Normal_Anomaly

• Normal_AnomalyApr 2, 2015, 10:19 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: Dahlen’s comment on: How has less­wrong changed your life?

  I wanted to do research that would have practical implications for the human condition, and I thought working on genetic diseases was the best way to do that. Various lesswrong memes convinced me that working toward uploading by advancing neuroscience was a better alternative. Also, the exposure to cognitive science on LW and the idea that human intelligence is the Most Important Thing made neuroscience seem a lot more interesting. I can’t say much about the comparison, since I changed my plans while still in high school, but I’m glad I did it. For one thing, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have discovered how much I love to code.

• Normal_AnomalyApr 2, 2015, 12:13 AM

  7 points

  on: How has less­wrong changed your life?

  I changed my intended college major from biomedical engineering to neuroscience+compsci.

  I give more money to better charities than I probably would have otherwise.

  I have a regular exercise habit that I cultivated with ideas I got from LW.

  I might never have read Gödel, Escher, Bach if not for LW.

  LW recommended Good and Real, the book that convinced me to become vegetarian and then vegan.

  I’ve picked up various other good habits of thought, and a much better understanding of metaethics, but those are the concretely visible ones.

  ETA: also, LW convinced me that I should sign up for cryonics, but I haven’t yet because I’m still in school and don’t have the money, so I don’t know if it counts.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 29, 2015, 11:43 PM

  −1 points

  in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Dis­cus­sion of Slate Star Codex: “Ex­trem­ism in Thought Ex­per­i­ments is No Vice”

  Most atheists do think that there something wrong with rape and murder.

  I think the problem is that Robertson doesn’t know that.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 12, 2015, 11:04 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: alexvermeer’s comment on: HPMOR Wrap Par­ties: Re­sources, In­for­ma­tion and Discussion

  If you’re the guy organizing the London party, you did a great job making it easy for me to find the time and venue despite my unbooked face. Thank you for all the effective effort you’ve put in!

• Normal_AnomalyMar 9, 2015, 12:07 AM

  0 points

  in reply to: NancyLebovitz’s comment on: Out­side the Laboratory

  Thanks for the tip! The only Turkish delight I remember having was bright-colored and came in a box.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 6, 2015, 11:13 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: philh’s comment on: HPMOR Wrap Par­ties: Re­sources, In­for­ma­tion and Discussion

  Thanks! I can see the Facebook event, and I have RSVP’d via the survey.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 5, 2015, 3:39 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: Houshalter’s comment on: Open thread, Mar. 2 - Mar. 8, 2015

  Here’s a thought experiment. Omega offers you tickets for 2 extra lifetimes of life, in exchange for a 1% chance of dying when you buy the ticket. You are forced to just keep buying tickets until you finally die.

  This suggests buying tickets takes finite time per ticket, and that the offer is perpetually open. It seems like you could get a solid win out of this by living your life, buying one ticket every time you start running out of life. You keep as much of your probability mass alive as possible for as long as possible, and your probability of being alive at any given time after the end of the first “lifetime” is greater than it would’ve been if you hadn’t bought tickets. Yeah, Omega has to follow you around while you go about your business, but that’s no more obnoxious than saying you have to stand next to Omega wasting decades on mashing the ticket-buying button.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 4, 2015, 10:10 PM

  9 points

  on: Stupid Ques­tions March 2015

  Does anyone here wear makeup regularly? I’m considering starting, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. If it is, what sort of makeup makes sense as “light makeup”? Does that mean eyeshadow? Eyeliner? Something else?

• Normal_AnomalyMar 4, 2015, 9:16 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: Gondolinian’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 116

  I think that might have been Harry making a mistake on purpose. At least that’s how I interpreted it when I read it.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 4, 2015, 9:12 PM

  6 points

  in reply to: ilzolende’s comment on: Stupid Ques­tions March 2015

  Last time I donated to the Against Malaria Foundation, I got a thank-you email that referred to me by name and said the amount of the donation. If you need people to prove to you that they donated, they could forward you the email. GiveDirectly also sends thank-you emails, but they don’t say the amount, so pointing the donations at AMF would probably be better for your purposes.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 4, 2015, 8:58 PM

  15 points

  on: HPMOR Wrap Par­ties: Re­sources, In­for­ma­tion and Discussion

  I’d like to request that when the date and time of a meetup is finalized, that somebody post as much on LW. I don’t have a facebook and would prefer to keep it that way, but I also don’t want to miss the London party. Please and thank you.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 4, 2015, 11:32 AM

  4 points

  in reply to: Transfuturist’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 114 + chap­ter 115

  Oh, right, him and the time turner.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 9:38 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Towards a the­ory of nerds… who suffer.

  The math and machines and even software and Linux part: this is IMHO only partially true. I know many non-STEM nerds. Most STEM nerds have some interest in fantasy but not the other way around and IQ may be one of the factors.

  This sounds plausible and I’ll take your word for it. I know primarily (exclusively?) STEM nerds, so my typical mind fallacy may be inflating the percentage of Star Wars and LOTR fans who also like STEM.

  What escapist-nerdiness perhaps correlates with is not IQ as such but more like family background where reading books and related activities are respected and pushed by parents.

  To whatever extent escapist-literature-fandom is caused by either high IQ or intellectual parents, it’s not caused by self-hatred, bullying, or lack of manly courage.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 9:26 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Towards a the­ory of nerds… who suffer.

  If you believe everybody is fat and it’s not because of self-hatred, why did you list neckbeards’ weight as evidence of their self-hatred?

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 9:23 PM

  4 points

  in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 114 + chap­ter 115

  If you count Quirrell, he has five parents, two and a half of whom happen to be dead. In fact, the half-death of Quirrell brought his Parental Survival Rate down to 0.5, so of course Draco’s had to go down to stay ahead of him.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 7:50 PM

  23 points

  in reply to: MarkusRamikin’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 114 + chap­ter 115

  Chaos General gets the Stone, Sunshine General gets superpowers, Dragon General gets No Parents.

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 7:37 PM

  0 points

  on: Towards a the­ory of nerds… who suffer.

  You keep mentioning overweight/​obesity as evidence that “neckbeards” don’t care about their bodies or see themselves as worth improving. Given the current state of our knowledge on obesity, eg this I think there are much better explanations for why some nerds are fat. It’s possible to love yourself and think you deserve to look great and still have a slow metabolism. Also, do we even know that being nerdy correlates with being fat?

• Normal_AnomalyMar 3, 2015, 7:28 PM

  3 points

  in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Towards a the­ory of nerds… who suffer.

  So your thesis is that kids who get hated on by other kids become interested in SF and DnD for escapist reasons, rather than already being predisposed to those hobbies. This is testable/​falsifiable and potentially interesting.

  Observations that support your theory:

  • fiction is a really excellent way to escape and lots of people do use it for that.

  • all the stuff you say in your post: nerdier, more outcast people like weirder and more magical fictional worlds

  Observations that don’t support your theory:

  • escapist-nerdy interests correlate with other interests that aren’t useful for escapism, like math and taking machines apart. What these sets of interests do have in common is that they use the same abilities.

  • Dungeons and Dragons is actually a highly social activity. You need at least four people, one of whom is confident enough to extemporize an interactive story.

  Other questions that would be good evidence:

  • Do children whose lives really suck (poor kids, kids from abusive families, kids with disfiguring illnesses) become bookish/​gamers/​nerds more often? If so, evidence for escapism. If not, evidence for predisposition. I would bet on no, but don’t have a source.

  • Do nerdy interests correlate more with IQ, or with what you call courage? Again, I would bet on IQ.

• Normal_Anomaly 3 Mar 2015 18:41 UTC

  5 points

  on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 114 + chap­ter 115

  I love how close we collectively got. Both that we came up with a solution close to the canon one, and that the canon one was just that bit more polished and elegant thanks to longer prep time.

• Normal_Anomaly 3 Mar 2015 18:39 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: Gondolinian’s comment on: Harry Pot­ter and the Meth­ods of Ra­tion­al­ity dis­cus­sion thread, March 2015, chap­ter 114 + chap­ter 115

  Shotgun plotting: sometimes one hit is all you need.