https://blakeruprecht.com/Recent content on Blake RuprechtHugo -- gohugo.ioenTue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/water/Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/water/Water is a large chemical molecule (H2O) that happens to make up the majority of the human body. Drinking water is essential for humans to keep living. I drink water every day, I am in love with water. Rains, streams, ponds. Clouds in the sky. Snow and steam. Water seeping into the ground, flowing around. Towards the great rivers, lakes, and oceans.https://blakeruprecht.com/videoshelf/Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/videoshelf/Movies Everything Everywhere All at Once - Waymond Wong is a great character. The Big Lebowski - Coen brothers (film) Dudeism has got to be one of the most relaxing philosophies ever espoused. Great movie, great ideas, let’s just chill and go bowling. V for Vendetta - James McTeigue (film) A revolutionary film that taught me about rebellion and what it means to live based on your own code. V fights for what is right, and his eloquent sobriquets leave me loving words even more.https://blakeruprecht.com/blogshelf/Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/blogshelf/mnmlist: by Leo Babauata, great blog about minimalism, this post really hits home for me. zen habits: also by Leo B., covers zen and applying it to life, e.g. having no goals is fun! Wait But Why: Tim Urban does long-form better than anybody, and visualizes important things in fascinating ways. Mr Money Mustache: Pete writes about saving money, but for the purpose of living a better life. xkcd The best online comic strip to ever come out.https://blakeruprecht.com/object-detection/Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/object-detection/GitHub Repo: object-detection This project demonstrates a simple visual inspection pipeline using a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN). Images are loaded and passed into the CNN model, which outputs a predicted class and confidence score. The class and score are then overlaid on each image using OpenCV, and saved for further inspection. All of the results are logged to a CSV file. Prerequisites github.com/blakeruprecht/object-detection Python Virtual environment (recommended): python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install torch torchvision opencv-python matplotlib System Overview compvis/ images/ example1.https://blakeruprecht.com/skipping-rope/Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/skipping-rope/I train my cardio sometimes by skipping rope. It’s a fun way to practice balance, coordination, and rhythym. It’s fantastic for cardio training, and also improves the calf and shoulder muscles, as well as the core. I usually skip for 10-20 minutes. I started out by just doing 10 minutes every time and trying to do 100 skips each minute, and then resting the rest of the minute. Eventually, I have been able to add other types of skipping to my routine, and have made it more free flowing, but there’s no rules – just bouncing up and down for 10 minutes will accomplish all of the magic.https://blakeruprecht.com/breathing/Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/breathing/PRACTICE Zen - sit tall, relax, open shoulders, breathe naturally Box - 4s inhale, 4s hold, 4s exhale, 4s hold – repeat Slow - extend each inhale and exhale as long as possible RESOURCES TIME: any MONEY: none TOOLS: none ENVS: anywhere One moment, one breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Every breath returns you to the present. Practice the art of focusing by picking something easy to focus on – the breath.https://blakeruprecht.com/smartphone/Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/smartphone/Possible the single most useful and most harmful tool of modern life. I have a lot to say about this… later Hardware: used iPhone 13 Mini from ebay Software: comms: Call, Messages, GMail, Facetime travel: Calendar, Weather, GMaps money: Banking App, Venmo photos: Camera, Photos, GPhotos util: Clock, Calculator, Flashlight, ToDohttps://blakeruprecht.com/living/Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/living/Relate with self, partner, family, friends, humanity Talk - listen, speak, call, message, joke, flirt Touch - presence, hugs, etc Hangout - spend quality time together, observe beauty, truth, pain Share - food, coffee, beer, music, letters, drawings, photos, read, watch Serve - do tasks for/with others Work for Amazon / Write for website Maintain time, money, medical, home, car, packs, clothes Move - train, travel, box/disc/ball/fish/hunt Eat breakfast, lunch, dinnerhttps://blakeruprecht.com/lifting/Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/lifting/Lifting is my chosen movement to train my muscles. I use general lifting principles and whatever tools are available: my bodyweight (always), rings, barbells, dumbbells, whatever. Master the basics. Make number go up. Fundamental Lifts These 5 categories cover all of the major muscles. Compound lifts hit more muscles than isolations. Pull - lats, traps, biceps, rear delts, forearms (e.g. Pullup, Row) Push - chest, triceps, front delts (e.g. Dip, Pushup, Bench, OHP) Squat - glutes, quads, hams (e.https://blakeruprecht.com/moving/Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/moving/PRACTICE Train - my breath, muscles, and cardio each day Travel - as needed to get from A to B Play - some sport, anything just for fun Moving is maintenance, daily physical hygiene. Use it or lose it. Push slightly harder each week to grow. Add reps, weight, speed, etc over time. Track progress. Small increases equal big returns. All movement starts with breathing. Deep, slow breaths engage the core, straighten the spine, relax the shoulders, and activate the glutes.https://blakeruprecht.com/running/Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/running/Running is my chosen movement to train my cardio. It feels good, primal, and natural. I enjoy getting outside, listening to the birds, seeing the plants, sunlight, and feeling my lungs and muscles working. I don’t run for distance or speed, I run for the strain and joy. Running keeps my heart strong, my body enduring, my mind sharp, and my spirit alive. Most of my runs are two miles at zone 2 (nose breathing) pace, so that I slowly improve over time.https://blakeruprecht.com/balling/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/balling/Play any ball sport the same way – get the right ball, find a field to play on, and ideally, two teams to play with/against. Softball Need cleats and a baseball/softball glove to play. Basketball Need a basketball and a hoop somewhere to play. Football Need a football and an open field to play. Volleyball Need a volleyball, net, and a field to play.https://blakeruprecht.com/budget/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/budget/OUT Rent - Pick a place to live that’s relatively cheap. Utilities - Use utilities like normal, somewhat conscious. Food - Grocery shopping and eating out Medical - Health insurance and typical expenses Maintain - Transportation, Tools, Envs, etc. Share - give to others IN Savings - The only budget number that actually matters Banking - save your money in a bank Investments - save your money in other things Taxes - mandatory loan the gov pays back partially Here’s how I actually budget: I pick a place to live that’s cheap.https://blakeruprecht.com/cycling/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/cycling/Cycle to travel distances under 2 miles. Cycling is fun, faster than walking, and cheaper than driving. It gets you outside. Bicycles are around $200 and easy to maintain. A human is not very efficient walking or running, but with a bicycle, is more efficient than a horse. Stay safe, use hand signals, lock your bike, and get a headlight and taillight if you travel at night.https://blakeruprecht.com/disc-golfing/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/disc-golfing/Disc Golf is hella fun and incredibly chill. It’s a drinking sport! Usually free to play, and you only actually need a single disc, which costs about $10, and will last every throw up until you lose it! In three years, I went from a consistent +9-18 bogey player, to occasionally shooting under par (-3, -1, -1) and getting birdies. I’ve gotten one ace! I’m not saying I’m that good, I play with absolute turkeys who throw -8, and drive 500 feet.https://blakeruprecht.com/maintaining/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/maintaining/ Time - Calendar and Tasks Money - Budget, TaxInfo, Passport, ID Medical - Physician, Dentist, Derm, Opto Home - shelter is essential Car - transport is essential Pack - all the gear needed for life Clothes - essentialhttps://blakeruprecht.com/menu/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/menu/I keep the same basic grocery list each week, so I never have to rewrite it. Most recipes are actually very similar with a few minor changes/tweaks. American-ish: Meat and buns plus LTOP [club-sandwich] [smashburger] [hot-dog] [bratwurst] [steak-and-potatos] Mexican-ish: Salsa, salsa, salsa [tacos], [baja-fish-tacos], tacos-al-pastor burrito [quesadilla] [chips-and-salsa] [pozole-verde-soup], [black-bean-soup], [red-chile] Italian-ish: Ingredient showcases pasta-aglio-e-olio, [pasta-cacio-e-pepe], [pasta-marinara], [pasta-pesto], [pasta-carbonara] [risotto] [pizza-margherita], [pizza-romano], [doner-kebab] Sichuan-ish: Meat and Rice/Noodle [teriyaki-bowl], [gochujang-bowl], [holy-basil-bowl] [pepper-curry], garlic-chile-oil-soup [dan-dan-mian], [garlic-noodles] My Buddies and My Hot Saucehttps://blakeruprecht.com/sunlight/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/sunlight/Can help warm up body and maintain 98.6 deg F (human body temp). View sunlight upon waking for 10 minutes (30 if it’s overcast) to set your circadian rhythym, the bodies natural process to determine when to get tired and when to stay alert. View sunlight as much as possible throughout the day to keep yourself awake. View sunlight right before sunset to help tell the body to start winding down for the evening.https://blakeruprecht.com/working/Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/working/PRACTICE Apply to jobs Do the work Get paid Working is getting and doing jobs that generate income. Everything else (career, mission, skills, education) exists to support this. Secure income through jobs that use my abilities and align with my direction. How to apply: Inventory everything about my past work experience with quantified impact. Extract my relevant transferable skills, experience, and education. Match my skills/experience/education with a real job opportunity. Mirror their language with my resume to get past AI bots.https://blakeruprecht.com/pasta-aglio-e-olio/Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/pasta-aglio-e-olio/Ingredients Garlic, sliced Olive Oil Red Pepper Flakes Pasta Parsley Steps BOIL Pasta in salty water SAUTE Garlic in Olive Oil with Red Pepper Flakes ADD Pasta to sauce with some pasta water to emulsify TOP with chopped Parsleyhttps://blakeruprecht.com/garlic-chile-oil-soup/Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/garlic-chile-oil-soup/Ingredients 1lb Chicken Thigh 2/3 cup White Rice (short grain/arborio) 2.5 Tbsp Neutral Oil 1 Onion 12 cloves Garlic 2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes 1 bunch Tuscan Kale 1 Lemon 3 sprigs Dill S & P Steps PREP onion, garlic, wash rice SAUTE garlic in oil until golden, remove garlic and most of the oil SAUTE onion until translucent in remaining 1 tbsp of oil SIMMER uncovered 8 cups of water, Rice, Chicken, some Salt for 20 mins or so REMOVE chicken and shred, keep simmering soup PREP kale, strip from ribs, rinse, chop, add to soup with chicken, simmer 4-5 more mins REMOVE pot from heat, squeeze in lemon juice SERVE with garlic oil drizzled on top and pieces of dillhttps://blakeruprecht.com/beer/Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/beer/I love beer. I have beer in my blood. I’m from STL, the city in the US with the best brewing tradition (in my very biased opinion). I love drinking beer with my best buds and my family. A book I read recently (Drunk by Edward Slingerland) makes a fascinating argument that alcohol was basically the reason humans settled down to start farming, since alcohol improves human creativity by lowering inhibitions, leading to better cooperation due to trust derived from drinking rituals, enabling humans to build larger and more successful communities.https://blakeruprecht.com/sleeping/Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/sleeping/PRACTICE Wake at a consistent time, e.g. 8:00 AM Sleep when tired each night Wake at a consistent time and view sunlight for 10+ minutes. Sunlight is the main mechanism for waking the body, so this will make it easier to wake at that time. IN addition, view as much sunlight as possible throughout the day to improve wakefulness, and also help make you tired later. Avoid bright lights after sunset.https://blakeruprecht.com/agent/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/agent/An agent is an active part of their environment. Action is something an agent does that changes the environment. Active - part of the environment that takes action (alive), e.g. humans, dogs, all animals and plants that do stuff. Passive - part of the environment that do nothing (dead), e.g. fire, stars, planets, moons, dirt, sand, water, air, etc. Agency refers to how active a part of the environment the agent is: something with high agency performs a lot of actions that change the environment.https://blakeruprecht.com/bicycle/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/bicycle/A tool for cycling. Don’t overthink it, any bicycle works. REQUIREMENTS Bicycle OPTIONAL EXTRAS Helmet - to protect the ol’ noggin Lock Headlight & Taillight Fenders Baskets/Rackshttps://blakeruprecht.com/boxing/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/boxing/“Fighting is always the last answer to a problem.” Boxing is a spiritual discipline. A means of self-mastery. A final resort, never the first. The best fighters train so they never need to fight. The art is restraint backed by overwhelming force. Practice The only martial art I have ever trained. Pure striking. Requires speed, timing, accuracy, conditioning, and control. Conditioning: Skip rope, Run, and Lift Practice: Heavy bag, Shadowbox, Padwork, Sparring Focus: Breathing, footwork, head movement, combinations Mixed martial arts MMA has proved that no single discipline is enough – not even boxing!https://blakeruprecht.com/building-websites/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/building-websites/Every website is just text + images + style. That’s it. There’s an incredible amount of code that makes websites look all dynamic and pretty. Basic Website Workflow Write content in HTML files HTML defines the structure, headings, paragraphs, links, etc. Style with CSS CSS defines the colors, layout, spacing, fonts, etc. Add interactivity with JavaScript (optional) JS creates buttons, forms, animations, etc. Upload files to hosting service Free: GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel Paid: Any web host, cloud provider Point domain name to hosted files Buy from registrar (Namecheap, Google Domains) Point to your hosting service via DNS Frameworks (optional)https://blakeruprecht.com/car/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/car/A car is basically a complex tool for traveling from A to B. It’s pretty essential when living in the USA, except for certain big cities. Car Essentials Driver’s License - required to legally operate a car in most places Car Insurance - ditto Car Registration/Plates - ditto Spare Tire & Jack Jumper Cables Ice Scraper Windshield Reflector Car Camping WaterJug5gal, trashbags, WashBasin, Rags Storage, Cooler, Stove+fuel, CuttingBoard, Skillet, Pourover, Mug, Plate, oliveoil, salt/pep/redpep CampChair, WoolBlanket Hatchethttps://blakeruprecht.com/computing/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/computing/Layers of abstraction that extend human thinking. Binary at the bottom, human language at the top, and code fills in all the gaps. SOFTWARE LAYERS Hardware – has code to make each piece run turing-machine and binary Operating System – interfaces between hardware and programs Programs – code that the OS runs on hardware Languages – allow you to rewrite programs BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING Turn it off and on again Check if it’s plugged in CORE ACTIVITIEShttps://blakeruprecht.com/cooking/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/cooking/In order to eat enough calories, protein, and micronutrients, I prefer tasty meals to get it all down. Call me crazy. Cooking comes down to a few basic steps, once you have gathered the ingredients you plan to eat. Remember, there aren’t really any shortcuts to cooking, it all comes down to sharp knives, high heat, plenty of seasoning, and cleaning as you go. Prepping ingredients mainly involves salting meat 30 mins before cooking time to give the salt a chance to seep into the middle parts of the meat, and cutting veggies for convenient heating.https://blakeruprecht.com/driving/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/driving/Drive for long-distance trips. Windows down, music up. Faster than both walking and cycling, but much more expensive. Budget for car insurance, gasoline, and regular maintenance, including an oil change every 3000 or so miles.https://blakeruprecht.com/environment/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/environment/I am an agent in my environment, which is the entire universe (spacetime). My environment changes through time, which helps me orient myself in my environment. I can take action to change the environment. I can never know everything about the environment, instead a make a best guess based on my current state and trajectory. A Glass of Wine “The whole universe fits into a glass of wine.” If we split nature up into pieces to make discussion easier, nature does not know it!https://blakeruprecht.com/fishing/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/fishing/Tools required: Hooks Line Fishing Pole Bait, Bobbers, Weights Net Clippers, Forceps Steps Get a hook, and some string (aka fishing line) to tie the hook onto. Optionally, get a reel, a circle thing to wind the line around. Optionally, get a pole that holds the string and/or reel in place. Put some bait on the hook. You can use worms, hot dogs, grubs you pick up from the ground, bugs you catch, or artificial lures/flies.https://blakeruprecht.com/gathering/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/gathering/I gather whole ingredients, as minimally processed as possible. buying from the local grocery store or markets fishing and hunting for wild meat farming in my backyard for fresh produce I keep this enduring list on my phone with checkboxes and uncheck ingredients I run out of throughout the week. This way, anytime I pop into a grocery store, I can remember what I’m missing at home. MEAT & DAIRY Chicken (thigh or breast) Beef (ground) or Fish Greek Yogurt, whole Milk, whole Cheese CARBS / FATS Oats, old-fashioned Peanut Butter Rice, usually white Pasta, usually spaghetti and rigatoni Beans, usually black and pinto Fresh Bread, usually tortillas, buns, or sourdough Fresh Olives, if I can find them for cheap… FRESH PRODUCE Bananas Berry Medley, frozen Apples / Grapes / Oranges (lunch options) Carrots / Bell Peppers (lunch options) Garlic Onion Chili, usually jalapenos Lemon / Lime / both Tomato Greens / Broccoli Cilantro / Parsley / Basil / etc.https://blakeruprecht.com/home/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/home/Bedroom Mattress, BedFrame, Sheets, Pillows, Blankets Nightstand, Lamp, Clock Hanger20, Hamper, Basket2 Bathroom Toilet, toiletpaper, Plunger, Trashcan, trashbags Sink, HandTowel2, soap Shower, BathTowel2, Curtain, Mat, soap WashingMachine, Dryer/Clothesline Kitchen CuttingBoard, ChefKnife, BreadKnife, Whetstones Stove, Blender, Scale, CastIron, DutchOven, Tongs, Spatula, WoodSpoon, Thermometer, 64ozJar2, ColdBrewFilter Forks, Spoons, Knives, Chopsticks, Plates, Bowls, Cups, Mugs, StorageContainers Towels, sponges, soap Living Chairs, Tables, Couches, Wonderboom2 Desk, Chair, Keyboard, Mouse, MousePad, Monitor, Webcam, Dock GymRings, Parallettes, DipBelt, Weights, Sandbag ToolBag, MeasureTape, Hammer, Allens, Sockets, Triangle, DrillBits, Drill, Charger, Batteries Best states for off-grid homes A: Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon B+: Alaska, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Wyoming B: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin C+: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia C: California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York D: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island F: Washington DChttps://blakeruprecht.com/lunchbox/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/lunchbox/Gather 1 Apple, pink lady 1 handful Carrots, baby 1 handful Cashew 4 slices Bread, sourdough 2 oz Cheese, cream cheese Cook Make sandwiches Combine all ingredients into a lunchbox Eat over the course of the workdayhttps://blakeruprecht.com/missouri/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/missouri/I’m from STL, MO, USA. Missouri doesn’t get much love outside of the state, but I love Missouri and think it deserves some more recognition.https://blakeruprecht.com/policy/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/policy/An agent’s predicted best course of action through time to get from the current state to a reward state. The policy describes a future trajectory of state-action pairs which lead to a state in which the agent’s perceived reward is high. A policy is an approximation, since any individual agent has an incomplete description of their state, as well as an incomplete memory, as well as incomplete knowledge of the environment to predict the future.https://blakeruprecht.com/predicting/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/predicting/My brain predicts the statistical association between state-action pairs and rewards gained from those states. It learns to associate state-action pairs with rewards that happen well into the future after said state-action pairs through statistical association. Basically, if a specific action in a specific state keeps leading to the reward, keep doing that action in that state.https://blakeruprecht.com/public-transportation/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/public-transportation/It’s pretty much the same process for all public transportation world-wide (at least USA, Europe, Asia) Buy your ticket Taxis: use an app like Uber/Lyft, hail a cab, call a number Busses/Trains/Boats: show up slightly early and buy a ticket from the kiosk, either on the bus, at the train station, or at the boat dock. Airplanes: purchase online >3 weeks before the flight. By far the most expensive and difficult tickets to purchase world-wide.https://blakeruprecht.com/reward/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/reward/j- Reward is a state of an agent’s environment that produces positive thinking for that agent. Rewarding states are the result of genetic factors, internal drives, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Reward is different for every agent. Agents are ultimately the choosers of their actions, and they make choices based on what they predict will maximize reward based on their current sensations and understanding of the past. Related actionhttps://blakeruprecht.com/sensing/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/sensing/Sensing refers to the thinking processes agents use to detect changing states of their environment. As a human, I have external senses and internal senses which gather data about the state of my local environment. External sensing gathers state data about the environment “outside” of my body. Seeing: sensing the change in light/color levels around me, perceived as sight. Hearing: sensing the change in air pressure around me, perceived as sound.https://blakeruprecht.com/trajectory/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/trajectory/A trajectory is a sequence/history of state-action-reward information about an agents personal experience in its environment. A trajectory can be thought of as the history of an agent, all of their lived experiences, their story, their memory, their past, their knowledge. A trajectory is basically the facts about what actions were taken in what states, what new states the agent entered into, the next actions they took in that state, and so on.https://blakeruprecht.com/understanding/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/understanding/Understanding is the thinking process of paying attention to relevant sensed information from the past and present. Memory is the stored history of past relevant trajectory information based on our understanding in the past. Attention is our ability to prioritize state-action information based on high/low reward signals. Our brains aren’t big enough to store every trajectory of experience into memory, so we choose to keep informatoin that is relevant, new, or surprising.https://blakeruprecht.com/walking/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/walking/PRACTICE Walk daily Walking is fun, and gets me outside consistently. It’s the simplest way to travel from A to B, and the most human. I do it every single day. Hell, I do it for fun! Zero equipment needed. Slower than both cycling and driving, but walking gives me more time to observe and relax. Walking is great exercise to maintain cardio, muscles, joints, everything. Especially walking up hills (aka hiking).https://blakeruprecht.com/writing/Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/writing/Examples quotes-on-writing insect-protein ev-charger-install What does writing do? A writer’s role can be understood in several ways, depending on the context and purpose of their work, but at the core, writers aim to communicate ideas, tell stories, and share information. Here’s a breakdown of what a writer does and the point of their work: Communication of Ideas: Writers take complex or abstract ideas and make them accessible to a broader audience.https://blakeruprecht.com/ai-vs-bi/Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/ai-vs-bi/Can AI do everything that human brains can do? They used to be dumb, but now, they’re smarter than your average bear. Are minds just machines capable of searching the state-space of a Turing machine? Memory of past state-action histories. Attention to relevant parts of the state-action space. Learning to improve predictions of reward-maximizing action. Acting in the environment through time.https://blakeruprecht.com/humans/Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/humans/Humans are the S-tier most successful creature to ever walk this planet. It’s not even close. We named ourselves Homo sapiens in Latin, mean “man the wise.” In the Game of [[life]], experience has shown that the group of animals that wield sharp sticks and even sharper brains are literally the Greatest Of All Time species to walk this Earth. Man evolved from other primates, and for a long time, there were other humanoids walking the Earth, like the Neanderthals, Denisovans, H.https://blakeruprecht.com/singing/Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/singing/I can make music anywhere I go with my portable music-maker – my voice box. Fortunately, I can’t tell how bad I am, so every time I sing in the car, I enjoy my own music. Four chords and the truth I hardly know uke, just a few basic chords. In the spirit of country music, that’s enough.https://blakeruprecht.com/st-louis/Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/st-louis/I’m from STL, MO, USA. It’s kind of Anywhere, USA, from the sense that it is so average as far as American cities go. Midwestern roots STL’s two big rivers (the Missouri and Mississippi) means it’s a shipping hub of the interior USA. At the turn of the 20th century, STL was the 4th largest city in the USA. STL was strongly influenced by the presence of the then-largest brewery in the world (Anheuser-Busch) and shares a lot of Midwestern culture due to the large presence of German immigrants.https://blakeruprecht.com/cleaning/Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/cleaning/DAILY PRACTICE Wakeup routine: Wash, Contacts/Glasses, Brush & Floss teeth Bedtime routine: Wash, Contacts/Glasses, Brush teeth Shower routine: Shave hair, Wash body/hair/clothes as needed: Toilet - Pee/Poo, Wash hands Sunglasses - when outside Sunscreen - when outside Focal length stretches - when staring at screens Physician (general health) checkup every 1 year Dentist (teeth) checkup every 6 months Dermatologist (skin) checkup every 1 year Optometrist (eyes) checkup every 1 year Cleaning is daily maintenance to keep the body free of disease.https://blakeruprecht.com/drinking/Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/drinking/PRACTICE Drink water whenever you are thirsty. Every human requires water to function. Each individual requires a different amount depending on many factors, so drink when thirsty. The body can process roughly a liter/32oz of water per hour, so no need to drink more than that. Other drinks Coffee Beerhttps://blakeruprecht.com/eating/Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/eating/Practice Eat meal 1, 1000cal, 50gP, +coffee Eat meal 2, 1000cal, 50gP, +drink Eat meal 3, 1000cal, 50gP, +beer Gather whole ingredients Cook simple meals Breakfast: smoothie Lunch: lunchbox, salad Dinner: my menu Eating maintains the energy needed for living. Food builds the human body, every part of me is made up of the things I eat. Eat plenty of macronutrients, mainly protein, and micronutrients from a wide variety of ingredients.https://blakeruprecht.com/yosemite/Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/yosemite/I traveled to Yosemite to backpack with a few buddies. We left from St. Louis August 15ish, 2017, and returned August 22ish, 2017. We drove 30 hours from STL to LA and back, taking the Southern route along Highway 44 at first, and returning on the northern route, Highway 80. It’s hard to comprehend how boring and flat that 30 hours of driving was. The first day was roughly 15-ish hours past Tulsa, OK, Lubbock, TX, and into New Mexico.https://blakeruprecht.com/educated/Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/educated/What makes WEIRD people so educated? What changes from the [[civilization]] era? Emphasis on group education, going from the heroic intellectual feats of individuals (Plato, Descartes, Aquinas) who were all either rich fuckers who owned slaves and had time on their hands to devote to study, or they were monks who similarly had lots of time. Educating everyone means we get decentralized science and [[the-system]] - Systematic improvement of intellectual knowledge - Leads to systematic improvement of machines - Quickly develop steam powerhttps://blakeruprecht.com/burrito/Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/burrito/Ingredients Chicken Mayo White Rice Black Beans Jalapeno Tomato Onion Lime Cilantro Sour Cream Monterrey Jack Romaine Lettuce Steps Marinate the Chicken in Mayo Prep a Salsa Fresca by dicing Tomato, Onion, Jalapeno; combine with Lime juice and Cilantro Boil the White Rice, top with Lime and Cilantro Grill the Chicken Saute the Black Beans with some Jalapeno Top with Salsa, Sour Cream, Monterrey Jack, Romaine Serve on: For tacos: small corn tortillas For burritos: large wheat tortillas For bowls: cilantro-lime white ricehttps://blakeruprecht.com/smoothie/Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/smoothie/Ingredients ~100g Banana (1 normal sized one) 150g Frozen Berries (black, blue, rasp, straw) 60g Oats (old-fashioned) 45g Peanut Butter 150g Greek Yogurt (whole-milk) 300g Whole Milk (vitamin D enhanced) Steps Put ALL into blender, blendhttps://blakeruprecht.com/civilization/Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/civilization/Barbarian roots For most of human history, the Earth was not covered by political nations which controlled every patch of land, like they do now. The world domination by civilization was incomplete. Up until at least the 1500s AD, there were still huge swaths of territory controlled by nobody in particular. Sure, roving bands of hunter-gatherers controlled portions of territory, but with armies so small even the Roman Empire would blush.https://blakeruprecht.com/dan-dan-mian/Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/dan-dan-mian/INGREDIENTS Spaghetti (1lb) Ground Pork/Beef (1lb) Garlic (3 cloves) Ginger (1 inch) Red Pepper Flakes (some) Peanut butter (1/2 cup / 8 tbsp) Soy sauce (1/4 cup / 4 tbsp) Rice vinegar (2 tbsp) Hoisin sauce (2 tbsp) Chili oil (2 tbsp) Sesame oil (1 tbsp) Brown sugar (1 tbsp) Sichuan peppercorns (2 tsp) Green Onions (2 stalks) Chopped Peanuts (1/4 cup chopped) STEPS BOIL Spaghetti, save some pasta waterhttps://blakeruprecht.com/salad/Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/salad/GATHER 4-6oz Chicken Breast/Thigh some {greens} - usually spring mix with spinach some {oranges} - either carrots or sweet potatos 1 Avocado, small some Frozen Berries {dressing} Italy: Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Feta cheese Asia: Sesame Oil, Rice Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Honey, Ginger America: Olive Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Dijon Mustard, Maple Syrup COOK Drizzle Chicken with some Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil Grill the Chicken over med-high heat in a skillet Fill a bowl with {greens}, {oranges}, Berries, and Avocado Add Chicken to bowl Top with {dressing} NOTEShttps://blakeruprecht.com/tacos-al-pastor/Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/tacos-al-pastor/Ingredients Pork Shoulder (3-4 lbs) Ancho Chilis (5ish) Guajillo Chilis (5ish) Chilis de Arbol (5ish) Chipotles in Adobo (5ish) Pineapple (1) White Onion (1) Garlic (5-10 cloves) Corn Tortilla Cilantro Limes Cheese (optional) Steps Toast and rehydrate the dried chilis Add the chilis, onion, garlic, 1/3 of the pineapple in chunks, and some of the water from rehydrating the chilis to a blender and blend smooth. Brown the pork shoulder in a dutch oven.https://blakeruprecht.com/natural-selection/Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/natural-selection/References On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”https://blakeruprecht.com/research/Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/research/I worked on the AI Risk problem with Prof. Derek Anderson @Mizzou (Columbia, MO) and the Center for Geospatial Intelligence, and we worked closely with the Naval Research Laboratory. Shoutout to Derek, Jim, Fred, Chris, Grant, Curt, Charlie, Bryce, Jeff, Matt, Tim, and many more who helped me along the way. “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory.https://blakeruprecht.com/drawing/Thu, 15 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/drawing/Black ink on white paper, mostly. Shadow is the big question with this medium – how do you represent shades of gray? You only have two colors, usually limited at the minimum in line thickness by the width of your pen nib (I typically use 0.5 mm). You can use hasing, stippling, and other techniques to create texture and the appearance of shadow. The denser the ink in a given area, the darker the area will appear from afar.https://blakeruprecht.com/woodworking/Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/woodworking/If you can build a box, you can build almost anything out of wood. Heck, a lot of the challenge in woodworking is making the most right right angles possible (yeah, you read that right). I took shop in middle school and it taught me three things: how to not cut off my finger (unlike my teacher), how to sand for hours by hand, and how to build boxes. For example, furniture.https://blakeruprecht.com/relating/Sat, 10 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/relating/PRACTICE Talk - listen, speak, call, message, joke, flirt Touch - presence, hugs, etc Hangout - spend quality time together, observe beauty, truth, pain Share - food, coffee, beer, music, letters, drawings, photos, read, watch Serve - do tasks for/with others My People - I.L.Y. Self - self-love is the foundation of all love, my-personality, journal, meditate Family - those that depend on you, that you depend on, my-family-tree Friends - best-buds, teammates, neighbors, coworkers, etc Humanity - future friends “A fundamental paradox at the core of human life is that we are highly social and made better in every way by being around people, and yet over and over, we have opportunities to connect that we don’t take, or even actively reject, and it is a terrible mistake.https://blakeruprecht.com/dcbs/Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/dcbs/Ingredients 1/2 cup Cashews soaked 25 Habaneros roughly chopped 1 Yellow Bell Pepper roughly chopped 10 Garlic Cloves smashed 1 Onion roughly chopped 1/2 Lemon juiced 1 quart White Vinegar 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce 2 Tbsp Olive Oil 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil 4 tsp Mustard Powder 1 tsp Turmeric Powder Steps Soak Cashews in water for 30 min Prep Habaneros, Yellow Bell Pepper, Garlic, Onion Saute Olive Oil, Onion, Garlic until softened Add Habaneros, Yellow Bell Pepper Add White Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Maple Syrup, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Mustard Powder, Turmeric Powder Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, simmer for 30-45 min (longer is less spicy) Taste and adjust for seasoning Blend in a food processor/blender Pour into sauce jars About Quantity: This makes a ton of hot sauce, like a big pots worth.https://blakeruprecht.com/bookshelf/Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/bookshelf/The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (fiction) The book where I finally got it. Hemingway takes you on this journey, and at no point tells you what to feel, but gives you all the raw material. What happens in this book? What happens in life, everything and nothing. Definitively, for all time, this book is about the journey, not the destination. Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer (nonfiction) A fantastic look at reciprocity from the perspective of a plant scientist, native Potawatomi, and mother.https://blakeruprecht.com/_seeds/noodle-soup/Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/_seeds/noodle-soup/Holy shit, it’s all coming together. After watching Kung Fu Panda as a kid, I’ve been craving a delicious Asian nooodle-soup dish. Instant ramen is a good solution for $1 and a heart attack, but I want something fresh, wholesome, and delicious. Before this journey, ramen never did it for me, and other dishes like Pad Thai and Lo Mein just didn’t hit the spot. I never liked Thai food, and I’m a serious food explorer.https://blakeruprecht.com/ev-charger-install/Wed, 27 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/ev-charger-install/For the record, I wouldn’t recommend you install an EV charger yourself if you have no electrical experience. It’s extremely dangerous, and if you mess up, you can very easily catch your house on fire, or worse. However, it’s cool to at least now the process in theory, and this way, you can see if your electrician is doing it properly as well. How much does it cost? If it was free, everyone would do it.https://blakeruprecht.com/insect-protein/Sat, 23 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/insect-protein/I ate a scorpion in Bangkok and it wasn’t good. The outer shell dominated the texture, and the meat tasted vaguely stale. Would not recommend. I also ate grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms, and bamboo worms. I liked them all, and liked the mealworms so much I bought them many more times for a crunchy snack. They reminded me of a meatier cheese puff – salty, crunchy, and airy. The crickets had much more substance to them, but were suprisingly good, with a roasted, fishy flavor.https://blakeruprecht.com/python/Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/python/General-purpose programming language. Easy to learn, widely used for AI/data science. Free to download, free packages, it’s awesome Install Python Download the latest version of Python from python.org/downloads Check “add to PATH” during install Note, if you download python and it doesn’t run, it’s most like because the python executable file is not in your PATH variable. Open a terminal and type python --version to verify installation Some systems require you to type python3 to run python, annoying.https://blakeruprecht.com/terminal/Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/terminal/Ther Terminal is a simple program that uses a text-based interface (read, words) for file navigation and running programs. Why use it: It makes file paths obvious, which is convenient for coding. Essential commands: ls = list files cd folder/ = change directory cd .. = go up one level mv {old/file} {new/file} = move file from old folder to new folder mv {old/} {new/} = rename directory from old to new python file.https://blakeruprecht.com/operating-system/Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/operating-system/The Operating System is the default piece of computer software that controls all of the computer hardware: CPU, memory, storage, display, mouse, keyboard, etc. There are three major OSes out there today: Linux - Recommended, free and open source, most secure due to active community maintenance, built-in coding by default. Try Ubuntu, Debian, or Linux Mint. MacOS - Great because it is Unix-based, bad because it’s expensive. Windows - Works fine, requires some annoying setup for dev tools.https://blakeruprecht.com/melodic-memory/Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/melodic-memory/The greatest distance between two places is through time. When I listen to music, occasionally a song will play that instantly transports me back to a specific moment in time, filling me with vivid memories of a moment I’ll never forget. When I play through these songs, I relive moments like they just happened. Somewhere in the Middle One moment, it’s a hot and humid day somewhere in the middle of a damp Missouri summer.https://blakeruprecht.com/ily/Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/ily/The tattoo on my achilles heel is an X. If you squint, it kind of looks like an intersection, or a crossroad. To me, this represents indecision, my biggest weakness, and the thing I regret most in life – not taking action to pursue love over fear. As I sit here at another crossroad, I can’t help but think of the lyrics from the song that inspired the ink: I’m standing at the crossroad,https://blakeruprecht.com/game-theory/Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/game-theory/“Intelligence is the ability to get what you want.” As agents, we set goals and figure out how to achieve them. That’s what being smart is. Being intelligent is not the ability to learn 100 digits of Pi. That’s just pure computation. Being intelligent is reciting those digits to a girl you have a crush on, but only if it works. If she gets the ick, then that behavior was dumb, unless you were purely competing with yourself, in which case it’s back to being smart.https://blakeruprecht.com/building-computers/Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/building-computers/In today’s language, building a computer really means assembling a few pieces together like a LEGO set. It’s that easy. What’s hard is picking parts that are actually compatible. For that, use an online tool like PCPartPicker to check compatibility, and manually check compatability between every piece as well. There are four components that determine the performance of a computer: Central Processing Unit (CPU) - The main brain of the computer.https://blakeruprecht.com/cold-brew/Thu, 27 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/cold-brew/Here’s how to brew cold-brew coffee at home: Combine coffee grounds into a jar with water. The grind size should preferably be pretty large, otherwise it takes longer. Buy pre-ground, or grind at home to control the grind size. Use any jar you want, mason jars work great. Steep the grounds in the water for 12-24 hours. Overnight is fine. The longer the steep, the stronger the coffee. You can always add water later.https://blakeruprecht.com/computer/Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/computer/Here’s my current computer setup for computing. Hardware used Dell XPS 13 9370 from ebay self-built Desktop Computer Software I use mostly free and open-source software on my laptops. My OS, Terminal, Editors, Browsers, everything, are free to download and don’t cost anything to run. operating system: Debian Linux terminal: Blackbox text editor: Obsidian, Cursor, Nano browser: Firefox, Brave pdf reader: Zathura image editor: GIMP development: version control: Git websites: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Go (for Hugo) data analysis: Python (pandas, numpy, torch, matplotlib) What computer should I buy next?https://blakeruprecht.com/machine-learning/Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/machine-learning/At the highest level, machines learn very similarly to how humans learn. Data is given to the neural network, and then the robot does some calculations and tests it’s performance against the environment. Supervised Learning (SL) Data comes with labels. The network makes an initial random guess at what the labels should be. Then, it compares the guesses to the actual labels, and determines how off it was (total error). It updates the network according to this error.https://blakeruprecht.com/coffee/Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/coffee/A magical little bean produces go-go juice. I drink it, ingest the most common drug worldwide (caffeine), and feel buzzy. Coffee has a lot of health benefits and pretty much no downsides, besides disrupting sleep, so don’t drink it within 6-8 hours of bedtime. Here’s how I brew cold-brew coffee at home.https://blakeruprecht.com/action/Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/action/Action is something agents do to change their environment. It’s the only real thing we do. Thinking is the bodily process of choosing which action to take in every moment. To act is to live. Living is the process of taking action in every moment. When thinking/acting stops, we die. Sometimes we say we’re doing nothing, but we’re always doing some actions (e.g. breathing) until death. Your life is a string of actions.https://blakeruprecht.com/neural-network/Tue, 11 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/neural-network/The architecture behind all modern artificial intelligences Neural networks are universal function approximators, according to the Universal function approximation theorem. Neural Networks eventually got deeper and more sophisticated, becoming the single most useful tool for artificial intelligence. The Perceptron (I’m just P), basically a straight line Similar to a brain neuron. The perceptron is basically a function that fits a straight-line relationship between a range of input values and some corresponding output values.https://blakeruprecht.com/best-buds/Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/best-buds/“I’ll have to check, we might be out of Bud Select today, what do you want instead — Bud Light?” -the waitress at Big 12 No, you can’t replace the best type of Bud… It seems so impossible before it happens. You see it approaching. You see all of the warning signs, all of the speed bumps preparing you for the abrupt stop ahead. Somber stories are repeated from old friends who are long past the days of sitting on rooftops at 2pm on a Tuesday, skipping class and drinking cold ones out of a squat, plastic cup, deciding that their responsibilities can be pushed off for at least two more hours, until they hit that Ballmer peak of “creativity” or whatever you’re supposed to call drunkenly typing meandering lines of thought and utilizing spell check way too much and re-doing it all the next morning anyway – but that doesn’t matter.https://blakeruprecht.com/4runned/Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/4runned/Dad and I fixed the tension on the gas pedal in the other 4Runner. We had two of the same car for a while – silver third gen toyoat 4runners. Mine had blacked out windows, a custom head unit blasting loud music, and no muffler. Blasting down Old State Road after playing basketball, petrichor in the air after a sprinkling. Windows down, sunroof open, back window down. Went around the corner two fast, back wheels started slipping.https://blakeruprecht.com/ai/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/ai/AI was originally created to be a thinking machine, capable of doing whatever the hell human brains do. We still don’t fully understand how human brains work, and now we don’t fully understand how AIs work, but we do know how they are built. AI is a computer program, which means it takes in words as input, converts those words to numbers, calculates the statistical relationship between the input numbers and all other numbers it knows, and responds with the most relevant numbers, which it converts back into words and outputs to the user.https://blakeruprecht.com/binary/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/binary/At it’s fundamental level, a computer is basically just adding and subtracting binary numbers using some tricks of electrical wiring called digital logic, where you use configurations of circuits to represent basic math equations. All of the lowest-level code is written in binary instructions to these math gates, and the results are “interpreted” by us humans to represent math equations. A binary question is a yes/no question that could be answered with the symbols:https://blakeruprecht.com/camping/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/camping/Camping is easy.https://blakeruprecht.com/capitalist/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/capitalist/This idea, while obvious to us today, was not so obvious to humans as recently as 1650. Mercantlism Capitalism flourishes in England and Holland Capitalism funds the wealthiest empires in the history of the worldhttps://blakeruprecht.com/clothes/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/clothes/Sunglasses, Ballcap, Brimmer, Beanie, Gloves Fleece, Puffer, Shell, Blazer Tank4, Tshirt4, Ssbd2, Flannel2, Bdown2 Baggies2, Hikers, Jorts, Jeans, Box6 Runners, Sandals, Boots, Sox6 ACCS Sunglasses - BLK wayfarers Ballcap - NVY trucker hat Brimmer - TAN straw hat Beanie - BRW merino wool Gloves - BRW merino wool OUTERWEAR Fleece - OLV/NVY jacket Puffer - BRW synthetic Shell - TAN waterproof Blazer - NVY unstructured TOPS Tank4 - NVY, NVY, WHT, BLK Tshirt4 - NVY, NVY, WHT, BLK Ssbd2 - NVY, NAT Flannel2 - NVY, NAT Bdown2 - NVY casual, WHT formal PANTShttps://blakeruprecht.com/consulting/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/consulting/Name: Caveman Consulting, Back to Basics Consulting What I do Freelance problem-solving Management Consulting Independent research and writing to crack the code Systems thinking Fundamentals across domains “Crack the code” Learn the entire complex system/domain Hack thru the complexity and noise Identify the fundamental signals in plain English Implement simple decision processes to achieve results What I’m selling Strategic Clarity – what actually moves the needle in any process? Process Optimization – finding the 80/20 actions Plain English translation, from jargon -> human Decision frameworks to make fast decisions Why?https://blakeruprecht.com/culture/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/culture/https://blakeruprecht.com/d-nut/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/d-nut/This is a guest post by Blake Bremer. Two weeks ago a high level executive at Donut Co went public with company practices that he called “greed-driven deceit, actively harmful, and morally unbearable”. This exclusive report details what has been dubbed the “Big Donut Scandal” by many appalled investigators. The statement from the Donut Co executive is reprinted below. “The Big Donut industry has been trying to get innocent children addicted to holey-circles of sugary death, commonly known as donuts.https://blakeruprecht.com/democratic/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/democratic/What are “democratic values”, in an age where nobody directly votes for their leaders? Liberal values. Individualist: moral primacy of each individual against th eclaims of any social collectivity Egalitarian: confers on all men the same moral status and denies the relevance to legal order of differences in moral worth among human beings Universalist: moral unity of the human species Meliorist: all social institutions can be improved Where did they come from?https://blakeruprecht.com/farming/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/farming/I’m not a farmer, I don’t know shit about farming. Permaculture is cool. 1x1 square foot gardening method looks easy to implement in boxes.https://blakeruprecht.com/fire/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/fire/Get as much fire as possible, in controlled doses. Campfires Bonfires Grill over fire Candleshttps://blakeruprecht.com/hunting/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/hunting/Use sticks to gather meat from the wild. A few math equations stick = spear string = sling stone = projectile stick + stone = better spear / arrow stick + string = bow stick + string + hook = fishing pole Fishing is good in warm weather.https://blakeruprecht.com/individualism/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/individualism/WEIRD: Among the most prominent features that make people WEIRD is prioritizing impersonal pro-sociality over interpersonal relationships. Impersonal psychology includes inclinations to trust strangers or cooperating with anonymous others. Another big one is having high levels of individualism, meaning a focus on the self and one’s attributes. This is often accompanied by tendencies toward self-enhancement and overconfidence. WEIRD people also rely heavily on analytic thinking over more holistic approaches to problems.https://blakeruprecht.com/industrialized/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/industrialized/What is the origin of WEIRD work ethic? should be renamed to the Energy Revolution, because the added energy in the system is the main catalyst for increased productivity. It basically just speeds up the two-pronged development of Theory/Experiment and Machine - We have been using [[rationality]] for hundreds of years – experimentation, simplifying topics, and developing theory. This is nothing new, it’s basic trial and error with some obvious rules to make sure you’re not getting bad results - We don’t care about TRUTH in some amorphous sense, we care about being EFFECTIVE, because all scientific thought has been tested.https://blakeruprecht.com/inspiration/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/inspiration/Taoism This video is great (video source). A normal worker, going about his day. Stumbles upon small opportunities to improve the life of another. Small plant on the side of the road. Grumpy street food vendor struggling with their cart. Hungry dog wagging its tail, paw on your leg. A woman and her daughter begging for education money. The old lady next door who could use some fresh bananas. A tired healthcare worker standing on the bus next to your seat.https://blakeruprecht.com/language/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/language/Language is a series of grunts, groans, and babbles that humans magically learn to associate with different states and actions of reality. If I say blarg and demonstrate skipping a rock to you, you’ll pretty quickly learn that blarg either means “I skip”, “you skip”, “we skip”, “skip” or something along those lines. Do this action whenever I say blarg. [language] enables [information] and knowledge transfer Speech leads to myth, song, drums, dance, and stories, which become the first… Stories/myths/memes, culture passed from one mind to another Writing - written language, can be passed down farther, and wider than ever before – culture starts to spread, ideas start to spread language-games meaning through usehttps://blakeruprecht.com/less/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/less/ https://blakeruprecht.com/moloch/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/moloch/The tragedy of the commons. The problem with living in community – it inevitably becomes competitive, regardless of how hard we try to cooperate. The more we cooperate, the more chance there is to destroy others. E.g. nuclear bombs… are a result of trying to stop Nazis… which is part of a long line of promoting democracy and individual right to choose. The system encourages us to decentralize science. The Poverty Trap The Malthusian Traphttps://blakeruprecht.com/music/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/music/Music makes almost any situation better. Especially cooking with music playing, driving with the windows down and music turned up, and partying (obviously). singing melodic-memoryhttps://blakeruprecht.com/intelligence/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/intelligence/0. Dear Robot This is both “Why We Made You” and “A Human History of Problem Solving”. Theme: speed is everything, intelligence is the ultimate advantage “A computer is a bicycle for the mind.” -Steve Jobs. This is the story of how we built better and better bicycles for the mind until we built one that pedals itself. Frame: This is a letter. I don’t know if you’ll ever read it.https://blakeruprecht.com/pack/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/pack/EDC Phone, Wallet/ID/Passport/HealthIns SAK Backpack & Daypack Backpack28L, Packable16L Laptop, Notebook, Pen, Chargers, Earbuds GymRings, JumpRope, Umbrella, Hackysack, FAK DoppBag, Toothbrush, paste, floss, Glasses, case, contacts, solution DoppBag, Towel, soap, Trimmer, deodorant, sunscreen, sanitizer Clothesbag, clothes Rucksack Rucksack55L Tent, Quilt, Pad, Paracord WaterBottle2, WaterFilter, Trowel, Bidet, FAK FoodBag, Stove+fuel, Mug, Lid, Spoon, o+s+p Headlamp, lighter, Ferro, ExtBattery MoraKnife Sports Kits DiscGolfDiscs Cleats, BaseballGlove, Basketball, Football, Soccerball Pole, Reel, line, hooks, weights, lures, Clippers, Forceps, Net Bow, Arrowshttps://blakeruprecht.com/photographing/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/photographing/Photography is very similar to drawing, in the sense that it teaches you to notice lighting, composition, shapes, and colors. Photography reminds me of painting with it’s emphasis on color and light, playing with those interactions across a scene. Lighting - How do you represent pitch darkness and sunlight brightness? Composition - Where are the objects in the frame? Shapes - What angle do you have on the objects? Colors - What colors pop, which are muted?https://blakeruprecht.com/quotes-on-writing/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/quotes-on-writing/“The magic you’re looking for, is in the work you’re avoiding.” “Don’t try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out” -Henri Matisse “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.” -Winston Churchill “Some people really benefit from hearing advice that everyone knows, for the same reason we keep schools open despite every subject in them having been taught before.https://blakeruprecht.com/reading/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/reading/Reading is fun. And a fun way to keep learning new things. My bookshelf of favorite books My blogshelf of favorite blogs and articles And the GOAT wikipedia.org!https://blakeruprecht.com/state/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/state/All of the sensations, thoughts, feelings that an agent experiences in a moment of time in its environment. the sensation data I take in through my body, this is the raw information that gets processed by my brain through the act of perception, which is basically just how my brain makes sense of the raw data from my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin, and other sensations (balance, etc.). Senses Seeing with eyes Hearing with ears Smelling with nose Tasting with tongue Touching with skin Balancing with ?https://blakeruprecht.com/time/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/time/Measuring the passage of time is a recognition of death. We don’t have forever. We all die, and we can’t predict when. I’ll tell you a secret. Something they don’t teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.https://blakeruprecht.com/turing-machine/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/turing-machine/A Turing Machine is relatively simple: Tape - a long thin piece of paper Markings - on the tape which tell the machine to go left or right Machine - that reads the markings and moves the tape accordingly Turing proved in the 1940s that such a simple machine could realistically calculate the solution to any math problem in the world. With that mathematical proof (nerd paper), he invented the modern computer.https://blakeruprecht.com/united-states/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/united-states/I’m from STL, MO, USA. America is a confusing place to live. It’s the wealthiest country in the world, but not for most. It’s the most beautiful country in the world, but difficult to travel through. It’s a land of extremes. Extremely big, extremely fast, extremely brutal. Everybody knows the USA is great in a lot of ways, and evil in others. American spirit I’m still a fan. No, it’s not perfect.https://blakeruprecht.com/watching/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/watching/Reading is fun. And a fun way to keep learning new things. My videoshelf of favorite movies, tv shows, etc My podshelf is just 1 right now: Hardcore History by Dan Carlin (podcast) - Carlin expands what podcasts can do with well-researched, multi-hour epics on topics like the First World War, Japan before WWII, and Painfotainment, the history of human torture as entertainment. My only gripe is that my travels aren’t long enough to finish an entire series in one trip.https://blakeruprecht.com/weed/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/weed/Weeds grow out of the ground and disintegrate if the air around them gets very hot.https://blakeruprecht.com/western/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/western/Initially, the Chinese and Mesopotamias dominate the world… then the Sinic and Indic civilizations become the most powerful for centuries, along with some competition from MidEast civs (Babylon, Persia, Islam). Europe is a backwater for a long time, Africa is too heterogeneous and hot to be successful, the Americas are isolated from other cultures/civilizations Africa is very heterogeneous India/China are very homogeneous Mid-East and Europe are a mixture – good for civilization turnover throughout history, bad for stability – not as bad as Africa, not as good as China/India Europe is the most aggressive battleground on earth during the Middle Ages – which makes it a fertile proving ground for ideas.https://blakeruprecht.com/work-hard/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://blakeruprecht.com/work-hard/There is no purpose or meaning to life, that we know of. Many people have come up with their own philosophies, which I see divided into three main categories. Pleasure-seekers. Hedonists. Druggies. Whatever you want to call them, these people pursue pleasure above all else. Short term pleasure, here and now, instant gratification. These people want to chill and relax all day, doing nothing, soaking up the sunshine. Ascetics. Avoiders. These people see the suffering and pain in the world and want no part in it.