My name is Allison, and I’m 15 years old. I’ll be a junior next year. I come from a Christian background, and consider myself to also be a theist, for reasons that I’m not prepared to discuss at the moment… I wish to learn how to view the world as it is, not through a tinted lens that is limited in my own experiences and background.
While I find most everything on this site to be interesting, I must confess a particular hunger towards philosophy. I am drawn to philosophy as a moth is to a flame. However, I am relatively ignorant about pretty much everything, something I’m attempting to fix. I have a slightly above average intelligence, but nothing special. In fact, compared to everyone on this site, I’m rather stupid. I don’t even understand half of what people are talking about half the time.
I’m not a science or math person, although I find them interesting, my strengths lie in English and theatre arts. I absolutely adore theatre, not that this really has much to do with rationality. Anyway, I kind of want to get better at science and math. I googled the double slit experiment, and I find it.. captivating. Quantum physics holds a special kind of appeal to me, but unfortunately, is something that I’m not educated enough to pursue at the moment.
My goals are to become more rational, learn more about philosophy, gain a basic understanding of math and science, and to learn more about how to refine the human art of rationality. :)
Welcome! Encountering Less Wrong as a teenager is one of the best things that ever happened to me. One of the most difficult techniques this site can teach you, changing your mind, seems to be easier for younger people.
Not understanding half the comments on this blog is about standard, for a first visit to the site, but you aren’t stupid; if you stick with it you’ll be fluent before you know it. How much of the site have you read so far?
Yeah, I mean from history, it shows that even when people think they’re right, they can still be wrong, so if I’m proved wrong, I’ll admit it, there’s no point holding onto an argument that’s proven scientifically wrong. :3
Hmm, I’ve darted around here and there, I’ve read a few of the sequences, and I’m continuing to read those. I’ve read how to actually change your mind. I’ve attempted to read more difficult stuff involving Bayes theorum, but it pretty much temporarily short-circuited my brain. Hahh.
While I find most everything on this site to be interesting, I must confess a particular hunger towards philosophy. I am drawn to philosophy as a moth is to a flame. However, I am relatively ignorant about pretty much everything, something I’m attempting to fix. I have a slightly above average intelligence, but nothing special. In fact, compared to everyone on this site, I’m rather stupid. I don’t even understand half of what people are talking about half the time.
LessWrong is basically a really good school of philosophy.
And while you may hear some harsh words about academic philosophy ( that stuff, at least most of what’s written in the 20th century, is dull anyway), reading some of the classics can be really fun and even useful for understanding the world around you (because so many of those ideas, sometimes especially the wrong ones, are baked into our society). I started with Plato right after my 15th birthday, continued reading stuff all through high school instead of studying, and occasionally still taking some time to read some old philosophy now that I’m in college.
Concerning intelligence, do not be mislead by the polls that return self-reported IQs in the 140~ range, for active participants its probably a good 20 points lower and for average readers 5 points bellow that.
As for relevant math, or studying math in general just ask in the open threads! LWers are helpful when it comes to these things. You even have people offering dedicated math tutoring, like Patrick Robotham or as of recently me.
Don’t underestimate yourself too much, being here and spending time reading the Sequences at your age is already something great :) And if you don’t understand something, there is no shame to that, don’t hesitate to ask questions on the points that aren’t clear to you, people here will be glad to help you !
As for quantum physics, I hope you’ll love Eliezer’s QM Sequence, it’s by far the clearest introduction to QM I ever saw, and doesn’t require too much maths.
Hello everyone,
My name is Allison, and I’m 15 years old. I’ll be a junior next year. I come from a Christian background, and consider myself to also be a theist, for reasons that I’m not prepared to discuss at the moment… I wish to learn how to view the world as it is, not through a tinted lens that is limited in my own experiences and background.
While I find most everything on this site to be interesting, I must confess a particular hunger towards philosophy. I am drawn to philosophy as a moth is to a flame. However, I am relatively ignorant about pretty much everything, something I’m attempting to fix. I have a slightly above average intelligence, but nothing special. In fact, compared to everyone on this site, I’m rather stupid. I don’t even understand half of what people are talking about half the time.
I’m not a science or math person, although I find them interesting, my strengths lie in English and theatre arts. I absolutely adore theatre, not that this really has much to do with rationality. Anyway, I kind of want to get better at science and math. I googled the double slit experiment, and I find it.. captivating. Quantum physics holds a special kind of appeal to me, but unfortunately, is something that I’m not educated enough to pursue at the moment.
My goals are to become more rational, learn more about philosophy, gain a basic understanding of math and science, and to learn more about how to refine the human art of rationality. :)
Welcome! Encountering Less Wrong as a teenager is one of the best things that ever happened to me. One of the most difficult techniques this site can teach you, changing your mind, seems to be easier for younger people.
Not understanding half the comments on this blog is about standard, for a first visit to the site, but you aren’t stupid; if you stick with it you’ll be fluent before you know it. How much of the site have you read so far?
Yeah, I mean from history, it shows that even when people think they’re right, they can still be wrong, so if I’m proved wrong, I’ll admit it, there’s no point holding onto an argument that’s proven scientifically wrong. :3
Hmm, I’ve darted around here and there, I’ve read a few of the sequences, and I’m continuing to read those. I’ve read how to actually change your mind. I’ve attempted to read more difficult stuff involving Bayes theorum, but it pretty much temporarily short-circuited my brain. Hahh.
Edit: I’ve read most of the sequence, Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions.
Ahh! I forgot, I learned about this site through Eliezer Yudkowsky’s fanfiction, Methods or Rationality. :3 A good read.
LessWrong is basically a really good school of philosophy.
And while you may hear some harsh words about academic philosophy ( that stuff, at least most of what’s written in the 20th century, is dull anyway), reading some of the classics can be really fun and even useful for understanding the world around you (because so many of those ideas, sometimes especially the wrong ones, are baked into our society). I started with Plato right after my 15th birthday, continued reading stuff all through high school instead of studying, and occasionally still taking some time to read some old philosophy now that I’m in college.
Concerning intelligence, do not be mislead by the polls that return self-reported IQs in the 140~ range, for active participants its probably a good 20 points lower and for average readers 5 points bellow that.
As for relevant math, or studying math in general just ask in the open threads! LWers are helpful when it comes to these things. You even have people offering dedicated math tutoring, like Patrick Robotham or as of recently me.
Welcome here !
Don’t underestimate yourself too much, being here and spending time reading the Sequences at your age is already something great :) And if you don’t understand something, there is no shame to that, don’t hesitate to ask questions on the points that aren’t clear to you, people here will be glad to help you !
As for quantum physics, I hope you’ll love Eliezer’s QM Sequence, it’s by far the clearest introduction to QM I ever saw, and doesn’t require too much maths.