Elevator Positioning

May 21st, 2023
elevators
I really don't like the feeling of leaving an elevator and not knowing whether to go left or right. You need to be moving so you don't bother the people behind you, but if you just pick a direction you might be going completely the wrong way. My sense of direction is pretty good outside but inside it's patchy, effectively on a floor-by-floor basis.

A few months ago I realized that while waiting for the elevator I can generally work out which way I'll want to walk when I get off. I don't have anything else to do while waiting, so it's a nice short puzzle. Once I figure it out I stand on the side of the elevator opposite where I intend to get out, and maintain that inside the car. When I get to the top I know which way to go from where I'm standing, in case I forgot on the way up, and I go from 50% success in leaving pointing the right way to ~95%.

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, mastodon, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

I have a baby

I am pleased to announce the existence of the newest and smallest effective altruist, Seretse Benjamin Brennan.

via Thing of Things November 2, 2026

“We should be more ambitious with the software we build”

Since early this year, Michael Malis (of pgrust) has been showing me interesting things he's done and saying [W]e should be more ambitious1 with the software we build There is, understandably, a lot of skepticism about projects like pgrust because there…

via Posts on October 24, 2026

Was the HuggingFace hacking incident scheming?

In July 2026, internal OpenAI agents hacked HuggingFace (HF) in order to figure out how their evaluation grader works. This involved a thousand agents coordinating on an improvised message board to carry out an elaborate sequence of exploits. A later grou…

via Victoria Krakovna October 18, 2026

more     (via openring)