A Toto washlet in a bathroom at NRT basically saved my life after a rough flight over from the US back in 2016 and I’ve never looked back. Have them in upstairs and downstairs bathrooms of the house. I think each cost around $400. I’ve probably converted a dozen people over the years but have also felt perplexed by the slow adoption.
If you live with a partner or share a bathroom, the most overlooked benefit is the charcoal deodorizer. You just never smell each others 💩 ever again. It’s absolutely amazing. The first time sharing a hotel bathroom after having a Toto for a while will be a harsh reminder of the before times.
Biggest piece of advice if you’re looking into them is to figure out where the nearest outlet is in your bathroom because they require 24/7 electricity.
The art historian "insisted that AI was somehow different" because it is. A human working with a technology to create art (photography and film) is different than a human instructing a technology to create art (AI-generated images and video).
"“Large language models do not, cannot, and will not ‘understand’ anything at all,” argued Tyler Austin Harper,"
Maybe others have had better luck, but I've never gotten anyone who thinks that explain to me how they think the electro-chemical computer between their ears "knows" anything. It's not even that they are ghosts in the machine people - the thought seems to never have occurred to them.
ok... was I the only one who wondered.... so how is Noah going to connect Pizza Wheel, Japanese Toilets, and AI ....... until I saw this sentence and it all made sense....
"Unlike in the case of pizza cutters and washlets, Americans have correctly identified the most useful technology, and are adopting it."
i think its insane that most google engineers are only able to use google AI coding tools. it probably really skews their perceptions of what's possible and the current state of the industry. I wonder if the productivity difference is measurable.
Going into the COVID-19 lockdown, when people were hoarding toilet paper, some genius at Costco put out a whole bunch of washlets for sale, and we picked one up, I installed it, and my wife was very pleased with it. She eventually ordered a higher-grade model and I moved the first one to the guest bathroom.
I am a software engineer at Google and have been trying out the elephant-goldfish model. https://research.google/pubs/elephants-goldfish-and-the-new-golden-age-of-software-engineering/ My impression is that LLMs are able to do things that have been done dozens of times before, but need careful supervision by a senior engineer to make sure that the output is readable enough for human comprehension, and it tempts a lot of engineers to laziness that they pay for later when it comes time to fix the bugs. LLMs are bad at doing anything where they don't have plenty of examples to work from, and make foolish mistakes because they don't actually understand anything; if I get sloppy and don't check the references when I ask Duckie (Google's internally trained version of Gemini) questions, it will frequently waste my time suggesting things that aren't possible. LLMs that provide references most effective when treated as search engines that handle natural language queries instead of keywords. Trusting the summary without following the links is an easy way to get into trouble.
I share the fear of a wet behind as noted in one of the early comments.
I’m floored by the AI comments. I’m 73 and almost universally among my circle of suburban friends (most of whom are to the left of me) the value of AI is a given. While there is concern re the impact on our kids and grandkids future, not developing and using it has not come up in our discussions.
I don't mind AI, but so far it hasn't produced correct answers in my field. Not even a useful first draft in many cases. Maybe one day it will, but until then I am stuck with my low-tech brain.
For everyday use, like summarizing search results or shopping options, I think it's fine.
1: I agree with you about pizza wheels. But they do have the advantage of coming in fun styles, like the USS Enterprise.
2: Japanese toilets - my honest fear is that the water spray leaves me with a wet behind.
3: American AI attitudes are *this* close to becoming full partisan. The GOP is generally (not entirely) pro-AI, while anti-AI animus is very progressive.
Professional high volume use a precision Rocker around a 20" radius: Because the cutter forms an arc rather than a straight line, it allows the user to exert a continuous, rolling downward motion. This slicing action pushes toppings straight down and prevents them from being dragged across the cheese.
A Toto washlet in a bathroom at NRT basically saved my life after a rough flight over from the US back in 2016 and I’ve never looked back. Have them in upstairs and downstairs bathrooms of the house. I think each cost around $400. I’ve probably converted a dozen people over the years but have also felt perplexed by the slow adoption.
If you live with a partner or share a bathroom, the most overlooked benefit is the charcoal deodorizer. You just never smell each others 💩 ever again. It’s absolutely amazing. The first time sharing a hotel bathroom after having a Toto for a while will be a harsh reminder of the before times.
Biggest piece of advice if you’re looking into them is to figure out where the nearest outlet is in your bathroom because they require 24/7 electricity.
Amen. Trust us fellow Americans: Must Get the Toto
The art historian "insisted that AI was somehow different" because it is. A human working with a technology to create art (photography and film) is different than a human instructing a technology to create art (AI-generated images and video).
"“Large language models do not, cannot, and will not ‘understand’ anything at all,” argued Tyler Austin Harper,"
Maybe others have had better luck, but I've never gotten anyone who thinks that explain to me how they think the electro-chemical computer between their ears "knows" anything. It's not even that they are ghosts in the machine people - the thought seems to never have occurred to them.
ok... was I the only one who wondered.... so how is Noah going to connect Pizza Wheel, Japanese Toilets, and AI ....... until I saw this sentence and it all made sense....
"Unlike in the case of pizza cutters and washlets, Americans have correctly identified the most useful technology, and are adopting it."
i think its insane that most google engineers are only able to use google AI coding tools. it probably really skews their perceptions of what's possible and the current state of the industry. I wonder if the productivity difference is measurable.
The comments about pizza wheels are just silly. One such as this:
https://www.amazon.com/Kitchy-Pizza-Cutter-Wheel-Protective/dp/B019S3W8AO/134-6755186-1193922
doesn't have any of the drawbacks you mention.
Going into the COVID-19 lockdown, when people were hoarding toilet paper, some genius at Costco put out a whole bunch of washlets for sale, and we picked one up, I installed it, and my wife was very pleased with it. She eventually ordered a higher-grade model and I moved the first one to the guest bathroom.
I am a software engineer at Google and have been trying out the elephant-goldfish model. https://research.google/pubs/elephants-goldfish-and-the-new-golden-age-of-software-engineering/ My impression is that LLMs are able to do things that have been done dozens of times before, but need careful supervision by a senior engineer to make sure that the output is readable enough for human comprehension, and it tempts a lot of engineers to laziness that they pay for later when it comes time to fix the bugs. LLMs are bad at doing anything where they don't have plenty of examples to work from, and make foolish mistakes because they don't actually understand anything; if I get sloppy and don't check the references when I ask Duckie (Google's internally trained version of Gemini) questions, it will frequently waste my time suggesting things that aren't possible. LLMs that provide references most effective when treated as search engines that handle natural language queries instead of keywords. Trusting the summary without following the links is an easy way to get into trouble.
I would wager that the art historian said bad things about you behind your back for the duration of the party.
Use your cleaver knife for cutting pizza.
Problem solved.
You’re welcome
Very interesting essay, thanks.
I share the fear of a wet behind as noted in one of the early comments.
I’m floored by the AI comments. I’m 73 and almost universally among my circle of suburban friends (most of whom are to the left of me) the value of AI is a given. While there is concern re the impact on our kids and grandkids future, not developing and using it has not come up in our discussions.
I don't mind AI, but so far it hasn't produced correct answers in my field. Not even a useful first draft in many cases. Maybe one day it will, but until then I am stuck with my low-tech brain.
For everyday use, like summarizing search results or shopping options, I think it's fine.
And leaving these people behind is a bad thing? Seems like the only thing that would make politics better. these people are the problem.
1: I agree with you about pizza wheels. But they do have the advantage of coming in fun styles, like the USS Enterprise.
2: Japanese toilets - my honest fear is that the water spray leaves me with a wet behind.
3: American AI attitudes are *this* close to becoming full partisan. The GOP is generally (not entirely) pro-AI, while anti-AI animus is very progressive.
Pizza wheels are much more compact, and therefore easier to store, than the pizza scissors or the rocking pizza cutter.
Professional high volume use a precision Rocker around a 20" radius: Because the cutter forms an arc rather than a straight line, it allows the user to exert a continuous, rolling downward motion. This slicing action pushes toppings straight down and prevents them from being dragged across the cheese.