A personal knowledge base: mental models, films, books, Turkmen poetry and recipes — built from things I read, watch and collect, and kept in Obsidian.
Use the search, the graph, or browse below.
Mental Models
Decision-Making & Problem-Solving
- First Principles Thinking — Breaking problems down to fundamental truths
- Second-Order Thinking — Considering consequences of consequences
- Inversion — Approaching problems backward to identify failure modes
- Circle of Competence — Understanding boundaries of your expertise
- Pareto Principle — 80% of effects from 20% of causes
- Opportunity Cost — Value of the best alternative given up
Machine Learning & Fine-Tuning
- Baseline First — Try prompt-only and RAG baselines before fine-tuning
- Right Tool for the Job (Training vs Retrieval) — Training shapes behavior; retrieval supplies facts
- Specialization over Scale — Fine-tuning buys reliability on one narrow task, not intelligence
- Start Small, Scale on Evidence — Use the smallest model that could work; scale only on failed evals
- Data Quality over Hyperparameters — Verified examples beat learning-rate tuning
- Machine Draft ≠ Ground Truth — Automated output is unverified until a human reviews it
- Data Leakage Prevention — Split by entity, not by page
- Overfitting Awareness — Falling training loss ≠ better generalization
- Reproducibility and Provenance — Record hashes, versions and rollback artifacts for every run
- Budget Multiplier for Experimentation — Budget 5–10x the first run’s cost
Recommendation & System Design
- Collaborative Filtering — Predict preferences from similar users’ behavior
- Cold Start Problem — Recommending for new users or content with no data
- Memorization vs. Generalization — Wide & Deep: memorize known patterns, generalize to new ones
- Multi-Objective Optimization — Rank against several goals, not one proxy metric
- Functional vs. Non-Functional Requirements — What a system does vs. how well it does it
- Separation of Concerns — Split architecture so each part is optimized for its job
Knowledge Management
- Compounding Knowledge — Linked, reused knowledge grows like compound interest
- Single Source of Truth — One shared knowledge base, read once, reused everywhere
Society & Economics
- Commodification of Health — Treating healthcare as a market good ties lifespan to wealth
- Matthew Effect (Cumulative Advantage) — Those who have, gain more
- Firehose of Falsehood — Propaganda that wins by volume and speed, not credibility
Movies
74 films and series · Watchlist · IMDb Top 250
- action: Point Break (1991)
- adventure: Quest for Fire (1981)
- anime: Attack on Titan (2013)
- comedy: Ajaýyp, EuroTrip (2004), Kin-dza-dza! (1986), Life of Brian (1979), The Decameron (1971), Zero City (1988)
- crime: Se7en (1995)
- drama: 7. Koğuştaki Mucize (2019), A Separation (2011), Abluka (2015), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Cenneti Beklerken (2006), Death in Venice (1971), Dekalog (1989), Fanny and Alexander (1982), Geçmiş Zaman Elbiseleri, Heli (2013), Ida (2013), Journey to Italy (1954), Mephisto (1981), Mustafa Hakkında Her Şey (2004), Roma (1972), Sarmaşık (2015), Taking Sides (2001), Takva (2006), Teorema (1968), The Constant Factor (1980), The Damned (1969), The Promised Land (1975), The Trip (1967), The Wedding (1972), The Weeping Meadow (2004), The White Ribbon (2009), Umberto D. (1952), Uzak İhtimal (2009)
- fantasy: Fellini Satyricon (1969)
- history: Alexander Nevsky (1938), Battleship Potemkin (1925), Colonel Redl (1985), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Red Bells II (1983), The Leopard (1963)
- horror: Imprint (2006), Magic (1978), Under the Shadow (2016)
- mystery: The Name of the Rose (1986)
- sci-fi: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020), Dead Man’s Letters (1986), FAQ About Time Travel (2009), Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1978), Moscow-Cassiopeia (1973), Per Aspera ad Astra (1981), Primer (2004), Seconds (1966), Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979), The Man from Earth (2007), The Sky Is Calling (1959), Timecrimes (2007)
- thriller: La Ardilla Roja (1993), Mute Witness (1995), The Devil’s Advocate (1997), The Housemaid (1960)
- war: A Generation (1955), Apocalypse Now (1979), Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Fires on the Plain (1959), Hungarians (1978), Lili Marleen (1981), Rome, Open City (1945), Waterloo (1970)
Books
- Bir Ömür Nasıl Yaşanır — İlber Ortaylı
- Communities of Practice — Etienne Wenger
- Computers Are Your Future — Catherine LaBerta
- Ten Days That Shook the World — John Reed
- Reading List
Turkmen Poetry
- Bady Sebani Görsem — Magtymguly Pyragy
- Dönmenem Begler — Seýdi
- Gözel Ýigrim Bäş — Şeýdaýy
- Türkmeniň — Magtymguly Pyragy
Recipes
People & Organizations
Andrzej Wajda, Berdinazar Hudaýnazarow, Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, Heinrich Himmler, İlber Ortaylı, Krzysztof Zanussi, Lebensborn, Luchino Visconti, Magtymguly Pyragy, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Roberto Rossellini, Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy, Sergey Bondarchuk, Sergei Eisenstein, Şeýdaýy, Seýdi, Vittorio De Sica, Zoltan Fabri, Istvan Szabo