Solidarity, my brother in arms!
The sequences didn’t help me much because I already know most of it, so they’re still extremely tedious to fish through looking for the tidbits I don’t already got.
This place tiresome and not made for us. Ugh… maybe we can make a difference here somehow.
nottilthursday
Karma: −7
Thanks. That’s actually the technique that made me feel like the burden of membership might be manageable this time around… (minus the “reading level” thing. -_-; I went to college when I was 17 and wrote a philo paper that got accused of plagiarism with no plagiaree. My problem is working memory, and most of the content here is inefficient AF because complexification is a karma attractor.)
What’s better than a language model, though, is a good autostructure. I like Artificially Aware on YouTube (https://youtu.be/-P97YNmTUL4). It makes esoteric info really accessible, and all you have to do is wish for it. I actually forgot all about these comments until I saw the video on The Bell Curve and remembered that I walked away from a half-written response.
I don’t really know what I’m doing here, honestly. I just follow research compulsions 90% of the time and see where it leads me.
For future reference, the correct answer to my question was probably this: https://www.lesswrong.com/tags/allI love a good index.
Well, good to know I can correctly identify a problem when I see one.
SCP-Foundation isn’t all that cryptic. When your subject matter doesn’t exist and your audience is the general public, everything gets explained in plain, intuitive language, and whatever didn’t get explained deliberately wasn’t to increase suspense and engagement. That’s why I like SCP-Foundation. If LW was like that, I would have joined sooner.
The Bell Curve asks the question, “Does intelligence determine your place in society?” and provides evidence that it unavoidably does. We should expect that since IQ tests were literally invented to measure traits that correlate with success in organized society. Bit of a dumb question, if you ask me. IQ’s original purpose was to identify individuals that needed more support so we could GIVE IT TO THEM. Therefore, it follows to assume that any other criteria or factors that influence IQ score (like stress responses, sleep quality, mental health, etc., most of which can also be linked to genetics,) will also reduce one’s academic performance, societal success, and quality of life. The book fails to appropriately address that, instead pitching IQ as some fundamental measure of worth in a way that is… circular to its own identity. That’s probably why nobody bothered to write this crap for the first 90 years IQ tests existed.
I doubt this was intentional, but this book is an example of how data can be used to push flimsy, morally repugnant conclusions. Meanwhile, academics eat this shit up even 2 decades after it gets refuted because we are, in fact, just as dumb and biased as everyone else. Humans like stuff that makes us feel superior, and once we have it, there isn’t much motivation to contradict it. We are very unlikely to google “criticisms of The Bell Curve” once a peer in our self-aggrandizing group endorses it,… but that would be the most important time.
I’ll gladly admit that IQ testing can be helpful-ish, but in groups of people trying to solve problems, the far greater predictor of success is diversity. The data is all over askJAN.org, but people who are already succeeding in organized society have little reason to visit. There are 8+ other types of intelligence that IQ scores don’t measure, depending which source you ask… all of which were valuable to human survival before we went out of our way to “standardize” everything...
And might become valuable again when/if everything falls apart. Some of them might include creativity, resilience, emotional agility, and humility. Considering the status of many X-risks, it might be in our best interests to bridge those gaps, learn how to harness them, and start collaborating NOW.
So, going forward, just keep in mind, self-referrential environments (which tend to be comfortable due to the absence of out-group dissent,) discourage cognitive diversity and foster echo-chambers.
Hope this helps. (finger guns)
I’ve been lurking for years. I’m a lifelong rationalist who was hesitant to join because I didn’t like HPMOR. (Didn’t have a problem with the methods of rationality; I just didn’t like how the characters’ personalities changed, and I didn’t find them relatable anymore.) I finally signed up due to an irrepressible urge to upvote a particular comment I really liked.
I struggle with LW content, tbh. It takes so long to translate it into something readable, something that isn’t too littered with jargon and self-reference to be understandable for a generalist with ADHD. By the time I’ve spent 3 hours doing that for any given “8 minute” article, I’m typically left thinking, “No shit, Sherlock. Thanks for wasting another 3 hours of my life on your need to prove your academic worth to a community of people who talk like they still think IQ is an accurate way to assess intelligence.”
AI helps, but still, it’s just… ugh. How do I find the good shit? I want to LEARN MORE FASTER BETTER.
Halp, pls.
long inhale for calmness
If someone publicly admits that they have ADHD, there is a good chance that they have been diagnosed by either a medical professional or extreme amounts of research and self-insight. In both cases, they have almost certainly already received treatment and/or implemented coping strategies. This may be your first time hearing about it, but it is not theirs.
The purpose of this comment is not to offer assistance to me, but rather, to deflect blame from the systemic problem (that I pointed out in my post and elaborated on in my replies to Isusr, niplav, and Aristotelis Kostelenos) and onto my perceived “deficits.” You should be able to find the information you requested there, and if it’s not too much trouble, please don’t advise people with disabilities to seek treatment without first asking if they already have.