About

Hi! I'm Nathan, and my full Chinese name is Guangyu Chen. This about page is kind of old - will update it soon.

This website is where I reflect things I have done and articulate random thoughts, and this page will give you a brief overview of my interests and hobbies. More detailed aspects will be provided through links (I want to keep the page short, sorry!).

I like to:

Learn about everything - iterating through an infinitely large graph.
Chat with LLMs - the process of figuring out the system prompt applies everywhere.
Play with my cats.

Right now, I am trying to discover more interesting things out there and spend time learning and reflecting on them. One of the things that still captivates me the most is artificial intelligence. Reading about the latest progress and experimenting with some small models are things I enjoy doing, but I also want to make a counterfactual difference.

Another thing I love from the bottom of my heart is open-source, which has given me the opportunity to learn programming. Open-source is a collaboration model where people from all over can contribute to projects they're passionate about. It does not require one to make connections and has no barriers to entry. I have also been building an open-source community for teenagers over the past year. One question I ponder often is whether open-sourcing future Large Language Models will drive progress in an aligned fashion.

Competitive programming is the last academic part I'll bring up. It was my first stop for programming and helped me build a mathematical and logical sense of reasoning. What pulls me toward this field is the competitive programming community Codeforces, which has absolute transparency behind the submissions and a great vibe. I believe competitive programming and actual coding projects are closely intertwined, and learning one benefits the other.

Here are some links to more detailed aspects of me:

Projects I've done
Books (not a traditional book page, mostly reflections)
Questions I have (both reflective and technical)
"Frequently" Asked Questions (FAQ!)

More specific topics I like and am learning about:

Mechanistic Interpretability
Human mind and consciousness theories
The ultimate nature of reality (a mathematical universe!)
AI Alignment
Effective Communication in an Open-Source Community
Tutoring

Other stuff: I enjoy reading books, mostly biographies and non-fiction, playing all kinds of sports and video games, and meditating. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I like to look around and appreciate the beautiful aspects of my surroundings (I know this sounds like a distraction from my true emotions, but it works really well).

Communities I'm part of: Fabric (PAIR), Rise, OpenTeens

, Schoolhouse

Fun fact about me: my right eye is nearsighted, but my left eye is farsighted. Tiny fact: this is called antimetropia!

Other links