Posts

What's happening behind the scenes with my HowTruthful project 2024-02-15T18:27:35.976Z
Bruce Lewis's Shortform 2023-11-12T02:16:12.849Z
How I got so excited about HowTruthful 2023-11-09T18:49:06.556Z

Comments

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Let's make the truth easier to find · 2024-02-15T18:29:39.886Z · LW · GW

The best path forward might be for @DPiepgrass to make a prototype or mockup, borrowing ideas from HowTruthful and then discussing from there.

Comment by bruce-lewis on [deleted post] 2024-02-02T19:07:52.796Z

This comment is a level 1 lie! (I'm replying to it now with a level 5 lie.)

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on The Aspiring Rationalist Congregation · 2024-01-11T17:43:35.534Z · LW · GW

I don't think 11 needs to be a community value. If someone comes in believing in the supernatural, in cryptozoology, UFOs, P = NP, or other ideas that haven't been scientifically verified, who cares as long as they're interested in changing their way of modeling the world to be more evidence-based?

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on mike_hawke's Shortform · 2023-12-28T03:07:45.376Z · LW · GW

Sympathize with them, but also with those affected by them.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on In Defense of Epistemic Empathy · 2023-12-28T03:02:39.022Z · LW · GW

I strongly upvoted this post because I believe epistemic empathy is important.

The word "irrational" has too many meanings, and I try to avoid it. And I try to direct criticism at arguments rather than people. But I do want to answer your final question as best I can. I'll just phrase it as problems with arguments rather than people's irrationality.

In my experience, the problem with arguments against COVID-19 vaccines is that they mainly consist of evidence that there's risk involved in getting vaccinated. To usefully argue against getting vaccinated, one needs evidence not only that vaccine risks exist, but that they're worse risks than those of remaining unvaccinated.

Similarly, arguments against masks are usually arguing against the wrong statement. They argue against "Masks always prevent transmission", when to be useful, they should be arguing against "Masks reduce transmission". 

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Why Yudkowsky is wrong about "covalently bonded equivalents of biology" · 2023-12-07T17:07:38.693Z · LW · GW

Good points are made in other comments about the significance of weakest bonds, but mostly I want to say that I like this post because it's making a clear point with clear reasoning, and was very readable.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Insulate your ideas · 2023-11-24T16:53:39.550Z · LW · GW

Are you really insulating from reality, or from recency bias?

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on What did you change your mind about in the last year? · 2023-11-24T04:33:38.949Z · LW · GW

At the beginning of 2023 I thought Google was a good place to work. I changed my mind after receiving new evidence.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on How I got so excited about HowTruthful · 2023-11-24T04:20:36.339Z · LW · GW

Agreed there's a lot of work ahead in making it engaging.

I define "pro" as anything one might say in defense of a statement, and that includes decomposing it. It can also include disambiguating it. Or citing a source.

Thanks for the well-wishes. Only two paid users so far, but I'm getting very useful feedback and will have a second iteration with key improvements.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Bruce Lewis's Shortform · 2023-11-19T02:33:09.294Z · LW · GW

I liked the xkcd on empiricism: https://xkcd.com/2855/

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Should Advanced Placement High School classes discuss Israel-Palestine? If so, how? If not, why? Who should make this decision? · 2023-11-17T21:26:07.136Z · LW · GW

My humble opinion is that teachers should make such decisions. From my own education I've come to think that the best education comes from enthusiastic teachers.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on jacquesthibs's Shortform · 2023-11-14T19:31:05.897Z · LW · GW

I had not heard of Community Notes. Interesting anti-bias technique "notes require agreement between contributors who have sometimes disagreed in their past ratings". https://communitynotes.twitter.com/guide/en/about/introduction

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Bruce Lewis's Shortform · 2023-11-14T18:55:55.486Z · LW · GW

I got a paying customer on https://en.howtruthful.com/ yesterday. Hopefully more to come.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Shortform · 2023-11-13T22:20:17.351Z · LW · GW

There's truth in what you're saying. At the same time, I feel like people have an instinctive desire for clarity over riddlespeak. I think it's the same instinct that makes people favor 4k televisions over standard definition. I think it's possible to make a twitter-like medium that discourages hardcoded blind spots.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Should Advanced Placement High School classes discuss Israel-Palestine? If so, how? If not, why? Who should make this decision? · 2023-11-13T22:15:27.682Z · LW · GW

Do you still think students should learn to analyze conflicts and write about them in a nuanced and researched way? I think answering that question will lead you to the answer to your original question.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Bruce Lewis's Shortform · 2023-11-13T21:45:59.839Z · LW · GW

OK so the immune system comment simply meant that since vaccines rely on a system that isn't 100% effective, they can't themselves be 100% effective. It definitely wasn't intended to compare a vaccine-trained immune system to a non-vaccine-trained immune system.

To make a statement more specific, just make the more specific wording a "pro" argument. Because it's something someone might say when arguing for the main statement. I just made a new introductory video today that illustrates this.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Sam Marks's Shortform · 2023-11-13T16:24:02.481Z · LW · GW

I think Bob should be even more direct about what's happening. "I know most of the people who disagree with you on this are thinking of X, Y, and Z. My reasons are different. My opinions on X, Y and Z are largely similar to yours. But I'm concerned about ☈, ♄, and ⚗." I think this approach would do even more than the idea in your last paragraph to make the surprise less jarring for Alice.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Two children's stories · 2023-11-12T20:41:37.516Z · LW · GW

I'll be really interested to hear what the 4-year-old says about the stories, especially the 2nd one.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Bruce Lewis's Shortform · 2023-11-12T02:16:13.147Z · LW · GW

I made this video HowTruthful and the COVID-19 vaccine that illustrates my line of reasoning from a few years ago.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on How I Think, Part One: Investing in Fun · 2023-11-11T04:20:16.434Z · LW · GW

I agree that audience score seems to be a better signal than critics score, but neither works consistently.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Should Advanced Placement High School classes discuss Israel-Palestine? If so, how? If not, why? Who should make this decision? · 2023-11-10T22:44:50.286Z · LW · GW

Should that topic be taught in AP history? I don't know.

If so, how? According to the AP history test. My search just now only showed "AP US history", so if that's the AP history in question, it would be in relation to US involvement.

If not, why? Potential good reasons not to discuss the issue, if they are true: It's not related to the test they're preparing for. It's a divisive issue for the students. Divisive issues distract from the goals of the class.

OK so I've laid out the potential pros and cons for discussing Israel-Palestine in an AP class. If you figure out how truthful each pro and con is, then the answer to the original question should be obvious.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Crock, Crocker, Crockiest · 2023-11-10T22:28:06.643Z · LW · GW

It's very hard to predict how a previously untried activity will go, since humans adapt to situations they're in, and then adapt to the adaptations of others around them. I'd experiment on this soon with a small group. One possible failure mode would be if people told to talk about "anything they want" jump to topics that don't offer the opportunity to practice either Crocker or reverse-Crocker.

Comment by Bruce Lewis (bruce-lewis) on Open Thread – Autumn 2023 · 2023-11-08T19:29:50.687Z · LW · GW

This is my first comment on LW. I was laid off from my full-time employment on October 27. I am working full-time in November and December on a web site I created for arriving at truth. My employer was kind enough to lay off a lot of my friends together with me, and a few of us have a daily meeting where we talk about our respective projects. One of my friends pointed me here, since she saw a lot of overlap. She was right. What I'm doing is very different from the posts/comments/replies structure you see here on LW and on most online forums, but my goals are very similar to LW's goals. I look forward to bouncing ideas off of this community. I'll have a lengthy post out soon, probably tomorrow.