundamental question

The most fundamental question to understand, IMO, is the existential one...What the heck is all this?! Why and how are we here? What are we supposed to do? Elon Musk is an incredibly smart guy - he has a track record of making things happen - both in the physical world (batteries, cars, rockets) and within human society (leading businesses, making money, acquiring a following). He's also a clear, first principles thinker and shares a lot about how he thinks about the world. So I think he can play a part in helping us understand life and the world*. So what is Elon's answer to the foundational question? Elon has two answers - one explicit and another implicit.   Elon recalls that at the age of 11 or 12, he had an existential crisis because he didn't understand why or how we are here. He concluded that we may never know but we may be able to find out if we expand the scope and scale of civilization and consciousness , and that's what he wants to do.  I like Elon's fra...
Continue reading »

Supabase and spotting opportunities

Supabase announced today that they raised $200M at a $2B valuation. They offer “Backend as a Service” or BaaS. Essentially, building blocks like auth, database, push notifications, etc. so that you can focus on developing the unique aspects of your app instead of all the standard and annoying scaffolding.  I used their competitor, Firebase, about 10 years ago to build a couple of side projects. I really needed what they offered, but it was painful to use because they only offered a document DB queryably with a clunky graphql.  That’s a perfect startup opportunity - a product that you really want to use and are willing to invest weeks of effort and money into, but has a major and fundamental flaw, that can be easily fixed by starting afresh. Somehow incumbents get stuck to their path and can't backtrack to solve the issue.  I clearly didn’t recognize or pursue that opportunity, but Supabase did and launched in 2020. Their pitch was literally “Firebase but with Postgres dat...
Continue reading »

You are the average of 5000 idiots on the Internet

They used to say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That was before the internet hijacked your attention span and filled your brain with digital sludge. Today, your closest companions aren’t friends, mentors, or thoughtful voices. They're algorithmically boosted, attention-seeking strangers yelling into the Internet void—clickbait journalists, TikTok dancers, Twitter thinkbois, clout-chasing grifters, promiscuous influencers, silly comedy Reelers, and conspiracy-peddling uncles in WhatsApp group chats. In short: idiots. And the worst part? They’re shaping you. Your brain—like an AI model—is plastic. Moldable. Continuously trained on whatever data you feed it. And right now, you’re feeding it junk. Doomscroll long enough and you’re not just consuming idiocy—you’re becoming it. Look at your feed. Really look. Out-of-context quotes. Shallow outrage. Celebrity gossip no one will remember in 48 hours. Fake experts selling fake solutions. Outrage bai...
Continue reading »