Ray Li

The hidden reason LLMs still need you in the loop

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:53:45 -0800

What engineers add that the model still can’t replicate

LLMs have transformed how technical teams write, analyze and design systems. They deliver speed and reach but they also introduce instability.

Anyone who has worked with them sees the pattern. The same prompt can produce different answers. The same reasoning chain can shift when the context window changes.

These models are powerful but they are not stable in the way engineers expect from production systems. This inconsistency is not a narrow bug. It is a property of how these models work.

Feedback loops are the secret behind exponential growth

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:56:38 -0700

Most of us think in straight lines. One step, then another. One plus one equals two.

But here’s the problem…

Life doesn’t always work that way.

Why We Underestimate Exponential Growth

Our brains aren’t wired to spot exponential patterns. We see slow, steady beginnings and shrug them off. Then it takes off - and suddenly we’re shocked at how fast things changed.

Think about viral videos.

One person shares a clip with ten friends. Each of those ten shares it with ten more - now it’s a hundred. Pretty soon, millions are watching.

Change your perspective of the event

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 07:58:36 -0700

Changing your perspective is one of the hardest cognitive reappraisal techniques.

Here are some examples of changing your perspective:

See the event from your manager’s perspective.
See the event from your children’s eyes.
See the event from your parent’s perspective.
See the event as someone from another country.
See the event as your younger self or your older self.

Try to really put yourself in their shoes to understand and feel what they are feeling.

Reprioritize the event

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:24:02 -0700

Reprioritizing an event means stepping back from something that has triggered your intense emotions.

Evaluate its priority. It’s frequently lower priority than you probably thought at first.

You can systematically evaluate the priority of an event by looking at its value and effort.

How much value does this event or fixing this event have in your life? Is it top, high, medium or low value?

How much effort does this event take up in your life to resolved? Is it high, medium or low effort?

Find humor in the event

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 23:12:14 -0700

I’ve found that humor has the highest return on investment of any cognitive reappraisal technique.

There are so many forms of humor that this reappraisal strategy is essentially unlimited in its potential.

For me, finding humor in the situation is very effective, but your experience may vary.

For example, a school kid was giving people the middle finger a few mornings. This made me quite angry, and I felt the need to do something back.

Normalize the event

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 06:43:46 -0700

Normalizing an event is one of the most powerful cognitive reappraisal techniques.

By telling yourself that it’s normal to feel this way, you’re uncertainty is immediately reduced giving you a better sense of control.

But there’s another more powerful benefit…

Since it’s “normal,” it’s very likely there’s a bunch of other people who have gone through a very similar thing.

Whether you’re feeling disoriented and overwhelmed on a new project, burned out as a new parent or lonely as a an entrepreneur, you can probably reuse or repurpose strategies used by others who have already addressed similar events.

Act on your decision to reappraise

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 23:09:43 -0700

Once you’ve decided which cognitive reappraisal technique to use, it’s time to act!

Using the easy-to-remember mnemonic (“Never Hit or Punch a Pig”), let’s go through each key cognitive reappraisal strategy.

Decide if this is the right perspective

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 06:54:20 -0700

Changing your perspective is a cognitive reappraisal technique.

This is the hardest type of reappraisal and allows you to interpret the difficult situation from another’s perspective.

Once you can see the situation from another’s perspective, it clarifies your experience and helps to regulate your emotions.

Change your perspective of the event.

Decide if this is at the right priority

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 06:53:49 -0700

Prioritizing is a cognitive reappraisal technique.

By lowering the priority of an event, you can change how you interpret the event.

This isn’t about artificially claiming that an event is unimportant. If the event is important to you, then it has a high priority relative to other events.

However, reasoning through its priority relative to other events is a great way to put the event into the context of your life.

Decide if this is humorous

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 07:10:55 -0700

Humor is a cognitive reappraisal technique.

It allows you to interpret difficult situations with a laugh.

Because you’re reintepreting the circumstances as funny, you can more easily step away and reinterpret the situation.

Having a chuckle about the situation creates the space for you to regulate your emotions.

Find humor in the event.

Decide if this is normal

Sun, 10 Apr 2022 19:18:21 -0700

Normalizing is a cognitive reappraisal technique.

It’s essentially a way to tell yourself that it’s normal to feel this way.

Because you’ve clarified your experience, you can reduce uncertainty, which in turn gives you a better sense of control.

Normalize the event.

Decide which cognitive reappraisal technique to use

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 20:12:26 -0700

Once you’ve oriented yourself, you must decide which cognitive reappraisal strategy to use.

An easy way to remember the key strategies is the mnemonic Never Hit or Punch a Pig.

The first letter of each capitalized word maps to a reappraisal strategy.

N - Decide if this is Normal.
H - Decide if this is Humorous.
P - Decide if this is at the right Priority.
P - Decide if this is the right Perspective.

Diaphragmatic breathing benefits

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 07:04:41 -0800

In order to orient yourself as quickly as possible, the first thing you need to do is to re-regulate your intense emotions, even if it’s only temporary.

To re-regulate, one of the simplest things you can do just about anywhere is diaphragmatic breathing.

Diaphragmatic breathing is a slow, smooth and deep inhalation of air to move the diaphragm (the muscular wall beneath your lungs). This is also called paced breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing or centering breath.

T in HALT acronym represents tiredness

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 06:52:56 -0800

The T in the HALT acronym represents tiredness.

Tiredness can be physical or emotional.

Physical tiredness is most frequently the result of ignoring signs we need a break. You might be pushing yourself too hard by pushing aside your body’s signals to rest.

Emotional tiredness is the sense of drowning and being overloaded.

For both physical and emotional tiredness, stepping away from the thing making you tired. Do nothing, vegging out or doing activities that help you to recover and recharge.

L in HALT acronym represents loneliness

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 06:34:10 -0800

The L in HALT acronym represents loneliness.

Loneliness can be real or perceived isolation.

Real physical isolation from others is beyond the scope of this post.

Perceived isolation can frequently happen when we isolate ourselves. It might feel like others can’t understand us. Maybe it’s the fear of rejection, or maybe you’re not sure if you’ll enjoy connecting with others.

Rather than withdrawing from others, reach out and connect with friends and family who want to see you happy and healthy.

A in HALT acronym represents anger

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 07:10:23 -0800

The A in the HALT acronym represents anger.

Anger shouldn’t be suppressed. After all, it’s a healthy emotion.

The keys to addressing your anger are:

Expressing your anger in a healthy way, so that you’re calm when addressing your anger.
Understanding your anger triggers, so that you can address your anger before it starts.

While dealing with your anger trigger is probably the more lasting approach, you’ll first need to calm your anger.

H in HALT acronym represents hunger

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 07:38:43 -0800

The H in the HALT acronym represents hunger.

This can be physical as in taking care of your nutritional needs. Hunger can also be emotional as in yearning for attention, comfort and companionship.

To address your hunger, eat something wholesome, talk to a good friend.

You can even do both at the same time by asking your good friend to go out or come over!

HALT acronym

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 06:18:51 -0800

As you improve your mindfulness of emotions and feelings, you’ll get a sense of what triggers your intense emotions.

Next time you feel triggered, use the HALT acronym.

The HALT acronym stands for hungry, angry, lonely and tired.

The HALT acronym is used for recovery in rehab programs for substance abuse.

It’s an easy-to-remember technique that invites you to pause and ask yourself about 4 common stressors that frequently lead to a relapse of the behaviors you’re trying to avoid.

Mindfulness of emotions and feelings

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 08:15:48 -0800

Increasing your mindfulness of emotions and feelings puts you on the path to regulating them. If you aren’t recognizing that your emotions are intense, there’s little you can do to regulate them.

Mindfulness of emotions is a skill and takes practice to improve.

Below are some examples of intense emotions manifesting in concrete behaviors:

Avoiding someone or something
Bullying someone
Crying
Harming yourself
Overdoing alcohol or drugs
Wanting revenge
Wanting to fight someone
Wanting to hit someone or something
Withdrawing from others
Yelling at someone

The next time you find yourself engaging in these behaviors, start noticing how you feel…

Cognitive reappraisal techniques

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:50:52 -0800

Cognitive reappraisal techniques are a cognitive change strategy. They’re used to regulate emotion and represent ways to reinterpret events through your own lens.

This is different from suppressing an emotion which involves keeping a lid on the emotion and hiding the emotion from others.

Here’s my checklist to remind myself to do this when intense emotions surface:

External links

OODA loop - Wikipedia

Why birds can fly over Mount Everest?

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 06:43:14 -0700

Walter Murch’s Letter to His Grandchildren About Earth’s History is an entertaining story of our Earth that touches on birds, dinosaurs, plants, evolution, humans and eventually fossil fuels.

Here are my 11 takeaways:

Birds inherited super efficient lungs from dinosaurs. But why?
The story starts with plants migrating from ocean to land and then needing to deal with gravity.
Land plants evolved lignin to address gravity.
During this Carboniferous age, lignin couldn’t be decomposed.
So the decay of lignin (hydrocarbons) produced an oxygen surge.
Eventually, a mushroom spore evolved a special enzyme that could dissolve lignin.
Oxidizing lignin used up a lot of oxygen and killed 95% of life on Earth.
Dinosaurs (probably the predecessors to dinosaurs) evolved super efficient lung systems to compensate for the reduced oxygen.
Millions of years later, humans found burning fossilized lignin releases lots of energy.
Humans have fossil fuels due to nature’s inability to breakdown lignin.
Humans are burning fossil fuels 500,000X faster than they were deposited.

The lack of the mushroom spore with the special enzyme and fossil fuels being the result of an inability to breakdown lignin is interesting. However, it still appears to be up for debate.

export-highlights for Instapaper

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 15:14:34 -0800

What’s the need?

The key need is to be able to quickly export highlights from articles bookmarked in Instapaper at the command-line.

What’s the approach?

The approach is to leverage the Instapaper API to quickly extract the highlights from a bookmarked article into a text stream.

What are the benefits?

Leveraging Instapaper’s programmatic API makes exporting highlights effortless. Generating a text stream means this output can be piped to other tools or apps and manipulated in an infinite number of ways.

The mindfulness conspiracy

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 22:26:58 -0800

In Ronald Purser’s The mindfulness conspiracy (The Guardian), he writes about a fascinating perspective on the mindfulness genre.

Here are my 6 takeaways from the article:

Mindfulness says paying closer attention to the present resolves our suffering.
Mindfulness has been stripped of the accompanying teachings e.g. attachment to self, compassion.
Mindfulness advocates are unwittingly supporting the capitalistic monetisation of our attention which mindfulness purportedly solves.
Mindfulness attempts to deal with the symptoms (lack of focused attention) without addressing the cause (monetisation of our attention).
Mindfulness reframes troubles as the result of individual action rather than systemic conditions.
Neoliberalism wants pure market logic and mindfulness says “okay, here’s how you can focus on competing so you don’t think too hard about the social and political conditions that brought about the suffering.”

Components of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 10:44:13 -0800

The 6 key components of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine are the cap, 5’-UTR, signal peptide, spike protein, 3’-UTR and a poly-A tail.

The cap makes the vaccine mRNA look legitimate.
The 5’-UTR helps with immune system evasion and translation.
The signal peptide says this protein should exit via the endoplasmic reticulum (just like SARS-CoV-2).
The spike protein is almost identical to the SARS-CoV-2 spike except for 2 proline substitutions.
The 3’-UTR is chosen for RNA stability and expression.
The poly-A tail protects the mRNA from degradation.

Reverse engineering the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 09:56:26 -0800

In Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine, Bert Hubert breaks down the mechanism and key components of the BioNTech/Pfizer RNA vaccine.

Here are the key ideas I took away from this fantastic article:

The mRNA vaccine encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike which generates an immune response.
mRNA is fragile and must be stored in deep freeze.
The vaccine consists of 6 high-level components.

Information-action fallacy

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 22:40:17 -0800

BJ Fogg’s video Information -> Action Fallacy opened my eyes to why giving people better information won’t reliably change their behavior.

Here are the 4 key takeaways:

The fallacy is that giving people better information leads to attitude change which then leads to behavior change.
Better information doesn’t reliably lead to attitude change.
Attitude change doesn’t reliably lead to behavior change.
Changing behavior more reliably leads to attitude change.

External links

BJ Fogg | Tiny Habits

README driven development

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 19:51:03 -0800

Readme Driven Development written by Tom Preston-Werner in 2010 is a timeless post about using a README to scope a project and collaborate with others.

Here are the 4 key ideas I got from the post:

Your README is the most important document in your codebase.
So write your README first.
A README constrains you to single file which makes it a short, light-weight and not-too-precise introduction to your code.
A README helps with discussion and collaboration.

Life is poker, not chess

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 07:06:57 -0800

Here are the key insights I took from chapter 1 of Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets:

Resulting is the tendency to say a decision was good when the result is good.
Chess involves very little luck so it’s not a good model of life.
Poker is the sum of decision quality and luck.
Our lives are the sum of decision quality and luck.
A few outcomes is not enough to measure decision quality.
A great decision is the result of a great process.
When a less likely outcome happens, it doesn’t mean we’re wrong.
Similarly, when a more likely outcome happens, it doesn’t mean we’re right.

Wanna bet?

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:42:55 -0800

Here are my key takeaways from chapter 2 of Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets:

Everything is a bet.
Skill in life is learning to be better belief calibrator.
Our default is to believe what we hear.
We generally process information by altering our interpretation to fit our beliefs.
Motivated reasoning is when a belief is lodged and remains unchallenged.
Fake news is a planted false story that is meant to amplify existing beliefs.
Disinformation has some truth with powerful spin.
Being smarter, more aware or better with data doesn’t help overcome bias.
View the world through lens of “wanna bet?”
Communicating uncertainty advances knowledge and invites dialogue.

Writing is the only thing that matters

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 21:09:33 -0800

In chapter 5 of How to Take Smart Notes, 2 of my favorite ideas from Sönke Ahrens are:

Truth results from the scientific exchange of written ideas.
Do everything as if nothing counts other than writing.

Judging truth

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:11:47 -0800

In Judging Truth (Annual Review of Psychology), the authors make the claim that truth judgments are constructed and reflect inferences drawn from 3 types of information:

Base rates
Feelings
Consistency with information retrieved from memory

Each of the three inferences usually increases accuracy.

However, specific kinds of errors can result from each class of inference.

People tend to accept incoming information from the environment as true.
People tend to interpret feelings as evidence of truth.
People tend to favor consistency with facts and memory.

How disinformation hacks your brain

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:34:33 -0800

The 5 key insights I got from Brett Beasley’s How Disinformation Hacks Your Brain (Scientific American) are:

Illusory truth effect says repeated claims are more believable.
We often accept claims as true when they fit with our memories.
Search algorithms return results based on keywords not truth.
We will soon consume more false media than truth.
Become a fact checker or rely on crowdsourced fact checkers.

External links

Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia

Come up with a partial solution

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:12:52 -0800

Coming up with a partial solution can be a great way to breakdown a complex problem.

Sometimes the partial solution becomes part of your final solution.

Sometimes a partial solution helps you explore the more complex problem so that you can apply other problem-solving strategies.

Sometimes the partial solution is enough. The original problem still exists, but now you can live with it.

A partial solution is usually better than no solution.

Solve an extreme example of the problem

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 21:03:29 -0800

To breakdown a complex problem, you can try solving an extreme example of the problem.

The solution for the extreme case will likely be part of your final solution. It will also help to set the bounds of your final solution.

So find some aspect of your complex problem that’s bugging you and getting in your way.

Solve it.

If you want to push this strategy further, exaggerate that aspect of the problem.

Solve a concrete example of your problem

Sat, 14 Nov 2020 15:31:33 -0800

Solving a concrete example of your problem helps you to explore the problem and breakdown a complex problem.

This strategy will often get you much closer to the more general solution.

Try out a few concrete examples to see if there’s a pattern in the solutions.

If you see a pattern, that’s perfect!

If there’s no clear pattern, that works, too. You’ve learned a ton about the problem.

Come up with an incorrect solution

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 18:04:17 -0800

When you’re having trouble breaking down a complex problem, coming up with an incorrect solution can help.

So start with a solution that you know is incorrect.

Now…

How would you correct the solution?

Correcting the incorrect solution is a new problem, and that’s exactly what you want!

StackBacks automated budget system

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 08:34:44 -0700

I’ve been using a variation of the budgeting system described in StackBacks Automated Budget System (Wayback Machine) for many years now.

It’s super simple to setup.

Here’s a summary of the 3 key points from the PDF:

Budgeting should be automated.
The 2 types of expenses are planned and unplanned.
To setup the system, figure out your expenses, setup your account and then setup the flow.

Overlooked variable is key to pandemic

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 19:28:45 -0700

K: The Overlooked Variable That’s Driving the Pandemic (The Atlantic) is a fascinating approach to addressing a key spreader of the pandemic: super-spreading events.

Here are 6 key takeaways from Zeynep Tufekci’s article:

The overlooked variable is K, and it measures whether a virus spreads steadily or in bursts.
We should be targeting clusters (a.k.a. super-spreading events) to reduce transmission numbers.
Use backward tracing to trace 2-3X more cases than traditional forward tracing.
Use fast, cheap, low-sensitivity tests to identify clusters.
Sweden didn’t lockdown but instead targeted super-spreading.
Japan committed to cluster-busting.

External links

K number: what is the coronavirus metric that could be crucial as lockdown eases? (The Guardian)

My research background

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:39:26 -0700

I was awarded runner-up at the Long Island Software Awards (LISA) for a Java desktop application.

I led the migration to AJAX for Marine Biology JSP web application. I learned how to use Java-based DWR AJAX technology for integration into a JSP application.

I built Debian-based Linux web server from scratch on a VPS hosted VM.

I was selected from group of approximately 100 to develop Chemistry student-learning system (LUCID).

Developing Office Win32 software

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 12:23:55 -0700

I designed and delivered a C++ feature “AutoSave App-wide Setting” for Word, Excel and Powerpoint. This is used by tens of thousands of customers every day to improve their AutoSave experience.

I delivered a C++ feature “Encourage AutoSave Teaching UI” for Excel and Powerpoint. This is helping customers every day discover AutoSave.

I eliminated 2 of the top crashes affecting Word, Excel and Powerpoint due to reentrancy and request cancellation. This affected tens of thousands of customers every day and were 2 of the longest unsolved crashes.

Working with Office test automation

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 11:04:51 -0700

I delivered a C# tool to identify and eliminate top failing tests. This tool (and a process I developed) affects every engineer on File I/O by reducing the noise of flaky tests.

I delivered JavaScript/KendoUI Validation Dashboard for signing off on monthly releases. This is used by management to assess the risk of a new monthly release.

I delivered a backdoor hybrid C++/C# lock API to enable Excel automation. This API is heavily used by engineers throughout Office to test locks.

Working in the Health Solutions Group

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:55:53 -0700

I worked at Microsoft as an SDET2 in the Health Solutions Group from Jun-2010 to Feb-2012.

I delivered end-to-end testing of Quality Measurement Module (QMM).

I reduced execution time of a C# test suite by 30% using a binary caching strategy.

I designed and implemented a message generator using C# to achieve 100% edge coverage of a set of CMS state flow diagrams.

I delivered a suite of PowerShell scripts to find 300+ bugs in a look-up table implementation.

Working in Engineering Excellence

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:46:40 -0700

I worked at Microsoft as an SDET2 in Engineering Excellence from Mar-2012 to Mar-2014.

I designed and delivered a C# web service test solution. This allowed the feature crew to gain confidence that the new web service had parity with the old web service.

I designed and delivered a C#/SQL Server test solution for verification of a file upload. This allowed the team to gain confidence over a broad set of real-life customer data.

Working in the Office Division

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:39:38 -0700

I’m currently working at Microsoft as a Senior Software Engineer in the Office Division since Apr-2014.

Working at Microsoft

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:31:23 -0700

I’ve been working at Microsoft since Jun-2010. Here are the teams I’ve worked on:

Working at White Oak Technologies

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:25:43 -0700

I worked as a Senior Computer Scientist at White Oak from May-2009 to Jun-2010.

I achieved 3X speed increase for automated builds as well as increased reliability.

I improved testing of an upload tool by building a PyUnit test automation framework.

I reviewed the team’s testing procedures and suggested areas for improvement.

Working at Mount Sinai Medical Center

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 08:16:07 -0700

I worked as a Senior Programmer Analyst at Mount Sinai Medical Center from Nov-2007 to Apr-2009.

I designed and delivered a Tablet PC application using .NET C#, WinForms and NHibernate/MySQL and collaborated across health professionals and IT.

I also launched the division’s first intranet clinical website.

I was retained as a consultant for over 2 additional years from Apr-2009 to Jul-2011.

Working at Stony Brook Medical Center

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 07:51:14 -0700

I worked as Lead Programmer Analyst at Stony Brook Medical Center from Feb-2006 to Nov-2007.

I delivered a multi-threaded Java application for use in the operating room using Java Swing and RMI.

I automated the monitoring of over 20 Oracle 10G databases using Java, Python and PL/SQL.

I also developed and implemented a distributed architecture making heavy use of Oracle Streams.

Working at LifeTree Technology

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 07:43:03 -0700

I worked at LifeTree Technology from Feb-2001 to Feb-2006.

I was a Software Developer and was promoted in 1 year to Project Manager in a start-up environment.

I led the .NET migration of a clinical trial web application written originally written in ASP. The migrated app uses ASP.NET, C#, CSS, JavaScript and SQL Server.

I also delivered a Windows Service solution for DPAPI connection string encryption to address security vulnerability using ASP and C#.

My education background

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 07:33:33 -0700

I graduated with a Masters of Science in Bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University with a GPA of 3.9.

I graduated with a Bachelors and Masters of Science in Computer Science from SUNY at Stony Brook with a GPA of 3.8.

Neutralizing social Darwinism

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 09:05:21 -0700

Social Darwinism is the application of natural selection to sociology, economics and politics.

Our society exhibits natural selection or survival of the fittest where “fit” is defined as things that give you access to more resources.

While we may observe this in our society, most of us don’t want to live in a world where social Darwinism is allowed everywhere. For example, variations of social Darwinism have been used to justify some horrifying things e.g. Nazi Germany, Japanese Imperialism.

Why blog?

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 20:58:29 -0700

I blog to learn, teach and grow.

I love finding a problem, letting others know I’m going after it, iterating over various solutions (especially using data!) and then sitting back to see the problem solved (this is my high performance pattern).

Frequently, I’m not the only one encountering these problems, and so I share my solutions with you.

Ultimately, my hope is for you and I to be better every day.

Short bio

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 20:49:02 -0700

Ray Li is a software engineer and data enthusiast who has been blogging at rayli.net and hackerbits.com for over a decade. He loves to learn, teach and grow. You’ll usually find him wrangling data, programming and lifehacking.

Disclaimer

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 20:43:36 -0700

The opinions expressed on this blog are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.

rayli.net has affiliate partnerships e.g. Amazon. These do not influence editorial content, though rayli.net may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.

Writing

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 08:30:04 -0700

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Find a simpler problem

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 15:07:25 -0800

Solving a simpler problem gets you closer to what your world looks like if your problem was solved.

Solving the simpler problem either tells you more about the original problem, or helps you break it down by presenting you with a new problem.

Breakdown the problem

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 08:40:20 -0800

If you’re having trouble breaking down a problem into solvable chunks, here are 5 ways to get you unblocked:

Better schools won't fix America

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 08:45:33 -0700

Better Public Schools Won’t Fix Income Inequality (The Atlantic) is one of those belief-altering articles that completely changed my thoughts around education.

Here are 8 of Nick Hanauer’s most powerful points:

Educationism is the idea that poverty and inequality can be solved with education.
Education-reform ignores the greatest driver of student achievement: household income.
Great public schools don’t create a thriving middle class, great public schools are a product of thriving middle class.
Income inequality has exploded despite education progress.
The lower the parent’s income, the lower the educational attainment.
Educationists ignore the disease (economic inequality) and focus on the symptom (education inequality).
Limited family income is difficult to overcome even for students that are naturally gifted.
Pay the average worker more, and you will create a thriving middle class that addresses both economic and educational inequality.

Who rules America?

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 07:51:20 -0700

In G. William Domhoff’s piece Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power, he makes 8 compelling points that should make you wonder whether you truly understand where you stand in America:

Wealth is the value of what you own while income is what you earn.
Wealth is highly concentrated in just a few hands in the US.
Wealth leads to power, and power leads to wealth.
US is a power pyramid with the bottom 80-90% having no power.
Tax cuts on capital gains and dividends benefits only the top Americans who get the majority of their income from capital gains and dividends.
The US has both wealth and income highly concentrated.
In the US, taxes and transfer payments reduce inequality but not much.
CEOs generally get the salary they think they deserve.

Deliver weekly chunks

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 21:41:34 -0700

Okay, so that’s incremental value.

You might be wondering…

Why every week?

Taking control and delivering incremental value every week is one of the single most effective ways to focus your work on your project.

If you can figure out how to deliver a thing of value every week on the project you’re working on, you can pretty much tackle anything.

It sounds simple, but to be honest, it’s also really difficult.

Deliver incremental value

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 21:38:17 -0700

Delivering incremental value is the secret to supercharging your results.

Not only do people benefit from seeing the thing being delivered incrementally, you can also learn whether you’re heading in the right direction before investing too much.

In the world of software development, incremental value doesn’t have to be a commit (although that’s probably the best kind of value). It could be a demo-able prototype, a plan, documenting something, etc.

Weekly incremental value

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 21:20:12 -0700

A simple, repeatable system for doing great work on your team is to:

Take a problem on your team.
Work on it.
Make it go away for your team.
Ask for another problem.
Then repeat steps 1-4.

I think this is a great system. It’s super simple, but simple doesn’t mean easy.

It’s made more difficult because there’s a thing missing…

How do you do those steps within the context of the problems and projects you work on?

Disturbing milestone

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:08:51 -0700

In Jake Johnson’s Common Dreams piece Disturbing Milestone (Common Dreams), he details:

The top 12 American billionaires now own more than $1 trillion in wealth.
That’s a lot of economic and political power in the hands of just 12 people.
Their combined wealth soared by $283 billion due to the coronavirus spread.
While the top 12 are profiting, tens of millions of Americans are either unemployed or close to unemployed.

While the top 12 likely obeyed US laws, it’s worth asking the question:

What is the affine wealth model?

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 21:07:30 -0700

Key characteristics of the affine wealth model:

The affine wealth model is agent-based i.e. each person or corporation is an agent.
Wealth distribution arises from pairwise agent transactions e.g. agent A has a transaction with agent B.
Wealth moves when an agent makes a mistake.
The affine wealth model matches empirical data on US wealth distribution.
chi stabilizes the wealth distribution and avoids oligarchy.
zeta results in partial oligarchy.
kappa shifts the wealth distribution downward to model debt.

Is inequality inevitable?

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:04:14 -0700

Is Inequality Inevitable? (Scientific American) makes a compelling argument about wealth that I’ve always suspected but lacked support.

The key ideas I took away from Bruce Boghosian’s article are:

The affine wealth model reveals the tendency towards wealth concentration or extreme inequality even if the outcome of a transaction is chosen randomly.
If the transaction outcome is random, then luck plays a bigger role in amassing wealth than most people think.
Wealth tends to flow upward.
As a result, the free market is essentially a casino you can never leave.
Fortunately, redistribution sets a limit on inequality, but it’s not necessarily a tax (see chi, zeta and kappa parameters of the affine wealth model).

Stop collecting, and start producing

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 10:49:23 -0700

To benefit from reading, make something out of what you read.

Making something out of what you read could be something as simple as summarizing in your own words or something a bit more involved like a blog post or PowerPoint slides.

Teaching someone is probably the ultimate form of actively making something out of what you read.

The underlying principle remains the same:

Break the collector’s fallacy.

Unless you’re reading for pleasure, passively collecting information in your mind or in your notes is the exact opposite of making something out of what you read.

Reinterpreting ideas through your own lens

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:37:25 -0700

When you reinterpret ideas…

You should be opinionated about what matters most.
You should use them to share and collaborate with others.
You should use them to get on the radar of readers, moderators and the original authors.
You should see your reinterpretation as bridges for others to access these new ideas.

The ultimate guide to summarizing books

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 21:16:44 -0700

The Ultimate Guide to Summarizing Books inspired my elaboration experiment.

Tiago Forte’s most powerful ideas that resonated with me are:

Read with the intent of making something out of what you read.
Summarize what you read, but reinterpret the ideas through your own lens.
Look for content that is on the fringe of topics you care about.

The plan that could give us our lives back

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 22:14:56 -0700

How to Test Every American for COVID-19, Every Day (The Atlantic) is one of the most eye-opening articles I’ve read about testing in some time.

The main ideas I got from it are:

US isn’t delivering PCR results faster than the virus.
Silent spreaders are the virus’s secret power.
White House encouraged test competition, so nothing happened.
We must out-volume the virus with a massive number of tests.
PCR tests don’t measure contagiousness, so they don’t help stop virus.
PCR tests are positive even when you’re not contagious.
Squeeze more tests from PCR testing via pooling.
Antigen tests are inferior around day 1-3 of an infection, but are way better at end of infection.
Paper antigen tests are COVID-19 contagiousness tests.
Paper antigen tests are fast but much less sensitive than PCR tests.
FDA says antigen tests must have 80% sensitivity compared to PCR tests.

Elaborate by thinking, writing and connecting

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 21:09:17 -0700

In How To Take Smart Notes, Sönke Ahrens encourages the reader to elaborate by thinking, writing and then connecting.

So why not use a blog for the same purpose? :)

The blog becomes one possible path for the output of elaboration. It also expands how information is connected to other information.

The first step is to think enough about something so we’re able to write about it.

The second step is to think about what it means for other contexts as well… how does it relate?

Contact

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 20:53:41 -0700

You can send me an email:

[my first name] @ rayli.net

I’m also on LinkedIn.

Hi, I'm Ray Li.

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 20:53:36 -0700

I’m a software engineer and data enthusiast. I live in the Seattle region in Washington with my wife and daughter. I work as a Software Engineer in the Office Division at Microsoft.

I blog and publish the monthly Hacker Bits magazine.

You can send me an email.

Ray Li

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 20:53:32 -0700

I’m a software engineer with diverse experience in designing, implementing and deploying .NET, Java and Python software applications.

Specific expertise includes graduate level education in Computer Science and Bioinformatics.

Strengths include a strong background in data analysis and software testing.

Experience

Academics

External links

Ray Li | LinkedIn Profile

Hacker Bits

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 20:53:22 -0700

I blog and publish Hacker Bits.

Hacker Bits is the monthly magazine that gives our readers the hottest technology stories straight from Hacker News.

We select from the top voted stories for our readers and email them in an easy-to-read email magazine format.

Ray Li

The hidden reason LLMs still need you in the loop

Feedback loops are the secret behind exponential growth

Why We Underestimate Exponential Growth

Change your perspective of the event

Reprioritize the event

Find humor in the event

Normalize the event

Act on your decision to reappraise

See also

Decide if this is the right perspective

See also

Decide if this is at the right priority

Decide if this is humorous

See also

Decide if this is normal

See also

Decide which cognitive reappraisal technique to use

See also

Diaphragmatic breathing benefits

T in HALT acronym represents tiredness

L in HALT acronym represents loneliness

A in HALT acronym represents anger

H in HALT acronym represents hunger

See also

HALT acronym

Mindfulness of emotions and feelings

Cognitive reappraisal techniques

External links

See also

Why birds can fly over Mount Everest?

export-highlights for Instapaper

What’s the need?

What’s the approach?

What are the benefits?

The mindfulness conspiracy

See also

Components of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine

See also

Reverse engineering the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine

See also

Information-action fallacy

See also

External links

README driven development

See also

Life is poker, not chess

See also

Wanna bet?

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Writing is the only thing that matters

See also

Judging truth

See also

How disinformation hacks your brain

See also

External links

Come up with a partial solution

Solve an extreme example of the problem

Solve a concrete example of your problem

See also

Come up with an incorrect solution

See also

StackBacks automated budget system

See also

Overlooked variable is key to pandemic

See also

External links

My research background

Developing Office Win32 software

Working with Office test automation

Working in the Health Solutions Group

Working in Engineering Excellence

Working in the Office Division

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Working at Microsoft

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Working at White Oak Technologies

See also

Working at Mount Sinai Medical Center