tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85774472708382950402024-02-06T19:37:23.272-08:00Follow the SquirrelIn which Ham provides proof of her misdeeds,<br>
makes long-winded explanations to link to people,<br>
and generally amuses herself.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-17026087791572202462016-10-24T17:30:00.000-07:002016-10-24T17:30:25.254-07:00A look through the flawed lens Oct. 24
Highlights
Articles I see that please or excite
Proper use of humility: Daniel Dewey owns up to missing his giving pledge on the EA forum, and shares his plans for how to do better.
Conspiring with the Enemy and Cooperating in Warfare by Yvonne Chiu. Some faith in humanity restored. Not all of it, but some.
Andrew Gelman posts about whether it's fair to use bayesian reasoning to convict Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-88975246608180878332016-10-17T15:00:00.000-07:002016-10-23T16:42:12.806-07:00A look through the flawed lens Oct. 17
Highlights
Articles I see that please or excite
Embodied cognition. Not in the usual sense of "clench your fists to increase willpower", but using your body and environment as part of your computative toolset.
This gives me a nice framework to mash up idle thoughts about PCK-seeking* and database design; I think we can increase ability in a lot of domains simply by picking mental representationAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-3798213902802537662016-10-09T10:52:00.000-07:002016-10-23T16:42:20.784-07:00A look through the flawed lens Oct. 9Random Musings as I trawl the news and lesswrong diaspora.
Highlights
Assortment of things that please or excite
A good heuristic mentioned on Andrew Gelman's blog: "If there's no report you can read, there's no study."
Jeff Kaufman tracked his schedule. I approve of numerical precision as a general habit.
Ben Hoffman had a lovely post on the principles of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-83247160390701506272016-10-05T12:29:00.002-07:002016-10-10T06:58:30.014-07:00Theory of rationality'Do not forget your purpose', I said to myself.
When you see lies and injustice to be fought, you will take up arms. You will stand and fight. You will make harsh moves and bitter choices. But the defeat of an enemy must never come at the cost of what you took up arms to protect. 'Do not forget your purpose.'
When you aspire to do great works, you will work. You will explore and rework. You Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-6132510847225658812016-07-22T16:28:00.002-07:002016-07-22T16:57:49.343-07:00How easy is it to just get outside of the house? An experiment.Exercise is probably one of the highest value wellbeing interventions one can apply ot their life[citations needed]. It's sure a lot easier to get errands done when I'm already planning to be out and about. Not to mention, I live in a temperate coastal city with pleasant weather and scenery that merits enjoying.
How easy is it to just get outside of the house? An experiment.
I noticed I Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-60653404841994508722016-07-16T11:02:00.002-07:002016-07-22T16:42:11.097-07:00What python topics do I most consistently need to look up? An experiment.A programmer's lament: Looking stuff up sucks.
I want better indexed docs. In the interest of this, I decided to do a little experiment. I wanted to figure out what, exactly, out of all the docs I looked up are important to have within reach.
What python topics do I most consistently need to look up?
I decided I would trawl my chrome history for programming-related pages.
Data
I noted in my Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-89407589318177047322016-07-15T16:15:00.002-07:002016-07-16T11:01:02.857-07:00Do I make progress on projects if I stick to 5 minute stubbable code functions? An experiment."ADHD is really executive function disorder" - Russell Barkely
The quote in the best talk ever made about ADHD goes something like that. In my quest to overcome this and learn how to actually get things done, I've tried many things. This is one of those tries, and I welcome you to read along with my adventure:
Do I make progress on projects if I stick to 5 minute stubbable code functions? An Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-58779526494363362742016-07-10T16:17:00.003-07:002016-07-15T16:15:45.969-07:00Rationality-Habits Anki deckIt occurred to me, as I was discussing my use of Anki for habit-building with a good friend, that a decent portion of my personal growth is getting dutifully recorded as flash cards. "Why not share the decks?," I thought. "A random soul might find my notes useful, or my friends at least might consider it informative of my strange thought process." Here is a deck of rationality habits, filtered a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-66889138827175681952016-04-02T14:07:00.000-07:002016-04-02T14:07:56.483-07:00Testing: How much could I learn on Rosalind.info?Hello, internet!
If you're curious what I get up to with my time, observe! I ran a little experiment today. This post reports it in a hodgepodge mix of "personal notes" and "terse scientific report".
If you take thirty seconds out of your day to comment, I will owe you one. Please encourage the norm of testing everyday ideas empirically; Be my miniature peer review.
How much would rosalind.info Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-45282619676512580042016-04-02T09:00:00.000-07:002016-04-02T15:48:05.198-07:00Checklist for a Good Anki Card
This is my personal Checklist for making a Good Anki Card. Refer to as it helps, ignore it as it doesn't.
Better version here.
TLDR:
☐ I know why I want to make this card☐ I know what I need to know for this card☐ I know how to recognize when/where I need this☐ There are no almost or partially right answers to this card☐ There are no technically correct answers which comically miss the point☐ Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-38675487272136744802016-03-19T18:30:00.000-07:002016-03-19T18:30:31.862-07:00An Experiment In Morning BluesHello friends!
If you're curious what I get up to with my time, observe! I ran this little self-study over the past couple of weeks. This post reports it using a hodgepodge style somewhere between personal notes and a scientific paper.
If you want to encourage the norm of testing everyday ideas empirically, or just do me a solid favor, please be my mini peer-review and take a moment to comment.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-10635238272151333442016-03-16T17:36:00.001-07:002016-07-11T16:08:04.442-07:00Anki Deck for Systematic Program DesignI want to know what skills I can work on to write elegant code. In particular, I want to know the secret sauce to making a comprehensive project I can show off to people
Methods: I searched an edX course's materials for some causal intuitions I could reinforce. (Background understandings, like "If I get X right then Y will go a little more smoothly".) I then stuck my insights into an Anki Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-8835276691181505752016-03-15T18:25:00.001-07:002016-03-16T17:37:01.307-07:00What's a good metacognitive mirror for defeating self-loathing?
Someone asked that question on a forum I frequent, and I thought I'd share my answer here.
First, what is a metacognitive mirror?
People have bias. We sometimes have ulterior motives nudging our decisions in certain ways, a kind of bias we're all aware of, and our perception of the world also develops some quirks based on the way our brains work. (See Kahneman and Tversky)
For example: Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-81657701210877096932016-03-07T18:26:00.005-08:002016-03-18T20:21:49.340-07:00Political campaigning: Some California BallotsTLDR: I checked Ballotpedia, and can give soundbites but do not significantly less confused about politics than I was before.
I saw a poster advertising paid political campaigning and called in on a whim.
Well, 70% whim - 20% intentionally pushing my comfort zone - 10% pleasegivemeajobIwantmoney
Motivation: If something comes of the interview they set up tomorrow and I go campaigning for spare Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-35453171164013725622016-03-05T12:09:00.005-08:002016-03-05T12:21:28.660-08:00Goal settingAn incomplete list of stuff I'm up to
Alumni Pair Debugging
Some in my community express feelings of extreme loneliness and ineffectiveness at times. To counteract both of these, I started a service to pair people up regularly to troubleshoot their problems together. I engineered the system to stay stable and low-effort from the start so they could rely on its continuation; now I'd like to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-37930026090957952992016-03-05T10:27:00.000-08:002016-03-05T12:22:16.917-08:00Trends and Disagreements in the Rationalist CommunityEdited from my personal notes format again.
Question: What are the trends and disagreements in the rationality community this month?
Motivation: I want to know what's up, and I want to make a difference. Avoiding the valley of bad rationality seems useful. Also the community has a distinct motte-and-bailey going on about whether rationality means "whatever wins" or the flavor of the LW Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-43194196160948724302016-03-02T14:02:00.000-08:002016-03-04T20:52:50.989-08:00I imply that you imply that I imply that you suckI made a note on a Facebook event to warn people who have issues with pets and small children that this event is likely to include pets and small children. I tried to word it in a way that would get people to contact me to deal with their concern instead of just not going, or suffering in silence. I got a pretty strong backlash, paraphrased:
"It's worded like an offer to sequester babies away Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-20175622394348100732016-01-25T12:15:00.000-08:002016-03-05T12:06:59.048-08:00With your eyes closed, tell me how to snarkI randomly picked an interview question to answer badly. The permission to give awful answers allays the terror of not finding the perfect and true answer, which can paralyze me to the point I never answer at all. The question I got was a lot more random than I anticipated... I answered it anyways.
With your eyes closed, tell me step-by-step how to tie my shoes.
first reach down to your Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-5088993190420119952016-01-16T14:33:00.000-08:002016-03-05T12:03:04.494-08:00Nice things for a struggling friendIn this post, I will experiment with modifying my personal research notes to a sane, shareable format.
These notes have a story to them. A while back, I stumbled upon a piece of brilliant advice: “Here’s how to write your thesis without suffering: every day, write down an experiment you ran and record the result, even if all you did was answer a question using a Google search”. Working with Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-12394916174568483652015-03-17T10:54:00.001-07:002016-03-05T12:02:22.146-08:00Comparative thoughts on the Bay Area
"If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy."
- Eliezer Yudkowsky
So I recently visited the Bay Area, again, and I despaired leaving, again. I love it there. While I stay there, I feel like any problem is solvable. It seems like I could achieve my potential in actuality, instead of just in theory. What about that place affects me so deeply? Do I feel freer for the mere fact that Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-17242576630213924802015-01-14T11:10:00.003-08:002016-03-05T12:00:13.624-08:00Mad Hatty Thoughts(edited freewrite from Dec. 22, 2014)
Today, my thoughts begin with hats. I'm wearing one other than my usual today.
Hats, in fiction and to some degree in real life, externalize your core self. You choose to wear a hat, in a way that you do not choose to need glasses, but also in a distinctly different way from which you choose your wardrobe. Glasses can mean 'cool' or 'nerdy' or 'smart'; theyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-56529567485331637902015-01-11T21:19:00.003-08:002016-03-05T11:56:51.880-08:00Write What You Know, musings on rationalist buddhism
drafted Sep 23, 2014
“Write what you know,” advises Mark Twain, as does every other person who deigns to advise novice story weavers. I know a rationalist who knows his stoic philosophy, and it shows when he speaks. He likes to expound in detail how rationality and stoic philosophy mesh together; his exuberance in communicating his thoughts inspired me to try it myself. I know too littleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-54510104513830136622015-01-09T21:15:00.004-08:002016-03-05T11:51:27.554-08:00Feels
A free-write from Dec 14, prettied up to be intelligible and self-relevant
I want my friends to be happy.
Part of this is a simple need for security: I rely on others' goodwill for several necessities right now and dislike the thought of losing access to those necessities.
But I also want my friends’ happiness for its own sake. I want them to know that they are people worth knowing. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-23980403756421858062014-08-24T04:33:00.001-07:002016-03-05T12:01:47.875-08:00Alright, so the gist of the thing is that I'm pulling a Gwern.
A while back, I decided I was going to start journaling.
I had a journal to do it in and everything, and carried it around pretty consistently. Eventually I did get into the habit of actually writing in it.
A month or so passes by. I notice, "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if I recorded some specific stuff so I could get a sense of cause and effect in my life?" So I start being a bit more Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8577447270838295040.post-5734452001145663272014-07-14T21:19:00.002-07:002016-03-05T11:48:09.381-08:00June RamblingsOn the wall in my bedroom, I have a grayscale printout of a valkyrie.
I'm not sure why I thought valkyries would be a good symbol for my desire to protect the people I care about, honestly. Valkyries collect the souls of the dead--those who are long beyond help.
Visually, at least, they're like a fiercer kind of guardian angel. Really, the biggest difference between a valkyrie and a guardian Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13865500978849184413noreply@blogger.com1