What would you do differently if you were less concerned with looking weird?

post by Mati_Roy (MathieuRoy) · 2020-05-07T23:29:16.618Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

This is a question post.

Contents

  Answers
    7 Tem42
    7 bvzz
    5 Matthew Barnett
    5 CheerfulWarrior
    2 Dagon
    1 Mati_Roy
None
3 comments

EtA 2020-09-16: ah dang, I just realized I had already asked that question here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mengYutEGfzyeA6Xi/what-would-you-do-differently-if-you-were-less-concerned

Answers

answer by Tem42 · 2020-05-08T14:43:25.683Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Spend more time dumpster diving (treasure hunting is fun!)

answer by bvzz · 2020-05-08T07:06:02.464Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'd wear significantly less clothing in public.

I'd also work odd hours and not care as much about having a normal sleep schedule.

answer by Matthew Barnett · 2020-05-08T19:24:14.730Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'd probably look into brain reading tech, and try to figure out whether I can record my brain state of all times during the day (including when I'm with other people). I'd also write more posts about very speculative cause areas that don't have much evidence, though my concern here might not be weirdness necessarily but rather that people will judge my thinking quality to he poor or something.

answer by [deleted] · 2020-05-08T06:48:52.554Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I would wear skirts in the summer.

answer by Dagon · 2020-05-07T23:54:21.633Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

If I were less concerned with looking sufficiently weird (cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling) to the pinks/muggles/mehumes/mundanes/proles/masses, I'd likely enjoy popular media more, and probably be closer to correctness on topics where the crowd really is likely to show wisdom.

Oh, did you mean "less concerned that I'd look too weird"? That probably isn't possible. Cases where I conform to expectations are about trust-earning and making people happy, not about concern with appearances (well, not about my concern. some of my friends and family ARE concerned in that direction, and I include my understanding of their happiness in my utility function).

Also, there are many cases where appearance of weirdness is completely orthogonal to my behavior. I'm trying to optimize things within a multitude of systems, and very often that aligns with "normal".

answer by Mati_Roy · 2020-05-08T07:02:00.068Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I don't know what fears drive this, but might be weird adjacent: singing in public (I'm a bad singer)

3 comments

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comment by shminux · 2020-05-07T23:35:32.997Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I can't answer that without looking weird!

Replies from: MathieuRoy
comment by Mati_Roy (MathieuRoy) · 2020-05-08T06:51:20.433Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

you can create an alt account

comment by TruetoThis · 2020-05-12T04:30:30.137Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I would use the bathroom freely like a guy and go in the bushes or by a tree.