play_therapist

Karma: 90

play_therapist Sep 18, 2011, 8:45 PM
1 point
in reply to: jimrandomh’s comment on: Fix My Head
It wouldn’t hurt to spell out the steps Alicorn should take to rule in or out a diagnosis of celiac, since the blood test isn’t completely reliable. It’s my understanding that following a gluten free diet can be challenging at first, one needs to carefully read labels. Salad dressings, sauces, etc. often contain gluten. A friend of mine bought a separate toaster for her daughter who has celiac. I suggest specifying a set time period that he should follow a gluten free diet while keeping a diary listing all foods eaten, as well as any symptoms.

play_therapist Sep 17, 2011, 9:13 PM
2 points
on: Fix My Head
I can’t tell from your log when you ate in relation to when the headaches come on.

One possibility that occurs to me is that your headaches might be occurring when your glucose levels are low, if you are prone to hypoglycemia. You can figure that out by observing if you tend to get the headaches when you haven’t eaten for a few hours or more or/and by testing your glucose levels. If that does tend to be a problem, making sure that you have protein or/and some fat with your meals and frequent meals or snacks should help. Also, trying to avoid too simple carbohydrates and sugary foods, which cause glucose levels to spike and then plummet will help.

play_therapist Sep 7, 2011, 12:28 AM
0 points
in reply to: Mercurial’s comment on: Good resource for marketing research?
I wouldn’t so much think about omitting anyone, as focusing on who you want to attract. The default plan for most students is to attend the local public school. So, you need to think about how you are going to convince people to attend your school instead. If you are going to start a private school, you will need to convince parents who can pay tuition that it’s worth paying it and that it is better spent at your school than other available schools. If you want to start a charter, you’ll need to convince the involved government bodies to approve and fund you. You’ll have to be able to convince them that you will be filling unmet needs.

Often charter or private schools specialize. They market themselves to attract

gifted students who are bored in the public school or students with special needs students who don’t feel safe in the public schools students with behavior problems students who are trying to get into top colleges and feel that they’ll have an edge coming from there students wanting to study particular subject matter in depth, such as music, art, science

or some combination of the above

All schools hope to produce competent, mentally healthy individuals. You’ll need to focus more tightly.

play_therapist Aug 31, 2011, 11:35 AM
0 points
in reply to: saturn’s comment on: [Poll] Who looks better in your eyes?
I think this comic illustrates what you’re talking about in a cute way, http://www.dilbert.com—go to Aug. 31.

play_therapist Aug 28, 2011, 5:00 PM
0 points
on: Reason as memetic immune disorder
You said, “The history of religions sometimes resembles the history of viruses. Judaism and Islam were both highly virulent when they first broke out, driving the first generations of their people to conquer (Islam) or just slaughter (Judaism) everyone around them for the sin of not being them. ”

I am not familiar with that history of early Judaism. Can you cite any references I can read about it? (I do admit I have not read the entire old testament, perhaps it’s in there?) By the way, I have heard that Roman Catholics are actively discouraged from reading either testament directly.

play_therapist Aug 28, 2011, 4:36 PM
5 points
0
in reply to: Eliezer Yudkowsky’s comment on: Reason as memetic immune disorder
I realize this is almost 2 years after your original posting, I’m going through Jimmy’s top 100 articles now.

I just wanted to say that failing to learn the nonverbal rules of adulthood that are different from the verbal rules pretty much describes Aspies. Yes, there is a big overlap between Aspies and nerds- but I think you can be an Aspie and not a nerd and vice versa.

play_therapist Aug 27, 2011, 1:46 AM
0 points
in reply to: saturn’s comment on: [Poll] Who looks better in your eyes?
I think it’s generally best for people to be diplomatic and tactful. It’s generally best to think through the likely consequences of saying things and to filter what one says. I see nothing wrong with telling “white lies” to spare some one’s feelings, in general.

play_therapist Aug 26, 2011, 3:00 PM
1 point
in reply to: MixedNuts’s comment on: [Poll] Who looks better in your eyes?
Good point. What I should have said is something along the lines of , “I prefer people who might not be bright to people who are dishonest or manipulative for personal gain.” There is a big difference between that and “pretending to share the interpretation of reality shared by others for safety reasons.” They are two very different questions.

Thinking about it more, though- I think it all depends on the circumstances. There are cases where being honest leads to discrimination. I heard that when my uncle, who had a PhD in chemistry, applied for a job at General Mills in the late 1930′s or early 1940′s, the employment application asked his religious preference. Discrimination against anyone other then Christians was legal and rampant at the time. He was a secular Jew, atheist. He wrote on the application, “I have no preference, I think all religions are lovely.” I don’t blame him in the least.

play_therapist Aug 25, 2011, 5:23 PM
2 points
on: [Poll] Who looks better in your eyes?
B. I prefer people who might not be bright to dishonest, manipulative people.

play_therapist Aug 20, 2011, 5:38 PM
0 points
on: Good resource for marketing research?
I think you might start by deciding first what kind of students you want to attract. Are you planning to open a private school for wealthy children whose parents will pay for it? If so, then you might want to do an assessment of what motivates parents to send their children to private schools and what needs there are that are being under served. Then your marketing would be aimed to reach those parents and to show how your school will fit their needs.

If you have in mind an alternative high school that would be funded by tax dollars and free to the students, that is a very different thing. You would have to research policies and procedures to establish the schools. They may need to be set up as non-profit institutions. My impression is that in many cities students will enroll in the local charter schools mostly because they don’t want to attend the public schools.

Good luck.

play_therapist Aug 10, 2011, 8:41 PM
11 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Raise the Age Demographic
Yes, I’m married and 59. My son is introduced me to LessWrong. I don’t go to meetups because 1-I’m busy with other things, 2- They aren’t terribly convenient to where I live 3-I think I’d be an embarrassment to my son 4-I don’t think I’d really fit in. That’s partially because of age and sex, but also interests. I find some of the things discussed here interesting, but am not interested in some of the topics. Some of the postings make my brain ache.

play_therapist Aug 10, 2011, 1:47 AM
0 points
in reply to: juliawise’s comment on: Career choice for a utilitarian giver
It sounds like you’ve pretty much made up your mind.

play_therapist Aug 8, 2011, 9:42 PM
0 points
on: Career choice for a utilitarian giver
If you’re seriously considering becoming a psychiatrist & taking on 9 more years of education & training- there are a couple more things to consider. One is, do you plan to have children and how do they fit into that. The 2nd is, while you have the potential to earn much more money, you would first have to take on debt to pay for medical school. Also, you may have to relocate to attend medical school and a residency, which would have an impact on your marriage and husband’s career. Boy do I sound like a traditionalist, but they are things to consider.

I think, though, it should come down to whether you really like social work. If you like it and you’re good at it, you’ll make a difference in your work and give away what you can. If you’re not sure if you do, that’s another issue and you should explore your options. The training you’ve had in grad. school could serve you well in psychiatry.

play_therapist Aug 8, 2011, 6:31 PM
−1 points
on: Career choice for a utilitarian giver
We need good, smart social workers- there’s a shortage going into the profession. Please stick with it. If you want to focus on saving lives as a social worker, you can go into development, start new programs, expand existing programs.

I’ve been on the administrative side of agencies. I can tell you that 1- having good people makes a huge difference in what they accomplish and 2- while they might advertise that a $100 donation will pay for so many vaccines- it doesn’t really mean that if you give $100 that many lives will be saved. It’s not that simple. There is overhead, program planning. Getting a little more money isn’t going to allow them to expand into another city to start giving vaccines to a new population and they aren’t spending every dime they take in right away, they need to keep reserves on hand. In other words, you can’t really know that you are saving all those lives by giving that much money. You will know what your impact is as a social worker, though. I’d be happy to talk to you more about social work, send me a message if you want to arrange a phone chat.

play_therapist Jul 27, 2011, 9:50 PM
0 points
in reply to: Protagoras’s comment on: Study shows meditation may have potential to change the physical structure of the brain
It’s news, in my opinion, because it is concrete evidence that meditation does have a very real effect on the mental functioning of those who practice it regularly for long periods of time.

play_therapist Jul 24, 2011, 1:27 PM
4 points
in reply to: juliawise’s comment on: Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011)
I’m curious how you found this blog and what attracts you to it. I never would have, except for my son. It’s definitely geared towards young nerds, and most of the posters are guys.

play_therapist Jul 15, 2011, 8:36 PM
10 points
on: Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011)
Hi. I just opened a new account with this user name. My user name was playtherapist. It was pointed out to me that it was still being misinterpreted as play the rapist. I am a child therapist and social worker. I help disturbed children work through their issues while using dolls, action figures, a sand tray, art materials and therapeutic games. This is called play therapy and is the most effective way to do therapy with young children. I would never dream of “playing the rapist.” There didn’t seem to be a way to just modify my user name, so I opened a new account.

I am the mother of a regular poster and meetup leader. I started reading posts out of curiosity about what he was talking about, etc. Recently I began reading the sequences and top 100 articles. Some of it is quite interesting.