LessWrong posts by zvi

It's that time. It's been a hell of a year. At the start we barely had reasoning models. Now we have Claude Code and Opus 4.5. I don’t code. Yet now I cause code to exist whenever something about a website annoys me, or when I get that programmer's realization that there's something I am planning on doing at least three times. Because why not? The progress has simultaneously been mind bogglingly impressive and fast. But a lot of people don’t see it that way, because progress has been incremental, and because we were reasonably expecting to often get even more than this. The public conversation and debate, even more than before, was full of false narratives and active attempts to make the situation worse. The same goes for attempts to shape Federal policy towards AI, and OpenAI's conversion into a for-profit. It's been, as they say, one battle after another, with many wins, many setbacks and a lot of things in between. This includes the key developments in AI, and also other blog posts from the year that I consider memorable looking back. This is only our corner of the world's [...] ---Outline:(01:26) January(03:50) February(06:58) March(08:15) April(09:24) May(11:06) June(12:02) July(13:04) August(15:23) September(15:50) October(18:39) November(20:12) December(21:39) Questions For Next Season --- First published: December 31st, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2hFiaDmYr3KuuWNDS/2025-year-in-review --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Ultimately, it comes down to one question. Are you in? For you, and for them. You’re Single Because They Got The Ick The Ick, the ultimate red flag, makes perfect sense and is all about likelihood ratios. Koenfucius: The ‘ick’ is a colloquial term for a feeling of disgust triggered by a specific—typically trivial—behaviour from a romantic partner, often leading to the relationship's demise. New research explores why some are more prone to getting it than others. Robin Hanson: “Women also experienced the ick more frequently, with 75% having had the ick compared to 57% of men … Those with a higher tendency for disgust … [&] grandiose narcissism was linked to stronger ick reactions, as was holding partners to exceptionally high standards.” Paul Graham: About 30% of Seinfeld episodes were about this. One gets The Ick because a small act is evidence of one's general nature. The right type of person would never do [X], ideally never want to do [X], and at minimum would have learned not to do [X]. Often this is because they would know this is indicative of attribute [Y]. Indeed, if they should be aware that [X] [...] ---Outline:(00:18) You're Single Because They Got The Ick(02:53) You Are Still Single Because You Are Inventing Red Flags(05:10) You're Still Single Because You Demand The Same Generic Things(06:51) You're Single Because Everyone Is Too Picky(08:46) You're Single And They Will Never Tell You Why(10:19) You're Single Because You Won't Tell Them The Problem(12:12) You're Not Single But The Clock Is Ticking(13:21) You're Single Because of Your Bodycount(15:11) You're Single Because You Failed To Read The Signs --- First published: December 30th, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hhPbovwRWem4fvwr/dating-roundup-9-signals-and-selection --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Here's to everyone having a great 2026 in all ways, so I figured what better way to end the year than with a little practical advice. Like everything else, dating is a skill. Practice makes perfect. It helps to combine it with outside analysis, to help you on your quest to Just Do Things. You’re Single Because You Lack Reps A common theme in these roundups is that the best thing you can do as a young man, to get better at dating and set yourself up for success, is to get out there and engage in deliberate practice. Cartoons Hate Her: Today I wrote about some of the worst dating advice that young men get. Namely, the advice to delay dating or relationships until they’ve “built themselves,” usually into their 30s. Getting dating experience- even when it clearly doesn’t matter- builds social skills and confidence. It's not something you want to deliberately defer. Dating *is* working on yourself. Zac Hill: Hard true and also generally applicable. Niko Canner told me a variant of this when I was about to work at Bridgewater to ‘acquire skills’: “what job are you acquiring skills for?” [...] ---Outline:(00:30) You're Single Because You Lack Reps(03:00) You're Single And Didn't Even Shoot Your Shot(04:34) You're Single Because You Didn't Ask To Hold Her Hand(07:56) You're Single Because You're Afraid People Will Mock You Online(13:19) You're Single Because You Didn't Confirm Your Date(19:06) You're Single Because You Didn't Have Your Big Moment At The Prom(20:51) You're Single Because Board Games Came Between You(22:26) You're Single Because You Can't Dance(23:11) You're Single And Should Try Punching(24:03) You're Single Because You Don't Send Out Receptive Energy(25:55) You're Single Because You're A Depressed Comedian(26:46) You're Single Because You Didn't Hand It To Her(27:28) You're Single And Need The Right Reward Function(28:11) You're Single So Focus On The Basics(29:48) You're Not Single Anymore(31:11) You're Single Because You Don't Just Do Things --- First published: December 29th, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fvFgpvyKwRKqjtfiz/dating-roundup-8-tactics --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

The Revolution of Rising Requirements has many elements. The most onerous are the supervisory requirements on children. They have become, as Kelsey Piper recently documented, completely, utterly insane, to the point where: A third of people, both parents and non-parents, responded in a survey that it is not appropriate to leave a 13 year old at home for an hour or two, as opposed to when we used to be 11 year olds babysitting for other neighborhood kids. A third of people said in that same survey that if a 10-year-old is allowed to play alone in the park, there needs to be an investigation by CPS. Whereas I think that if you don’t allow your 10-year-old to play alone in a park, that is a much better (although still quite bad) potential reason for a CPS investigation. This is not an idle threat, per the common statistic that around 35% of American families get investigated by CPS. Even if you are confident that will ultimately turn out fine, and given the vagaries and insanities one can never fully be sure, the process is already the punishment. As Kelsey Piper says [...] ---Outline:(01:47) We Don't Let Kids Be Kids(03:42) Let Your Children Play(05:36) The Algorithm of Fear(07:33) The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself(11:48) No Means No(14:20) Child Abduction Is Either Custody Disputes Or Government Intervention(17:29) Stranger Danger Danger(20:39) The Before Times(21:33) Could It Be... Murder?(22:30) The Long Road Home(22:47) Either Bored Or Happy(23:53) All Eyes on Me(27:03) Screens From The Past(28:50) Medicalization(31:02) Television(32:14) Suspiciously Large Effect Size --- First published: December 26th, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dkbE54ESRBW69P3cY/childhood-and-education-16-letting-kids-be-kids --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Claude Opus 4.5 did so well on the METR task length graph they’re going to need longer tasks, and we still haven’t scored Gemini 3 Pro or GPT-5.2-Codex. Oh, also there's a GPT-5.2-Codex. At week's end we did finally get at least a little of a Christmas break. It was nice. Also nice was that New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the RAISE Act, giving New York its own version of SB 53. The final version was not what we were hoping it would be, but it still is helpful on the margin. Various people gave their 2026 predictions. Let's put it this way: Buckle up. Table of Contents Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. AI suggests doing the minimum. Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Gemini 3 doesn’t believe in itself. Huh, Upgrades. ChatGPT gets some personality knobs to turn. On Your Marks. PostTrainBench shows AIs below human baseline but improving. Claude Opus 4.5 Joins The METR Graph. Expectations were exceeded. Sufficiently Advanced Intelligence. You’re good enough, you’re smart enough. Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. Don’t worry, the UK PM's got this. Fun With Media Generation. Slop [...] ---Outline:(00:53) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(02:15) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility(02:55) Huh, Upgrades(03:21) On Your Marks(05:15) Claude Opus 4.5 Joins The METR Graph(12:41) Sufficiently Advanced Intelligence(15:09) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(18:12) Fun With Media Generation(22:33) You Drive Me Crazy(25:29) They Took Our Jobs(28:45) The Art of the Jailbreak(28:56) Get Involved(29:12) Introducing(32:24) In Other AI News(33:46) Show Me the Money(34:44) Quiet Speculations(38:59) Whistling In The Dark(40:27) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble(42:20) Americans Really Dislike AI(48:30) The Quest for Sane Regulations(52:32) Chip City(55:55) The Week in Audio(56:45) Rhetorical Innovation(01:00:53) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(01:02:58) Mom, Owain Evans Is Turning The Models Evil Again(01:06:10) Messages From Janusworld(01:15:22) The Lighter Side --- First published: December 25th, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GHW2rhYtnYgEn3tuq/ai-148-christmas-break --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.