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by sdf2erf 128 days ago
" Karpathy did not spend a serious effort of learning to get a good understanding of people

This does not come from spending effort in learning people - its more innate. You either have it or you dont. E.g. you cant learn to be 'empathetic'.

It always boggles my mind when people dont consider genetic factors.
5 comments
autoexec 128 days ago
> you cant learn to be 'empathetic'.

I know it was just an example, but there's research suggesting otherwise. There are things you can do to increase/decrease empathy in yourself and others. If you're curious, it might be worth looking into the subject.

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hnfong 128 days ago
There is the autistic spectrum, and there is understanding of people and psychology. Autistic people might have a hard time understanding people, but it's not like everyone else is magically super knowledgable about human psychology and other people's thought patterns. If that were the case, then any non-autistic person could be a psychologist, no fancy study or degrees required!

Unless your point is to claim that Karpathy is autistic. I don't know whether that's really relevant though, the original issue was whether/how he failed to recognize the alleged hype.

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pluralmonad 128 days ago
You are what you do. If you want to develop your empathy, spend time/energy consciously trying to put yourself in the shoes of others. Eventually, you will not have to apply so much deliberate effort. Same way most things work.
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bwfan123 128 days ago
> you cant learn to be 'empathetic'.

I would tend to disagree. The tech types have a strong intellectual center, but weaker emotional and movement centers. I think a realignment is possible with practice. It takes time, and as one grows older, the centers begin to integrate better.

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aleph_minus_one 128 days ago
Being empathic is different from "understanding people".

Psychopaths and narcissists often have a good understanding of many people, which they use to manipulate them, but psychopaths and narcissists are not what most people would call "empathic".

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sdf2erf 128 days ago
They dont understand people. They understand how to control people, which is completely different from the context of building products that people want - which requires an understanding of peoples tastes and preferences.
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aleph_minus_one 128 days ago
> which is completely different from the context of building products that people want - which requires an understanding of peoples tastes and preferences.

Rather: it requires an understanding how to manipulate people into loving/wanting your product.

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