So just to be clear: If I say “I won’t give into the basalisk because Eliezer says I shouldn’t”, will that protect me from the basilisk? If not, what should I do?
Omid
Karma: 739
I don’t think that’s what caused my angst, I think I was worried about becoming less special because more people were reading my favorite blog.
How do I stop being a hipster? I saw Bryan Caplan advising his readers to read Scott Alexander and my first reaction was “Oh no, a well-known blog is recommending people read my favorite little blog. Now more people will read it and I won’t be as special.” I know this feeling is irrational, but how can I overcome it?
Thank you, how many hours a week do you spend doing these things?
What chores do I need to learn how to do in order to keep a clean house?
I’m having trans issues and would like to talk a trans person who has some experience coming out. Send me a PM if you can talk. Thanks.
The quantified risks of gay sex post is in the early stages of development. If you are a mod and think such a post would have negative value, pianoforte611 and I would appreciate hearing your concerns before we invest our time in it. If you are not a mod but want to make some pre-emptive suggestions, those are welcome too.
Are you still using Zim Wiki?
That comic is unfair. Being called a blasphemer or a ratfink is not the same as getting bashed on the head with a cross. Now the artist would argue that this is a metaphor, but in that case, wouldn’t breaking a cross also be metaphorical assault?
Meta: I’ve submitted four proposals, and might submit more later. I don’t have time to write all these posts and I have no idea what posts people would want to read, so I’d appreciate advice, criticism, or requests.
Fixed, thanks.
A lot of websites use a “This is not medical advice” disclaimer, enough to justify a generic template.
Proposal: Don’t fear GATTACA. A post where I explain why people are afraid of the dystopia featured in GATTACA, and why these fears are unjustified.
Proposal: You don’t need politics. In which I argue that keeping up with the news and political controversies is not a duty nor effective altruism. Intended to counteract the “Rah political activism!” message I got in school.
Proposal: Quantified risks of gay sex: As a bi-curious man, I have some interest in gay sex, but I’m also worried about STDs. As a nerd, I’d like to weight my subjective desire to have gay sex against the objective risks of stds. This has been surprisingly difficult.
The risks of lesbian sex doesn’t need quantification because it’s basically zero. The risks of straight sex have been decently-enough quantified here and here. But there’s no comparable guide for gay sex.
All of the websites for gay men give vague advice like “wearing a condom is safer than not wearing a condom.” Sure, but does wearing a condom make gay sex safe enough to rationally partake in, or is it like wearing a seatbelt while you’re drunk driving? I’d like to write a post that told men how risky gay sex was and how much of that risk can be avoided. It would help men decide not just whether they should have gay sex, but whether they should get circumcised or insist their partners be tested.
This post could be a hazard if it exposes Less Wrong to legal risk, or if it says something boneheaded and damages the forum’s credibility. So I’d probably need some help researching and editing it and I’d want to show it to whoever is in charge of these forums before I post it.
Proposal: If you’re depressed, maybe your life sucks. A meta-contrarian post where I argue that you can’t always “have a positive attitude” towards bad things in your life, and that fixing your life’s problems might be a better strategy than learning to cope with them.
This writing style has become a cliche:
Imagine a hypothetical situation X. In situation X, you would surely agree that we ought to do Y. Surprise! We actually are living in hypothetical situation X. So we obliged to do Y.
Are there any ways to make it less obnoxious?
The United States green card lottery is one of the best lotteries in the world. The payoff is huge (green cards would probably sell for six figures if they were on the market), the cost of entry is minimal ($0 and 30 minutes) and the odds of winning are low, but not astronomically low. If you meet the eligibility criterion and are even a little interested in moving to America, you should enter the lottery this October.
I was considering the Shangri-La diet, but now I’m nervous.
Because of how excited I got when I received gifts in the past. For example , I cherish an expensive scarf a girlfriend gave me even though I would never have bought it for more than a few dollars myself.
How do you deal with people who are dominating conversations? I had a New Years party and it was basically 4 hours where either this one guy was talking or someone was talking to him.