Mexico's Economic Landscape: Size, Sectors, Income Distribution, Industries and Economic Base

The Size of the Economy Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world by GDP (PPP). Table: GPD (PPP) (Millions of current international dollars) by Country Rank Country (or territory) IMF Forecast (2024) World Bank Estimate (2023) CIA Estimate (2020) 1 China 35,291,015 34,643,706 23,

Exploring Complexity and Intelligence: A Curated Reading List

Lately, I've been delving into the concept of Complexity and its connection to learning and intelligence. I came across a website called LessWrong, and I've been engrossed in its dense and informative content. I want to take notes on some of the interesting articles I'

[Write to Learn] Minimal Description Length and Kolmogorov Complexity

Recently, the concept of compression and learning has piqued my interest, as discussed in a previous blog post. To explore this further, I've chosen to delve into Peter Grünwald's tutorial note, "A Tutorial Introduction to the Minimal Description Length Principle," with the intention of

Learning <=> Compression <=> Prediction

Introduction Occasionally, I will contemplate the meaning of learning. I learned very early that learning is not memorisation. One of the reasons is that I hate memorising facts without understanding them. Also, thanks to the Hong Kong education system, there is no need to memorise many facts as equations and

Books

[Book Summary] Guns, Germs, and Steel--From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel

The Core Arguments * When the human population became sufficiently large and dense, and the rise of livestock and agriculture led to the development of infectious diseases, the spread of these diseases became a significant factor in human history. * Early writing served the needs of political institutions. It was never developed

Books

[Book Summary] Guns, Germs, and Steel--The Rise and Spread of Food Production

The Core Arguments * Domestication as a Driver of Development: Jared Diamond posits that the availability of domesticable plants and animals is the key factor explaining disparities in human development. * Global Patterns of Food Production: Food production emerged independently in several regions, including the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and

Credit Risk Modeling with Transformers: A Literature Review and My Experimentation

1. Babaei and Giudici (2024) - "GPT Classifications, with Application to Credit Lending" Technique: Prompt-engineering Focus: * Application of GPT models in binary classification for credit scoring. * Comparison with traditional machine learning models like logistic regression. Key Points: a. Data Preparation and Input for Transformer Models: * The prompt sent

Using Large Language Models in Classification Tasks: A Case Study in Credit Risk Modeling-- My Failed Attempt #1

With the advancement of large language models, I am curious about their implications for the industry practice of classification tasks, where traditional models like logistic regression and tree-based models currently dominate. The data I used comes from Kaggle, specifically from a competition organised by Home Credit, a prominent player in

Books

[Book Summary] Guns, Germs, and Steel--The Rise and Spread of Food Production (Part 1)

In this blog, I will first briefly summarise part 2 of the book since I have been occupied with my other commitments. The first two chapters describe the problem the author intends to solve in the next five chapters. The Core Arguments * The author argues that the availability of domestic

Documenting My Recent Work in Revisiting Linear Algebra

In this article, I will document some of my recent work in revisiting linear algebra, a subject that has gained renewed importance due to its pivotal role in Artificial Intelligence (AI). As a member of the younger generation, I believe that AI presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to participate

Books

[Book Summary] Guns, Germs, and Steel--From Eden to Cajamarca

The Core Arguments 1. The author examines the vast sweep of human history, from the divergence of our lineage from African apes 7 million years ago to the colonization of the last remaining islands within the past 700 years. This perspective highlights the difficulty of predicting continental development if history

Books

[Book Summary] Guns, Germs, and Steel--Prologue

This is my second reading of this fascinating book. I previously read the Chinese version two years ago and summarised it on my blog. Now, I aim to create a more in-depth analysis by writing a summary for each major section: the prologue, 'From Eden to Cajamarca,' '