My first thought was a slightly more sophisticated version of “OMG, WANT!”. This seems like a brilliant idea, and I’d absolutely love to see it come to fruition. I can taste the sweet hintings of a future rationality dojos, already envision the unfolding of a greater future where more is possible. Ten weeks dedicated strictly to the Art, with other people who will actually CARE DEEPLY about being sane.
How could I NOT want to be there?
I’m a little iffy on whether or not all of these ideas are really the best, but hey—it’s a work in progress.
I open up an application and start typing. But I’m finding myself intimidated by vastly open-ended form questions, and the mention that they’re looking for “people who’ve demonstrated high productivity” and “who already seem like good epistemic rationalists”. I have no such qualifications; I’m inexperienced, lazy, and honestly, I’ve internalized frustratingly little of what I’ve ‘learned’ on LessWrong. So I close the window.
But, the only way I can possible be sure that I won’t get in is if I don’t apply. And I do want to go, I really want this experience. So I open it and start again.
Then close it once more a few seconds later.
Open. Close. Open. Close.
I think I may have a problem.
I think I also understand why rejection therapy is part of the curriculum. Unwillingness to put yourself out there is a severe handicap to winning.
I open up an application and start typing. But I’m finding myself intimidated by vastly open-ended form questions, and the mention that they’re looking for “people who’ve demonstrated high productivity” and “who already seem like good epistemic rationalists”. I have no such qualifications; I’m inexperienced, lazy, and honestly, I’ve internalized frustratingly little of what I’ve ‘learned’ on LessWrong. So I close the window.
Here, I will do you a favor. Here are my answers to those open-ended form questions. I have given you a benchmark—you need only do better than these questions and you know you did not submit the worst answers!
And now for some gratuitous & tangentially-related anime quotations:
Shinji: What should I do?
Gendou: I give you a constraint.
Asuka: Now you have a top and a bottom.
Rei: Now you have lost one degree of freedom.
Misato: Now you have to stand on the ground.
Ryouji: But you obtain a comfort.
Makoto: Your mind becomes slightly easier.
Shigeru: And you walk.
Here, I will do you a favor. Here are my answers to those open-ended form questions.
Well worth a read, purely for the cognitive enhancement discussion. I’ve seen (and been interested in) your DNB experiences before but hadn’t encountered the iodine supplementation research.
Update: I’ve written substantially more on iodine at http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#iodine (Covering background, children/adult IQ studies, meta-analysis, power calculations, and value of information.)
Yeah, iodine is an interesting topic. There’s some evidence from Japan (all that seafood & seaweed) that current Western levels are too low and we could get a bit of IQ from boosting iodization, but the really big gains are elsewhere. Some further reading:
(I was actually going to get some iodine for my latest batch of pills, but then Fukushima happened and utterly obliterated the iodine market, obviously.)
My first thought was a slightly more sophisticated version of “OMG, WANT!”. This seems like a brilliant idea, and I’d absolutely love to see it come to fruition. I can taste the sweet hintings of a future rationality dojos, already envision the unfolding of a greater future where more is possible. Ten weeks dedicated strictly to the Art, with other people who will actually CARE DEEPLY about being sane. How could I NOT want to be there? I’m a little iffy on whether or not all of these ideas are really the best, but hey—it’s a work in progress.
I open up an application and start typing. But I’m finding myself intimidated by vastly open-ended form questions, and the mention that they’re looking for “people who’ve demonstrated high productivity” and “who already seem like good epistemic rationalists”. I have no such qualifications; I’m inexperienced, lazy, and honestly, I’ve internalized frustratingly little of what I’ve ‘learned’ on LessWrong. So I close the window.
But, the only way I can possible be sure that I won’t get in is if I don’t apply. And I do want to go, I really want this experience. So I open it and start again.
Then close it once more a few seconds later. Open. Close. Open. Close.
I think I may have a problem.
I think I also understand why rejection therapy is part of the curriculum. Unwillingness to put yourself out there is a severe handicap to winning.
Here, I will do you a favor. Here are my answers to those open-ended form questions. I have given you a benchmark—you need only do better than these questions and you know you did not submit the worst answers!
And now for some gratuitous & tangentially-related anime quotations:
Well worth a read, purely for the cognitive enhancement discussion. I’ve seen (and been interested in) your DNB experiences before but hadn’t encountered the iodine supplementation research.
Update: I’ve written substantially more on iodine at http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#iodine (Covering background, children/adult IQ studies, meta-analysis, power calculations, and value of information.)
Yeah, iodine is an interesting topic. There’s some evidence from Japan (all that seafood & seaweed) that current Western levels are too low and we could get a bit of IQ from boosting iodization, but the really big gains are elsewhere. Some further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/16/health/16iodine.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEEDB1F39F937A35755C0A960958260
(I was actually going to get some iodine for my latest batch of pills, but then Fukushima happened and utterly obliterated the iodine market, obviously.)