At least 6 months ago, I stumbled upon a PDF of the sequences (or at least Map and Territory) while randomly browsing a website hosting various PDF ebooks. I read “The Simple Truth” and “What do we mean by Rationality?”, but somehow lost the link to the file at some stage. I recalled the name of the website it mentioned (obviously LessWrong) from somewhere, and started trying to find it. After not too long, I came to Methods of Rationality (which a friend of mine had previously linked via Facebook) and began reading, but I forgot about it too after not too long. At some stage about 4 months ago I re-discovered MoR, read about 3⁄4 of what was available and then started reading LessWrong itself.
It took me about 3 days to get my head around the introduction to Bayes’ Theorem (since implementing a basic Bayesian categorisation algorithm), and in the process I realised just how flawed my reasoning potentially was, and found out just how rational one friend of mine in particular was (very). By that stage, I was hooked and have been reading the sequences quite frequently since, finally making an account at here today. There’s still plenty more reading to be done though!
A little background (and slight egotism alert, which could probably be applied to everything here); I’m in my final year of school now, vice-captain of the school’s robotics program (and the programmer of Australia’s champion school-age competitive robot), debating coach to various grades and I’ve completed a university level “Introduction to Software Engineering” in Python using Tkinter for GUI stuff as I finished the Maths B course a year early. I’m planning to go into university for a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Mathematics/Software Engineering next year. I’ve got major side interests in philosophy and psychology which I currently don’t plan to explore in any formal sort of way, but LessWrong provides an outlet that addresses with these two.
I look forward to future comments and whatever criticism they attract; learning from mistakes tends to stick rather well.
Hey there LW!
At least 6 months ago, I stumbled upon a PDF of the sequences (or at least Map and Territory) while randomly browsing a website hosting various PDF ebooks. I read “The Simple Truth” and “What do we mean by Rationality?”, but somehow lost the link to the file at some stage. I recalled the name of the website it mentioned (obviously LessWrong) from somewhere, and started trying to find it. After not too long, I came to Methods of Rationality (which a friend of mine had previously linked via Facebook) and began reading, but I forgot about it too after not too long. At some stage about 4 months ago I re-discovered MoR, read about 3⁄4 of what was available and then started reading LessWrong itself.
It took me about 3 days to get my head around the introduction to Bayes’ Theorem (since implementing a basic Bayesian categorisation algorithm), and in the process I realised just how flawed my reasoning potentially was, and found out just how rational one friend of mine in particular was (very). By that stage, I was hooked and have been reading the sequences quite frequently since, finally making an account at here today. There’s still plenty more reading to be done though!
A little background (and slight egotism alert, which could probably be applied to everything here); I’m in my final year of school now, vice-captain of the school’s robotics program (and the programmer of Australia’s champion school-age competitive robot), debating coach to various grades and I’ve completed a university level “Introduction to Software Engineering” in Python using Tkinter for GUI stuff as I finished the Maths B course a year early. I’m planning to go into university for a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Mathematics/Software Engineering next year. I’ve got major side interests in philosophy and psychology which I currently don’t plan to explore in any formal sort of way, but LessWrong provides an outlet that addresses with these two.
I look forward to future comments and whatever criticism they attract; learning from mistakes tends to stick rather well.