Stop texting

4064 words • 20 min. read

I want to talk in the real world. Humans weren’t made for living their relationships over text. We should stop doing that.

I recently took a week-long break from texting. It allowed me to take a step back and reflect on whether it is desirable that I live the rest of my life going back to my usual habits of text messaging, and I’m having my doubts.

How to enable Flash Attention on a Linux cluster with Conda

877 words • 4 min. read

Try install with pip, if it fails install NVCC and try again, if it fails build locally, if that fails install a lower version. And then do HuggingFace stuff.

I recently wanted to try if using Flash Attention 2 would speed up my language model training, but installing it was more difficult than I thought. Here is how I did it.

Say what you need to... but not more.

5980 words • 29 min. read

Some hard conversations should probably never be had.

One of my worst fears is being stuck in a relationship where authentic speech is punished, which I have written about in a previous article. If you cannot say what is on your mind out of fear for the other person’s reaction, you cannot solve the problems you see and you cannot assert your boundaries for self-preservation. So, is the solution to just say what you want to say? Not quite.

Don't be lulled into just existing together

1395 words • 6 min. read

When spending time with someone, prioritise spending it in the same way that made you want to spend more time with them.

Recently, I have gotten closer with one of my female friends. We met through a shared activity, started having conversations, and since we both enjoyed those a lot, we started sharing more activities together. In the process, I learnt an important life lesson.

Only free speech can save anxious-avoidant relationships

3904 words • 19 min. read

A look at attachment styles from the perspective of self-censorship.

Breakdown in communication is probably the most common reason for breakups. I have, however, had two short-lived relationships where by the end, breakdown in communication was the reason I didn’t break up sooner. Having recently read a book on attachment styles, I think I can now piece together why.

Dance is walking.

3103 words • 15 min. read

Nobody can teach you this, because you already know how to walk.

My friend Vuk Vuković, whom I met through dance and who has taught me to be bold about the philosophy of dance, once gave a one-minute speech on a square in my home town summarising the essence of son dance. I happened to film it. As he reflected later, it was actually a perfect summary of all partner dances worth their salt. I have since spread his sermon to many people, and it ties into some other thoughts and experiences I’ve had recently.

Timba is basically the best genre

1674 words • 8 min. read

An introduction to the music that converted me from listening to EDM for over a decade to forgetting about it for a year.

Many of my articles have been dedicated to dancing, but only one has been dedicated to what we dance to. And even so, I only wrote about lyrics, rather than about music. Let me share my compiled efforts regarding the musical genre most suited for dancing casino: timba.

Desplazamientos in casino

935 words • 4 min. read

A full overview of all figures that move around, and their symmetries.

There are several figures in casino whose main purpose is to move the centre of the couple, rather than doing flashy armwork. They are called desplazamientos (“displacements”). These figures are made for letting the dance breathe, for claiming space, and in crowded spaces, for getting to an emptier part of the floor without stopping the dance.

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