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Comment by fischer on Berkeley LW Meet-Up Saturday April 9 · 2011-04-09T01:47:56.458Z · LW · GW

Excellent, this will be my first one.

Any other n00bs, feel free to come along and n00b it up with me :)

Comment by fischer on Towards a Bay Area Less Wrong Community · 2011-03-21T00:12:19.710Z · LW · GW

bummer, Wednesday at 7 is my OChem lab. Regular schedule is smart, but if there's a special event that calls for deviation from the schedule, I'd love to hang out with LW. Any other day of the week and I'm there.

Comment by fischer on How to Beat Procrastination · 2011-02-07T00:59:17.034Z · LW · GW

I would reference the behavioral economics on loss aversion to up the value of a task. Rather than focusing on increasing the positive value via upping the reward, I would increase the negative value of inaction. Personally, I've taken to fining myself for not getting things done on time (all the money goes into a jar next to my desk, which goes to charity at the end of the month). This system has worked wonders - it even has power to control my less rational selves (e.g. drunk self and just-woke-up self)

Comment by fischer on Techniques for probability estimates · 2011-01-07T04:56:54.970Z · LW · GW

That's actually a pretty good idea, shokwave - thanks

Comment by fischer on Techniques for probability estimates · 2011-01-07T02:29:32.716Z · LW · GW

I'd be more interested to know what LW thought of creating a Probability Distribution for a continuous outcome. This seems to be cumbersome with all of the above tools, which I'll admit are quite helpful for binary events; but when you're purchasing a new computer, it's months that the computer will last before breaking, not whether it breaks in the first two years, that is relevant.

If taken to inanity, one could construct a large number of binary outcomes and try to smash them together to get a probability distribution for a continuous variable. But, that's pretty annoying - surely there are better ways

Comment by fischer on Techniques for probability estimates · 2011-01-07T02:19:25.501Z · LW · GW

"The plan is to roll an n-sided numbered die and have the faithful of all religions pray for the die to land on "1"

Elijah did this; from what I can tell, it was insufficient to end disagreement :) Read 1st Kings 18 (alternatively, wikipedia

Comment by fischer on Techniques for probability estimates · 2011-01-07T02:17:30.650Z · LW · GW

"The plan is to roll an n-sided numbered die and have the faithful of all religions pray for the die to land on "1"

Elijah did this; from what I can tell, it was insufficient to end disagreement :) Read 1st Kings 18 (alternatively, wikipedia

Comment by fischer on Efficient Charity: Do Unto Others... · 2010-12-25T06:55:57.972Z · LW · GW

I'm bothered by the intertemporal implications of this, i.e. if I have $100 that I will spend to help the most humans possible, then I could either spend it today or invest it and spend $105 next year (assumed 5% ROR). Will I then ever spend the money on charity? Or will I always invest it, and just let this amassed wealth be distributed when I die?

Comment by fischer on Berkeley LW Meet-up Saturday November 6 · 2010-11-01T05:19:43.773Z · LW · GW

I've often been curious as to what goes on at these, and this one would work (I'm a researcher at Cal). For a vet: how would describe a LW meetup?