No-Bullshit Optimization/Risk Reduction, Life Extension, EA, Rationality, Startups, Film, MMA. Larry David is my spirit animal.
Read my posts or connect with me: https://www.johncgreer.com/
JohnGreer
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This is a great idea! I think it is different from regular blogging in that it’s more of a book club/reading group in newsletter form. How much time do you think you spend on it per month? I would also be interested in reading it if you’re open to sharing.
Which specific content on http://platformed.info/ would you recommend?
That’s a smart idea!
The Benefits of Taking Cold Showers: A 3 Month Trial
Backup your stuff: My backup process is to scan or take pictures of items. Put files on an external hard drive. Backup that external drive to another external hard drive. Then I backup up everything to the cloud through Backblaze. That way you have the physical items themselves, the items on hard drive1 that you take with you, the items on hard drive2 that you store somewhere, AND everything is on the cloud. It may seem excessive but it’s easy once you have everything set up. There are more risk mitigation tips in my post on my experiences prepping for a hurricane for those interested.
This is an interesting idea but I think something like it already exists: http://curetogether.com/conditions
Seems really interesting but I’m wondering how they can measure the accuracy of low probability but long term risks like “someone could release a hacked virus”. I look forward to reading your fleshed out post! The aligning incentives reminds me of this: https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/a7pjErKGYHh7E9he8/the-unfriendly-superintelligence-next-door
Could you say more about designing holidays? That sounds interesting!
This breakdown is great.
Has Eliezer written anything outlining why he’s working on AI rather than directly on life extension? I could guess (we need AI to speed up research, we need to make sure we don’t die from AI first, etc.) but I’d prefer to read it explicitly. Posts not from Eliezer but answering the same question would also be welcome.
In SF, the infamously “rude” waiter Edsel Ford Fong was considered an attraction at the restaurant Sam Wo.
You might be interested in Inbox When Ready which can hide your inbox and do a number of other things.
Thanks for writing. It really helps to have concrete examples of how this would affect decision making in real life.
Upvoted! The instrumental side of things appeals to me a lot more and having more content/an actual sequence developed for it is exciting!
Bravo, this is a really smart idea to help disseminate these ideas to a wider audience!
How did you like the workshop? I’ve read A.J. Jacobs’ article about Radical Honesty and skimmed Brad Blanton’s book and wondered if it was worth going deeper in. Did you change any behavior from that or the Conscious Intimacy workshop?
Yes, this doesn’t really apply to my social circle.
I periodically do things to get out of my comfort zone. I started years ago before a friend introduced me to LW where I pleasantly discovered that CoZE was recommended.
This write-up is about my most recent exercise: Do a Non Gender-Conforming Thing
I chose to have my nails painted. Having painted nails requires low enough effort that I have no excuse not to and, wearing them out in public is just out-of-the-ordinary enough to make me worry about how people will react. After getting them painted, I realized why girls say “My nails!” a lot after a manicure and worry about screwing them up. It took work to paint them and chipping them makes them look like shit. Can’t let that happen to me!
Then I challenged some friends to do it and gave these suggestions:
I think breaking arbitrary societal conventions and expanding comfort zones are positive things so I’m challenging a few people to try it and post a picture or video. Bonus points for a write-up of how you felt while doing it and any reactions from observers.
(Those who live in Berkeley are playing on easy mode.)
(People challenged may totally already do these! The list was limited to my imagination and ideas I could find. The idea is to get out of your comfort zone so feel free to get creative...)
Exercises I came up with:
Ideas for men:
Get a manicure/pedicure (it’s basically a massage)
Wear (traditionally feminine) jewelry
Carry a purse
Play a “girly” pop song loud enough for others to hear
Order a fruity alcoholic beverage
Get your nails painted
Wear a feminine outfit (or at least a pink shirt or something)
Read/ask about fashion or some other traditionally feminine topic
Ideas for women:
Wear a masculine outfit. (I feel like women have to try a bit harder than guys here)
Don’t shave your legs for a week
Don’t shave your armpits for a week
Wear a tie
Give a guy a compliment
Ask a guy on a date
Don’t wear makeup for a week
Don’t wear a bra for a week
Read/ask about sports or some other traditionally masculine topic
My thoughts so far: It’s still weird for me to see my own hands. It takes me a second to recognize them as my own. “And how pretty they are!”
I’m already hypervigilant in public but we were in public in a new area and I was more hypervigilant than normal. I had to fight the urge to keep hiding my fingernails in the grocery store. I was worried that our hosts at the Airbnb we’re staying at would be weird about it...
Now I’m caught between not wanting people to see my nails at all and not wanting to see them all chipped (it’s hard taking proper care of them!). I’m conscious of my dad seeing this. I do weird enough things that my model of people in my tribe reacting is “John doing another thing...”
I need to get rid of them before we visit our friend’s parents so that way I don’t make a weird first impression. A lot of the discomfort has more to do with being misperceived or miscategorized. For instance, one time after getting my haircut, my shirts was covered with hair, so my friend lent me her Pink Floyd T-shirt to wear. I wasn’t defying social norms by wearing a Pink Floyd shirt, but that was not the kind of thing I would usually wear so I felt extra-aware of the potential for being perceived a certain way based on how I was dressed. Likewise, if I smoke a clove cigarette or cigar, which I do once every six months with a certain friend, I would be horrified to be falsely labeled a regular smoker.
I’ll have to try this again when I’m in public more frequently to give it a fair shake.
Meta-Communication: I’m also getting out of my comfort zone because I’m not sure this is the right place for this type of post or if these kinds of posts are welcome.
Cross-Posted and editing from my Facebook. Feel free to follow me there!
I’ve done a fair amount of reading and am comfortable in the social/PUA realm but am always on the lookout for more recommended resources (especially higher-level stuff).
That’s okay! Thanks for mentioning it at all. I’m exploring content on there now. :)