I gave two conference papers in the last month, both in a fairly new field to me, having never attended a conference before. I got good responses and lots of encouraging feedback.
Bill_McGrath
Karma: 371
I know there are some R Scott Bakker fans on here, and I was thinking recently about the Second Darkness series. Rot13d for spoilers:
Vg’f n funzr gur pbafhyg ner rivy. Vs gurl jrera’g fb pbzzvggrq gb rivy npgf, gurl pbhyq ratvarre n jnl gb tvir rirelbar n unccl raqvat.
Jr ner gbyq gung fbepreref ner qnzarq, naq gung gur hygvzngr tbny bs gur Vapubebv vf gb erqhpr gur ahzore bs yvivat fbhyf ba gur cynarg gb srjre guna 144,00 va beqre gb frny gur cynarg sebz gur Bhgfvqr naq rfpncr qnzangvba. Gur Pbafhyg pbhyq erpehvg nf znal fbepreref nf cbffvoyr, genva gurz gb terng cbjre naq gura rkgraq gurve yvsrfcnaf jvgu gurve Grxar, juvyr hfvat gurve vasyhrapr gb zbir gur phygherf bs gur jbeyq gbjneqf n zber uhznar naq pvivyvmrq zbenyvgl (be, tvira gung gurer ner nccneragyl jnlf gb trg qngn ba ubj gb orpbzr fnirq be qnzarq, ng yrnfg gbjneqf n fbpvrgl gung vf uvtuyl rssrpgvir ng qvfpbhentvat qnzavat npgf). Bapr n fhssvpvrag ahzore bs fbepreref (fbzrjurer whfg orybj gur 144,000 svther) unir orra npphzhyngrq naq gur jbeyq pbafvfgf cevznevyl bs aba-qnzarq vaqvivqhnyf, gur Pbafhyg pbhyq hfr gurve uhtr zntvpny cbjre gb dhvpxyl trabpvqr gur ragver cynarg, oneevat gurve bja zrzoref. Zbfg fbhyf jvyy or fnirq, naq gur qnzarq fbepreref jvyy erznva ba n frnyrq cynarg, univat nibvqrq qnzangvba.
Guvf ng yrnfg nccrnef gb or n jnl gb trg gur znkvzhz ahzore bs fbhyf n unccl raqvat—juvyr jr qba’g xabj jung unccraf ba gur cynarg bapr vg vf frnyrq sebz gur Bhgfvqr, gur Vapubebv frrz vagrag ba npuvrivat fb gurl zhfg oryvrir vg’f qrfvenoyr.
Last month, I visited a school of dance with a number of other composers from my university, to meet students there and explore possible future collaborations. I had misunderstood how the meeting would take place, and so I only realised I’d have to give an informal presentation about my music when I was already at the train station.
I’m an okay public speaker but nervous about presenting on my music, but the hastily-improvised presentation went really well, I got a great response from the dancers, and met several people who expressed an interest in working with me in the future.
I’m feeling more confident about my presentation skills, my ability to communicate about my music, and my music itself as a result.
Survey taken!
I tried it a few days ago and it didn’t submit as far as I can tell—in between I looked up the answer to the calibration question, but I answered as I did originally (NAILED IT anyway).
Survey gripe: I answered “left-handed” for the handedness question, but I only really write with my left hand, and do everything else with my right. My left hand might be a little more dextrous but my right is definitely stronger. As such I’d see myself as cross-dominant rather than ambidextrous; is this something that could be included on future surveys or is it not useful for the kind of data you’re collecting?
I have a moral question.
Is it better for the last million people of a certain population to die, or for two million people all around the world, randomly selected and evenly distributed, to die? For the first group, their death would not just result in loss of human life, but potentially loss of a lot of cultural information; their language, their religion, their mythology and folklore, their music. I feel like this cultural information has value.
Thoughts?
I didn’t have a strong reaction to it. It’s gross, I shrugged and moved on.
Ah yes; that’s roughly what happens in the film. I see what you mean.
I’ve not read the books—don’t tell me that Katniss figures out it’s a story at the end of the last one?
What an ending that would be: Harry uses the Self-Indication Assumption to conclude that he is most probably a character in a Muggle story about magic, then manages to ‘blackmail’ the author into granting him godhood in order to stop Harry from committing suicide in a literarily unsatisfying fashion, since the author would prefer the former as an ending over the latter.
Am I the only one who thinks that would be a horrible ending?
The Captain Awkward advice blog. They’re not currently taking questions but the archives cover lots of material, and I found just reading the various responses on many different problems, even ones that were in no way similar to mine, allowed me to approach my issues from a new perspective.
The concept of privilege of the “check your...” variety. It’s not without it’s problems as a tool—it can too easily be used as a Fully General Counterargument—but it’s an important thing to be aware of and probably the single concept I’ve learned in the last two years that has most changed my outlook on the world.
Over the weekend, a potentially unpleasant social situation I was involved in didn’t turn into lots of horrible drama. Everyone involved, as far as I can see, handled it well and with great maturity; I was told by someone external to but aware of events that I acted very well in the aftermath. As far as I can tell, everything is cool and back to normal with all involved parties now.
What I have learned:
I am better at certain social things, such as acting normally and avoiding awkwardness, than I had realized or expected.
I am better at handling my own emotions, and I think at modelling and considering the emotions of others, than I had expected.
I am not good at judging other people’s level of drunkenness.
EDIT: Maybe it would be useful to put in some resources I feel have helped me to frame social interactions and lead me to these successes?
A very good advice-column blog called Captain Awkward has been great for helping me think about my own and others’ emotions, and how to deal with them appropriately. Casually reading feminist blogs in general has given me a better insight to some social interactions (not necessarily to do with gender issues). I’ve been doing this on occasion for about 8 months, and I think it’s helped a few times.
More recently, discussion of “creepiness” and social behaviour has been something I’ve read a bit about—not so much that I’m worried about being creepy myself (that’s a small part of my motivation) but out of a general interest in gender interaction. A lot of this has been through Reddit; though it gets a bad press for misogyny, there’s a lot of internal criticism that goes on, and areas dedicated to these topics, so it can be a useful resource for anyone who wants to read discussions in this area.
Individual.
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Synt
Qnivan ZpPnyy
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Fun post. I’m not a fan of the show really, but it’s a neat idea. Have you seen Pointless? It’s almost the reverse of Family Fortunes.
Does anyone know anything about, or have any web resources, for survey design? An organization I’m a member of is doing an internal survey of members to see how we can be more effective, and I’ve been tasked with designing the survey.
I only heard about it recently, and did not think I ever experienced it/was capable of experiencing it. I was reading the /r/asmr reddit the other day, and saw a reference to “the goosebumps you get from really good music”, and then got an ASMR-like response. Not sure if it was a true reaction, and I was listening to music that wouldn’t fit with the usual description of ASMR triggers. I’m pretty suggestible I think, so it may have been the effect of remembering “really good music goosebumps” and then overreacting to that.
How much is the decrease? I imagine that the effect of being responsible for your child’s death by smothering is probably a lot more upsetting and mentally damaging than that of having a child die from SIDS. Maybe that’s lessened by knowing the above information; but most people don’t.
Red Fang (three more songs) - I guess you could call them stoner metal. They’re like a less thinky Mastodon, but some of their more recent stuff (not linked) seems to be going down a more progressive route.
I found a neat little live studio album of Tower of Power recently. I can’t find a good version of this album online, but here’s two songs for anyone who doesn’t know them, and the album is called Tower of Power Direct.
It’s really clichéd for musicians to list her as an influence, but I’m currently deep in a Kate Bush phase. I must have listened to Never for Ever about five times in the last few days.
I’ll be arriving in the city about 3.45 and may not have internet access after noon or so—I’ll assume the Mercantile unless you post otherwise.
EDIT: Closer to 5, now. Will the meetup still be on?
This article is interesting, particularly as the topic of LW parenting does come up occasionally.
What the author describes doesn’t exactly promote rational thinking in the kids, rather telling them how to win arguments, but there is a degree of evaluation-of-argument in there (“Mary should give you the car because she’s a pig?”) and it teaches a useful skill early. Rationalists should win after all.
Does anyone have any good web resources on how to be a good community moderator?
A friend and I will shortly be launching a podcast and want to have a Reddit community where listeners can interact with us. He and I will be forum’s moderators to begin with, and I want to research how to do it well.