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NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM 2011-04-12T13:12:05.935Z

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Comment by meta_ark on MIRI location optimization (and related topics) discussion · 2021-05-10T22:32:27.831Z · LW · GW

Super-tangential, I know, but there are at least two Austin bakeries that bake a range of fresh kolaches every day, https://www.batchatx.com/menus and https://www.quacksbakery.com/ 

Comment by meta_ark on Meetup : Austin, TX - HPMoR Wrap Party · 2013-08-17T23:54:55.892Z · LW · GW

I went and had fun! I'll be going to them every week, in the absence of other plans.

Comment by meta_ark on Meetup : Sydney Rationality meet-up No.2 · 2012-01-24T14:19:39.475Z · LW · GW

I'll be going!

Comment by meta_ark on Meetup : Melbourne social meetup · 2012-01-18T00:56:53.350Z · LW · GW

Hi! I'm from Sydney, but I'm visiting Melbourne this week and I keep seeing note about these regular Melbourne meetups. So I might head down there. I have dinner with my family around 7, so I'm not sure what time I can get there. Hope to meet some of you there!

Comment by meta_ark on Drawing Less Wrong: An Introduction · 2011-11-14T03:18:48.210Z · LW · GW

Wow, sounds great. I'm really looking forward to this :)

Comment by meta_ark on A Rational Approach to Fashion · 2011-10-11T14:25:34.524Z · LW · GW

It helped teach me a few valuable thought-processes which should help optimise my social life. I'm glad it's here.

Comment by meta_ark on Expecting Beauty · 2011-04-30T05:24:10.185Z · LW · GW

I think you could use Kolgomorov complexity to define simple, for these purposes. That way replacing your formula with "5##" wouldn't make it any simpler, because the machine would still have to execute all those multiplicative operations.

How can we be sure we have the simplest explanation? We can't be sure, because new data could come in to make us change our minds. But given a finite amount like {1, 2, ...} we can still weight possible formulae by Kogomorov complexity and prefer the simpler hypothesis.

I think natural numbers is simpler in this case, because n is simpler to calculate than 2^n. As for {1, ...} I don't think we have enough information to locate a hypothesis.

I'm uncertain about what I've said, so please correct me if I'm wrong about anything.

Comment by meta_ark on Mini-camp on Rationality, Awesomeness, and Existential Risk (May 28 through June 4, 2011) · 2011-04-24T12:12:08.487Z · LW · GW

When you say you'll cover the cost of flights, does this include international trips?

Comment by meta_ark on NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM · 2011-04-22T11:43:05.311Z · LW · GW

We're now meeting at 3 instead. Will you be able to make it?

Comment by meta_ark on NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM · 2011-04-22T11:42:36.958Z · LW · GW

We're now meeting at 3. See you then!

Comment by meta_ark on NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM · 2011-04-22T11:42:23.923Z · LW · GW

We're now meeting at 3:00. See you tomorrow!

Comment by meta_ark on NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM · 2011-04-18T00:10:32.914Z · LW · GW

Would you be able to make it if we moved to a slightly later time, so Oklord and Erratio could come after work?

Comment by meta_ark on NEW TIME: Sydney Less Wrong meetup, 23/4, 3PM · 2011-04-17T05:08:04.137Z · LW · GW

It's good to see that lots of people would like to come, even if they can't make it to this specific meeting. Hopefully in the future it'll work out better.

Comment by meta_ark on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Podcast · 2011-04-14T03:21:13.471Z · LW · GW

Thank you! These will be great. I much prefer books to podcasts, but I can't read books while I'm walking to uni :(

Comment by meta_ark on In What Ways Have You Become Stronger? · 2011-04-05T06:07:40.544Z · LW · GW

wedrified: I would have, except mutual friends who had been in similar situations with her had tried that, and it made things very awkward between them for a few months. So I had to find a more subtle way.

Alicorn: I just made an overly flirtatious joke and when she didn't respond, I knew what it meant. She's usually very flirtatious with everyone, so it was very unexpected behaviour for her.

Comment by meta_ark on In What Ways Have You Become Stronger? · 2011-04-05T01:06:31.212Z · LW · GW

I've become good at resolving fights in my family - people don't understand why the other person's angry, and I can explain the mistakes they're making in terms of probability, or in biases, cognitive science or often status-seeking behaviour, and they understand.

Also, I've become a lot better at managing my life romantically. I kept changing my mind about whether someone had feelings for me - she did, she didn't, she did, she didn't - and I could never be sure if I was re-interpreting evidence to suit my preferred hypothesis. So I decided upon a test, decided ahead of time how I should update my beliefs based on how she'd react, and did it. Saved myself a lot of heartache.

Learning about priming, consistency effects and cached thoughts has also helped me steer my future self towards what I'd like to be.

Comment by meta_ark on Don't Fear Failure · 2011-04-04T03:37:44.395Z · LW · GW

Very true. Since starting university I've had many more opportunities to try new things, many of which I didn't think I'd like, but had a small enough failure cost that it seemed worth trying.

I'm now head writer of a university show, in a Madrigal choir and can dance salsa. I'm having a lot of fun.

In social situations, where you fear embarrassment and a status loss if you fail, you could try to cultivate a reputation for giving anything a try. Most people have the same fears, and trying something scary will usually get you respect because you're facing fears others couldn't. Trying and failing at something can actually be a status-raising move.

Comment by meta_ark on Sydney Less Wrong Meetup (cancelled due to lack of interest) · 2011-03-19T06:59:44.198Z · LW · GW

Sigh... I haven't checked "new posts" recently, and would have loved to attend this. I mostly read Less Wrong through its RSS feed, which only shows the promoted posts. Man, I've got to start checking the actual site more often.

Comment by meta_ark on Less Wrong: Open Thread, September 2010 · 2010-09-02T11:58:24.418Z · LW · GW

Sigh... I would consider flying down from Sydney to go to it, but sadly I'm in a show that whole week and have to miss out entirely. Ah well. Hopefully they'll have the audio online, but I would have loved to mingle with people who share my worldview.

Comment by meta_ark on Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011) · 2010-08-15T10:46:21.425Z · LW · GW

Hello! My name's Adam. I've been reading LessWrong since April, but I think this might be my first comment. I usually feel like I don't have much to add :)

I think my awakening as a rationalist can be traced back to reading Plato's Republic when I was 15. While not the typical rationalist text, it did open my eyes to the world of philosophy and logic, and first gave me the hunger for truths.

I found Less Wrong when a rationalist friend of mine badgered me for ages to visit it. This was after a weekend I'd spent in a particularly foul mood because of the short-sightedness and irrationality of the people around me. And then I remembered that Less Wrong site he'd mentioned, and decided to check it out. Wow. I'd found a place where people shared my beliefs - and I realised it had taken me years to independently think of a lot of the ideas taken for granted here.

Less Wrong has been a large part of my life in the last half-year or so, and I can see myself here for a very long time.

Comment by meta_ark on Attention Lurkers: Please say hi · 2010-04-19T06:40:03.606Z · LW · GW

Good morning, people. I'm assuming it's morning somewhere. Adam, from Australia. A friend of mine's been talking about this site for a while now. I had an unusually misanthropic weekend, full of people committing crimes against reason and logic, so I decided to search for some rational thinking. I remembered this place, loved it when I first clicked on, and have subscribed.