My parents named me Jonathan, I’m 20 and born in Copenhagen.
I’m honored to find such a high quantity, high concentration of high quality minds.
My dad (not very generous with compliments) told me recently that I’ve always been wierd, much more conscious about everything since very young. I’m also about the fastest learner I know of.
Two major weaknesses would be that I’m mortal and my English is very unpracticed in terms of output.
I value: Consciousness, Intelligence, Practicality, Good decision making, Well thought out ideals and sticking to them, Self-control—including the ability to control what I value, what feelings I have linked to which ideas, control of my mindsets and the ability to switch freely between them.
I woke up this morning after 3 hours of sleep (and no, aside from power naps I don’t practice polyphasic sleep, yet.), I didn’t feel the slightest bit nervous about going to the math exam, that I had only 2 days earlier, by chance, when tidying up my inbox realized I was registered on.
The fact that I still hadn’t read half of the math book for the semester which just inferred I would have to learn while being examined made me focused, not nervous.
But I’m so super extremely fantastically pleased to learn of the existence of lesswrong.com, that just minutes ago I was nervous about writing this.
After my exam I had a talk with my friend about my recent progress and obstacles in context of my life purpose, which would be fitting to present now I reckon.
Three ways of of naming it would be:
The way to Universal Genius/The journey to becoming a 3rd millennium polymath/Self-development with no reason or intentions of limits on proportions.
It’s my first candidate to something I find fully valid as a meaningful purpose of my life. It both feels more right and enjoyable than anything, but I think that is because it is backed by my reasoning (or rational thought).
I won’t go in depth with that unless there is interest (also since I’m assuming LW actually might be a place where others could’ve come to the same conclusion as me), but I’ll touch my reasoning shortly.
All of which I do, I want to do optimally, my brain is my tool for doing so.
I do not know the limits of either mine nor the brain in general, and therefore see only disadvantages in setting them for myself.
If (insert whatever), I’ll do that better with a better brain, so I better train that brain.
So to not make this a book length comment; I told my friend that epistemology was my current main objective to worry about. That led to him to suggest me to learn about Bayes statistics and referred me to LW to start learning about it.
FWIW, my own intuitive explanation of Bayes’ Theorem—which may be inaccurate and wrong—usually begins somewhat like this:
Let’s say that, one morning, you walk outside your front door, and immediately slip in a puddle of water and twist your ankle. Did CIA agents put the puddle there just to hurt you ? Well, according to the theorem,
a). That’s the wrong question to ask; a better question is, “how likely is it that CIA agents made that puddle ?” b). To answer that question, you need to keep in mind that puddles can happen for all kinds of reasons (rain, sprinklers, etc.), not just due to the machinations of CIA agents.
Of course, no intuitive explanation is a substitute for math...
Greetings fellow user & producer of thoughts!
My parents named me Jonathan, I’m 20 and born in Copenhagen. I’m honored to find such a high quantity, high concentration of high quality minds. My dad (not very generous with compliments) told me recently that I’ve always been wierd, much more conscious about everything since very young. I’m also about the fastest learner I know of. Two major weaknesses would be that I’m mortal and my English is very unpracticed in terms of output. I value: Consciousness, Intelligence, Practicality, Good decision making, Well thought out ideals and sticking to them, Self-control—including the ability to control what I value, what feelings I have linked to which ideas, control of my mindsets and the ability to switch freely between them.
I woke up this morning after 3 hours of sleep (and no, aside from power naps I don’t practice polyphasic sleep, yet.), I didn’t feel the slightest bit nervous about going to the math exam, that I had only 2 days earlier, by chance, when tidying up my inbox realized I was registered on. The fact that I still hadn’t read half of the math book for the semester which just inferred I would have to learn while being examined made me focused, not nervous.
But I’m so super extremely fantastically pleased to learn of the existence of lesswrong.com, that just minutes ago I was nervous about writing this.
After my exam I had a talk with my friend about my recent progress and obstacles in context of my life purpose, which would be fitting to present now I reckon.
Three ways of of naming it would be: The way to Universal Genius/The journey to becoming a 3rd millennium polymath/Self-development with no reason or intentions of limits on proportions.
It’s my first candidate to something I find fully valid as a meaningful purpose of my life. It both feels more right and enjoyable than anything, but I think that is because it is backed by my reasoning (or rational thought). I won’t go in depth with that unless there is interest (also since I’m assuming LW actually might be a place where others could’ve come to the same conclusion as me), but I’ll touch my reasoning shortly.
All of which I do, I want to do optimally, my brain is my tool for doing so. I do not know the limits of either mine nor the brain in general, and therefore see only disadvantages in setting them for myself. If (insert whatever), I’ll do that better with a better brain, so I better train that brain.
So to not make this a book length comment; I told my friend that epistemology was my current main objective to worry about. That led to him to suggest me to learn about Bayes statistics and referred me to LW to start learning about it.
Let the learning commence!
Hi, Optimind. I’d suggest starting with either An Intuitive explanation of Bayes Theorem or An Intuitive Explanation of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Intuitive Explanation of Bayes’ Theorem. After that all of the sequences(except maybe the quantum mechanics one) are worth reading.
Thanks! Bayes theorem seems very useful, though I haven’t gotten through it all yet. I’m not a good reader yet.
Have you got any idea how far is my goal from everybody elses in here?
FWIW, my own intuitive explanation of Bayes’ Theorem—which may be inaccurate and wrong—usually begins somewhat like this:
Let’s say that, one morning, you walk outside your front door, and immediately slip in a puddle of water and twist your ankle. Did CIA agents put the puddle there just to hurt you ? Well, according to the theorem,
a). That’s the wrong question to ask; a better question is, “how likely is it that CIA agents made that puddle ?”
b). To answer that question, you need to keep in mind that puddles can happen for all kinds of reasons (rain, sprinklers, etc.), not just due to the machinations of CIA agents.
Of course, no intuitive explanation is a substitute for math...