sentientplatypus

• sentientplatypusAug 21, 2013, 6:12 AM

  0 points

  in reply to: ESRogs’s comment on: Tor­ture vs Dust Specks Yet Again

  I am basing my reasoning on the probable preferences of those involved, so my answer would depend on the feelings of the people to being dust specked/​tortured.

  I’m not entirely clear what exactly you are asking with number 1: are you just asking 1.6 seconds of torture vs. 3^^^3/​ 1 billion dust specks? If so, I’m essentially indifferent, it seems like both are fairly inconsequential as long as the torture only causes pain for the 1.6 seconds.

  For number 2, a billion dust specks would probably get to be fairly noticeable in succession, so I’d prefer to get 1.6 seconds of torture over with, because that isn’t really enough time for it actually to really be torturous (depending on what exactly that torture was) rather than deal with a constant annoyance.

• sentientplatypusAug 20, 2013, 11:13 PM

  11 points

  on: Tor­ture vs Dust Specks Yet Again

  I just want to say thanks to everyone for your comments and I now realize the obvious flaw of incorporating any extremely personal connection into a mathematical morality calculation. Because, as BlueSun pointed out that causes problems on whatever scale of pain involved.

  if you were faced with your Option 1: Save 400 Lives or Option 2: Save 500 Lives with 90% probability, would you seriously take option 2 if your loved ones were included in the 400? I wouldn’t. Faced with statistical people I’d take option 2 every time. But make Option 1: Save 3 lives and those three lives are your kids or option 2: Save 500 statistical lives with 90% probability I don’t think I’d hesitate to pick my kids.

  I also learned not to grandstand on morality questions. Sorry, about the “would you do it? really?” argument, I won’t do that again.

  However, I still fall on the side of the dust specks after rethinking the issue, but due to the reasoning that the 3^^^3 individuals would probably be willing to suffer the dust specks to save someone from torture, while the tortured person wouldn’t likely be willing to be tortured to save others from dust specks.

Tor­ture vs Dust Specks Yet Again

• sentientplatypusAug 8, 2013, 1:58 AM

  0 points

  in reply to: arundelo’s comment on: Im­prov­ing En­joy­ment and Re­ten­tion Read­ing Tech­ni­cal Literature

  Whoops, I didn’t notice the typo because I expected the misspell line.

• sentientplatypusAug 8, 2013, 1:57 AM

  2 points

  in reply to: Andy_McKenzie’s comment on: Im­prov­ing En­joy­ment and Re­ten­tion Read­ing Tech­ni­cal Literature

  I’ve got Anki downloaded, but I haven’t used it yet—I’ll definitely give it a shot now. Not having to make cards before I can start studying makes getting myself to try a lot easier, thanks.

• sentientplatypusAug 7, 2013, 2:54 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: Crux’s comment on: Im­prov­ing En­joy­ment and Re­ten­tion Read­ing Tech­ni­cal Literature

  This definitely sounds like something that would help me feel more active with my research, I’ll have to try it, thanks!

• sentientplatypusAug 7, 2013, 2:53 PM

  6 points

  in reply to: bramflakes’s comment on: Im­prov­ing En­joy­ment and Re­ten­tion Read­ing Tech­ni­cal Literature

  About a month now

Im­prov­ing En­joy­ment and Re­ten­tion Read­ing Tech­ni­cal Literature

• sentientplatypusJul 23, 2013, 3:52 AM

  0 points

  in reply to: firstorderpredicate’s comment on: Daily Sched­ules in Com­bat­ing Akra­sia

  Yeah, I haven’t had a holiday or illness yet so I can’t say in regards to that. I plan the tasks for a particular day from lists of longer term goals, such as goals for the summer currently, of course adding in other tasks as they come up. I try to decide how much to do by comparing how much I accomplish on a really good day and planning on doing about that much work, which has been effective so far.

• sentientplatypusJul 22, 2013, 10:46 PM

  0 points

  in reply to: Swimmer963 (Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg) ’s comment on: Akra­sia Tac­tics Re­view 2: The Akra­sia Strikes Back

  I understand what you mean, and I’d suggest trying to keep different lists of time frames on which to accomplish your goals for free-time productivity so you know when you’ve done enough for a day. I’m usually able to guess reasonably accurately as to what I can accomplish in a given time frame though, as long as I stay motivated on a daily basis, which may be harder for others than it is for me.

  On a daily level I try to think of about how productive I am on what I consider good days and try to equate that with what I’m working on any given day and plan to have a good day. Since I’ve been doing my daily schedule thing I haven’t had a day of poor motivation yet, which is tremendous as my motivation is usually temperamental as hell.

  Not sure if that’ll help you at all, but I figured I’d throw it out there.

• sentientplatypusJul 22, 2013, 9:17 PM

  3 points

  on: Akra­sia Tac­tics Re­view 2: The Akra­sia Strikes Back

  For two weeks I’ve been writing out a schedule for what I want to accomplish the next day before I go to bed, noting the time at which I intend to do something.

  I’d give the technique a +9 so far as it has actually worked incredibly well for me in helping with my motivation problems, in fact in a couple days I felt more motivated to work than I can ever remember being before. I’m trying to change up my schedule and leave time for spontaneity to avoid having the plan become monotonous and it doesn’t feel that way so far. And the results I’m getting are great: I find I get about 95% of what I plan done when I have a specific time written down for when I’m supposed to do it as opposed to what I’d roughly estimate at 60% completion when I just have some general idea in my head of what to work on over the course of the day.

  My theory for why this is working is that when I have a specific time to do something I feel as though I have to do it now or I’ve failed some test of willpower. If I just have general work to be done, it’s far too easy for me to defer to later, so that a lot of what was planned for doesn’t get done. I also feel like if I expect to brace my mind for dense technical learning I have a much easier time finishing the material instead of giving up and procrastinating on it halfway through.

  I feel like this solution will work mainly for people who have more flexible schedules (as I do at the moment) but could still serve a purpose for anyone with a more rigid schedule who wants to be more productive in their free time.

• sentientplatypusJul 22, 2013, 9:12 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: TrE’s comment on: Daily Sched­ules in Com­bat­ing Akra­sia

  I hadn’t seen that thread, I’ll post there as well.

Daily Sched­ules in Com­bat­ing Akra­sia

• sentientplatypusJul 22, 2013, 6:57 AM

  5 points

  on: [Link] Eliezer, PZ, Brin, and me on Immortality

  I thought the part right after Eliezer finds his notes was the best reply to the topic, and I particularly liked the smallpox comparison. Could have been better focused in general, as there was a lot of things that were a bit off track, but I feel it was worth watching on the whole.

  Also the random flashes to Eliezer’s facial expression while PZ is talking sent me into hysterics for some reason.

• sentientplatypusJul 1, 2013, 8:04 AM

  0 points

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

  I was thinking it would work as effectively because of the fire weakness thing and Harry shouldn’t be magically depleted yet. Also it would be a lot safer than transfiguring sulfuric acid. Although it’s possible the troll was enchanted to make it fire resistant and that Harry frankly didn’t care whether he was violating the rules of transfiguration, and merely was worried about speed, but I’m inclined to think incendio would be faster.

• sentientplatypusJul 1, 2013, 6:35 AM

  0 points

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

  I’m curious why he didn’t just use incendio

• sentientplatypusJun 15, 2013, 6:24 AM

  0 points

  on: Against Devil’s Advocacy

  In the way I view Devil’s advocacy it is not at all about coming up with any argument against a proposition, but coming up with a legitimate one against a belief. “What if a time traveler threw a cake into the asteroid belt?” is not an argument anyone would use in a legitimate debate and likewise is one I would avoid if I was attempting to argue against my own beliefs. Arguing merely for the sake of arguing is indeed useless and irrational, but arguing to try to expose your belief’s weak points is rather extremely helpful.