The Browser - Tokyo Bayes

10 Observations About Tokyo

Quico Toro | Persuasion | 19th February 2025

American resident in Tokyo reflects on the city's norms. Interesting throughout. Unlike elsewhere, a polite and formal manner projects warmth, rather than frosty reserve. The more casual affect commonly used with strangers can seem aggressive to the unfamiliar. Most important is the prosocial consensus, which ensures that every interaction has a clear script and set of expectations (1,500 words)

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Bayes Is Not A Phase

Dynomight | 27th February 2025

In defence of Bayesian reasoning. There is a good explanation here of this method of statistical inference popular with certain segments of the "techie" population. Far from being a "hipster fad", this combination of aleatoric uncertainty and epistemic uncertainty is very useful for optimising decisions. Unfortunately, building a trustworthy formal model takes far too long for real life (2,200 words)

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