Posts

Comments

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Oct. 03 - Oct. 09, 2016 · 2016-10-03T20:40:37.866Z · LW · GW

Search for adult swimming lessons. Everyone there will be as embarrassed as you are. Or try to find swimming lessons out of town, then you won't accidentally meet people who know you.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread May 16 - May 22, 2016 · 2016-05-17T16:54:13.214Z · LW · GW

This distinction is blurry. Which side do boycotts fall on?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread May 9 - May 15 2016 · 2016-05-13T14:53:30.404Z · LW · GW

I think that parenting skills are a good example of such situation

Comment by Stingray on Lesswrong 2016 Survey · 2016-03-29T12:05:18.899Z · LW · GW

I have taken the survey.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Mar. 14 - Mar. 20, 2016 · 2016-03-15T14:43:47.446Z · LW · GW

Then living in a wilderness and cutting trees would be much better. Or some kinds of manual work where you can see the fruits of your labor, e.g. gardening. I believe that activities like these would be better suited for connecting mental and physical parts of a person.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Mar. 14 - Mar. 20, 2016 · 2016-03-15T10:25:54.876Z · LW · GW

Strongly disagree with 2) and 3). I think you mean them as a proxy for 'become more social, make more connections, find ways to fit in a local culture', but quality of connections usually matters more than quantity. But in many circles that are likely to matter for a typical LWer 3) is likely to be useless and likely benefits of 2) are achievable without drinking or with a very modest drinking.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Mar. 14 - Mar. 20, 2016 · 2016-03-14T13:27:02.281Z · LW · GW

Would this description pass an ideological Turing test?

Comment by Stingray on AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol · 2016-03-11T18:32:02.520Z · LW · GW

Lee Sedol isn't at the top of Go ratings. How would Ke Jie fare against AlphaGo? A match against the best human player would be a better test of AlphaGo capabilities.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread Feb 22 - Feb 28, 2016 · 2016-02-24T16:35:13.280Z · LW · GW

External HDD

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Nov. 23 - Nov. 29, 2015 · 2015-11-23T14:27:10.096Z · LW · GW

What kind of threats?

Comment by Stingray on Rationality Quotes Thread November 2015 · 2015-11-17T23:10:36.960Z · LW · GW

Happiness is not for appreciation of goodness of events, at least, that's not what evolution intended it to be for. It's for rewarding your actions to motivate you to do them as well as rewarding other people for their actions that are good for you. If neither you did anything to do it, neither you can pinpoint an actual person who did it and whose action you want to celebrate, it's no surprise that you do not feel happiness about that thing.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Nov. 16 - Nov. 22, 2015 · 2015-11-17T22:51:39.825Z · LW · GW

What research are you refering to? Please cite it.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Nov. 16 - Nov. 22, 2015 · 2015-11-17T22:19:42.535Z · LW · GW

Are there any science fiction novels that take this approach?

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Nov. 02 - Nov. 08, 2015 · 2015-11-05T18:30:42.616Z · LW · GW

You should also subscribe to this subreddit.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread, Nov. 02 - Nov. 08, 2015 · 2015-11-03T11:00:59.856Z · LW · GW

Another possibility: the first group of people have more free time than the latter and spending some free time together is quite important for building friendships.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread 7th september - 13th september · 2015-09-07T19:12:40.080Z · LW · GW

I think that it is likely that pre-WWI drug usage levels survived during 1920s-1940s in certain subcultures, such as. jazz scene, who influenced beatniks, who, among others, were among those who formed the zeitgeist of 1960s and drug culture. Up until that point, postmodernists cannot be said to have any influence, because most works of philosophers most often associated with postmodernism (Baudrillard, Lyotard, Derrida)came only in late 1960s and 1970s. Many 1960s hippies became influential members of society, university professors, and I think that was what gradually pushed drugs into mainstream. Can we call them postmodernists? Well, some of them probably were, but was it a significant number? I'd say that people like Timothy Leary were much more important than Jacques Derrida

Edit: and I think that popularity of drugs among rockstars must have influenced young people as well.

Comment by Stingray on Open thread 7th september - 13th september · 2015-09-07T17:59:04.925Z · LW · GW

"Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low."

Comment by Stingray on Open thread 7th september - 13th september · 2015-09-07T17:50:20.354Z · LW · GW

Widespread popularity of drugs predates WWI, let alone postmodernism, which became popular (outside architecture) only after 1960s (mostly in 1970s).

Comment by Stingray on What is the best way to develop a strong sense of having something to protect · 2015-09-07T17:44:49.326Z · LW · GW

Isn't this backwards? Shouldn't you first find a goal, and only then decide that this is something that you want to protect?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread August 31 - September 6 · 2015-09-03T10:47:21.071Z · LW · GW

Most colonized places were net money-losers for the colonizer for most of their history

But then why did people keep conquering and colonizing new lands?

More importantly, there are a few "control-group" countries which were not colonized while their neighbors were, like Siam (modern Thailand) and Ethiopia, and they don't seem better off than their neighbors.

There is also Japan, which was better off than its neighbors. In 1905 Japan was strong enough to win a war against Russia.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread August 31 - September 6 · 2015-08-31T19:05:46.907Z · LW · GW

The whole point of MIRI is to create an organization of a type that doesn't currently exist, focused on much longer term goals. If you measure organizations on the basis of how many publications they make, you're going to get a lot of low-quality publications. Citations are only slightly better, especially if you're focused on ignored areas of research.

Just because MIRI researchers' incentives aren't distorted by "publish or perish" culture, it doesn't mean they aren't distorted by other things, especially those that are associated with lack of feedback and accountability.

Comment by Stingray on Why people want to die · 2015-08-25T20:26:27.622Z · LW · GW

Interesting. In addition to that, how much of this lack of desires is sociological and related to self-perception? I mean, these elders probably perceive themselves as a periphery of society, as someone whose time has already passed, who shouldn't have any more ambitions. Will aging societies make businesses and entertainers cater more and more towards seniors (e.g. like this), thus making them feel as the central part of society that everyone else revolves around?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread - Aug 24 - Aug 30 · 2015-08-24T17:53:31.010Z · LW · GW

That depends on what you consider to be the main purpose of a sports team - winning matches or providing entertainment and selling tickets to their games.

Comment by Stingray on Rationality Quotes Thread August 2015 · 2015-08-22T17:03:04.548Z · LW · GW

Would you call a cutter a violent person? You wouldn't.

Comment by Stingray on Yvain's most important articles · 2015-08-16T10:20:08.253Z · LW · GW

I think that if someone who is completely unfamiliar with Yvain's writings saw your post, she/he would likely be scared of a wall of links. If you want your list to be useful, you should provide a recommended reading order for new readers. I've upvoted you, but at the moment the list is ordered randomly.

Comment by Stingray on Yvain's most important articles · 2015-08-16T09:22:42.090Z · LW · GW

What criteria have you used to decide which posts are the most important?

Comment by Stingray on Stupid Questions August 2015 · 2015-08-02T20:24:56.820Z · LW · GW

Is it possible to tame an octopus? Could humanity over several generations tame octopuses and breed them into work animals?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 27 - Aug 02, 2015 · 2015-07-30T18:45:27.661Z · LW · GW

Hacker News has higher concentration of entrepreneurs than Reddit.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 27 - Aug 02, 2015 · 2015-07-30T16:26:52.180Z · LW · GW

Has anyone already tried Windows 10? What are your impressions?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 27 - Aug 02, 2015 · 2015-07-27T18:57:54.615Z · LW · GW

Acknowledges that in a group context, actions have a utility in of themselves (signalling) separate from the utility of the resulting scenarios.

Why do people even signal anything? To get something for themselves from others. Why would signaling be outside the scope of consequentialism.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 27 - Aug 02, 2015 · 2015-07-27T09:16:57.427Z · LW · GW

Is there any scientific backing for ASMR?

Comment by Stingray on An example demonstrating how to deduce Bayes' Theorem · 2015-07-24T09:52:10.419Z · LW · GW

Or you can use Venn diagram

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 20 - Jul. 26, 2015 · 2015-07-21T15:35:41.826Z · LW · GW

Keenly waiting for your posts!

Comment by Stingray on Should you write longer comments? (Statistical analysis of the relationship between comment length and ratings) · 2015-07-21T15:22:10.733Z · LW · GW

I don't disagree :)

Comment by Stingray on List of Fully General Counterarguments · 2015-07-21T11:04:01.521Z · LW · GW

My opponent must be secretly a shill, no wonder my arguments failed to sway his opinion. And I have no obligation to waste my time listening to shills and arguing with them.

Comment by Stingray on Should you write longer comments? (Statistical analysis of the relationship between comment length and ratings) · 2015-07-20T23:06:25.962Z · LW · GW

Admit it, this whole post is a secret ploy to get more people to register to Omnilibrium :)

Comment by Stingray on Bragging Thread July 2015 · 2015-07-17T09:59:15.800Z · LW · GW

Remember, however, that this isn't any kind of progress thread. Nor is it any kind of proposal thread. This thread is solely for people to talk about the awesome things they have done. Not "will do". Not "are working on". Have already done.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 13 - Jul. 19, 2015 · 2015-07-16T11:36:14.472Z · LW · GW

Incest is probably only slightly less despised than pedophilia

Not true at all. Nobody takes up a pitchfork when they hear about incest.

Comment by Stingray on Bragging Thread July 2015 · 2015-07-14T12:39:55.093Z · LW · GW

http://lesswrong.com/lw/mf0/monthly_bragging_thread_july_2015/

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 13 - Jul. 19, 2015 · 2015-07-13T13:19:25.644Z · LW · GW

You talk about boys as if ugly duckling type fantasies weren't popular among shy schoolgirls as well. Why wouldn't you want to be approached by the kind of people who didn't like you before? It feels good to be validated

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 13 - Jul. 19, 2015 · 2015-07-13T12:12:28.527Z · LW · GW

LessWrong offshoot for political discussion.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 6 - Jul. 12, 2015 · 2015-07-12T15:50:35.299Z · LW · GW

Pastebin?

Comment by Stingray on Stupid Questions July 2015 · 2015-07-07T20:22:33.489Z · LW · GW

Chelsea/Bradley Manning

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 6 - Jul. 12, 2015 · 2015-07-06T15:00:50.087Z · LW · GW

What's next for Greece and the rest of EU? What are your predictions?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jul. 6 - Jul. 12, 2015 · 2015-07-06T13:04:40.645Z · LW · GW

If you are interested in something specific, search by topic, not by user.

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jun. 29 - Jul. 5, 2015 · 2015-07-03T16:35:14.221Z · LW · GW

What are your predictions concerning Greece debt crisis?

Comment by Stingray on Open Thread, Jun. 29 - Jul. 5, 2015 · 2015-07-03T09:32:20.066Z · LW · GW

Youtube ads are very annoying. If someone's first acquaintance with existential risk was through youtube ads, he would get a very bad first impression.

Comment by Stingray on Rationality Quotes Thread July 2015 · 2015-07-03T09:15:14.711Z · LW · GW

But can it always be better?

Comment by Stingray on Rationality Quotes Thread July 2015 · 2015-07-03T09:13:31.625Z · LW · GW

Dammit. This quote makes me feel even more of a pawn in the grand scheme of things.

Comment by Stingray on Rationality Quotes Thread July 2015 · 2015-07-03T09:06:30.227Z · LW · GW

Sounds similar to paradox of voting.