I’m a 20 y.o. student two years in studying EE & physics, though I self-identify more as a scientist than an engineer.
currently I’m juggling about 3 ‘big’ goals—general education (in progress), lucid dreaming (more of a side project; might as well use those sleep-hours for something more fun than being unconscious), and rationality (which is why im here).
I found this site (and the concept and usefulness of rationality) via some of Eliezer’s writing as i was scouring the Internet in my eternal quest for vanquishing boredom. that was some time ago (1-2 years i think), back then it seemed like yet another interesting thing so i read a bit and then schedule restrictions had me put this on hold ‘for better times’.
fast forward to a few months ago; as part of my increasing interest in self-awareness i simply realized that if i won’t work on what interests me ‘now’ then i never will, so i picked up the projects that interested me and started them.
since then i’ve read the first sequence and quite a few other articles that caught my eye. as you can guess from my listing ‘rationality’ as one of my major goals, the ideas i encountered have made quite an impact.
now if past experience is any indication, i doubt i’ll become an active member of this society. still, i’ll read the sequences and will probably continue lurking around as long as i have Internet access.
that’s about it for who i am and why im here, now i have a few questions of the practical sort:
besides the sequences, is there any generally accepted recommended reading in the field of rationality, heuristics & biases and cognitive psychology? (and maybe something at beginner-level about AI, transhumanism and cryogenics)
i already have a small list of books and i want to make sure that im covering all the basics, so suggestions are welcome.
and now for the big one;
the target—i want to read and comprehend all the sequences.
the problem—a few-months familiarity with tvtropes completely destroyed my ability to wiki-walk without a supercritical tab explosion.
further details—reading the second sequence (words one) is moving at a pace of 10 posts/two weeks while reading for a few hours/day, and im currently at >90 tabs open, burn-out seems imminent without a change of strategy.
the question—does anyone have a systematic way to read through all of the sequences (and interesting comments), which is optimized for comprehension, low risk of burning out and time efficiency?
(i have some idea for this but its still an early draft and doesn’t ‘feel’ efficient)
does anyone have a systematic way to read through all of the sequences (and interesting comments), which is optimized for comprehension, low risk of burning out and time efficiency?
You miss out on comments, but reading them like a book is the way to go for this. Many LWers found this much easier. Here is the latest epub collection. As for comments—I think they are around an order of magnitude less important than the posts themselves, and so trading away the comments in order to, y’know, actually read the sequences is well worth it. My recollection is that important comments were addressed in later top-level posts, so you’ll get to read the most important ones anyway.
Welcome! I read through the sequences by opening all tabs in order and reading through the comments by CTRL+F “Yudkowsky” and reading other comments when they interested me. Here was my advice to another person, it has links to some of my favorite posts. The OP there is relevant for advice in general.
hello lesswrong!
I’m a 20 y.o. student two years in studying EE & physics, though I self-identify more as a scientist than an engineer.
currently I’m juggling about 3 ‘big’ goals—general education (in progress), lucid dreaming (more of a side project; might as well use those sleep-hours for something more fun than being unconscious), and rationality (which is why im here).
I found this site (and the concept and usefulness of rationality) via some of Eliezer’s writing as i was scouring the Internet in my eternal quest for vanquishing boredom. that was some time ago (1-2 years i think), back then it seemed like yet another interesting thing so i read a bit and then schedule restrictions had me put this on hold ‘for better times’.
fast forward to a few months ago; as part of my increasing interest in self-awareness i simply realized that if i won’t work on what interests me ‘now’ then i never will, so i picked up the projects that interested me and started them.
since then i’ve read the first sequence and quite a few other articles that caught my eye. as you can guess from my listing ‘rationality’ as one of my major goals, the ideas i encountered have made quite an impact.
now if past experience is any indication, i doubt i’ll become an active member of this society. still, i’ll read the sequences and will probably continue lurking around as long as i have Internet access.
that’s about it for who i am and why im here, now i have a few questions of the practical sort:
besides the sequences, is there any generally accepted recommended reading in the field of rationality, heuristics & biases and cognitive psychology? (and maybe something at beginner-level about AI, transhumanism and cryogenics) i already have a small list of books and i want to make sure that im covering all the basics, so suggestions are welcome.
and now for the big one; the target—i want to read and comprehend all the sequences. the problem—a few-months familiarity with tvtropes completely destroyed my ability to wiki-walk without a supercritical tab explosion. further details—reading the second sequence (words one) is moving at a pace of 10 posts/two weeks while reading for a few hours/day, and im currently at >90 tabs open, burn-out seems imminent without a change of strategy. the question—does anyone have a systematic way to read through all of the sequences (and interesting comments), which is optimized for comprehension, low risk of burning out and time efficiency? (i have some idea for this but its still an early draft and doesn’t ‘feel’ efficient)
Capital letters. Please use them.
BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY!
Yes! This is the single most important reading, from which all others flow.
You miss out on comments, but reading them like a book is the way to go for this. Many LWers found this much easier. Here is the latest epub collection. As for comments—I think they are around an order of magnitude less important than the posts themselves, and so trading away the comments in order to, y’know, actually read the sequences is well worth it. My recollection is that important comments were addressed in later top-level posts, so you’ll get to read the most important ones anyway.
Oh, and welcome to LessWrong!
Thanks for crushing my last line of retreat, no more excuses to prevent me from (finally) reading the sequences.
As for books, funny how archive panic activates even when you expect and have pecommited to overcome it.
Will try.
Books
No tabs
Welcome! I read through the sequences by opening all tabs in order and reading through the comments by CTRL+F “Yudkowsky” and reading other comments when they interested me. Here was my advice to another person, it has links to some of my favorite posts. The OP there is relevant for advice in general.