I was mildly ecstatic to find that not only does Less Wrong exist, but it’s members have articulated absolute loads of things that my own mind had danced around but not gotten close to putting into words (reservations as to the value of that aside). I actually first became fascinated with Bayesian analysis when I learned about its use in cryptography, and in the pre-computer-age Bomba Machine that helped crack the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park. I saw that it could be used in a much less narrow way, insofar as plain old everyday rationality is concerned and I’ve been increasingly interested in it since. And along came Less Wrong to just blow open the idea into so, so many tangents and applications. :) Just great.
LW has also sort of managed to shock me by covering almost all of the specific areas into which my autodidactism has ranged, from philosophy and theosophy, to neurology and quantum physics. And seeing as I am (and as I suspect many people who become unhappy with the rate that the universe is ‘giving’ them information, and decide to SEEK it) ‘educated’ in a very deep but very patchy manner, LW’s holistic approach to knowledge has been really refreshing, and I’ve had great fun (although not in the trivial sense at all) exploring it for a while. Now I’m going to start in on the Sequences.
I’m also absolutely going to seek out the LW/OB NYC meetups once fall starts—it’s highly difficult for me to find people to have, er, rational and challenging discussions with, not to mention the camaraderie that comes from shared true ‘curiosity’, as per Eliezer’s definition. I see good evidence here on the blog to believe it will live up to my expectations.
I’m a 19-yo female student in the NYC area.
I was mildly ecstatic to find that not only does Less Wrong exist, but it’s members have articulated absolute loads of things that my own mind had danced around but not gotten close to putting into words (reservations as to the value of that aside). I actually first became fascinated with Bayesian analysis when I learned about its use in cryptography, and in the pre-computer-age Bomba Machine that helped crack the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park. I saw that it could be used in a much less narrow way, insofar as plain old everyday rationality is concerned and I’ve been increasingly interested in it since. And along came Less Wrong to just blow open the idea into so, so many tangents and applications. :) Just great.
LW has also sort of managed to shock me by covering almost all of the specific areas into which my autodidactism has ranged, from philosophy and theosophy, to neurology and quantum physics. And seeing as I am (and as I suspect many people who become unhappy with the rate that the universe is ‘giving’ them information, and decide to SEEK it) ‘educated’ in a very deep but very patchy manner, LW’s holistic approach to knowledge has been really refreshing, and I’ve had great fun (although not in the trivial sense at all) exploring it for a while. Now I’m going to start in on the Sequences.
I’m also absolutely going to seek out the LW/OB NYC meetups once fall starts—it’s highly difficult for me to find people to have, er, rational and challenging discussions with, not to mention the camaraderie that comes from shared true ‘curiosity’, as per Eliezer’s definition. I see good evidence here on the blog to believe it will live up to my expectations.
Cheers.
Welcome! Glad to have you here.