Comment by Pamela Fox (pamelafox) on Is It Morally Wrong To Enforce A Surrogate Motherhood Contract? · 2018-10-18T00:58:00.601Z · LW · GW

While I was reading your post originally, I assumed surrogacy referred to another woman receiving an implantation of a fertilized egg from the intended parents, and then carrying that to term.

So I just researched it, and apparently there are two types, which is why we're confused here: "Traditional surrogacy" and "Gestational surrogacy": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogacy#Traditional_surrogacy

Yes, it would help to define which type you refer to, as I find them very different ethically. (Or at least, emotionally, as a woman).

Comment by Pamela Fox (pamelafox) on The Values-to-Actions Decision Chain · 2018-06-30T22:17:30.718Z · LW · GW

Very interesting! You've captured a big reason why I do not myself participate much in the EA/Rationalist community, despite being a SSC addict. Much of the meetups seem to be around conversation, and I grow anxious in conversation-only settings. I want to *do*, and yes, sometimes that means I *do* the non-optimal thing, because I simply must express my doing energy somehow. If more meetups had promises of actions (as major as hackathons or as minor as results documentation), I might find myself participating more in the community.

Alternatively, I could learn to be comfortable with the lack of action in settings. It would be a useful skill to allow me more time to reflect before taking action. I would like to grow that skill, but at the same time, my orientation towards action is very much a part of me, so I appreciate settings where that orientation can be utilized and beneficial.

Comment by Pamela Fox (pamelafox) on Raemon's Shortform · 2018-06-30T22:12:24.411Z · LW · GW

I went on a 4-month Buddhist retreat, and one week covered "Self-images". We received homework that week to journal our self-images - all of them. Every time I felt some sense of self, like "The self that prides itself on being clean" or "The self that's playful and giggly", I'd write it down in my journal. I ended up filling 20 pages over a month period, and learning so much about the many selves my mind/body were trying to convey to the world. I also discovered how often two self-images would compete with each other. Observing the self-images helped them to be less strongly attached.

It sounds like you discovered that yourself this week. You might find such an exercise useful for discovering more of that.