I’m Chris :D I’ve been lurking on and off for a few months now (after hearing about LW from some of my friends at uni, reading some SlateStarCodex, and devouring HPMOR in less than a week) and have decided it’s about to take the plunge into the scary world of commenting. (It’s a bit scary being a somewhat smart person among people who are much, much smarter)
My academic background: growing up in my family meant I picked up a lot of random stuff, but at uni I have been studying pure mathematics and a bit (pun intended) of computer science.
What motivates me: I’m very passionate about Raising the Sanity Waterline. If I learn—for the first time—something which I think is important, I get this sudden panic of “Why have I only learned this now?! Everyone should know this!”. And I get very excited when I’m helping other people learn stuff I’ve learned.
Longer version of background:
My parents have worked as Protestant Christian theological educators (i.e. training pastors and church leaders) in the Middle East since before I was born. They have always been very keen on learning as a lifelong project (a lot of my dad’s work is applying evidence-based teaching research to theological education). So—somewhat like Harry Potter in HPMOR—our house has always been full of books. To add to that, I was privileged to get to meet a lot of people from very different worlds: from my Muslim close friends at school to some of my parents’ suppporters in the US who have never gone far from their home state. This meant I encountered drastically different worldviews and cultural approaches to thinking, and often found it frustrating how poorly people understood each other. Thanks to my parents’ influence, I also unconsciously gravitated towards people who were interested in how the world works.
Since leaving for Australia at 18 for study, I have spent much of my university life learning about things other than my specialisation, both from smart friends and from the internet. So this has meant I have changed my mind about quite a few things already.
I look forward to changing my mind about many more things, and learning completely new things!
Hi friends,
I’m Chris :D I’ve been lurking on and off for a few months now (after hearing about LW from some of my friends at uni, reading some SlateStarCodex, and devouring HPMOR in less than a week) and have decided it’s about to take the plunge into the scary world of commenting. (It’s a bit scary being a somewhat smart person among people who are much, much smarter)
My academic background: growing up in my family meant I picked up a lot of random stuff, but at uni I have been studying pure mathematics and a bit (pun intended) of computer science.
What motivates me: I’m very passionate about Raising the Sanity Waterline. If I learn—for the first time—something which I think is important, I get this sudden panic of “Why have I only learned this now?! Everyone should know this!”. And I get very excited when I’m helping other people learn stuff I’ve learned.
Longer version of background: My parents have worked as Protestant Christian theological educators (i.e. training pastors and church leaders) in the Middle East since before I was born. They have always been very keen on learning as a lifelong project (a lot of my dad’s work is applying evidence-based teaching research to theological education). So—somewhat like Harry Potter in HPMOR—our house has always been full of books. To add to that, I was privileged to get to meet a lot of people from very different worlds: from my Muslim close friends at school to some of my parents’ suppporters in the US who have never gone far from their home state. This meant I encountered drastically different worldviews and cultural approaches to thinking, and often found it frustrating how poorly people understood each other. Thanks to my parents’ influence, I also unconsciously gravitated towards people who were interested in how the world works.
Since leaving for Australia at 18 for study, I have spent much of my university life learning about things other than my specialisation, both from smart friends and from the internet. So this has meant I have changed my mind about quite a few things already.
I look forward to changing my mind about many more things, and learning completely new things!
The LW commentariat is indeed smart, but probably not as smart relative to you as you are suggesting.