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Relationships between grant-maker and grantee or professor and student are violations of professional norms. We rightfully blame the grant-maker and professor for them and we don't blame the grantee and student.
"Consent Isn't Always Enough" is a misleading phrasing to make this point: It mixes the personal and professional level. We may want a norm on the professional level that certain relationships are not accepted. The norm that there should be consent in the relationship happens on the personal level – we don't expect a manager to investigate consent in the relationships of their staff, nor is lack of consent mostly an internal disciplinary matter.
There's induction converters – basically metal plates with a handle – which you can use on an induction stove to heat your incompatible cookware. So no need for an electric burner, better get more induction for the added flexibility and lower complexity of the stove.
Agreed with all of this, except the last sentence. Induction is superior, so let people learn of that and switch to it on their own time.
Also note that many cheap induction burners aren't particularly great. They tend more towards making annoying noises, for one. You only get the full induction experience with the high quality equipment which puts you back a few k.
And national holidays don't even involve the same trade-offs as company holidays (i.e. for infrastructure usage), so even if we accept that there should be more company holidays, maybe there is an optimal number of national holidays.
But in practice, most people take a lot more vacation days than there are national holidays - which suggests that the current number of holidays is too small.
Wait, what? You're arguing that – from the business perspective – vacation days would be inferior to holidays. But now you're using that claim as an argument for itself.
Even after reading this comment it took me a while to find this option, so for anyone who similarly didn't know about that option:
On the start page, below "Latest", you can add a new filter. Then, click on that filter and adjust the numbers or entirely hide a category.
- and 3) have been continuously happening, so I assume you want a revival of 1) the coworkings?
We don't have the location Dustin Space any more, so we'd need a place to host this. Do you have ideas for it?
Arne and me want to set up a new bigger EA/rationalist flatshare again (desired location ~Wipkingen), which would be able to host events. So far, we haven't gotten enough resonance to take further steps. So I guess this is also a request to contact me on that topic if interested :)
Are "whatever" and "I don't care" are still too sneering for your taste? It's intrinsically expressing a value judgment on the question if you claim it's not relevant (for you) to know the right answer to. So I'd expect any response for it to quickly take on a sneering connotation…
The likely result of public wealth information in third world countries is that you will get robbed or that relatives come to get a "loan" they never pay back. Any status signalling would be minuscule by comparison. So independently of whether this proposal would be a good idea in rich countries, your example doesn't help to motivate it.
It's interesting to me that you feel a stronger emotional connection to a language you speak less well – and other commenters seem to have a similar sentiment. I think I only have that for very emotionally charged statements (i.e. "I love you") and not for normal conversation. I usually prefer to talk in the language which I have recently used least, and also the language where there's most native speakers present. When I'm confused about the language spoken, I default to English – but I still get a weird feeling if I'm speaking English to a group which consists exclusively of other German native speakers.
I think you are treating this too much like a normal trade situation; my impression is that the whole thing is mostly driven by people wanting to stick it to hedge funds. They "spent" some money on the good fun and have written off the amount.
I moved around quite a bit and every move was worth it from my perspective: Moves for university brought a lot of friendships I still maintain, moves for work brought 10x increases in savings, both kinds brought valuable experience. I now have a strong network from multiple communities which is … distributed all over Europe.
Over the last 3 years I've been trying to optimise toward the more local investments you talk about, to find a place where there already is community and where I can imagine staying long-term (success) and where I can contribute to the community and make investments in it (establish a group house + hub. Success for 1 year out of 2 year existence). Build a life with someone (failure).
I'm lucky that I am now for already 2 years in a place where I want to make new investments and where I can build on the investments I already made in other places. So I'm quite excited for what the next years bring :) I didn't particularly like the place I grew up in and I feel that I'd be missing out if I had tried to make local investments there.
So I guess this is partly corroborating what you say, but with a very different perspective?
I'm holding my judgment for now on whether this whole non-coercion business, but I'd like you to know that I appreciate you writing about it and I'm looking forward to the continuation so that I can evaluate whether it sounds like a worthwhile experiment :)
Has anyone here looked into metal halide lamps? They seem to be cheap, similarly efficient as LEDs, and since they are available in basically arbitrary brightness they solve the problem that it's really hard to find space for all these fixtures for LEDs. I'm moving in a few months and I'm currently planning to outfit my new place with at least 1–2 of them in addition to LED, so any advice is welcome.
I use a fountain pen with a thin A6 paper notebook, one private and one for work. I start a new page for every new context, and put off-topic notes (random thoughts, names of people) into the right margin of the current page. Things I want to look up later get annotated on the left margin. My work notebook also has an error log on the last pages.
Realistically, most on-topic notes are write-only, but the process of writing them helps me to remember the content, and on occasion I actually refer back to them.
I like this system because I neither need to carry a laptop or keyboard, nor need to type on a phone. My notes also don't clutter that much – on a laptop, they tend to stay on the desktop "so that I can easily go through it later", which of course never happens.
A disadvantage of my current system is that the notes are not searchable, and do not have a backup. I considered updating to a reMarkable, but so far found the price tag too high for my purposes.
I agree with the point that we should reward people who change things to the better *in general*. However, I find it weird to transfer this sentiment to a game: There's nothing inherently bad about making espionage, sleight of hands and rules lawyering part of the competition. Different people will enjoy it, other people will end up on top, that's all. I get that you prefer the current situation, but from an outside perspective, this seems like a neutral change to me.
I committed to give up all obvious sugar except birthday cakes, which ended up being more like "give up obvious sugar except offered" – there were 3 non-birthday occasions where I caved in. I'm still happy with the result: Before this lent, I often found myself in the situation that I saw some sweets, knew that I actually don't like them that much, but ate them anyway. At least during the days since end of lent (2 days earlier for me because I went to Italy and the traditional and only breakfast available seems to be cookies and jam), I was able to resist precisely these situations, and I hope it won't take too much effort to keep it that way.
I learned from this experience that commitments are very effective for me personally (as opposed to "generally a good thing") and I want to do this more regularly than just once a year.
I found your point about your commute most interesting, in part because it is very different for me. I need movement in order to get active for the day, and if the commute provides this movement, it removes a possible failure mode – on days I do home office, I have to actively force myself to go outside for a run, and if I fail to do so and start working right away, I'll predictably less productive.
EDIT: The commute is also one of the parts of the day which provides time for reflection on my everyday activities, and I find movement intellectually stimulating.
I like the term "obvious sugar", and hereby commit to the same.
EDIT: On second thought, I'd like to allow for one slice of birthday cake per birthday, for social reasons.
Used the poll. Mostly check discussion in my feed reader (both smart phone and desktop), read easily digestible stuff right away, put off the harder stuff for later (and read about 1/3 of the things I intend for later consumption). Do vote, rarely comment.
How about #4, interrupt the conversation and ask for your definition ("If you use weird words you can at least save me the work of looking it up").
Correct me if I'm wrong, but your comment here gives me the impression that you are asking an awfully general question, but actually want the answer to a very concrete question: "Should I study X at a top uni abroad, any uni at home, or not at all, given that I'm good enough to choose myself but will have to make debts to study". This would be a much easier question for us to answer, especially if you tell us what X is, whether you'd want to continue with a postgrad, and maybe what you goals are for the time after your studies. It's perfectly ok not to know all of these yet, but some info would help.
The question was also if the effort is wasted. I agree that the prospects are better at a top school, but that's not the same as "don't bother".
This may be true if you want to go into research or in primarily reputation-based fields like politics and law. In engineering or technology, you'll be totally fine and get a reasonable job with a degree from other universities. Maybe in the US it's not worth the fees, but that's a different matter and does not apply in many countries.
I'm currently applying for jobs while finishing up my Master's degree, so I'm not technically in the group you are asking, but can hopefully still say something useful.
Background: I've been studying Computer Science with a natural language focus, both at a relatively unknown university in Eastern Germany and at University of Edinburgh. The latter is definitely top n in the field, although it does not have the same nimbus and does not offer as much of regular 1-on-1 teaching time with profs like Oxford and Cambridge do (you can get it if you ask, but it is not a default teaching mode). I can't compare to the US because I haven't been there yet.
Content comparison: I find that the courses at both universities is similar both according to content and quality. The focus is different of course, and workload is much higher in Edinburgh, probably because the degree program is only 1 year instead of 1.5 or 2 for roughly the same content. In both places I could get meetings with professors if I wanted to, although in Edinburgh there is additionally a lot of staff who checks up on us and reminds us about organisational things. Among students, there is a bigger share of really bright and enthusiastic people, and that is quite noticeable. The biggest difference here is that there is direct contact with the people who made major inventions and contributions to the field and are on top of things I actually care about. This is most important in a very narrow range of topics I want to go further. For the basics, it doesn't really matter who explains them. I currently also get very good dissertation supervision, but I cannot compare that to my old university because I wrote my dissertation there during an internship and largely with supervision from the company's research department.
Job applications: I feel like being in Edinburgh gives a significant boost to job applications. In Germany, profs were willing to write recommendations on request, but did not offer interesting company contacts on their own. There were partnerships between university and bigger companies, but this felt very cheesy and ineffective. Around here, I do get very cool company introductions and interviewers sometimes happen to have worked or studied here as well, which gives a good basis for conversation and might give a bonus, even if they try to avoid it consciously.
Conclusion: UK tuition fees at top-n universities (around £7k-25k/year) are low compared to US fees, so they are easier to justify and I think mine are worth it with regards to my future job. I would not say the same for knowledge gain per money, since German living costs are much lower and it does not have tuition fees. I could have done a two-year master in Germany for less money and could have had more relaxed studies with the same gain. I however wanted to have shorter, intensive studies, so the UK suited my preferences. Be aware however that Brexit causes trouble for British research, so this evaluation might totally change in 1 or 2 years.
Distance does not matter, travel time does. As does pricing because prices for train and plane are basically unrelated and because I'm currently a student and don't have much money. My decision mostly depends on the events around my travel – sometimes I have to fly to make it in time. This means I find it difficult to give a simple function, so let me give some examples:
• I currently live in Edinburgh and I fly to visit people in Germany or the Netherlands over the weekend. On the other hand, I will move back to the continent in September and will visit the LW community weekend "on the way". This will involve a travel time of around 25h over a period of 45h (13.5h train, 6h ferry, 4h cycling, 1h waiting, ~0.5h local transport). If I took a plane, it would cost around the same and I'd spent 10h (1.5h flight, 2h security/waiting, 1.5h local transport, 5h packing and unpacking bike + getting the packaging in the first place). EDIT: Without the bike, the times would be 19h (train through the tunnel) vs 5h and I'd fly.
• There is a reasonable probability that I'll be living in Switzerland soon, in which case I'm planning to do family visits by ~9h train instead of ~5h flight+transport. That is because I'm expecting it to be possible to do "home office" in the train.
• I really like night trains. I count night travel as 2-3h time investment due to reduced sleep quality.
• I prefer flying + airport shuttle over driving a car for the same total time if I'm the only driver. If this is a road trip with like-minded people and we share driving responsibilities, up to like 24h of driving seem okay during holidays. I'd probably prefer the plane once I have a job.
I think that "not be too far from any other country" would lead to a more open community with more fluent membership status. People who feel vaguely connected to a community will go to events which are closeby, but are less likely to attend if they have to fly (and consequently have to plan much longer in advance). At least I'm willing to travel much longer in a train – where I can do work – if I can avoid flying that way, which seems to consist solely of controlls and queueing.
We can't measure them on an individual level; especially not on immigration where people can pretend to care more for laws. In contrast, people cannot really pretend to be of higher IQ. We can however get estimates for groups of people or people who do not have to fear negative consequences for "wrong" answers.
Personally I'd assume that these differences are more cultural than genetic, so I don't think the argument for separation holds. But I can look up original HBD posts regarding this topic later.
Edit: First I found, HBD chick has a ton of these, I think. https://hbdchick.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/family-types-and-the-selection-for-nepotistic-altruism/
I think most of the allure of HBD comes from factors which are harder to measure than intelligence, like altruism or stronger bounds to kin and smaller bounds to state / nation / whatever. In general the point that some people are "better suited" for life in clan structure and some for life in other structures. I don't think you adressed any of this.
[Disclaimer: I'm not a proponent of HBD, so I don't guarantee to sum up the position correctly.]
I have taken the survey.
[Survey Taken Thread]
By ancient tradition, if you take the survey you may comment saying you have done so here, and people will upvote you and you will get karma.
Let's make these comments a reply to this post. That way we continue the tradition, but keep the discussion a bit cleaner.
I have thought about this, too. I am currently not publishing my coursework (mostly programming / lab reports) because the tasks may be used again in the following year. I do not want to force instructors to make new exercises for each course and I don't think I'd get much use out of publishing them. The argument wouldn't apply to essays, of course.
There is a difference between "crunching probability flows, in order to output evidence apparently favoring that conclusion" and testing a hypothesis. Testing a hypothesis is an open-ended process. The tester may do it in order to find evidence in support of it, but that is not necessarily what they'll get.
This article could profit from an introductory paragraph to explain what you are talking about. In particular, I'd find it helpful if you introduced the terms "denotational content" in contrast to "connotation".
First, you have to find the path where fortune files are stored. In the man file of fortune, there is a chapter "FILES" in which you can find the default path for fortune files. Your path may be different, maybe you have to search for it. Put the files "rationality" and "rationality.dat" into this path and test using the command fortune rationality. If it doesn't work, you can try to generate your own .dat file using the command strfile rationality.
I'd be interested to know whether this worked for you and what steps where necessary, since I didn't try this with different fortune installations.
I also updated my fortune file, so that you can get random rationality quotes to your unix terminal. You can find it here.
Did the survey. Accidently pressed submit before calculating digit ratio :( Answered everything else though.
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Tamim Ansary is not trying to give an objective report of historic events; instead he tells stories about people and events that shaped Muslim thought. This includes episodes about Mohammed and the Quran, the reception of Greek philosophy, various rulers, and interactions with neighbouring groups and empires. The book is an easy read and gives a compact overview of the Islamic world. I recommend it for those who don't know much about Islam and want to get an introduction into the narrative of this religion.
There are also multiple volumes of Asterix available in Attic Greek: Link
When I read a foreign language, I prefer to read aloud. This helps me to understand some phrases I don't get from reading alone. This may work better for languages closely related to the native one, but it also helps getting the pronunciation right. (For languages I'm more fluent in, I read in different accents. This keeps me from getting bored)
For languages I don't know well, reading comics helps me most, because I can pick up many words from context and I don't have to look up words. Switching to comic books was perhaps the best change of learning habits I have done so far. It finally makes reading practice fun.
Generally, I first try to get the pronunciation right before trying to read texts. I listen to pronunciation samples and to radio until I can at least pronounce texts without compound words. Just from passive listening to radio you can pick up the general rhythm. Also, it works well with akrasia.
Which would make the activity an instrument for pleasing the person in power, i.e. important for getting a reward / not getting punishment.
If you want your terminal to greet you with rationality quotes, I created a new fortunes file: https://github.com/Huluk/rationality-fortunes Use with "unix fortune" for your operating system.
Survey taken, can't wait to see the results :-)
I reformatted "Best of Rationality Quotes 2009-2012" and put them into a fortunes file, which is available here.