Ankur Singh @ankurbye

Philosophy, Psychology & Politics - My eclectic enthusiasms curated here. Joined November 2014

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

4 months ago

young people (including me!) tend to care a lot about ironing out their weakness while the optimal strategy is to always double down on what you're uniquely gifted at. you should do things where you have a polished edge, outsource those where you don't.

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

4 months ago

Argentina did not simply adapt to Messi — they evolved around him. It is perhaps the greatest difference between football’s two defining figures of the modern era.

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

4 months ago

Portugal’s struggles in major tournaments between 2022 and 2024 were never solely about results. The period exposed a side that often looked tactically uncertain, emotionally disconnected, and divided over the role of Ronaldo.

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Paras Chopra @paraschopra

8 months ago

What a phenomenal #book! The author goes into excruciating detail on how language could have evolved. The first half of the book is dedicated to how our folk intuitions about language evolution are wrong. Consider animal calls. They’re often just about here-and-now to communicate something very specific. Like a predator is around, or you’re available for mating and so on. No other species have the language capacity that we have because it’s very hard to go from here-and-now to abstract concepts. With words, however, we are able to communicate something abstract that isn’t tied to the here-and-now (like the concept of lion instead of any specific lion or the concept of flood). The author’s theory is that our hominid ancestors were scavengers, using simple stone tools to cut through the thick hide of big animals like elephants. To do this successfully, they needed to recruit other hominids so that their large numbers repel other scavengers like tigers, hyenas, etc. This recruitment need meant they started to pantomime/mimic what specific animal dead body they would have found (at a distance). From this desire to recruit, first proto words emerged that were distinct from animal calls because these referred to something that was displaced from immediate context, gradually kickstarting human ability to think about past and future via concepts (something animals lack). I learned so many things from this book. For example, ants also recruit their fellow ants in a very similar way to how our ancestors may have done. It’s just that our bigger brains really took first proto words to another level as we could co-operate and plan much better using language. The intriguing subtext in the book is that before language we couldn’t think of complicated thoughts and like other animals we were trapped forever in the here-and-now. Language gave us (abstract) concepts and gradually unlocked our cognitive abilities. I find this super fascinating given how language drives LLM intelligence. This is an amazing book, full of juice on our ancestors and new insights on evolution! Strongly, strongly recommend!

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

11 months ago

11. Learn how to express : It can just be your superpower. Invest in people, courses, books, writing. I was fortunate to have a family, friends and mentors who taught me this. If you’re in your 20s learn it.

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

11 months ago

10. Look out for your people, ask them if they are okay - not everybody is lucky.

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Ankur Singh @ankurbye

11 months ago

Never in my life I had thought that I’d be at such crossroads with my life. I’ll be turning 24 next week, and at times it feels like I haven’t achieved anything remarkable yet. But when I look back, I realize I’m standing in a place my 18-year-old self once dreamed of. God has been gracious and I’m nothing but grateful. Here are 11 pieces of advice I’ve gathered along the way: