ModusPonies

• ModusPonies 6 Sep 2013 14:11 UTC

  0 points

  in reply to: CarlJ’s comment on: How To Con­struct a Poli­ti­cal Ideology

  Congratulations! I am glad I was wrong.

• ModusPonies 6 Sep 2013 14:09 UTC

  3 points

  on: You are the av­er­age of the five peo­ple you spend most time with.

  Two big points of disagreement:

  —Don’t focus on unattainable goals. You can’t hang out with both Natalie Portman and Nick Bostrom at the same time, and empty wishing is a wasted motion. Instead of seeking role models, seek the skills they exemplify. Think about how you can meet a group of creative, engaging people within the next week. Is there an improv club or a hip cafe where you can get to know the regulars?
  —I don’t know that it works to have a single friend for each trait. You naturally conform to the group, not to the specific individuals.

• ModusPonies 6 Sep 2013 13:58 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: wwa’s comment on: You are the av­er­age of the five peo­ple you spend most time with.

  manipulation

  Yes.

  black arts

  I don’t think so. It seems about as black as using the pomodoro technique to manipulate your basic impulses.

  causation != correlation

  Yes, but given the evidence, I’m pretty sure there’s a causal relationship in this case.

  What about, say, good leaders?

  Data point: I have recently improved my leadership skills by spending time with good leaders in a group that considers those traits high status. (Good leaders still made up a (substantial) minority of the group.)

  thesis likely literally false, seek metaphorical sense?

  Strong agreement. The thesis is explicitly labeled as literally false in the source.

  If anything, to become e.g. creative, you’d be better off by meeting people who are currently becoming creative not who are already creative.

  I would be really, really, interested to see data on this. My intuition says you’d do best to spend time with a range of people: a little time with masters, a lot of time with people who are somewhat better than you but whose skills seem within reach, a lot of time with people at your level, and a little time with novices who you can teach.

• ModusPonies 6 Sep 2013 13:36 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: diegocaleiro’s comment on: You are the av­er­age of the five peo­ple you spend most time with.

  —I started by giving the long, true version.
  —When I gave the incorrect, pithy version, I labelled it as such.
  —I gave a specific, non-hypothetical example.

• ModusPonies 25 Jul 2013 1:41 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: RolfAndreassen’s comment on: Open thread, July 23-29, 2013

  For reference, it’s this thread.

• ModusPonies 23 Jul 2013 20:52 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: Peter Wildeford’s comment on: How To Con­struct a Poli­ti­cal Ideology

  Huh. My to-read list keeps getting longer and longer.

• ModusPonies 23 Jul 2013 19:09 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: Peter Wildeford’s comment on: How To Con­struct a Poli­ti­cal Ideology

  I would suggest a different rule of thumb, which I will call the Yvain Method: never post a series. Instead, write one post that stands on its own. Look at the responses. Use them to learn about the subject and other people’s reactions to it. Only then should you think about writing post N+1.

• ModusPonies 23 Jul 2013 13:51 UTC

  35 points

  1

  on: Low-hang­ing fruit: im­prov­ing wikipe­dia entries

  I have already decided to improve some of the pages, beginning with the rather sloppy page that’s currently serving as the entry for existential risks

  Ten bonus points for Doing The Work. You have already avoided the most common way these projects fail.

• ModusPonies 21 Jul 2013 18:48 UTC

  21 points

  on: How To Con­struct a Poli­ti­cal Ideology

  Without commenting on the subject, I’ll say that I have a policy of downvoting contentless introduction posts that promise a lengthy forcoming sequence. These projects usually peter out after 2-3 posts, leaving the bulk of the work undone.

• ModusPonies 18 Jul 2013 20:55 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: gothgirl420666’s comment on: Open thread, July 16-22, 2013

  “People of color” currently means anyone other than white people, not black people exclusively.

• ModusPonies 18 Jul 2013 12:14 UTC

  11 points

  in reply to: gothgirl420666’s comment on: In­stru­men­tal ra­tio­nal­ity/​self help re­sources

  Getting Things Done—David Allen

  Highly, highly recommended. This is the gold standard of organizational advice, and it lives up to its reputation. My productivity has skyrocketed in the five months I’ve been using this system. I attribute maybe half of that improvement to this book.

  Allen describes his system in detail, explaining why each piece is useful. The system is modular, and most people who use it have modified it to fit their particular workflow. The book is longer than it needs to be, but still only something like 200-300 pages. Note that organizational advice is different from motivational advice (although bad organization can sap motivation).

  Key insights:

  —Breaking down projects into small, achievable “next actions” is a key technique for planning effectively and preventing ugh fields.

  —Writing down every task in a single list that you will actually check regularly lets you stop worrying about tasks, reduce your cognitive load, and ensure that nothing gets lost.

• ModusPonies 12 Jul 2013 3:30 UTC

  6 points

  on: Less Wrong Lon­don New Ar­rival In­te­gra­tion Task Force

  This is a great idea and I will probably steal it.

• ModusPonies 11 Jul 2013 19:25 UTC

  7 points

  in reply to: Tenoke’s comment on: Seed Study: Polypha­sic Sleep in Ten Steps

  I’m not sure what this argument is about. I don’t think you two actually disagree on any questions of fact.

• ModusPonies 10 Jul 2013 19:50 UTC

  6 points

  in reply to: Alsadius’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, part 19, chap­ter 88-89

  http://​​xkcd.com/​​1053/​​

• ModusPonies 28 Jun 2013 5:02 UTC

  18 points

  in reply to: Epiphany’s comment on: Public Ser­vice An­nounce­ment Collection

  That seemed less like “all cases of depression are due to chemical imbalance” and more like “try medication and other common solutions to see if they work before investigating uncommon solutions”

• ModusPonies 25 Jun 2013 19:29 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: gwern’s comment on: Sugges­tions for Ra­tion­al­ity Blogs in the Sidebar

  Thanks!

• ModusPonies 25 Jun 2013 15:50 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: Elithrion’s comment on: Open Thread, June 16-30, 2013

  For job searching, focus less on sending out applications and more on asking [professors | friends | friends of friends | mentors | parents | parents’ friends] if they know of anyone who’s hiring for [relevant field]. When they say no, ask if they know anyone else you should talk to. To generalize from one example, every job I’ve ever worked has come from some sort of connection. I found my current position through my mom’s dance instructor’s husband.

  For figuring out what to do with your long-term future, there’s not much I can say without knowing your goals, but http://​​80000hours.org/​​ might or might not be relevant. If so, they’re willing to advise you one-on-one.

• ModusPonies 25 Jun 2013 15:19 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: gwern’s comment on: Sugges­tions for Ra­tion­al­ity Blogs in the Sidebar

  Ozy’s blog has been taken down.

• ModusPonies 21 Jun 2013 14:51 UTC

  10 points

  on: Group Ra­tion­al­ity Diary, June 1-30

  For deontological reasons, I’ve been vegetarian for about a year and a half. I recently decided to make up inaccurate numbers to see if the decision makes sense on utilitarian grounds. The sources I trust seem to agree that eating meat will improve my health, so on one side of the equation I had [extra lifespan] [expected earnings per time] [fraction of earnings I currently donate] [lives saved per dollar donated]. On the other side of the equation, [expected years of life] * [amount of meat an average American eats per year] /​ [usable meat per animal].

  Conclusion: I don’t care about animals that much, compared to humans. The result was two orders of magnitude away from even being a difficult decision, so even my horrible made-up numbers were persuasive. I’ve been eating meat for a couple of weeks, now.

  I was publicly vegetarian for a while, so I was afraid of telling people; it felt like admitting I’d been wrong. Nothing embarrassing happened. I’ll remember this next time I fear looking foolish for changing my mind.

• ModusPonies 21 Jun 2013 4:17 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Open Thread, June 16-30, 2013

  I much prefer the new version. It’s far easier to spot new comments.