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Why don't Rationalists use bidets? 2023-01-02T17:42:09.900Z

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Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Alex_Altair's Shortform · 2023-03-29T21:40:22.050Z · LW · GW

Maybe you already thought of this, but it might be a nice project for someone to take the unfinished drafts you've published, talk to you, and then clean them up for you.  Apprentice/student kind of thing. (I'm not personally interested in this, though.)

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on The Curse Of The Counterfactual · 2023-03-02T20:25:10.780Z · LW · GW

This seemed to me like a long way of saying that "many people believe that they can control others when they can't". I want to know what the OP thinks of this.

(And also the belief "you can't make yourself like anything", in the case of the person feeling guilty about unproductiveness.)

Things that still confuse me:

  • the "Nice Guy" bits do seem not derivable from the above?

 

This is important to me because it's central to some rationality research I'm doing currently.

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Introduction to abstract entropy · 2023-02-20T00:27:57.882Z · LW · GW

Registering that I think "[entropy] can be used to explain the arrow of time" is bunk (I've linked 4:50, but see particularly the animation at 5:49): entropy works to explain the arrow of time only if we assume a low-entropy initial state (eg the big bang) in the past
Edit: Oh hm maybe the description isn't "time moves forward" but "time moves away from the big bang"

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Introduction to abstract entropy · 2023-02-20T00:21:27.111Z · LW · GW

I REALLY liked this. A few years ago I scoured the internet trying to find a good conceptual explanation of entropy, and I couldn't find any.  This is by far the best that I've seen. I'm glad you made it!

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Why don't Rationalists use bidets? · 2023-01-03T02:46:37.093Z · LW · GW

yeah, it doesn't seem like the Rationalist spirit to be hindered by this though :/

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Why don't Rationalists use bidets? · 2023-01-02T22:22:28.734Z · LW · GW

ahh

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Why don't Rationalists use bidets? · 2023-01-02T20:33:04.201Z · LW · GW

huh, you have large estimates

anyways thanks for the aella link

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Why don't Rationalists use bidets? · 2023-01-02T19:32:25.162Z · LW · GW

I'm a bit hungry for ... the thing that bidets are a metaphor for, here? Like, I think there's an interesting object-level question about the adoption of (almost strictly) superior ways-of-being, but I'm more curious about something like "what does the non-adoption of bidets tell us about how we are probably thinking and behaving sub-optimally elsewhere?"

That's the post that I wanted to write, actually— but I wasn't sure how to do it without being too aggressive

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Why don't Rationalists use bidets? · 2023-01-02T19:29:35.008Z · LW · GW

Is that because you simulate that there might be backwash back into the spigot?

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Covid 12/2: But Aside From That · 2021-12-04T03:20:33.986Z · LW · GW

"Omicorn" was a really funny mispelling

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Thomas Kwa's Bounty List · 2021-12-02T16:25:12.858Z · LW · GW

Still use Roam? I use Obsidian and it seems like people are switching from Roam. Probably not that useful if you're used to Roam though.

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Thomas Kwa's Bounty List · 2021-12-02T16:19:55.676Z · LW · GW

sleep:

  • I see you already have this in your doc, but for me a chilipad really helps. (although maybe this isn't as helpful if living in the Bay Area, but if you ever move then definitely)
  • blue/green-blocking glasses
  • lights that change brightness/color throughout the day. 
    • I don't use an alarm to wake up, but instead I have my lights turn on bright. much calmer. I used to use a light-alarm clock, but having smart lights is better.
    • lights turn dim at 5pm, then completely red at 6pm, and then off at 8pm and I sleep at 10pm. Light has a big effect on me, and if I turn on the lights I seem to take another half hour to fall asleep
  • check for snoring/ sleep apnea. Can get really bad if not caught.
Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Pittsburgh, PA – ACX Meetups Everywhere 2021 · 2021-09-10T18:31:39.544Z · LW · GW

Nametags are a good call

Comment by Lakin (ChrisLakin) on Covid 7/1: Don’t Panic · 2021-07-04T14:21:47.826Z · LW · GW

Result: Positivity rate of 2.4% (up 0.6%) and deaths decline by 8%. 

Should this be "0.6 percentage points" rather than "0.6%"?