I have no problem with an arbitrary border. I wouldn’t even have a problem with, for example, old people gradually shrinking in size to zero just to make the image more aesthetically pleasing.
DanielVarga
Karma: 1,781
Wow, I’d love to see some piece of art depicting that pink worm vine.
No family history.
Can you ask the second doctor to examine you to at least the same standard as the first one?
Unfortunately, no. See my answer to Lumifer.
What he proposed is in fact laser iridotomy, although they called it laser iridectomy.
It was less than a disagreement. I’m sorry that I over-emphasized this point. The first time the pressure was Hgmm 26⁄18, the second time 19⁄17. The second doctor said that the pressure can fluctuate, and her equipment is not enough to settle the question. (She is an I-don’t-know-the-correct-term national health service doctor, the first one is an expensive private doctor with better equipment, and more time for a patient.)
My eye doctor diagnosed closed-angle glaucoma, and recommends an iridectomy. I think he might be a bit too trigger-happy, so I followed up with another doctor, and she didn’t find the glaucoma. She carefully stated that the first diagnosis can still be the correct one, the first was a more complete examination.
Any insights about the pros and cons of iridectomy?
Yes. To be exact, not all capitalized words, but all capitalized words that my English spellchecker does not recognize. With all capitalized words the list would start like this:
1523 I
1327 The
558 It
428 If
379 But
Of course the spellchecking method is itself a source of errors. Previous years I never felt like manually correcting these, but checking now it seems like these were the main victims:
Graham 43
Bacon 20
Newton 18
Franklin 18
Shaw 17
Silver 12
Pinker 10
Graham is actually number one. I added them to this list, and also to the “Top original authors by karma collected” list. Not retroactively, though, just for 2013.
Those numbers are also there, in this child comment. I edited the comment to make it clear.
You are #2 by karma collected from 2009 to 2013, not just in 2013. You earned an average of 8.20 karma points from 5 quotes in 2013, and an average of 11.05 karma points from 81 quotes in total, which is near to a P-value of 0.5 in my statistical test.
Best of Rationality Quotes, 2013 Edition
Top short quotes (2009-2013) by karma per character:
55 A Bet is a Tax on Bullshit Alex Tabarrok
45 Luck is statistics taken personally. Penn Jellete
42 I’ve got to start listening to those quiet, nagging doubts.Calvin
33 Comic Quote Minus 37 -- Ryan Armand Also a favourite.
34 Nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time.Ken Wilber
32 A problem well stated is a problem half solved.Charles Kettering
48 I will not procrastinate regarding any ritual granting immortality. --Evil Overlord List #230
29 The greatest weariness comes from work not done.-Eric Hoffer
26 “Most haystacks do not even have a needle.” -- Lorenzo
24 “I accidentally changed my mind.” my four-year-old
40 Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it.-Joel Spolsky
31 Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire
39 People say “think outside the box,” as if the box wasn’t a fucking great idea.Sean Thomason
38 The Noah principle: predicting rain doesn’t count, building arks does. -Warren E. Buffett
37 It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them. -Fred Mosteller
30 If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.-Seneca
34 It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.George Bernard Shaw
15 Focusing is about saying no.-- Steve Jobs
34 “Working in mysterious ways” is the greatest euphemism for failure ever devised.TheTweetOfGod
18 “A problem well put, is half solved.”—John Dewey
34 Market exchange is a pathetically inadequate substitute for love, but it scales better.S. T. Rev
12 Death is the gods’ crime.Unsounded
24 The most practical thing in the world is a good theory. Helmholtz
29 When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? John Maynard Keynes
30 “Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.”—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
28 Writing program code is a good way of debugging your thinking. -- Bill Venables
28 It is easy to be certain....One has only to be sufficiently vague.Charles S. Peirce
30 Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations. — John Von Neumann
31 There is one rule that’s very simple, but not easy: observe reality and adjust. Ran Prieur
31 It’s a horrible feeling when you don’t understand why you did something.-- Dennis Monokroussos
26 Shouldn’t “it works like a charm” be said about things that don’t work?Jason Roy
21 Things are only impossible until they’re not. -- Jean-Luc Picard
30 Now, now, perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything.--Professor Farnsworth, Futurama.
24 Part of the potential of things is how they break. Vi Hart, How To Snakes
26 The dream is damned and dreamer too if dreaming’s all that dreamers do.--Rory Miller
25 A scholar is just a library’s way of making another library. Daniel Dennett
29 We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it. Mark Twain
29 The Company that needs a new machine tool is already paying for it. -old Warner Swasey ad
25 “Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!” ~Girl Genius
26 Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers. — Grossman’s Law
22 Most people would rather die than think; many do. – Bertrand Russell
18 A sharp knife is nothing without a sharp eye.Klingon proverb.
22 The only road to doing good shows, is doing bad shows.Louis C.K., on Reddit
28 My brain technically-not-a-lies to me far more than it actually lies to me.-- Aristosophy (again)
23 The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. Gloria Steinem
27 Nature draws no line between living and nonliving. -- K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation
26 “Anything left on your bucket list?”“Not dying...”-Bill Gates in his AMA on reddit.
22 It is better to destroy one’s own errors than those of others. Democritus
12 Reality is not optional. Thomas Sowell
27 If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance we can solve them.-- Isaac Asimov
17 Statistics is applied philosophy of science. A. P. Dawid
26 A man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance.Unknown
22 Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. Lawrence Krauss
26 Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.H.L. Mencken
27 The first rule of human club is you don’t explicitly discuss the rules of human club.Silas Dogood
23 Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics. Dean Schlicter
18 Good things come to those who steal them.-- Magnificent Sasquatch
24 We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones. -Robert Wright, The Moral Animal
19 Being right too soon is socially unacceptable. Robert A. Heinlein
14 “Anything you can do, I can do meta” -Rudolf Carnap
17 Mind is a machine for jumping to conclusions—Daniel Kahneman
26 If Tetris has taught me anything it’s that errors pile up and accomplishments disappear.-Unknown
26 A faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.Arthur C. Clarke
26 Nobody panics when things go “according to plan”… even if the plan is horrifying. The Joker
23 “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” --Friedrich Nietzsche
14 I intend to live forever or die trying—Groucho Marx
26 We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish.-- F. A. Hayek
20 I honestly don’t know. Let’s see what happens. -- Hans. The Troll Hunter
16 Luck is opportunity plus preparation plus luck.--Jane Espenson
20 The singularity is my retirement plan. -- tocomment, in a Hacker News post
19 Better our hypotheses die for our errors than ourselves. -- Karl Popper
11 Whenever you can, count.--Sir Francis Galton
22 Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.-Charles Babbage
19 In general, we are least aware of what our minds do best. — Marvin Minsky
20 It is easier to love humanity than to love one’s neighbor.--Eric Hoffer, on Near/Far
15 Keep your solutions close, and your problems closer.afoolswisdom
18 “If God gives you lemons, you find a new God.”—Powerthirst 2: Re-Domination
17 Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion.-Francis Bacon
23 Opening your eyes doesn’t make a bad picture worse. http://onefte.com/2011/07/17/bully-for-you/
19 Know the hair you have to get the hair you want. -Pantene Pro-V hair care bottle
16 The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. -Alan Saporta
16 Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse. — Wolof proverb
20 Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -- Voltaire
18 Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.--Bruce Lee
9 AI makes philosophy honest -- Dan Dennet
18 God created the Earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. -- Dutch proverb
20 “Just because you no longer believe a lie, does not mean you now know the truth.”Mark Atwood
14 History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. -Mark Twain
17 The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. -- Plutarch
18 The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself. -Nassim Nicholas Taleb
16 Like all dreamers, I confused disenchantment with truth. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
20 Man, I’m amazing! I’m a machine that turns FOOD into IDEAS! -- T-Rex, Dinosaur Comics #539
17 What good fortune for those in power that people do not think. Adolph Hitler
14 We see things not as they are but as we are, …- G. T. W. Patrick
19 You don’t have to believe everything you think. Seen on bumper sticker, via ^zhurnaly.
19 The truth is out there, but so are the lies.-Dana Scully, The X-Files, Season 1, Episode 17
13 Would anybody tell me if I was getting stupider? Mike Patton
13 We’re even wrong about which mistakes we’re making.-Carl Winfeld
13 If I close my mind in fear, please pry it open. -- Metallica
Top original authors by karma collected:
800 Graham
564 Russell
434 Chesterton
428 Pratchett
395 Feynman
268 Franklin
265 Dennett
255 Friedman
238 Newton
238 Aaronson
236 Munroe
234 Nietzsche
231 Egan
229 Shaw
210 Heinlein
209 Aristotle
201 Bacon
193 Einstein
183 Wilson
183 Sagan
175 Plato
172 Voltaire
172 Stephenson
170 Pinker
169 Darwin
163 SMBC
163 Kahneman
160 Silver
151 Hofstadter
150 Asimov
149 Mencken
149 Dawkins
144 Moldbug
144 Godin
142 Johnson
136 Wong
133 Buffett
125 Descartes
122 Orwell
121 Taleb
119 Bakker
118 Maynard
114 Minsky
114 Hanson
109 Hume
106 Sowell
102 Keynes
98 Deutsch
97 Churchill
94 Lichtenberg
91 Dijkstra
90 Jaynes
90 Hoffer
89 Marx
89 Holmes
88 Wittgenstein
87 Neumann
87 Harris
85 Jefferson
79 Huxley
76 Leibniz
73 Wilde
72 Locke
70 Mitchell
65 Meier
62 Peirce
61 Munger
58 Clark
57 Gould
54 Aurelius
48 Babbage
47 Medawar
46 Crowley
44 Diogenes
41 Carlyle
40 Yudkowsky
35 Turing
34 Schopenhauer
28 Rochefoucauld
28 Goethe
27 Thoreau
Top original authors by number of quotes. (Note that authors and mentions are not disambiguated.)
Graham 43
Russell 41
Feynman 39
Pratchett 30
Chesterton 29
Einstein 27
Nietzsche 25
Heinlein 23
Dennett 22
Johnson 20
Bacon 20
Wilson 19
Newton 18
Franklin 18
Aaronson 18
Shaw 17
Darwin 17
Taleb 16
Dawkins 16
Voltaire 14
Kahneman 14
Wittgenstein 13
Sowell 13
Munroe 13
Aristotle 13
Silver 12
Meier 12
Maynard 12
Hume 12
Asimov 12
Stephenson 11
Sagan 11
Plato 11
Orwell 11
Moldbug 11
Mencken 11
Locke 11
Huxley 11
Hoffer 11
Egan 11
SMBC 10
Pinker 10
Peirce 10
Neumann 10
Keynes 10
Harris 10
Gould 10
Friedman 10
Clark 10
Bakker 10
Minsky 9
Marx 9
Leibniz 9
Holmes 9
Hofstadter 9
Descartes 9
Buffett 9
Thoreau 8
Jefferson 8
Jaynes 8
Godin 8
Dijkstra 8
Deutsch 8
Crowley 8
Aurelius 8
Yudkowsky 7
Wong 7
Wilde 7
Turing 7
Schopenhauer 7
Rochefoucauld 7
Munger 7
Mitchell 7
Medawar 7
Lichtenberg 7
Hanson 7
Goethe 7
Diogenes 7
Churchill 7
Carlyle 7
Babbage 7
Top quote contributors of 2013 by statistical significance level:
0.00091 (61.00 in 2): gotdistractedbythe
0.00235 (34.60 in 5): philh
0.00511 (31.80 in 5): Mestroyer
0.00695 (21.21 in 19): James_Miller
0.00882 (55.00 in 1): westward
0.00882 (55.00 in 1): Zando
0.01319 (21.00 in 16): Stabilizer
0.01365 (30.00 in 4): Kaj_Sotala
0.01471 (52.00 in 1): VincentYu
0.01558 (36.50 in 2): sediment
0.01923 (21.58 in 12): Alejandro1
0.02115 (30.33 in 3): Particleman
0.02344 (23.12 in 8): Qiaochu_Yuan
0.02491 (33.50 in 2): MinibearRex
0.04559 (37.00 in 1): nabeelqu
0.05000 (36.00 in 1): andreas
0.05000 (36.00 in 1): NoisyEmpire
0.06794 (23.00 in 4): ShardPhoenix
0.08824 (32.00 in 1): David_Gerard
0.08824 (32.00 in 1): Dentin
0.09853 (31.00 in 1): HungryHippo
0.10441 (30.00 in 1): ciphergoth
0.11119 (19.50 in 6): dspeyer
0.11176 (29.00 in 1): roystgnr
0.11176 (29.00 in 1): Turgurth
0.11242 (17.91 in 11): GabrielDuquette
0.12794 (27.00 in 1): JonMcGuire
0.12794 (27.00 in 1): XerxesPraelor
0.13156 (17.33 in 12): jsbennett86
0.14339 (20.67 in 3): Nomad
0.14559 (26.00 in 1): Creutzer
0.14559 (26.00 in 1): curiousepic
0.14559 (26.00 in 1): etotheipi
0.14636 (22.00 in 2): Will_Newsome
0.14978 (19.50 in 4): snafoo
0.16765 (25.00 in 1): BlueSun
0.16765 (25.00 in 1): Carwajalca
0.16765 (25.00 in 1): pewpewlasergun
0.16765 (25.00 in 1): Rubix
0.16765 (25.00 in 1): SatvikBeri
Top quote contributors by karma score collected in 2013:
512 Eugine_Nier
403 James_Miller
336 Stabilizer
259 Alejandro1
208 jsbennett86
197 GabrielDuquette
195 Vaniver
185 Qiaochu_Yuan
180 shminux
175 lukeprog
173 philh
165 RolfAndreassen
159 Mestroyer
149 Pablo_Stafforini
141 NancyLebovitz
140 Eliezer_Yudkowsky
133 Zubon
133 Jayson_Virissimo
122 gotdistractedbythe
120 Kaj_Sotala
118 JQuinton
118 BT_Uytya
117 dspeyer
114 cody-bryce
112 satt
92 ShardPhoenix
91 Particleman
84 katydee
82 elharo
78 snafoo
74 Cthulhoo
74 Benito
73 sediment
72 arundelo
71 tingram
67 MinibearRex
63 pjeby
62 Nomad
62 CronoDAS
60 RichardKennaway
Top quote contributors by total (2009-2013) karma score collected:
1283 RichardKennaway
895 gwern
843 Alejandro1
815 GabrielDuquette
777 Eliezer_Yudkowsky
753 James_Miller
751 Eugine_Nier
735 Rain
715 MichaelGR
662 Jayson_Virissimo
660 lukeprog
619 Stabilizer
599 NancyLebovitz
585 Konkvistador
572 anonym
436 CronoDAS
415 RobinZ
408 Yvain
358 Alicorn
350 Grognor
342 Tesseract
316 arundelo
309 Kaj_Sotala
304 DSimon
300 Vaniver
285 Oscar_Cunningham
283 peter_hurford
270 Nominull
270 [deleted]
258 billswift
245 Thomas
244 katydee
240 shminux
240 jsbennett86
235 Kutta
222 roland
215 RolfAndreassen
215 MinibearRex
199 Will_Newsome
185 Qiaochu_Yuan
Thanks!
Is this the latest open thread? Generally, how do I find the latest open thread? The tag does not help.
Tononi gives a very interesting (weird?) reply: Why Scott should stare at a blank wall and reconsider (or, the conscious grid), where he accepts the very unintuitive conclusion that an empty square grid is conscious according to his theory. (Scott’s phrasing: “[Tononi] doesn’t “bite the bullet” so much as devour a bullet hoagie with mustard.”) Here is Scott’s reply to the reply:
Giulio Tononi and Me: A Phi-nal Exchange