Posts

Meetup : Raleigh RTLW Meetup - Predictions Followup, Zendo 2015-04-27T17:00:15.162Z
Meetup : Durham, NC: Do you even predict? 2015-04-10T20:15:54.220Z
Meetup : Durham Meetup - Bias Defenses from Influence 2014-01-06T21:17:36.889Z
Meetup : Durham NC/Triangle Area Meetup: Productive Other-Optimization 2013-11-04T23:33:57.741Z
Meetup : Durham/RTLW General Discussion 2013-07-02T14:51:26.529Z
SENS and Givewell: Conversation between Holden Karnofsky and Aubrey de Grey 2013-03-05T19:24:40.718Z
Request for a cryonics decision flowchart 2012-09-12T23:11:46.046Z
Jason Silva on AI safety 2012-05-09T18:07:54.070Z
Advice for visiting the Bay Area? 2012-03-23T01:57:59.974Z
MINE: Free tool for detecting novel associations in large data sets 2011-12-17T15:02:28.193Z
[Link] The Decision Education Foundation 2011-11-22T19:51:17.068Z
Transcription of Eliezer's January 2010 video Q&A 2011-11-14T17:02:03.821Z
Cached Phrases 2011-08-15T23:50:23.032Z
Meetup : Research Triangle Less Wrong Meetup 2011-08-02T16:22:01.096Z
Triangle NC Meetup - May 20th 6pm 2011-05-18T00:19:52.027Z
First Triangle LW Meetup 5/4 7pm (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) [Repost] 2011-04-28T03:30:17.047Z
SIAI awareness opportunity 2011-04-19T15:05:34.930Z
First Triangle LW Meetup 5/4 7pm (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) 2011-04-15T03:54:32.787Z
Language, intelligence, rationality 2011-04-12T17:04:58.460Z
Simple embodied cognition hacks 2011-03-23T13:24:34.648Z
[Link] The New Humanism 2011-03-09T14:19:13.477Z
Recursively Self-Improving Human Intelligence 2011-02-17T21:55:04.743Z

Comments

Comment by curiousepic on Anxiety and Rationality · 2016-03-14T00:17:14.469Z · LW · GW

I'd still be interested in seeing this.

Comment by curiousepic on Checklist of Rationality Habits · 2015-06-10T14:43:21.899Z · LW · GW

Has the checklist been revisited or optimized in any way since its original formulation? (By CFAR or otherwise?)

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 · 2015-04-10T20:18:21.400Z · LW · GW

Also the books of Karl Schroeder (Sun of Suns series, other standalones)

Comment by curiousepic on Meetup : April Rationality Discussion: Life planning vs. the coming technology explosion. · 2015-04-02T14:57:01.385Z · LW · GW

Sounds interesting - would love a writeup of any solid conclusions.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 · 2015-04-02T14:48:25.735Z · LW · GW

A bit late here, but Golden Age by John C. Wright.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 7-14 July 2014 · 2014-07-15T20:25:36.991Z · LW · GW

I decided to take this. Let me know if you'd like to connect.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 · 2014-07-15T18:50:21.158Z · LW · GW

I'm an EA and interested in signing up for cryonics. After cryocrastinating for a few years (ok I guess I don't get to say "after" until I actually sign up), I've realized that I should definitely sign up for life insurance, because of the ability to change the beneficiary. I place a low probability on cryonics working right now, but I can claim a charity or a Donor Advised Fund as the beneficiary until I place a sufficient probability on suspension technology working. In the future, I can change it back if I change my mind, etc.

Any issues that might come into this? If no one sees any flaws, I'm committing to sign up for life insurance with this plan in mind by or during the next open thread, and making a more prominent post about this strategy for any EA+Cryonics people.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 11-17 March 2014 · 2014-03-17T17:48:47.589Z · LW · GW

The value was mostly due to hearing others' opinions and perception of me, where you don't usually get that kind of feedback. The assessment really only provided the framework and context.

While I didn't really utilize them myself, I'd agree with those benefits.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, 11-17 March 2014 · 2014-03-13T21:28:59.071Z · LW · GW

I took StrengthsFinder 2.0 soon after a new manager was hired for my office. I was skeptical of it, but not negative. The Strengths it gave me were unsurprising. The most use I got out of the exercise was from insights gleaned from a roundtable discussion about these strengths from the outside view of coworkers who had known me for a few months to more than a year.

Comment by curiousepic on Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity · 2014-03-06T20:39:51.383Z · LW · GW

Is it worth it to carry around aspirin to take if you even worry you might be having a heart attack, for people under 45?

Comment by curiousepic on Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity · 2014-03-06T20:33:03.187Z · LW · GW

Now that it's in Main, I'm wondering why it hasn't yet been promoted? The current situation is low-visibility, given LW reading trends.

Comment by curiousepic on February 2014 Media Thread · 2014-02-05T16:03:33.039Z · LW · GW

Her was superb. If you have seen it already, here's an interesting perspective on the film.

Comment by curiousepic on Google may be trying to take over the world · 2014-01-27T16:30:06.200Z · LW · GW

Is there any more information beyond mentions like this?

Comment by curiousepic on New (proposal for) monthly thread: Meetup Reports · 2014-01-16T19:59:13.941Z · LW · GW

And the newly formed Facebook group.

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread for December 9 - 16, 2013 · 2013-12-16T20:51:34.733Z · LW · GW

How long have you been doing this, and have you noticed any effects?

Comment by curiousepic on Megameetup on December 13-15th, NYC · 2013-12-11T15:56:27.734Z · LW · GW

Is there a time on Sunday in mind for the EA presentation? I'd love to be there for it but our flight out is 8:15 PM.

Comment by curiousepic on Open Thread, November 23-30, 2013 · 2013-11-25T20:44:32.162Z · LW · GW

I added so many dailies that I basically found the overhead of updating HRPG ate into the productive energy needed to complete the dailies, and ended up in a death cycle. I then decided to use it explicitly only for tasks at work, and have been keeping up with it ever since, but I do miss the sweet spot of personal life productivity that I hit before that crash.

Comment by curiousepic on Meetup : Moscow, Now 2 Sigma More Awesome · 2013-11-05T19:17:09.203Z · LW · GW

The willpower group, and terminal value exercise sound very interesting - Please share notes or write up articles about these (or if the stream ends up working, please share a link to the record)!

Comment by curiousepic on November 2013 Media Thread · 2013-11-05T00:27:18.019Z · LW · GW

I read a couple of these last night (I've read others long ago), not particularly scary ones - 427 and 682... and then dreamt I read more, including one that did have a "shocker" animation (after which I remember cursing you for suggesting they were rare!), and then one with a high-res gif/video of a complex artifact I can remember the vague form of - somewhat like a grey bowling-pin with brightly colored shapes rotating along its axis - abstract, but almost clownish and mundane, but still creeped me out in-dream far more than any actual article.

Comment by curiousepic on Open Thread, October 7 - October 12, 2013 · 2013-10-08T18:22:38.905Z · LW · GW

I did have more vivid and "weirder" dreams, especially in the morning (perhaps memory bias), and a handful of them were quite disturbing, far from my norm. But, this lessened after a couple of weeks of off and on use.

Comment by curiousepic on PSA: Very important policy change at Cryonics Institute · 2013-10-03T18:22:45.830Z · LW · GW

I would like to hear rebuttals of this reasoning, since it is a big contributor to my current cryocrastination and choice-stress.

The other big contributor is the article (written by Rudi himself) which insists that the cost of the procedure will increase significantly in our lifetimes and thus encourages you to fund your insurance as much as possible, rather just up to the current coverage costs.

Comment by curiousepic on How to Become a 1000 Year Old Vampire · 2013-10-02T21:40:57.345Z · LW · GW

Power Leveling

Comment by curiousepic on PSA: Very important policy change at Cryonics Institute · 2013-10-02T20:41:02.191Z · LW · GW

Why? It seems obvious to me that the first recovered bodies will be those that were frozen shortly before the recovery procedure was available, with the best freezing procedure at that time.

Comment by curiousepic on Open Thread, September 23-29, 2013 · 2013-09-25T00:30:14.462Z · LW · GW

It seems to be pretty well decided that (as opposed to directly promoting Less Wrong, or Rationality in general), spreading HPMoR is a generally good idea. What are the best ways to go about this, and has anyone undertaken a serious effort?

I came to the conclusion, after considering creating some flyers to post around our meetup's usual haunts, that online advocacy would be much more efficient and cost effective. Then, after thinking that promotion on large sites with high signal to noise is mostly useless, realized that sharing among smaller communities that you are already a part of (game/specific interest forums, Facebook groups, etc.) might increase likelihood of a clickthrough, due to an even modest amount of social clout and in-group effect (as opposed to creating an account just to spam). And, posting (and bumping) is a very trivial inconvenience - but if you are still held back by the effort of creating a blurb, I'm happy to provide the one I used.

Comment by curiousepic on Useful Habits Repository · 2013-09-23T23:12:00.884Z · LW · GW

Similarly, to remind myself to do stuff with an object, I put that object where I will find it when I prepare to go out.

If my hamper is full, but am going to bed or leaving for work, I just put the hamper in front of my door so I will remember to do it immediately when I get home.

I also put stuff I need to take with me next time I leave the house on top of my wallet (or my shoes, or hanging from my doorknob, depending on size).

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, September 9-15, 2013 · 2013-09-11T19:16:52.531Z · LW · GW

Has anyone created anything like a flyer or advertisement (or even a simple Pitch) for HPMoR, optimized for increasing visits to the website?

Comment by curiousepic on Open thread, September 2-8, 2013 · 2013-09-05T18:13:41.141Z · LW · GW

As someone pointed out to me when mentioning this to them, to be a candidate for Great Filter there would need to be something intrinsic about how planets are formed that cause these two types of environments to be mutually exclusive, else it seems like there isn't sufficient reduction in probability of their availability. Is this actually the case? Perhaps user:CellBioGuy can elucidate.

Comment by curiousepic on Group Rationality Diary, August 16-31 · 2013-08-29T20:13:00.881Z · LW · GW

I fixed this by simply carrying nail clippers around on my keys, and remembering to use them instead of ripping them apart with my teeth. A few weeks of that and they were in good enough shape that I didn't feel the need to bite them.

Comment by curiousepic on Post Request Thread · 2013-08-23T17:52:08.880Z · LW · GW

This post may turn into a decent resource.

Comment by curiousepic on Open Thread, July 1-15, 2013 · 2013-08-23T14:51:27.599Z · LW · GW

This is totally worth a discussion post.

Comment by curiousepic on 10-Step Anti-Procrastination Checklist · 2013-07-16T18:16:39.775Z · LW · GW

I have had some success with this by reading a few lines of a physical book. Interesting poetry (I had EUNOIA by Christian Bok handy) is better suited to this, as you can complete an entire passage or page in this short span.

It's similar to checking news or Facebook, but much less likely to suck you in.

Comment by curiousepic on Saving lives via bed nets is hard to beat for immediate impact · 2013-06-22T12:45:57.004Z · LW · GW

...or don't beware trivial inconveniences.

Comment by curiousepic on Meetup : RTLW Meetup: Contra Dance! · 2013-05-20T18:34:35.032Z · LW · GW

Contra is an emergent, tesellated, permutating turbine generator of Hedons, Flow, and Awesome, of which you are a self-aware component.

There are few things I would recommend more highly for a human, especially for people who don't "get" dance (like myself 4 months ago). This is because you follow very simple instructions, you do not need to think about what you're doing with your feet at all, and the people are incredibly welcoming. It's great for social comfort zone expansion - virtually no one will turn you down if you ask to dance, unless they already have partner for that dance (there are usually about 10 dances per night). Eye contact is also a norm (and practically required as a dizziness countermeasure). It's a great workout, and as instructors often warn in the intro, the sorest muscles will be your smiled-out cheeks.

Comment by curiousepic on Post Request Thread · 2013-04-12T17:58:43.503Z · LW · GW

Being in a position to soon either look into joining, or to start a rationalist group house, I and other potential housemates would very much appreciate a post on how to go about doing either (beyond Shannon's somewhat minimal post), and/or a post where individuals who have already done so could talk about their experiences, their benefits and pitfalls, etc.

Comment by curiousepic on Post Request Thread · 2013-04-11T01:54:47.118Z · LW · GW

I'd be interested in lukeprog's (or CFAR's) thoughts on how to implement "tight feedback loops" into every day instrumental rationality (as opposed to running a business or project).

Comment by curiousepic on Solved Problems Repository · 2013-04-09T20:52:05.032Z · LW · GW

Sleep Cycle helped this for me for about a year. I've noticed the effect lessen over the past few months (feeling crappier upon waking than I used to) - but I'm hoping it has something to do with the temperature/season.

Comment by curiousepic on Programming the LW Study Hall · 2013-03-19T14:39:16.126Z · LW · GW

Agreed in retrospect. Scope creep creeped up on me.

Comment by curiousepic on We Don't Drink Vodka (LW Moscow report) · 2013-03-18T18:44:33.278Z · LW · GW

Good information here that might be "hidden" due to the cute article title. Consider adding a descriptive subtitle, or posting the exercises as their own article.

Comment by curiousepic on Programming the LW Study Hall · 2013-03-15T14:34:17.431Z · LW · GW

A "Don't Break the Chain" feature would be nice, to rack up consecutive pomodoros.

Comment by curiousepic on Programming the LW Study Hall · 2013-03-15T14:30:38.141Z · LW · GW

Pornodoros might actually be particularly effective for some.

Comment by curiousepic on Programming the LW Study Hall · 2013-03-15T14:29:16.327Z · LW · GW

If there will be effort put into actually building something, we might want to look into what other purposes it could serve, such as virtual (persistent?) meetups, remote CFAR sessions, etc. with features such as a "talking totem" that can be passed to enable audio from that person.

(Split from a previous comment for concept independence)

Comment by curiousepic on Risks of downloading alien AI via SETI search · 2013-03-15T14:01:34.131Z · LW · GW

Try editing the article, selecting all and cutting the text, then using ctrl-shift-V to paste without formatting (my new favorite thing). Hopefully it will use the default text size.

Comment by curiousepic on Risks of downloading alien AI via SETI search · 2013-03-15T13:59:22.060Z · LW · GW

occurrences*

Comment by curiousepic on Programming the LW Study Hall · 2013-03-14T17:55:38.746Z · LW · GW

Some other Study Hall nice-to-haves:

  • A way to "buzz" people who you notice slacking, producing a non-mute-able sound on their end (with a cooldown timer).
  • I'd like a way to post easily visible rules to enforce on myself ("Buzz me only if you can see me at my computer an I appear to be websurfing - lesswrong.com is OK").
  • It seems to me that having overlapping "shifts" of people on/off a pomodoro would be nice - such that those on break could keep an eye on those working, and buzz them if they're slacking.
  • It would be very nice to have some way to broadcast the URL or program title of whatever window you have focused on your screen, especially for people who do not have or want to use a camera.
  • Perhaps a bot that, upon joining, asks you to post what your task is for the current pomodoro, and otherwise actually kicks you.
Comment by curiousepic on Rationalist fiction brainstorming funtimes · 2013-03-11T20:13:25.895Z · LW · GW

Seed: A Game of Theories.
Have at it.

Comment by curiousepic on Boring Advice Repository · 2013-03-09T04:21:31.745Z · LW · GW

Yes, in fact, weekly contra dancing is starting to replace my previous exercise routine!

Comment by curiousepic on Boring Advice Repository · 2013-03-07T15:48:20.495Z · LW · GW

Some previously posted boring advice about maintaining an exercise routine:

I was successful in keeping a strict (but light) exercise routine for a year. Here are the main things I think helped me form the habit:

  • Not worrying about quantifying, or optimizing. I would immediately get into the rabbit hole of analysis, when I knew that any exercise was much better than procrastinating until I found the perfect method. Once the habit is formed, then you can optimize it.
  • Reduce physical inconveniences to actually exercising. The thought of going to a gym immediately turns me off, so I knew it had to be at home. That meant obtaining equipment. To keep it simple, this consisted of a yoga mat and a resistance band.
  • Doing it right after waking up. I think this was vital to habit formation, as my mind wasn't very active, and it was easy to fall into routine. Only very rarely did I find myself considering not exercising.
  • Doing it every other day - not too often to get burnt out, and not too infrequently to form the habit. In order to keep a consistent sleep schedule and not have to wake up very early, I alternated morning routines - exercise days and shower days. My workouts weren't intense enough to necessitate a shower immediately after. Also, I worked it in with my intermittent fasting routine on non-exercise days.
  • Tracking it. Noting days that I exercised did give me a couple of achievement hedons. The effect diminished, but not before the habit was formed.
Comment by curiousepic on Getting myself to eat vegetables · 2013-03-07T03:06:30.531Z · LW · GW

Some time after restricting my diet to paleo/keto, necessitating an increase in vegetables, I realized I had a sense that the act of eating a vegetable was somehow "virtuous". I noticed this and filed it as a rationalization, but an instrumentally useful one.

Comment by curiousepic on SENS and Givewell: Conversation between Holden Karnofsky and Aubrey de Grey · 2013-03-06T20:51:01.733Z · LW · GW

I visited the SENS lab in Mountain View in April of last year and was disappointed when no one I spoke to (Aubrey was absent, being his birthday of all coincidences) had heard of Givewell. So glad to see potential progress on them being considered.

But Holden's overview of the biomedical charity landscape is also concerning; perhaps one with the goal of defeating aging should in fact be focusing funds on closing the Valley of Death and/or reforming the drug approval process?

Comment by curiousepic on Singularity Institute is now Machine Intelligence Research Institute · 2013-02-28T19:17:59.998Z · LW · GW

I just realized that "MIRI" is (perhaps intentionally) evocative of the word "mirror", which is all kinds of suitable.