Posts

LW Meetup in Nuremberg (Germany) 2014-05-06T14:57:06.846Z
[link] Feynman lecture: The Character of Physical Law 1 2012-07-01T15:39:08.521Z
bridgeplan - a writeup on things one can actually do to increase lifespan 2011-08-04T19:05:24.336Z
real life sample: why am I so scarred of roller coasters 2011-06-02T22:34:45.038Z
collecting successes and deltas 2011-03-22T14:14:36.553Z
Interested in a European lesswrong meetup 2010-08-07T04:43:26.481Z
a meta-anti-akrasia strategy that might just work 2010-04-19T02:21:15.080Z

Comments

Comment by MartinB on European Community Weekend 2015 Impressions Thread · 2015-06-15T17:17:25.922Z · LW · GW

No comments yet? Well. I find it difficult to put into words how awesome the weekend was. (Sometimes things really do live up to the hype.) 80+ extremely friendly, open and curious people got together to talk about almost everything. The amount of topics covered was super surprising as was the style. I didn't notice any status posing :-). Besides the interesting lectures (a big wave to all the effective altruists) and the impromptu talking we got to excercise social stuff and talk to/play with very nice plushies. I still need some time to process everything, but it was awesome and I look forward to the next (or any similar) event.

Comment by MartinB on Rationality Jokes Thread · 2014-12-22T23:25:14.609Z · LW · GW

I don't get this one.

Comment by MartinB on Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity · 2014-04-28T13:33:33.065Z · LW · GW

I've got it :-) Actually I read about it before, but delayed going to the doctors for a few years. Afterwards it took about 6month of preliminary testing till I got the appointment in the sleep lab - since it is not an emergency situation. But afterwards the CPAP helped me right away. Its ridiculously effective. (Around the same time I started using f.lux to dim the brigtness of the monitor which is a good idea anyway (redshift for linux), and later got an eye mask to keep lights out.) From the self help group I got some material for the practical questions. And read many sad stories of those who need decades to figure it out. Not all doctors know about sleep apnea. But numbers are rising. One danger ignored is professional drivers who cause accidents by being tired. Might account for 7% of the total traffic accidents. But eitherway if you have it treatment is there. The published papers I read (mostly metastudies) usually deal with compliance rates in combination with some other factor. Medical compliance is stupidly low, many people don't use their CPAP even if it works. But I saw no other treatment options that were seriously explored. A nice feature is that CPAP is purely external, so no changes in your body, no operations and no big problems if you forget it occasionally.

To correct the symptom list above: snoring is a common signal, but not all snoring is from APNEA. You can have it checked out, if its a problem. The mean part is the daytime fatigue, which others will usually assume is due to a lazy lifestyle, partying to long or such. It takes a while to make the leap from daytime fatigue - despite extensive sleeping to an actual problem in the sleep.

And one plus point: you look and sound a bit like Darth Vader while sleeping :-)

Comment by MartinB on Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity · 2014-04-28T13:27:03.726Z · LW · GW

Did you go to a Sleeplap? They are supposed to fit it, have a pile of different masks to choose from. As far as I know cpap is the way to go with APNEA.

Comment by MartinB on Less Wrong Product & Service Recommendations · 2013-01-21T12:54:11.352Z · LW · GW

if you're German check out Neo-layout.org. Its much more awesome. For English speakers try Colemak. For all others check if there are optimized layouts for your language.

Hopefully someone does an adaption of the NEO principles into other languages at some point. Its not that difficult to get into it.

Comment by MartinB on New Year's Prediction Thread (2012) · 2013-01-07T13:02:17.162Z · LW · GW

And now the scoring:

self

I'll log more than 1460 work hours in my logging tool for the year:70%

No, just 612,5 == 42% of the planned minimum.

I can accurately describe myself as a hard worker. 60%

Not quite there yet.

I weight below 100kg (220 pound) end of year: 30%

No.

I'll get the big scale project one of my teams was applying for: 20%

No.

I'll severely improve in the art that shall not be named: 60%

No.

I finish university:60%

No.

I still am involved in my goal club: 75%

Yes.

I will have experienced credit card fraud: 5%

No.

I will still follow my current diet regime (no alcohol, reduced sugar, no cola): 90%

Yes.

I'll start a business project from my backlog: 40%

No.

I'll still use NEO and F.LUX: 98 %

Yes.

I'll revisit and score this prediction in the first week of 2013: 95%

Yes.

I'll rejoin Toastmasters: 70% No.

LW I'll gain a new super important insights: 10%

Probably. Difficult to score.

There are 10 or more MOR updates:97%

Yes, but that was close.

They will be really awesome:60%

Yes.

world: the EURO will still exist: 95%

Yes

there will be steps undertaken to remove the EURO: 7%

No.

Greece got another bailout: 30%

Kind of. Hard to score.

the GRG Table E will have less than 100 cases over the whole year: 80% (this include retroactively validated entries)

Yes (61 atm)

the current 4 entries with an age over 114 will all be dead:65%

Yes.

and for calender mystics: the number of cases born <1.1.1900 will drop below 10: 70%

No (15 atm)

the world will not end in 2012: 99,99999%

Yes

people will find new scary date in the future: 87%

Hard to score, probably true.

the US or GB will take steps to increase metrification:3%

No.

Germany: the FDP (german liberal/libertarians) will be gone: 5%

No.

the FDP will become unimportant:60%

To difficult to score yet.

Germany will have a new president: 70% Yes. trueisms: some major catastrophe happens in the world:95%

Yes.

a major political scandal: 99%

Yes.

earthquakes in Japan: 100%

Yes.

Obama wins:60%

Yes.

if Ron Paul wins, he will not succeed in cutting spending:80%

Not applicable. (Also probably wrong)

people will complain, but actually be fine:90%

Yes.

I will have forgotten to write in some prediction I thought about during the last week:90%

No.

I am miscalibrated with the edgier numbers!

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 18, chapter 87 · 2012-12-22T12:20:50.213Z · LW · GW

Ok thats rofl worthy. I got the OTP with google, but didnt make the connection to the fanfiction usage of shipping. My guess was a reference to Vanderbuilt and similar guys at see.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 18, chapter 87 · 2012-12-22T12:04:44.722Z · LW · GW

I don't get it. How about a hint for non American Readers?

Comment by MartinB on Meetup : Munich Meetup, October 28th · 2012-10-28T16:12:56.544Z · LW · GW

I only saw the anouncement today which is a bit to late. Generally I am interested in meetups and currently live in Nuremberg.

Comment by MartinB on Parenting and Happiness · 2012-10-05T17:10:11.314Z · LW · GW

It doesnt follow that it has to go down. It could also stay stable. After all - all the bright people that do not reproduce have parents somewhere. So there are people produced by parents who are not in the mental cluster that prevents them from reproduction.

Comment by MartinB on [Link] The real end of science · 2012-10-05T16:45:07.475Z · LW · GW

Thats mostly engineering, not science.

Comment by MartinB on SRS advice · 2012-09-27T05:36:04.240Z · LW · GW

Link unavailable, new one seems to be: http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

Comment by MartinB on Rationality Quotes September 2012 · 2012-09-05T18:45:28.032Z · LW · GW

Now that would be evil.

Comment by MartinB on What are useful skills to learn at university? · 2012-08-27T11:14:04.670Z · LW · GW

Yes.

I think I found quite a few groups where the group topic was barely talked about outside of formal events. To some degree thats normal and good. It just irritates me when the rate is extremely low.

Comment by MartinB on What are useful skills to learn at university? · 2012-08-26T06:51:11.685Z · LW · GW

Self-organization, efficient working are not actually taught. Neither is planning. Often you have voluntary courses on university work. But you do get pressured into either doing it or fail. The scientific method might be taught, but you don't have to get it. to succeed.

Often one learns systematic working and math. Somewhat scientific working, quoting right.

I think university teaches some things indirectly that are hard to explain explicitly and hard to become aware that they actually matter.

Comment by MartinB on What are useful skills to learn at university? · 2012-08-26T06:45:07.501Z · LW · GW

Not my experience. (Sadly). Most students I interacted with at university were less than interested to talk about subject matters at all.

Comment by MartinB on How to get cryocrastinators to actually sign up for cryonics · 2012-08-24T14:36:28.189Z · LW · GW

Scaling effects. Both in social stigma, infrastructure in cases of emergency, actual costs, research and what not. With the current low amount of people who are signed every additional person actually improves the condition.

Comment by MartinB on How to get cryocrastinators to actually sign up for cryonics · 2012-08-23T16:41:32.446Z · LW · GW

I like phones. (for me skype call is basically the same as a phone call). But i mostly use loud speaker. I could imagine a few more reasons why someone wouldnt like phones. It seems odd to make this an actual criterion, but good if companies can deal with it.

Comment by MartinB on On the Care and Feeding of Young Rationalists -- Revisited[Draft] [Request for Feedback] · 2012-07-07T17:19:25.717Z · LW · GW

== removing some frustration from the early childhood experience

Comment by MartinB on On the Care and Feeding of Young Rationalists -- Revisited[Draft] [Request for Feedback] · 2012-07-07T17:13:47.999Z · LW · GW

Sometimes children are bullied by children of the same age, so separating children by exact age does not help with this

I wonder which way the causation goes here. It might be that bullying occurs because they do not interact with each other that much, or because being seen with a different-aged person is considered uncool.

Comment by MartinB on On the Care and Feeding of Young Rationalists -- Revisited[Draft] [Request for Feedback] · 2012-07-07T17:12:23.669Z · LW · GW

To be a bit more specific. In one job I had parents come in with their kids to make sure they fill out their forms correctly and basically doing the interview for them. Helicopter: takes many things from the kid, that it would do uncorrect, incomplete or wrong, thereby sheltering the kid from real life experience. Helicopter parents storm into the university office, when a problem arises - or when not. Phone the professors and basically prevent the kid from going out on its own.

Being involved sounds like asking lots of questions offering support when asked, or maybe stating opinions without being asked. Its about taking an interest in the kids life, not running it for them.

Comment by MartinB on On the Care and Feeding of Young Rationalists -- Revisited[Draft] [Request for Feedback] · 2012-07-07T13:39:36.926Z · LW · GW

I am fairly sure that helicopter parenting is not the same as being involved. I correlate helicoptering with making decisions for the kid or running errands for them, while being involved often is more on the level of asking about things, and giving support when asked.

Comment by MartinB on Meetup : First Berlin meetup · 2012-06-05T01:53:53.868Z · LW · GW

That is so mean. I just spent 2 weeks in Berlin, but will leave the city on 7pm and only saw the message now.

Comment by MartinB on List of underrated risks? · 2012-06-01T08:09:13.509Z · LW · GW

As written by CronoDAS. If most people get a debilitating disease by age X it would be widely accepted as unavoidable. Used to be the case with losing teeth in old age, still is with dementia and aging. Basically a comparison of the own experience to the common experience of your peers.

Comment by MartinB on List of underrated risks? · 2012-05-31T08:14:17.124Z · LW · GW

Oh, also usually ignored are things that happen to almost everyone. EY's weekly baseballbat bashing. Lifestyle interventions do reduce health risks to some degree but are commonly ignored.

Comment by MartinB on List of underrated risks? · 2012-05-31T08:00:22.595Z · LW · GW

Both also targeted different groups. The flu got old, very young, poor people while the war involved more men of working age. Its weird though that the flu was left out of my history teaching.

Comment by MartinB on List of underrated risks? · 2012-05-31T07:58:25.799Z · LW · GW

Maybe look at religious groups that strongly believe that sin causes disease?

In developed countries they just get treatment secretly.

Comment by MartinB on List of underrated risks? · 2012-05-30T21:38:45.772Z · LW · GW

Murder rates are usually overestimated, while diseases and accidents are underrated. Due to availability bias thing that happen regularly are concerns, things that are superrare, but might kill many people if are ignored.

Comment by MartinB on Share Your Checklists! · 2012-05-30T09:21:46.658Z · LW · GW

Traveling: I sometimes have multiple trips lined up, so I put all relevant items for each trip in a seperate plastic folder. Items that are not free yet get replaced by a small piece of paper like "train discount card". That makes sure I do not forget travel specific items.

In general I use a packing list that I regularly update before and after each trip. I also unpack after the trip and check back on the checklist to see if I packed something needed that is not on the list yet. Afterwards I evaluate the items and write that in a seperate column to see over multiple trips if an item is never used (which might indicate I do not need it) or regularly needed but not brought or understocked.

Then I have a box with all the items I mostly use only while travelling. That makes packing these much easier. If my travelrate goes up someday I probably get doubles of most items.

My list also includes actions to before the trip (charge batteries, cut nails) and process goals like having packed a day early and stress free.

The results so far are a much more relaxed time while packing. I am faster and rarely forget anything. I still want to look through the data collected on my last 20+ trips and reorder everything, maybe put in a formular for quantities, or group items that only belong to specific types of trips (long, short, camping, summer, winter).

I found that for me travelling even a crudely done checklist is better than none.

Comment by MartinB on Why do people ____? · 2012-05-07T18:28:00.595Z · LW · GW

1) doing something you do (claim to) not enjoy 2) Participating in a tribal ritual that seems to make everyone worse off by having to do an activity they dont enjoy. (A group that is locked into doing something few members actually want to do.)

Comment by MartinB on Why do people ____? · 2012-05-05T22:22:06.627Z · LW · GW

In Germany the sport of choice is soccer. From time to time I notice how people (a) put in serious effort to watch the game on TV, and (b) complain about how bad it was afterwards. Some regularly complain about how bad the sport has become, but still eagerly watch it again next time. For me it looks like a weird tribal ritual, thats just stupid.

Comment by MartinB on Why do people ____? · 2012-05-05T14:40:31.183Z · LW · GW

Why do people watch far removed teams playing sports?

Comment by MartinB on Experiment: a good researcher is hard to find · 2012-04-30T23:00:57.612Z · LW · GW

As far as I am aware the hiring process is severely broken. It would be good to get some more public information and a fix.

Comment by MartinB on A Kick in the Rationals: What hurts you in your LessWrong Parts? · 2012-04-27T11:25:08.370Z · LW · GW

Are you aware that they might be other people by the same name?

Comment by MartinB on Stupid Questions Open Thread Round 2 · 2012-04-22T21:06:31.367Z · LW · GW

Incompetence is at least as bad as dishonesty. Not sure if it can be distinguished.

Comment by MartinB on Stupid Questions Open Thread Round 2 · 2012-04-22T14:39:09.625Z · LW · GW

No, since his articles make the case against current cryonics organisations, despite coming from a strong supporter of the idea.

Comment by MartinB on Stupid Questions Open Thread Round 2 · 2012-04-22T11:22:06.723Z · LW · GW

Cryonicists have the same incentive to lie. Reading the current article series of Mike Darwin on Chronopause.com makes a good case on how cryonics currently is broken.

Comment by MartinB on "Drinking Alcohol May Significantly Enhance Problem Solving Skills" · 2012-04-13T18:56:16.803Z · LW · GW

Yes if you substitute it with 'comment something reasonable'. This just being a placeholder pointing it out.

Comment by MartinB on School essay: outsourcing some brain work · 2012-04-13T06:25:09.674Z · LW · GW

I don't think I have to answer that to point out the flaw. If all nursing theories considered are wrong than one of those can easily still be the one that produces the best results despite no correlation with what nursing actually is about. A flaw I would expect to see more often is a nursing theory that has new age elements that are not linked to reality, makes the user feel helpful and good and leads possibly to a good care of patients. But that sounds like rating the more effective bedtime story or the more effective motivational mission statement. The term "nursing theory" implies that it is a theory about how nursing should be done, not what thoughts the nurse should have while doing it.

Comment by MartinB on School essay: outsourcing some brain work · 2012-04-12T19:20:41.497Z · LW · GW

This still does not make it a correct theory.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 14, chapter 82 · 2012-04-11T15:25:24.945Z · LW · GW

Something like this was done in the book ''Hair carpet" by German author Andreas Eschbach. Readworthy. I think it is generally wise to found the opposition by oneself. The government in 1984 did it as well.

Comment by MartinB on Social status hacks from The Improv Wiki · 2012-04-01T11:46:22.894Z · LW · GW

I just put out much more up votes than usual while reading the comments. I usually get confused whenever someone with high status ignores the well founded opinions of a low status person. I saw charismatic high status people break things due to sheer ignorance. It hurts.

What might be missing is an emphasis that status is not a black/white distinction. There is an apropriate level to each situation which can and should be trained.

I really hate it when competence and appearance of competence run on oposing signals. Bad enough that they are often unrelated. Basically I spent effort to train to be a better listener and better at understanding only to have to train that out again -- in appropriate situations.

Now I consider it valuable to be able to present a suitable status, but even more to be able to actually communicate with people who might not show the appropriate status.

It would be great to see more exercises for this.

Comment by MartinB on Social status hacks from The Improv Wiki · 2012-04-01T11:35:31.222Z · LW · GW

How and with what results (short term, long term) do you punish?

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-04-01T09:57:28.901Z · LW · GW

Yes, that is what I was aiming at. If it is the rational choice to end a pregnancy, than it is good for us that not everyone in the past did so. I am aware that the OP wrote about the financial incentive, not about the most rational choice.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-31T20:45:11.832Z · LW · GW

Good for us that few people are mother economicae.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-30T20:37:03.410Z · LW · GW

Or she already knew.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-30T08:18:26.592Z · LW · GW

Well. But he is not supposed to give in. He has to get the next level of interrogators who can deal with this. Imagine a real police person in a similar situation.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-29T22:47:47.255Z · LW · GW

Is he not the interrogator in a ministry holding cell? Oh boy.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-29T18:55:30.005Z · LW · GW

I found it weird that he only tried once, and basically ignored Qs counter to the test.

Comment by MartinB on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 13, chapter 81 · 2012-03-29T15:52:38.794Z · LW · GW

Regarding polyjuice. Keep in mind that Quirrell had to spend a while in the hospital wing in bed. He probably would not have had access to his juice. In HP4 you see how often someone polyjuiced has to refill - it is basically all the time.