Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 37

 Articles (11k) Discussions (26) Comments (64) Follows  Received likes Files

New Updated  Top  Announced  A-Z  Liked  Followed

Browser game Updated 2025-07-16

There's a beauty in the portability of browser games.

The fact that the browser is not the main gaming platform as of 2020 shows how crappy web tech is. There is no fundamental reason why it shouldn't be so.

 Read the full article

Go (programming language) Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

Likely a good replacement for Python. If the ecosystem gets there, Ciro Santilli would gladly use it more.

 Read the full article

Return to Forever Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

Scientology music! So good.

 Read the full article

The best Gilberto Gil songs Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

Good selection: Acústico MTV - Gilberto Gil (1994).

1967 Louvação (1967) album
Video 1.
Lunik 9 Gilberto Gil (1967)
Source. Ciro Santilli prefers Elis Regina's interpretation however.
1972 Expresso 2222 album.
Video 2.
Expresso 2222 by Gilberto Gil (1972)
Source. youtu.be/aSFahdu5ga8?t=4584 In the 2002 documentary Tempo Rei he explains the origin of the song as being based on seeing trains come by in Bahia, when they still existed before the automobile decimation.
Video 3.
Oriente by Gilberto Gil
. Source. This song seems to be about a parent giving a mixture of good and weird advice. Perhaps it is what we all get, or at least the lucky ones of us.
1975 Refazenda (1975) album. This album is just too Legendary. The cover is also legendary.
Video 4.
Refazenda by Gilberto Gil (1975)
Source.
Video 5.
Lamento Sertanejo by Gilberto Gil
. Source.
Video 6.
Tenho sede by Gilberto Gil (1975)
Source.
Video 7.
Sítio Do Picapau Amarelo by Gilberto Gil (1977)
Source.
This song is the opening theme of the 1977 children's television series based on the renowned children books of the same name by Brazilian author Monteiro Lobato.
The same song was also used on the 2001 series, e.g.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9RbBcDTRAI.
The choice of Gilberto Gil as a singer and composer was a stroke of genius, as his natural quirkiness perfectly suits the subject matter of the books.
Date unclear
Video 8.
A Paz by Gilberto Gil (1967)
Source. Performed 2009. The earliest recording we can find is from 1994: www.discogs.com/master/190615-Gilberto-Gil-Unplugged

Runner ups:

Video 9.
Beira-Mar by Gilberto Gil
. Source.

 Read the full article

1D Fermi gas Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

Artificial intelligence Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

Asset bundler Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

In order to make websites efficient and portable, a lot of transpilation is needed.

 Read the full article

Association football Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

Audio feedback Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

Bipedalism Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

Computer data storage Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

How to use an Oxford Nanopore MinION to extract DNA from river water and determine which bacteria live in it / Marshal Scientific MJ Research PTC-200 Thermal Cycler Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

www.marshallscientific.com/MJ-Research-PTC-200-Thermal-Cycler-p/mj-200.htm (archive).

 Read the full article

The best personal webpages of all time Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

These are basically technically minded people that Ciro Santilli feels have similar interests/psychology to him, and who write too much for their own good:

cat-v.org
gwern.net. Dude's a bit overly obsessed with the popup preview though! "new Wikipedia popups (this 7th implementation enables recursive WP popups)" XD
settheory.net by Sylvain Poirier
HyperPhysics
Orange Papers

Maybe one day these will also be legendary, who knows:

Another category Ciro admires are the "computational physics visualization" people, these people will go to Heaven:

rafael-fuente.github.io/

James Somers

Institution led:

www.biology.arizona.edu/ The Biology Project

Other mentions:

arngren.net/ lots of images of toys and gear with descriptions in Norwegian

 Read the full article

3SUM Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

It is cool how even for such a "simple looking" problem, we were still unable to prove optimality as of 2020!

 Read the full article

4G Updated 2025-07-16

 Read the full article

5v vs 3.3V Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

 Read the full article

abcmidi Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

sound.stackexchange.com/questions/39457/how-to-open-midi-file-in-text-editor/50058#50058

 Read the full article

Education as a system of indoctrination Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

Whenever Ciro Santilli walks in front of a school and sees the tall gates it makes him sad. Maybe 8 year olds need gates. But do we need to protect 15 year olds like that? Students should be going out to see the world, both good and evil not hiding from it! We should instead be guiding them to the world. But instead, we are locking them up in brainwashing centers.

Video "The Purpose of Education by Noam Chomsky (2012)" puts it well, education can be either be:

a brainwashing to make people comply with The Establishment
a way to get people genuinely interested and help them to reach their life goals

He has spoken about that infinitely, e.g. from when he was thin: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVqMAlgAnlo

Bibliography:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts7CEFQM2bE How Education Became Indoctrination: Dr Stephen Hicks (2021) Interview by www.youtube.com/c/KnowlandKnows Interesting channel. "Are you sick of woke-washing in education? Free speech distinguishes education from indoctrination" and "I taught at Eton College before I was fired because 'The Patriarchy Paradox' caused offence.".

 Read the full article

Education is broken Updated 2025-07-16

 View more

Once Ciro was at a University course practical session, and a graduate was around helping out. Ciro asked if what the graduate did anything specifically related to the course, and they replied they didn't. And they added that:

One has to put the bread on the table.

Even though Ciro was already completely disillusioned by then, that still made an impression on him. Something is really wrong with this shit.

Other people that think that the educational system is currently bullshit as of 2020:

Einstein, quoted in The New York Times, March 13 1949, p. 34:^[ref]
It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Ron Maimon
Xavier Niel: fortune.com/2018/11/30/billionaire-xavier-niel/ "Want This Billionaire's Attention? Drop Out of School" (2018). He also created 42.
Year On
by Zach Caceres
- zach.dev/blog/unschooling-myself
- zach.dev/blog/mpc
Anand Raja submission "Students and Universities": publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmdius/170/170ii.pdf, www.linkedin.com/in/anandraja/.
xsrus.com/life-school-and-the-80-20-rule. Also GPA 2.0 linked from xsrus.com/ to xsrus.com/gpa-2.0 but down now
School rewards effort linearly [...]. Unlike school, the real world is nonlinear. By that, I mean most of what you do at work is a waste of time.
A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
www.learningforreal.org/ by Mary Ruth McGinn, a K12 teacher in the USA.
www.learningforreal.org/quotes/ quotes Elbert Hubbard:
School should not be preparation for life. School should BE life.
She's somewhat focused on the performing arts, but what she says applies basically equally well to the natural sciences. A talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYL9gQeVEk She talks about authentic learning.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY Do schools kill creativity? by Sir Ken Robinson (2017)
Erik Finman thinks school is broken
sociable.co/technology/silicon-valley-education-students-entrepreneurs/ Bringing Silicon Valley into Schools: How to Make Students Entrepreneurs of Their Own Education (2016)
hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model The Invented History of 'The Factory Model of Education' by Audrey Watters (2015)
www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2025/04/17/the-ai-fear-factor-why-leaders-resist-and-how-to-move-forward/ The Single Best Idea for Reforming K-12 Education by Steve Denning (2011)

Figure 1.
Educational systems are carried by Indian YouTubers meme
. Source. Over a Dmitriy Khaladzhi carrying a horse over his shoulders meme template.

Video 1.

Peter Gregory from Silicon Valley shows his hate for university in a fake TED talk

. Source. Key moment: someone from the crowd cries:

The true value of a college education is intangible!

to which the speaker replies:

The true value of snake oil is intangible as well.

IMDb says it's not a cameo. It really looked like one, good acting, but what a missed opportunity. Imagine a Xavier Niel appearance.

Video 2.

David Deutsch on Education interviewed by Aidan McCullen (2019)

Source.

Key quote that hits the nail:

[...] the existing assumptions behind educational systems are that the purpose of education is to transmit valuable knowledge faithfully from on generation to the next. From people who already have that knowledge, to people who don't.
So the knowledge is conceived of as a kind of valuable fluid, which you pour from one generation to the next, pour it into their brains.

So right... the purpose of education is not to teach facts. The purpose of education is to propose ways of thinking, which students themselves must try to apply and decide if it suits them! And use the patterns of thinking that are useful to reach their goals.

Like Noam Chomsky, he proposes education has been a system of indoctrination more than anything else e.g. twitter.com/daviddeutschoxf/status/1406374921748496386:

All compulsory education, "tough" or not, "love" or not, in camps or not, and whether it "traumatises" or not, is a violation of human rights.

At twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/1051475227476185089 another good quote by Churchill:

Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested.

The same video also mentions in passing that john Wheeler used to be Deutsch's boss, but I can't find a reference for it very easily.

Video 3.

Quote selection by Charles Bukowski (2016)

Source.

Generally speaking, you're free until you're about 4 years old. Then you go to grammar school and then you start becoming... oriented and shoved into areas. You lose what individualism you have, if you have enough of course, you retain some of it... Then you work the 8 hour job with almost a feeling of goodness, like you're doing something. Then you get married like marriage is a victory, and you have children like children is a victory... Marriage, birth, children. It's something they have to do because there's nothing else to do. There's no glory in it, there's no steam, there's no fire. It's very, very flat... You get caught into the stricture of what you're supposed to be and you have no other choice. You're finally molded and melded into what you're supposed to be. I didn't like this.