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Comment by sbierwagen on Reality has a surprising amount of detail · 2017-06-03T04:39:02.542Z · LW · GW

What's that graph from?

Comment by sbierwagen on 2013 Less Wrong Census/Survey · 2013-11-27T18:14:30.214Z · LW · GW

Sure. I see no downside to that which outweighs the time cost of taking the survey yet again.

Comment by sbierwagen on 2013 Less Wrong Census/Survey · 2013-11-22T23:18:31.538Z · LW · GW

I took the last two surveys, but I'm not taking this one, since I anticipate that all my answers will be the same.

Comment by sbierwagen on Reasons for being rational · 2011-07-01T23:21:44.615Z · LW · GW

If you're looking to practice disagreeing with people, then you could do worse than joining Hacker News, a community which very strongly rewards (well-cited, technical) disagreement.

See this post, where the top scored comment, (written by me) with 40 points, disagrees with the linked article, and has another dozen comments disagreeing with it.

Do beware being too negative too early, however. If your first comment is downvoted into the negatives, then your account will be hellbanned.

Comment by sbierwagen on Call for Volunteers: Rationalists with Non-Traditional Skills · 2010-10-29T01:55:54.314Z · LW · GW

Seattle-based licensed electrician here.

Comment by sbierwagen on Attention Lurkers: Please say hi · 2010-04-19T02:00:11.664Z · LW · GW

Hi.

Comment by sbierwagen on The End (of Sequences) · 2009-04-28T01:13:11.731Z · LW · GW

Good luck.

Comment by sbierwagen on Great Books of Failure · 2009-04-19T07:47:56.271Z · LW · GW

I created an account just to vote this one up.

A memorable anecdote concerned removing a dent from a storage tank. It had been filled with a warm vapor and accidentally sealed, and when the vapor cooled it reduced in volume, resulting in predictable (but slight) denting.

The plant engineer had to stop workers from attaching high pressure pumps to the tank, since that would have resulted in a burst tank. Instead, he attached a couple of feet of garden hose to a high point on the tank, and dribbled in water, which pushed out the dent.

Because, you know, hydraulics.

(At least, it blew my mind, man)