Antiochus

• AntiochusFeb 7, 2014, 3:28 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: asr’s comment on: True num­bers and fake numbers

  I feel like there’s a meaningful distinction here, but calling them ‘true’ and fake’ smuggles in connotations that I don’t feel are accurate.

• AntiochusFeb 5, 2014, 9:20 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: How can I spend money to im­prove my life?

  We’re kind of kicking at different goalposts here. You’re trying to show that archery isn’t the best possible use of time (presumably for fitness) and I’m skeptical of your specific claims about it.

  A couple things to consider.

  • Archery, by a formal reading of the term, is a martial art.

  • Not all forms of archery and martial arts are made equal. There’s considerably overlap in physical requirements. Compare a sport crossbow to an English longbow; compare tai chi to muay thai.

  • I practice martial arts, but not archery. When I had a chance to spend an afternoon firing a longbow with a measly 45lbs draw, I ached in all new places in my neck, arms, core, and thighs. I also needed to coordinate my body in novel ways.

  • Archery is not nearly as demanding for time as martial arts; it can be done in addition to other sports fairly easily.

  Hopefully that gives you some idea of why I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss archery as suboptimal.

• AntiochusFeb 5, 2014, 2:29 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: btrettel’s comment on: How can I spend money to im­prove my life?

  Upvoted. A lot of cycling safety is counterintuitive. Being hit from behind is not as big a risk as people think while cycling, and behaving as predictably as possible (ie like a car) will keep you alive.

• AntiochusFeb 4, 2014, 3:46 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: How can I spend money to im­prove my life?

  That still doesn’t seem right to me, but I should point out that a good motivation to do a thing is as valuable as the thing itself, if otherwise you wouldn’t.

• AntiochusFeb 4, 2014, 3:34 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: garabik’s comment on: Open Thread for Fe­bru­ary 3 − 10

  Could you post a link to the kind of chair that you got?

• AntiochusFeb 3, 2014, 4:31 PM

  9 points

  on: Open Thread for Fe­bru­ary 3 − 10

  How much is it worth spending on a computer chair? Is a chair for both work and play (ie video games) practical, or is reclining comfort necessarily opposed to sit-up comfort?

• AntiochusFeb 3, 2014, 3:43 PM

  −1 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: How can I spend money to im­prove my life?

  Are you sure? Archery requires a lot of strength and full-body coordination. Archers that I know have to do strength training for it. I’m not going to make any claims about how optimal it is, but that seems untrue on its face.

• AntiochusFeb 3, 2014, 3:23 PM

  3 points

  in reply to: TylerJay’s comment on: How can I spend money to im­prove my life?

  Just bought a different model of this last week, because my bedroom is blissfully dark at night, but also dark in the morning, making it more difficult to wake up when I’d like to. I can confirm that it’s made a really big difference for easing me out of bed. I don’t need the usual snooze routine, or to set a second alarm in a different room anymore.

• AntiochusJan 30, 2014, 2:19 PM

  10 points

  on: Hu­mans can drive cars

  I’ve always felt similarly, and found myself thinking about how plastic we are with our own body sense—we seem to be very capable of remapping our motor functions into completely new devices, cars, video game characters, etc, and gaining a sense of body with them. This seem to be supported by how tied driving is to which part of your body performs the control—for me, going from a hand clutch on a motorcycle to a foot clutch completely failed to translate the skill. I have no idea if this is neurologically correct.

• AntiochusJan 29, 2014, 6:31 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: James_Miller’s comment on: Self-Study Ques­tions Thread

  Completely language-agnostic programming book is a bit of a contradiction. You’re better off finding books on the subject that use the language you’re most comfortable with. I’d look at books on object oriented programming and algorithm design, and when you’re completely comfortable with those topics, move on to design patterns.

• AntiochusJan 24, 2014, 8:14 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: 2013 Sur­vey Results

  They’re mostly copy-and-pasted descriptions from wikipedia, tweaked with added info from Design Patterns. I’m not sure they’d be very useful to other people. I used them to help prepare for an interview, so when I was doing my cards I’d describe them out loud, then check the description, then pop open the book to clarify anything I wasn’t sure on.

  edit: And I’d do the reverse, naming the pattern based on the description.

• AntiochusJan 24, 2014, 6:45 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: JacekLach’s comment on: 2013 Sur­vey Results

  I’ve used SRS to learn programming theory that I otherwise had trouble keeping straight in my head. I’ve made cards for design patterns, levels of database normalization, fiddly elements of C++ referencing syntax, etc.

• AntiochusJan 3, 2014, 8:45 PM

  7 points

  in reply to: OptimiseEarth’s comment on: Tulpa Refer­ences/​Discussion

  I don’t agree with the tone of this comment, but I admit there’s something about this that feels deeply weird to me.

• AntiochusJan 2, 2014, 3:00 PM

  11 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: What if Strong AI is just not pos­si­ble?

  In that case, research will just need to discover the necessary properties of soul-attracting substrate.

• AntiochusDec 3, 2013, 3:13 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: hyporational’s comment on: Open Thread, De­cem­ber 2-8, 2013

  Also did the same.

• AntiochusNov 22, 2013, 7:03 PM

  39 points

  on: 2013 Less Wrong Cen­sus/​Survey

  Taken. Quite tickled by the prize question.

• AntiochusAug 11, 2013, 6:40 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: telms’s comment on: Wel­come to Less Wrong! (6th thread, July 2013)

  Any and all! Though I have a lot of interest in military history in particular, which lead me to wargaming, with some specialized interest in the Hellenistic period and the ancient world in general, medieval martial arts, and the black powder era of linear battles.

• AntiochusJul 26, 2013, 3:44 AM

  19 points

  on: Wel­come to Less Wrong! (6th thread, July 2013)

  Hi. I’m a software engineer and history enthusiast. Been reading for years, and just recently got around to making an account. Still building up the courage to dive in, but this place has done wonders for reducing sloppy thinking on my part.