Ian Leslie
@mrianleslie
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Author of 'John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs'. Available now: https://t.co/GnlOMpOLvu
London
Joined April 2007
Manifesto for moderates: - Stand up for incremental improvement! - Fight for the least bad option! - Sometimes the other guys have a point!
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We think the Net Zero 2050 target must remain firm. But the Clean Power 2030 mission should go. This isn’t incoherent — it’s realistic. Cheaper Power is how we make Net Zero feasible.
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Great bit from @mrianleslie on what AI amplifies in human behaviour. Ask an LLM to pick a number between 1 & 10 and it will likely choose 7 - like us. Psychology behind it reminds me of @fbinegotiator's tip to quote very exact numbers in negotiations. $4,321 sounds like
ian-leslie.com
When Randomness Isn't Random
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The answer tells us a surprising about about LLMs, human psychology, and the future of culture
ian-leslie.com
When Randomness Isn't Random
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Midweek Ruffian: why do LLMs nearly always pick the number 7 when asked to name a random number?
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I’ve been thinking about this David Foster Wallace quote more and more recently “The technology is just gonna get better and better and better and better. And it's gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable to be alone with images
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If you’re paying influencers but not tracking CPMs, you’re flying blind. $40 CPM = solid. $20 CPM = elite. $10 CPM = you’ve hacked the matrix.
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Better than that, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini all gave me 7-3-9.
Midweek Ruffian: why do LLMs nearly always pick the number 7 when asked to name a random number?
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@mrianleslie When asking for a *uniform* random number between 1 and 10, GPT gave me 7. When asked to pick again, it gave me 3, then 9, then 2, then 6. I opened another chat with the same questions (but in a different language). And GPT picked again 7,3,9,2,6 in the same order!
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Quite interesting that a British missile, said to require American technical assistance, was used to strike Russia the day the big Budapest summit fell apart.
The Ukrainian General Staff confirms this evening's cruise missile attack on targets within Russia, which included the use of Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles. "A massive combined missile and air strike was carried out, including the use of air-launched Storm Shadow
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The answer tells us a surprising about about LLMs, human psychology, and the future of culture
ian-leslie.com
When Randomness Isn't Random
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Midweek Ruffian: why do LLMs nearly always pick the number 7 when asked to name a random number?
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For those who don’t know the difference between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Louis Theroux’s documentary last year on the West Bank settlers was legitimate and pretty accurate criticism of Israel. The same Louis Theroux on this podcast is spouting antisemitism
It’s only recently that Louis Theroux made a documentary about Israel for the BBC. He’s not neutral - this may not surprise you. Now he’s done a podcast with ‘death to the IDF’ Bob Vylan singer ‘Bobby Villain’ where the two men are largely in agreement about the evil of Israel
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👇I have heard this in almost every investor meeting for three years amongst those who want to inject capital into the UK economy. There is no “primary mission of growth” whilst energy policy is widely seen as dysfunctional.
In my first meeting with Prime Minister Starmer, we discussed how the United Kingdom could attract more foreign direct investment from the United States. My response was simple: lower your energy costs. Read my op-ed in the @Telegraph about how the UK can secure affordable,
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Memorisation went from being overrated to very underrated
I increasingly believe that rote memorization of major geographic features like US states, major rivers, countries, etc. needs to return in full force. Should be treated like memorizing times tables. Basic building blocks for understanding the country and the world.
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The conservatism of 'Let's be more like France and Italy'
Robert Jenrick becomes the first Tory shadow cabinet member to call for a burqa ban He says: "I probably would ban the burqa. "There are basic values in this country and we should stand up and defend them." Follows moves by Giorgia Meloni's party in Italy
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Genuinely amazed that British institutions are still doing this. Like they're stuck in some eternal 2021. And yes, if you want feed Reform, this is how to do it.
I've written to the Governor of the Bank of England about their 'Black Future Leaders Sponsorship Programme' which specifically bans white people from applying. This racist filth must be removed, and replaced with a scheme that is open to all - including white boys and girls.
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One has to have an absurdly Israel-centric, Jewish-centric, ahistorical world view to think that Israel is somehow the pathfinder for ethnonationalism.
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