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Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-10T01:21:19.374Z · LW · GW

Not sure what exactly should count as appropriate, I had assumed that the votes would sort the good from the bad, but maybe people would be less inclined to downvote a book they liked, which could be a problem with a well-liked book.

Is it enough that these comments could serve as a warning, or do you suggest I delete/edit the post?

Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-09T22:45:03.508Z · LW · GW

The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins

Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-09T22:42:33.263Z · LW · GW

Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter

Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-09T22:40:19.096Z · LW · GW

Heuristics and Biases, collection edited by Daniel Kahneman, Thomas Gilovich and Dale Griffin

Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-09T22:38:05.224Z · LW · GW

Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely

Comment by Lawliet on Recommended reading for new rationalists · 2009-07-09T22:36:17.622Z · LW · GW

Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, collection edited by Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Paul Slovic

Comment by Lawliet on Least Signaling Activities? · 2009-05-22T05:24:12.946Z · LW · GW

Dont understand the "activity" part, the post implied sleeping was fine, so does breathing count?

Comment by Lawliet on Essay-Question Poll: Voting · 2009-05-15T06:21:28.055Z · LW · GW

Stop fussing over voting! Now!

It's an important part of the site, and it'll pay off if it's done well.

Comment by Lawliet on Essay-Question Poll: Voting · 2009-05-15T05:21:05.213Z · LW · GW

Requesting a short summary of the current plans for future changes the voting system, preferably from someone in a position to know.

Comment by Lawliet on Survey Results · 2009-05-13T00:21:04.926Z · LW · GW

It's probably not mentioned enough that cryonics can be justified even if it looks like it probably wont work, as long as it's past some threshold.

Comment by Lawliet on Willpower Hax #487: Execute by Default · 2009-05-12T10:31:46.594Z · LW · GW

While we're talking about getting out of bed, try telling yourself to wiggle your toe rather than to get up completely, gets easier from there.

Comment by Lawliet on Open Thread: May 2009 · 2009-05-07T03:00:38.166Z · LW · GW

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, the voluntary castration sounds so crazy, but the absurdity heuristic is there for a reason, maybe I gave too much credit for simply being on LW.

Comment by Lawliet on Beware Trivial Inconveniences · 2009-05-07T02:44:05.330Z · LW · GW

I see no reason for this comment other than as some sort of test to see if you get voted down no matter what you say, if that's the case then it's not a very good test. If you absolutely have to do that sort of thing, at least try a new account or something.

Comment by Lawliet on Beware Trivial Inconveniences · 2009-05-07T02:39:24.918Z · LW · GW

How is that good?

Comment by Lawliet on Open Thread: May 2009 · 2009-05-02T08:02:02.096Z · LW · GW

Might be easier to manage comments and direct people to it if its a whole post rather than a comment in the may 09 open thread.

Comment by Lawliet on Open Thread: May 2009 · 2009-05-02T05:17:27.841Z · LW · GW

But wouldn't the site's earliest days be the time of least newcomers?

Comment by Lawliet on Open Thread: May 2009 · 2009-05-02T05:13:47.584Z · LW · GW

I must have misread, lifetime access to lesswrong isn't worth one cent, but you'll voluntarily spend hours of time on it?

Comment by Lawliet on Excuse me, would you like to take a survey? · 2009-04-26T22:33:02.184Z · LW · GW

I would like to see the results made public, as well as seeing more surveys in general.

Don't have a good indicator of how many people would worry about public data, but as the survey-taking group size increases (as I presume will happen over time on LW) it should become easier to remain unidentifiable.

Plenty of people voluntarily fill out surveys about themselves on social networking sites, and those of us concerned with anonymity probably wouldn't be filling them out either way.

Comment by Lawliet on This Didn't Have To Happen · 2009-04-24T09:17:46.521Z · LW · GW

CI only offers full-body, but it's cheaper than Alcor's neuro option.

Comment by Lawliet on This Didn't Have To Happen · 2009-04-24T07:27:58.218Z · LW · GW

Are you just scared of the idea of evil aliens, or do you actually think that it's a significant risk that cryonicists recklessly ignore?

Comment by Lawliet on Just a bit of humor... · 2009-04-24T07:10:58.236Z · LW · GW

Seems that anybody who talks about being downvoted gets upvoted.

Comment by Lawliet on This Didn't Have To Happen · 2009-04-23T23:08:58.075Z · LW · GW

By "extremely risk-averse" do you mean "working hard to maximise persistence odds" or "very scared of scary scenarios"?

You're right that death while signed up for cryonics is still a very bad thing, though. I don't think Eliezer would be fine with deaths if they were signed up, but sometimes he makes it seem that way.

Comment by Lawliet on Fix it and tell us what you did · 2009-04-23T22:53:09.832Z · LW · GW

Heres what I've gathered from you so far: You have not been more insightful since castration, but you have been calmer, and less influenced by some unspecific bias. You see testosterone as you see blood alcohol, and prefer its absence.

If you're interested in persuading us, stop promoting your brand with single sentences and go in to more detail.

Comment by Lawliet on The ideas you're not ready to post · 2009-04-21T03:51:29.574Z · LW · GW

Do you think you could summarise it for everybody in a post?

Comment by Lawliet on The ideas you're not ready to post · 2009-04-20T02:02:15.153Z · LW · GW

I'd be interested in reading (but not writing) a post about rationalist relationships, specifically the interplay of manipulation, honesty and respect.

Seems more like a group chat than a post, but let's see what you all think.

Comment by Lawliet on How a pathological procrastinor can lose weight [Anti-akrasia] · 2009-04-18T23:50:47.163Z · LW · GW

I would upvote this because it's important that you answered the question and I don't want to discourage that, but I don't want to imply that I like your honor system solution.

Comment by Lawliet on My main problem with utilitarianism · 2009-04-17T23:40:49.627Z · LW · GW

Current drugs will only give you a bit of pleasure before wrecking you in some way or another.

CronoDAS should be doing his best to stay alive, his current pain being a down payment on future real wireheading.

Comment by Lawliet on Tell Your Rationalist Origin Story · 2009-04-17T12:43:34.712Z · LW · GW

We talk a lot about bringing new people in to the community, well, here they are.

Not to imply that you're doing it wrong, but has any thought been put in to how to better handle these sorts of situations?

Comment by Lawliet on Bayesians vs. Barbarians · 2009-04-15T01:19:01.540Z · LW · GW

Don't assume the rationalists have super powerful technology.

Comment by Lawliet on "Stuck In The Middle With Bruce" · 2009-04-09T12:59:58.704Z · LW · GW

Echoing this, but dont limit your reply to solely card-games, if you have anything else to add.

Comment by Lawliet on What do fellow rationalists think about Mensa? · 2009-04-07T08:05:37.790Z · LW · GW

Mensa themselves say they aim to take the top 2% of the population. This strikes me as too many to be useful.

Useful for what?

Comment by Lawliet on On Comments, Voting, and Karma - Part I · 2009-04-07T03:30:53.917Z · LW · GW

If I thought my own comment was downvote-worthy, I probably wouldn't have posted it

When downvoted you can hope for an explanation, and you can hate it when people don't give one, but forcing one?

Comment by Lawliet on On Comments, Voting, and Karma - Part I · 2009-04-07T03:20:11.168Z · LW · GW

Since I would not be able to upvote my comment, upvoting someone else's comment would suggest that I think their comment is better than my own

Huh? If you have no ability to upvote yourself, why would upvoting someone else's comment indicate it's better than yours?

Comment by Lawliet on Open Thread: April 2009 · 2009-04-04T05:20:27.579Z · LW · GW

Stop being vague and unhelpful

Comment by Lawliet on Ask LW: What questions to test in our rationality questionnaire? · 2009-03-29T12:16:40.678Z · LW · GW

It's nice to see that some players cooperate

Comment by Lawliet on When Truth Isn't Enough · 2009-03-22T21:58:47.813Z · LW · GW

The word "iffy" in your acronym should be replaced, I think.

Comment by Lawliet on Individual Rationality Is a Matter of Life and Death · 2009-03-22T08:42:16.447Z · LW · GW

if our beloved Omega takes up a job as an oracle for humanity, and we can just ask him any question at any time and be confident in his answer, what should happen to our pursuit of rationality?

dunno, ask Omega

Comment by Lawliet on Rationalist Fiction · 2009-03-19T22:31:56.511Z · LW · GW

I agree until the last paragraph, I seem to remember thinking that there was a way it could have been done better, and that I could excuse his error because he wasn't overcoming an impossibility.

Unfortunately, I dont remember how I thought to fix it.

Comment by Lawliet on Rationalist Fiction · 2009-03-19T22:20:32.664Z · LW · GW

I've spent a lot of time scouring tvtropes.org for something similar, Code Geass was one of the better ones.

Any particular reason to single those two out? I might give The Dosadi Experiment higher priority.

Comment by Lawliet on Rationalist Fiction · 2009-03-19T22:02:58.992Z · LW · GW

As far as I know, there is no private-message function built in to lesswrong. I prefer to maintain some level of anonymity anyway, and it would hardly be worth creating an account specifically for this purpose. I don't care that much, though a general idea of which character does it or when would be appreciated.

All that aside, reading it made the whole thing move a lot faster, which probably contributed to the enjoyment, but I otherwise I think they are fairly similar.

Comment by Lawliet on Rationalist Fiction · 2009-03-19T21:34:15.372Z · LW · GW

I've heard that complaint a lot, and I agree in the case of Sherlock Holmes, but death note seemed somehow plausible.

If you can remember it at all, do you think you could tell me specifically which parts you thought were "lucky guesses"? I like to keep those sorts of things in mind when re-reading.

Comment by Lawliet on Rationalist Fiction · 2009-03-19T12:15:18.188Z · LW · GW

The manga/anime series "Death Note"

It's a long mental battle between two clever people, not much for rationality techniques, but characters think rationally, and the magical parts have well defined rules, similar to Lawrence Watt-Evans' fiction.

I would be terribly thankful to anybody who could reccomend me some more stories involving these sorts of fights. Trickery and betrayal is common enough, but a prolonged fued of this nature is rare.

Comment by Lawliet on On Juvenile Fiction · 2009-03-17T11:21:13.158Z · LW · GW

If you want to stop someone from reading a book, there's generally better ways than telling them not to do it.

That aside, kids can be surprisingly dumb, I wouldn't rely on them reaching the right conclusions even with assistance.

Comment by Lawliet on Closet survey #1 · 2009-03-16T11:32:05.002Z · LW · GW

It's beside the point, but your idea of torture might be a bit light if you would undergo five minutes out of curiosity.

Comment by Lawliet on Closet survey #1 · 2009-03-15T08:55:23.872Z · LW · GW

I think he is implying that we think we agree when we dont really, in that case he would expect us to vote in agreement with you.

Comment by Lawliet on Issues, Bugs, and Requested Features · 2009-03-15T04:27:54.433Z · LW · GW

When the site crashes it says things like "looks like today isn't your day" or "it's okay to cry".

One of these phrases links you to the reddit blog, another links to the reddit store, leftovers I guess.

Comment by Lawliet on Is Santa Real? · 2009-03-14T00:08:26.666Z · LW · GW

Useful ego booster too.

Comment by Lawliet on Is Santa Real? · 2009-03-14T00:04:33.793Z · LW · GW

Curious, are you proud of how difficult you find lying?

Comment by Lawliet on So you say you're an altruist... · 2009-03-13T09:40:10.123Z · LW · GW

I dont know much about charity, but I dont contest that this was made up in a day.

"Never fix the worst problem first, because thats the way skin heals"

Comment by Lawliet on So you say you're an altruist... · 2009-03-13T09:31:14.764Z · LW · GW

Even better to address as many as possible, making them all feel like they are being specifically targeted

"Hey you with the dark hair"