Less Wrong mentoring thread

Does anyone else feel like this sort of threads/comments should be somehow better archived/presented/integrated? Threads like this are vanishing far to fast into oblivion. Low-hanging fruits of lesswrong: better "advertising" the possibilities/chances of the LW-network.

Examples include:

• The thread where people offered listening-time to depressed people.
• The thread with the ongoing survey for zip-codes of LWlers.
• This mentoring-thread.

A related idea is for people who have some goal they want to achieve, like having a romantic relationship with someone of their preferred gender

I am 22 years old, and I have never had a girlfriend. At no time in my life have I remained single by choice.

I strongly suspect that this has more to do with a general inability to form social contacts, than anything specific to forming a pair-bond. Wherever the difficulty, the goal is to meet and befriend someone with whom I can share a meaningful and lasting intimate relationship, and socializing-in-general would be no more than a means to that end.

It is likely that I have heard all the general advice on this subject, multiple times, and enacted it where applicable. Nothing in the cached wisdom has proven helpful. I am still single. And not merely single but genuinely alone without friends or associates, and starting to feel frustrated in helplessness about it.

If there's help to be had, I would be glad of it.

I need a mentor from a patient person who has their shit together.

I made poor choices in college and graduated this summer with a meager GPA in an unprofitable major. I am now working a $9/hr job in food service. In the five months since I graduated I've added a significant achievement to my resume, but I've also wasted a lot of time on frivolous pleasures. I fear the comfort of living with my parents is inhibiting my drive to get a real job.

I would appreciate a mentor who could guide me through the process of finding a "real" job. (Defined as paying $30k per year, with benefits and advancement opportunity). In return, I can donate a token amount to the charity of your choice.

I'm past 40 and have done a few things right in my life. Already in contact with one Thiel candidate, but willing to advise more. "Mentoring", depending on the time commitment - i.e. if that doesn't entail more than some email exchanges and the occasional live conversation.

I am a female high school student who aspires to develop into a self-made, rational thinker. To realize this aspiration, I would like to explore logic-related studies such as physics, mathematics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science. While I have involved myself in math and science initiatives in school and continue to do so, I am more interested in devoting myself to the pure study in a method which I can control.

My circumstance demands that I cope with and finish high school. I am trying to turn my appreciation for rationalism into a fulfilling skill (mastery of how to learn and apply these interests) which makes "coping" with my circumstance enjoyable.

Previous attempts at addressing this issue have resulted in failure because of my inexperience and ignorance with and within these studies. I am (supposedly) experiencing calculus and physics for the first time in school right now; I still feel unsatisfied with my understanding of basic algebraic and geometric concepts. Pursuing formal educational opportunities, even those outside of classes, like summer research at a university or participation in Science Olympiad, has been achieved. My problem with these achievements is that they were not indicative of my true experience or, rather, inexperience. It was possible to qualify for these opportunities based on an application or test score; the opportunities were centered around making me a more competitive college applicant.

I am finding my schooling unsatisfying; I am not especially motivated by earning good marks and fulfilling the requirements which are imposed on me. I would like to foster appreciation, critical thinking skills, and conceptual understanding of my interests outside of formal educational methods. Moreover, I would like to continue this pursuit as a lifelong activity.

What insight or materials can you offer that can help me apply myself to my interests in an engaging and achievable manner?

I imagine that insight from other, more experienced "rationalists" or even mentors would be helpful for me. I('ve) experience(d) bouts of existential depression and often feel isolated from most of the people physically around me. Talking to understanding humans on the internet is helpful. Actually, I imagine that the most "ideal" situation would be to find one such teacher, mentor, or group with a collective goal and study as a part of such a "school". However, I realize the improbability of arranging this and instead look for other possibilities. Thank you.

Great idea. But it will only happen if one or more heroes put in lots of work to make it happen.

This sounds cool to me. I'm an 18 year old guy, and I've made some incredibly poor choices throughout high school. Since I spent most of my early high school days in a depressive funk, I had a very low GPA and almost no social life whatsoever. I wish I could say that I picked up my GPA after I grew out of my depression, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't, and I dropped out of high school recently. I can't make any excuses for that, only that academia wasn't doing anything for me and I was learning more as an autodidact. I'm currently working on a scholarship opportunity for Tec^Edge.

Also, I've had a girlfriend once for about a month three years ago. I've been single ever since, not entirely by choice. By most standards, I am completely alone. There are some people my age who I keep in contact with (mainly over Skype) and who I actually hang out with occasionally in real life, but I have no one (outside my family) who I would actually call a friend. It sucks. I'm pretty sociable with people who share my interests (a.k.a transhumanists and rationalists), but I have a hard time keeping a conversation going with people for more than five minutes about non-science/technology/transhumanism related things.

I'm extremely interested in science and technology, as you already guessed, and reducing existential risk would be something that I would find extremely valuable and fulfilling, more than anything else. To be perfectly honest, after reading papers on existential risk, I'm scared shitless about the future forty to fifty years from now, and doing something to help steer humanity in the right direction, however small, is very important to me.

So, yep. I need advice. Because I don't really know where I'm going.

I'm in my last year of studying CS/Math as an undergradate at MIT (I'm going to do a Master's next year though). I'd really like some advice about what I should do after I graduate - Grad school? Industry? Any alternative?

I care a fair amount about reducing xrisk, but I am also fairly skeptical that there is much I can do about it right now.

I have job offers with Google and some tech start-ups, and I suspect I could get a job in finance if I tried. I personally have some desire to start a tech company one day. I'm not sure what the tradeoff between doing good work and making money is, but I suspect my main goal should be maximizing expected income. I'd try to use most my money to support people doing good things. (Though I'm not sure money is the limiting factor here. Perhaps discovering what to do would be better...)

I'm not sure whether I can get into a top graduate school - I have a 5.0 technical GPA (4.8 overall), but no research record or particularly good recommendations at the moment. I believe I am much better than most mathematicians/computer scientists, but I am also not sure what sort of research I could do that I would consider worthwhile. Realistically, I am at least 2 huge leaps down from being as good as, say, John Von Neumann (that is, people far from as good as him are far better than me). I also have really bad attention span, and tend not to think about problems for extended periods of time. I'm not sure this is worth factoring in, as it can probably be remedied. Even if I am not suited for solving the really hard theory problems out there, but minimally, I can code and do math better than most people in most labs. I'm basically open to going to graduate school in any field, as long as I'd make an impact, and hopefully have a comparative advantage.

I've talked to a number people about this, but I'm still pretty uncertain about what to do. I'd love to hear people's thoughts. Thanks in advance!

I'd totally like to help people!

For reference, I ran a robotics team, got into Harvard, am taking a gap year, and am currently being paid to do things that I find interesting.

I'd also like to reduce x-risk and encourage a friendly singularity, and my current plan is to create a rationalist community capable of developing and empirically testing other rationality moves like kicking. I don't think that I have the skills necessary to achieve that yet, but I'm optimistic about my ability to acquire them.

I am in my last year of undergrad trying to finish up my Economics major, which I am disliking more and more. I am dismayed at myself for the sudden jump in akrasia I experienced when I got to college, which I partially attribute to my general dislike of my classes and partially because I had given up on being pre-med-which I suspect was a driving motivation to do well back in high school.

Long story short, I would like help combating my procrastination/akrasia tendencies, and if anyone has any advice on how to find a new passion or drive in life, I'd love to hear it.

I'm 20 years old and interested in mentoring folks 18 and younger.

I'm interested in helping folks of all ages waste less time on the Internet.

Hi,

It looks like I could be a couple of years late, but I could quite do with a mentor.

The things I could do with some help are:

1) I've been offered a place at University in the UK to study philosophy and psychology, but after reading a few fairly damning articles about philosophy, I'm not sure if it's really for me anymore. I'm contemplating something more cognitive sciency.

2) I could do with someone to ask a few basic questions about the less wrong community and how it all works, because i'd quite like to get more involved, but i'm not quite sure how.

3) i'm very interested in self improvement,

Anyone who could help me with any of these things would be great, whether its just to answer a few questions or to become a more long term mentor.

thanks

I'm a junior in high school. My GPA isn't terrible, but isn't good. 3.6ish. Meh. I'm of relatively average intelligence, I just possess a genuine curiousity for learning and stuffs. So... learning for me requires more effort than most people on here, it seems.

Basically, I'm confused about politics. I don't really know how to define myself, or even what side I like better (US politics, Republican vs. Democrat), or even if I should identify with a certain party. I have trouble even determining what I think about political issues, because it seems to me like the objective truth, if there is any in politics (to me it seems that multiple solutions exist... yet I assume one has to be at least somewhat more advantageous), is extremely muddled and difficult. And given it's hard to find an unbiased opinion... I just want the truth, damnit.

If anyone is interested in talking to me about stuffs, feel free to email me or add me on Facebook and message. I'm a part of the LessWrong high school club on Facebook.

I love this plan, and would be excited to participate, both as mentor and mentee. I would even be happy to hear advice from people younger than myself. I am a software developer, machine learning researcher, and philosopher of science living in Cambridge (I often go to the meetups there).

consider it an experiment in tapping Less Wrong's social capital in a novel fashion.

This is a good idea. We should be doing more to help each other win.

I mainly need an anti-akrasia partner.

I am a young person who graduated from college with, like MileyCyrus, an unprofitable major. However, my GPA should be good enough to go to a grad-school. There, I intend to pass the time while learning more profitable skills. In the mean time, I am working on my applications and attempting to find a temporary job.

If someone is willing to go further than an anti-akrasia partnership, and form a mentor-mentee relationship, I am in tentative favor of this. Like MileyCyrus, at a pre-defined point in the mentor-mentee relationship, I am willing to make token donations to a suitable charity.

TL;DR: Should I give up my highly risky and possibly even immoral career pursuit and go into charity work or not?

I've spent the last 6 years (from ages 24-30) trying to get into a career that’s incredibly competitive, with little to show for it (I’m purposefully not revealing what it is, so as not to conjure up any biases people may have about it). From what I've read, this is par for the course, and it could easily take a few more years to break in, but the base rate of success is about 1%. Of course, strategizing and training smarter than I have been should theoretically help, but sheer luck definitely does play a factor in this field. In most situations with odds like this (e.g. raffles), I wouldn’t bother betting so much as a dime. Should I not extend that conclusion to my career? (I of course assume that no one on here will reply with “just follow your passion no matter what!” ;-) )

One could argue that, unlike raffles, I’m not risking anything this situation: even if I totally fail, I will have still gained whatever skills and life experience from the attempt, aka even if I lose, I win. However, there are moral considerations:

In 80,000 hours parlance, I would consider this a relatively “unethical” field with middle-class income as the most realistic possibility, and since I don’t have any expertise in any other field, including anything related to charity or high-earning, there’s no reason not to select this profession for moral reasons except for the fact that, as with any business, it takes money to make money. And the idea of spending, say, $2000 for the chance of making a living at this profession versus another seems immoral to me. To translate that into a thought exercise, it’s as if someone is telling me that if I shoot two children in the head (i.e. a conservative estimate of the number of children that money could have saved had I sent it to a charity instead of investing in this risky career), I get to roll a 100-sided die to see if I luck out with my intended career (which will likely pay only just as much as any other middle class career, so there’s no reason to believe I’d be able to make up for that $2000 and save an even greater number of lives, especially since I already intend to give as much as I’m comfortable giving). Since I wouldn’t shoot the two children even for 100% chance of success, I obviously wouldn’t do it just for a 1% chance.

I could theoretically restrict myself to only cash outlays that have a pretty certain certain ROI or only engage in things that require no initial investment, and I know of many people who (as far as I know) succeeded at this business in that way, but I would imagine that that restriction hobbles my chances even more. Although the “even if I lose, I still win” thing would technically still be true, I would think I’d end up getting immensely frustrated with essentially shooting myself in the foot and feel like I was wasting my time and energy that could be more productively spent doing something else.

This seems rather convincing to me (so if you detect any errors in logic, please let me know!), so why am I posting it here? I suppose it’s because something’s holding me back. I can’t cut the cord. I’m still harboring that hope that “I’ll be one of the lucky ones.” I’m like that guy hunched over the craps table at two in the morning after gambling his life savings away saying “just one more roll, one more roll...” I feel like this clinging must be at least partially due to the American “you can do whatever you set your mind to” crap that’s been drilled into my subconscious my entire life. It must also be partially due to the fact that I’ve considered my field the “most importantest thing ever,” as untrue as that may be, ever since I was a kid, which is probably largely due to my father's influence. There’s no other field or job I find interesting, except some charity stuff, but as I said, I have no expertise or training in that, would just be taking a job away from someone else, that’s a competitive field too, etc.

Any advice/suggestions/comments/manifestos?

Thanks! :)

got a degree in psychology and a couple credits short of a minor in philosophy. I had a poor gpa due mostly to the fact that i started as a computer engineer and have some learning disabilities that i didn't realize then. I want to be able do something with my psych degree such as go to grad school to do research in psych but have no idea if i can make it. Also, currently i am a cashier who is looking for a tech job (i have an associates in information technology and 6 years of part time experience) but i can't seem to get one. Any help would be appreciated, I could use help both in figuring out what i want to do, how to conduct a job search and many other things.

Life goal is effective altruism / x-risk reduction. Requesting mentorship for

• how to build the community (in Toronto, but you can be remote) and/or
• someone way smarter and more accomplished than me who doesn't mind answering random stupid questions from time to time.

I have undergrad math/comp sci and I work as a computer programmer. I'm 27 but <1 year sane.

If anyone in the san jose area would like to workout but doesn't know how to start or needs motivation email me. You can get a membership or just day passes to the gym I go to and I can help.

I'm 17 and going to my final year of high school in January. I'm having some trouble making up my mind about what to do after high school and would appreciate some help with this.

I've skimmed a few books on career choice but they all just spout platitudes. I don't think I should do "What Interests Me" because I think I'd become bored of almost anything after a few weeks. I don't think I should do what I'm "talented" at because I doubt talents are specific enough to narrow down career-space enough. (Yes, a person might have high g and thus be good at computer programming, but that same high g would aid them as much with lots of other careers - why choose programming specifically?) Even if talents were specific enough, I don't think my self-assessments of what my talents are are even nearly accurate enough to base the next 50+ years of my life on them.

It's pretty obvious that most people have no idea what they're doing when they choose a career. So what should I base a career choice on?