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Tweak various thingamajiggers
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Kayce Basques committed Oct 21, 2023
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194 changes: 12 additions & 182 deletions src/blog/ancestors.md
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---
layout: base.njk
title: "You (maybe?) have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s"
title: "You have thousands of ancestors from the 1500s"
---

# {{ title }}
Expand All @@ -25,187 +25,17 @@ A Very Short Introduction* by Jonathan Slack:
> ancestry running back to the origin of life on Earth, we do not necessarily
> have any DNA variants from most of our ancestors.
There's probably a point when the numbers get nonsensical, right? We double
the number of ancestors every generation. At what point does the number of
ancestors exceed the number of humans that were probably alive at that point
in time? I will surely mess up the math, but let's give it a shot. Slack
(the author, not the blackhole of knowledge) says that ten generations ago is
250-300 years, so let's take the low value (250) and assume 25 years between
each generation. We'll also assume that you were born today (happy birthday!):
[original version of this post]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230905030056/https://kayce.basqu.es/blog/ancestors/
[Hacker News discussion]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37387341

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Year of birth</th>
<th># of generations before you</th>
<th># of ancestors</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1998</td>
<td>1 (parents)</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1973</td>
<td>2 (grandparents)</td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1948</td>
<td>3 (great-grandparents)</td>
<td>8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1923</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1898</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1873</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>64</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1848</td>
<td>7</td>
<td>128</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1823</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>256</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1798</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>512</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1773</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>1,024</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1748</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>2,048</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1723</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>4,096</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1698</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>8,192</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1673</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>16,384</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1648</td>
<td>15</td>
<td>32,768</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1623</td>
<td>16</td>
<td>65,536</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1598</td>
<td>17</td>
<td>131,072</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1573</td>
<td>18</td>
<td>262,144</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1548</td>
<td>19</td>
<td>524,288</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1523</td>
<td>20</td>
<td>1,048,576</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1498</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>2,097,152</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1473</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>4,194,304</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1448</td>
<td>23</td>
<td>8,388,608</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1423</td>
<td>24</td>
<td>16,777,216</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1398</td>
<td>25</td>
<td>33,554,432</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1373</td>
<td>26</td>
<td>67,108,864</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1348</td>
<td>27</td>
<td>134,217,728</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1323</td>
<td>28</td>
<td>268,435,456</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1298</td>
<td>29</td>
<td>536,870,912</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1273</td>
<td>30</td>
<td>1,073,741,824</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
(In the [original version of this post] I did a thought experiment here to calculate
when the number of ancestors starts to get nonsensical, i.e. if you double the
number of ancestors every generation there's a point where the number of ancestors
exceeds the total number of humans at that point. I've removed this thought experiment
because I think it distracts from my main idea. See the [Hacker News discussion].)

If my calculations are correct, which they surely are not, then it seems like
the math [stops making sense](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7X3f2gFz4&t=239s)
around 1300. [Estimates of historical world
population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population)
says that the world population around 1300 was between 300M and 500M, whereas my
hilariously flawed logic says that I should have more than 1B ancestors at that
point.
[pedigree collapse]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse

Regardless, I'm pretty sure the basic premise holds: you've got a lot of ancestors.

Edit: Updated the title from `You have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s`
to `You (maybe?) have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s` to reflect multiple
comments from the [Hacker News discussion of this post](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37387341)
along the lines of "the real world situation is much more complicated".
Your exact number of ancestors depends on how much [pedigree collapse] there
is in your lineage, but I'm pretty sure the basic premise of this blog post
holds: you've got a lot of ancestors.
16 changes: 10 additions & 6 deletions src/favorites/words.md → src/blog/words.md
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---
layout: base.njk
title: My favorite words (and phrases)
title: My favorite words
---

# {{ title }}

This page is a running list of my favorite words and phrases.
This page is a running list of my favorite words.

* **Bochecha**. *Cheek* (Brazilian Portuguese). Sounds nice. Pronounced
"bo-shay-shuh".
Expand All @@ -15,15 +15,19 @@ This page is a running list of my favorite words and phrases.
"jah-kuh-ray". Pronounce the J like "Jacques (Cousteau)".
* **Malaphor**. *A blending of idioms and cliches* (English). E.g.
"it's not rocket surgery".
* **Piker**. *A gambler who only makes small bets* (American English).
* **Samfai**. *Con man* (Jamaican).

<!--
* **Morta na farofa**. *Tired* (Brazilian Portuguese). Literally
"dead in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farofa">farofa</a>".
* **Piker**. *A gambler who only makes small bets* (American English).
* **Quebra cabeça**. *Jigsaw puzzle* (Brazilian Portuguese). Literally
"breaks head".
* **Samfai**. *Con man* (Jamaican).
* **Vertrouwen komt te voet en gaat te paard**. *Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback* (Dutch). [Source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37649699).
<!--
* **Vertrouwen komt te voet en gaat te paard**. *Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback* (Dutch). [Source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37649699).
de cor - by heart - "know it by heart"
dormi dormi - plant that curls up
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12 changes: 7 additions & 5 deletions src/index.md
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Expand Up @@ -6,18 +6,20 @@ title: Home
# {{ title }}

Hello! I'm Kayce. Welcome to my website. I live in San Francisco. I'm married
to [Gabi](https://gabjoart.com). We have a little dog named [Cheese](/img/cheebo.jpg).
to [Gabi](https://instagram.com/gabjoart). We have a little dog named
[Cheese](/img/cheebo.jpg).

## Work

My career is technical writing. I've been doing it for more than 10 years now.
I currently work on [Pigweed](https://pigweed.dev).
My career is technical writing. My higher calling in this work is to share
knowledge effectively and to help others do the same. I've been doing it for
more than 10 years now. I currently work on [Pigweed](https://pigweed.dev).

* [Portfolio](/portfolio/)

## Blog

* [Proper Full Moon songs](/blog/moon/)
* [You (maybe?) have thousands of ancestors from the 1600s](/blog/ancestors/)
* [You have thousands of ancestors from the 1500s](/blog/ancestors/)
* [Why I'm taking a sabbatical](/blog/sabbatical/)
* [My favorite words](/favorites/words/)
* [My favorite words](/blog/words/)

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