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Ethan Mollick Profile picture
@emollick
Sep 14, 2020 • 8 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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Tesla gets a lot of credit today, but this paper shows Edison mastered the psychology of new technology. To get people to use scary electricity he made it feel the same as the gas they knew. Gas lights gave off light equal to a 12 watt 💡 so Edison limited his 💡 to 13 watts. 1/5 ImageImage
As another example, lampshades weren't needed for an electric light. They were originally used to keep gas lamps from sputtering. Edison used them as a skeuomorph (a design throwback to an earlier use) by putting them on electric lights. Not required, but comforting to have. 2/5 Image
He also developed the electric meter as a way of charging (because gas was metered) and insisted on burying electric wires (because gas was underground).

The fascinating thing was the trade-off: it made the technology more expensive and less powerful, but more acceptable. 3/5 Image
Interestingly, Tesla (the company) learned the lessons Tesla the person did not. Electric cars could have plugs anywhere, so why does charging a Tesla feel like putting gas in a regular car? It’s skeuomorphic, linking the old to the new! 4/5 Image
The process Edison used, called "robust design," helps make new technologies palatable. The classic article by Douglas & @andrewhargadon is extremely readable, and explains a lot about how design helps new technologies get adopted. 6/6 psychologytoday.com/sites/default/… Image
The lesson is worthwhile for anyone creating new technologies. Apple famously used skeuomorphic design in the original iPhone to make a series of complex apps easier to understand & work with at a glance. medium.com/@akhov/apples-… ImageImageImageImage
One final note on Edison (for now). He was such a superhero to the public that there were contemporary science fiction novels about him teaming up with Lord Kelvin to conquer Mars. https://t.co/v5oknREU0b
Edison was a genius in making people feel comfortable with new tech, but the danger was that users were likely to default to out-of-date behaviors. As an illustration, here is a sign from Hotel del Coronado, the 1st electrified hotel (the work was overseen by Edison himself). Image

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More from @emollick

Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Oct 26
Claude: “Give me hard original writing prompts for an MFA program” yields some really clever (and near impossible) prompts. Image
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A few more. (Literal prompt: “give me some more”) Image
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It did well on #12 (broken into parts)

# The Night Shift
## Operation Manual: TX-2047 Industrial Processing Unit
### Document Classification: Essential Reading
### Last Updated: 27 October 2024

**WARNING: Failure to follow proper shutdown procedures may result in catastrophic system failure and/or permanent spiritual contamination of the processing unit. All operators must complete this training module before attempting solo operation.**

I've been working the night shift at the plant for three weeks now, and I still can't shake the feeling that something's wrong. The constant hum of machinery should be comforting – white noise to fade into the background – but instead it feels like a presence. Watching. Waiting.

**1. INITIAL POWER-UP SEQUENCE**
- Locate the main control panel in the eastern wing
- Insert operator key and turn clockwise until resistance is felt
- Wait for the safety lights to pulse three times

The eastern wing is the worst. During day shift, it's just another industrial corridor: concrete floors, steel pipes, fluorescent lights. But at night, those same lights flicker and dim, casting shadows that seem to move when you're not looking directly at them. The shadows are always darker near the main control panel.

**WARNING: Never attempt to force the operator key if resistance occurs before a full clockwise turn. This may indicate a structural compromise in the primary containment system.**

The manual says the resistance is normal, just the safety systems engaging. But it feels different every time – sometimes a clean click, sometimes a grinding that sets my teeth on edge. Last night, I swear I heard whispering when I turned the key.

**2. PRIMARY SYSTEM ACTIVATION**
- Check all pressure gauges in sequence (A through F)
- Verify each gauge reads within acceptable parameters (see Table 1.1)
- If any gauge shows readings in the red zone, proceed to Emergency Protocol 7

They never told me what happened to the last night shift operator. Clean record, five years of experience, then one morning they found the control room empty. The key was still in the panel, turned halfway. All six pressure gauges were pegged in the red.

**Table 1.1 - Acceptable Operating Parameters**
```
Gauge A: 2.3 - 2.7 kPa
Gauge B: 15.0 - 15.5 kPa
Gauge C: 7.2 - 7.8 kPa
Gauge D: 3.0 - 3.3 kPa
Gauge E: 9.1 - 9.4 kPa
Gauge F: 4.5 - 4.8 kPa
```

The numbers dance in front of my eyes during every check. Sometimes they seem to change when I blink, but when I look again, they're normal. Always just within acceptable parameters. Always just barely safe.

**3. COOLANT SYSTEM INITIALIZATION**
- Open primary coolant valves in the following sequence ONLY:
1. Valve 2C
2. Valve 4A
3. Valve 1B
4. Valve 3D
- Listen for the distinctive activation tone
- Verify flow rates on digital display

The activation tone. That's what they call it in the manual. A clear, mechanical chime that means everything's working properly. But it doesn't sound like a chime anymore. It sounds like singing. Like a voice calling from somewhere deep in the pipes.

**WARNING: The correct valve sequence must be followed precisely. Improper activation may result in system contamination and anomalous behavior of both mechanical and digital components.**

I asked my supervisor about system contamination once. His face went pale, and he told me to stick to the manual. Just follow the procedures. Don't ask questions. Don't investigate unusual sounds. Don't look too long at the shadows near the pressure gauges.
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Oct 21
I wish people would stop repeating these as if they are facts that AI is plateauing.

AI might hit a roadblock, we don’t know, but every one of these issues has multiple studies stating the opposite: synthetic data works, scaling is fine, etc. We need more nuance on the AI future Image
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Good thread on synthetic data:
One paper arguing the other side of the “LLMs don’t reason” debate
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Sep 27
It is amazing how the industry came together to invent a universal USB-C connector and then decided to instead make it all a giant mess. Image
Remember to research your cable as well. Image
At least the symbols are intuitive. So easy to figure out which carry power and which carry data.

Amazing choices. Image
Read 5 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Aug 18
I don’t know if LLMs can reason in theory, but they seem to “reason” in practice.

Ask Claude a Fermi problem: How many telephone poles are there in Manhattan? (Guess: 440. Actual: 0). On Staten Island? (Guess 19000-2859. Actual: 27,137) Queens? (Guess: 51-85k. Actual: 103k)

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It doesn’t seem to have the number handy, but, even if it did, next token prediction should mean it reasons forward, not backward from a conclusion.
They are obviously not good at all sorts of problems (logic puzzles, etc.) but they do well at many others (Fermi problems, etc).

Reasoning is a jagged frontier for LLMs.
Read 6 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Aug 5
Reminders about how to stay sane on Twitter:
1) You don't have to weigh in on anything you don't want to (or don't know anything about)
2) You should block more
3) You don't need to share your real life
4) Delete a lot of drafts
5) You can delete tweets people take the wrong way
6) Don't be a jerk. Think twice before quote-tweeting to dunk on people
7) Emotional contagion online has support in the academic literature. You don't need to keep the chain of bad feelings going
8) Twitter people do not represent real-life views, don't take it too seriously
9) Either be very trigger-happy to curate your For You page or stick to your Following page. Algorithms optimize for engagement. Things that make you mad engage you, and then you will be shown more things that make you mad
10) You cannot judge real-life consensus based on Twitter
Read 4 tweets
Ethan Mollick Profile picture
Jul 26
Write me a corporate memo covering the following points, integrating them together in a good way:
-Forgive me for the murder I committed
-We will hit quarterly steel crumpet goals
-The fish people are here to evaluate our offer. Make sure to speak to them only in fish. Include some fish people sayings
-Do not touch the vortex in the break room. Explain why. -We have pivoted from a NFT company to an artisanal pickle shop. Give details about their similarities.
-Anyone not acknowledging Pluto is a planet will be fired. There will be a series of tests.Image
The legal and PR teams have asked you to walk everything back (even though everything that happened was real, and everyone knows its real), each point for a different reason, write that memo make the excuses elaborate and obviously transparent and over-the-top. Image
the floor is now lava, explain why, give new procedures, spin it positively. its actual lava. not fake, not a joke. lava.

(OMG, it has it in for Steve, hilariously, see the last memo) Image
Read 6 tweets

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