primerlearning

Simulating a single brain cell

Hey everybody,

This video focuses on single artificial neurons, building up the idea of gradient descent and applying the single-neuron system to two kinds of applications: A distance predictor for a cannon, and a mango classifier based on l...

Preview clip of the next video on neural networks

Hey everybody,

I wanted to share the current version of a scene from the next video. It's one of the first scenes and shows a sort of proto training loop for a single artificial neuron, which is being used to predict how far a projectile wil...

Follow-up stream for Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hey folks, the stream is about to start.

After the stream, this link will lead to the recording on YouTube, so you can watch later.

Questions post for Feb 8 live stream for Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hello!

We'll be doing a livestream to dive more deeply into the evolution of aging.

It's scheduled for next Saturday, February 8th, at 10 am Central (US). It will be an unlisted stream on YouTube, and I'll make another Patreon pos...

Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hey folks, here's the video that will go live tomorrow. It's my longest video yet, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

As a reminder, the Patreon tiers are going to change tomorrow. More details on that in the previous post and in ...

Tier updates, preview of the next video, and yearly update

Hey folks,

Let’s jump right in.

Updated Patreon Tiers

Here’s the new set of tiers and rewards, which will go live when I publish the next video: Simulating the Evolution of Aging, which will come out in January. Basically, ...

Year-end Update

Hey all,

I hope everyone’s 2023 is wrapping up nicely. Here’s my update for you.

First off, I’ll no longer do monthly Patreon updates. When I did a survey on them, responses were positive but few. I still intend to update regular...

Simulating the Evolution of Teamwork

Hey Insiders,

Here's the next video! It will release publicly on Saturday, assuming no major edits are needed.

The scope changed a lot as I was working on this one. When it began, I was planning to do a video on conditional strategie...

February Insider update: Tools snapshot

Hey folks,

Matias and I have been hard at work on creating a tool that will let us assemble scenes in the Unity editor similar to how one would use a video editor.

This example shows a scene-in-progress that will appear in the next on...

Primer updates and year in review

Hey all, jumping on the year review train a bit early.

Contents

• Updates to tier rewards in 2023
• Reflections on the year
• Update on tools work
• Videos in progress

Updates to tier rewards in 20...

2022-11-25 19:40:16 +0000 UTC View Post

New Video, and updates

Hey folks,

The latest video just went live. It goes through the process of trying to calculate how many people might exist in the future, in a few different circumstances. I hope you like! This is also the fastest turnaround I've had on a vi...

Coin flip cheaters video (frequentism)

Hey everyone,

The main coin flipping video is finished.

Thanks for your support!

Justin

Coin Flip Cheaters is live!

Hey folks,

Thanks for your help testing the game. It's now live with an intro on YouTube!

I'm excited to see how it goes.

Justin

Coin flipping game - Request for feedback

Hey everyone,

As I mentioned in the most recent post, I've been working on an interactive version of the sim for the next video. It's finally ready for some play testing! My hope is to introduce it with a short video next week (assuming some...

2022: Per-month, no sponsors, and more

Hello all,

Time for a year-end update.

As the title hints, the most concrete change for all of you is that I’m switching Patreon charges to a per-month schedule. There’s more on the reasoning behind that below, but I wanted to call...

Hamilton's rule

This is the one where I actually get Hamilton's rule right. Most of the time on this one was re-writing it a thousand times to try to make clear the subtlety that led to my initial confusion. It still feels a little complicated and long, but I hop...

Early access to Hamilton's rule video

Hey everybody,

This video has been a long time coming. Ever since calling Hamilton's rule a lie (over two years ago, now), I've been wrestling with how to communicate its subtleties that I didn't originally appreciate. It's still not perfect...

Green Beard Altruism

Hey all,

Here's the latest video.

It's the remake of the video I took down. I took out the erroneous part about hamilton's rule but it's also remade to be a better video in a number of other ways, from production value to the fact th...

Feedback on "Hamilton's rule is a lie is a lie"

Hey folks,

These feedback posts are normally reserved for the Adviser tier. But it wasn't a paid video, and the departure from the normal style makes me want extra feedback, so I'm opening this one up to everyone.

This was an unusual ...

"Hamilton's rule is a lie" is a lie... and plush blobs

Hey folks,

New video today. This one isn't a paid Patreon post, though, since it's not a normal video.  I made it to address a mistake in a previous video. It's also my first try at a talking-head video and isn't the highest production ...

Simulating alternate voting systems

Hey folks!

We have a new video. I know this one might be surprising, since I had been working on the Hamilton's rule video, but I started learning about voting systems and decided a video introducing alternate voting systems could be both i...

Progress update, discord, and work streams

Hey everyone. A few announcements.  

First off, the next video is coming along in the next few weeks. It's a little too early to give an exact date, though. Sneak peek animations coming soon. (I've left much of the visual work for last...

Feedback survey for the disease video

Hey folks,

Here's a feedback survey for the latest video. There are two quick questions and an optional text box if you'd like to write anything.

I'm excited to hear your thoughts!

Justin

Epidemic, Endemic, and Eradication Sims (Premiere)

Hey folks,

The next video is done and will premiere at 10 am US Central time tomorrow (May 17).

I was planning not to do a COVID-19 video, but we've been seeing a lot of coverage of specifics when many people don't have a great underst...

Simulating Foraging Decisions is live!

Hey folks,

Here's the final version, live on YouTube. Thanks for the feedback on the early version.

Tier rewards and surveys to come.

<3
Justin

Simulating Foraging Decisions

Hey folks,

Here it is! It's unlisted for now, and it goes live Saturday at 10 am Central.

Let me know if you have any feedback.

Justin

New video on Saturday and merch now

Hey folks,

Two quick announcements to give you more info around a YouTube post I'm about to make.

1. The next video is coming Saturday, March 14. I'll release it for early access on Monday or Tuesday.

2. 2020-03-08 15:49:00 +0000 UTC View Post

A Preview For ThankYouPatrons Day

Hello dear friends,

It has been too long, but I finally have a preview of the next video.

The next several videos in the economics series will build a model economy from scratch, exploring general concepts along the way. This clip show...

News and merch

Hey folks,

With the success of the last two videos, it now seems very likely that Primer has the potential to become sustainable, so I've been thinking a bit more about the long term. Here are a few updates.

I'm not taking...