My standard advice disclaimer

This is a disclaimer that I first mentioned in The Ceremony. If there’s anything on this blog that smells like wisdom or advice, understand that it is not wisdom or advice on how to live your life. It is wisdom and advice on how to live Amos’s life. There is no free lunch in machine learning; neither is there free lunch in life advice. Advice that is universally applicable to every situation must also be so generic as to be useless: “Use your best judgment.”

My thoughts on this are heavily inspired by this Reddit post:

Is “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” a piece of wisdom? Of course. It refers to cases like Edison’s where the problem is entirely doable, you just have to keep trying and you’ll eventually get it. Don’t give up too early. Grit and effort will get you where you need to be.

Is “Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” a piece of wisdom? Of course. It refers to cases like the trisectors where either the problem or the approach is actually impossible. Stop being so stubborn and just admit defeat already. This is not the right way forward, and it will not take you where you need to be.

… Is this a “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again” situation or a “Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” situation? Use your best judgment, because no words of mutually contradicting ancient wisdom will suffice.