The Norfolk, VA meetup everywhere today at 3pm has been cancelled due to rain & not receiving any rsvps.

149. Solve easy problems & what's your default query tool?

I am committing to solving at least five problems in my life per week that aren't just regular chores. Here's the current list: (most of this list is: I am tired of seeing my deadname around too frequently)

1. Done: requested name change with US Department of Education
2. Done: requested new card from $bank1 so my name is correct on it
3. Partial: Called $bank2 about name change and they are snail-mailing me the paperwork for that.
4. To do: Call $university1 & $college1 to do name change at both places and get updated diplomas
5. To do: Purchase decorative but functional window privacy film so I can raise blinds halfway on most of my windows and line the sills with plaaaaaaants!

Bonus: picked up my car from a local automotive electrician today, it now has working air conditioning again!

Challenge: switch my default informational query tool from a web browser search engine to ChatGPT (gpt4) and see how that goes. exceptions for local or timely or emergency info apply, of course.

• I started this today, was very useful for some Excel specific keyboard shortcuts I needed during the workday.

Note: I did not comment about publicizing events via Facebook, Twitter, nor Meetup.com, because I do not have much experience using those platforms for doing that. I also don't really use Facebook and my Twitter is basically a read-only feed I check once every few months. Would love to hear from anyone who regularly publicizes, promotes, or otherwise advertises meetups via those platforms.

Thanks for coming out all! The meet-up has concluded. Until next time 🙂

I have made it to fair grounds and claimed the big table. I brought a dry erase board for the sign, someone with artistic capabilities should probably redo it once they get here.

Tomorrow's ACX Meetup will take place at Fair Grounds starting at 10:30am instead of the Pagoda due to inclement weather. Address: 806 Baldwin Ave # 2, Norfolk, VA 23517

I will get there early to secure the round table.

So, there are supposed to be thunderstorms much of Sunday including during the meetup time according to a few different weather sites + the National Weather Service. The Pagoda is fine (very well covered) for drizzles or light rain, but might not be a great spot for heavy rain or thunderstorms. If the forecast hasn't improved by 2pm tomorrow I'll send an update out, we can meet at Fair Grounds instead (might be a bit cramped cause it's a Sunday, but I can get there earlier to try to secure a good spot).

We are on the William and Mary campus: (37.2712247, -76.7129380)

We are heading outside to walk around, message on Discord to reach us.

We’re just inside of the cafe entrance on the right

Finalized Venue & Schedule:

• 11:00 Meet at Aromas Coffeehouse Bakery & Cafe (431 Prince George St, Williamsburg, VA 23185). If the weather is nice then we'll likely sit outside, otherwise find us inside. I'll wear a green shirt and a green & yellow hat.
• 13:00 Walk around the festival, check out the arts & music, check out the marketplace vendors, etc.
• 13:45 Meet back up at Aromas Coffeehouse Bakery & Cafe
• 14:00 Official end of the meetup
• After 14:00: If I haven't eaten already I'll probably want to get food at this time and otherwise/then go for a walk around the town & university campus, company welcome.

148. April 9 Williamsburg VA Meetup, AI, and thank goodness Spring is almost upon us

If you find yourself in or near Williamsburg, Virginia on 2023/04/09 come join for a Virginia Rationalists Meetup and the Williamsburg 2nd Sundays Art & Music Festival.

This week was a bit overwhelming in AI news, with GPT-4 releasing, new Midjourney, Stanford's Alpaca, more AI offerings from Google, Microsoft CoPilot 365, and honestly a bunch more things. I've spent too much time already talking with the GPT-4 version of ChatGPT given how long it's actually been available...oh well, it's a very useful cognitive prosthetic, I'm finding myself actually wanting to write & produce content again since drafting things got so much easier (none of this post was written by an AI, this is a casual shortform so it's all me). I wish the AI Safety folks the best of skill in updating to account for this new burst of capabilities.

Seems that SAD knocked me out a bit for some of January and all of February (I improved my home's lighting considerably this winter, but didn't go far enough it seems, among other things). Temperature fluctuations in Norfolk aside, Spring is definitely starting, and I'm very happy about that. Time to touch grass and do more things outside again!

There is no overarching narrative conclusion to see here, just the end of a post :)

Cheers,
Willa

Shortform #147 Working & Considering Partial Digital Nomadism

I experience significant value-add to my life / nice things when I travel. I trialed working semi nomadically in December when I stayed at 7 or 8 households over 10 days while working remotely full time. That was fun, exhausting, and a very valuable learning experience! I definitely overbooked myself on that trip and did not schedule enough downtime, plus, I found working from a single laptop screen a bit less efficient than my normal 4 screen work setup & other desktop accoutrements.

With a bit more equipment optimized for working from anywhere, a few more optimized habits picked up from frequent travelers, and ensuring that I schedule in downtime, I feel confident that I could go a solid month or two working fully nomadically without experiencing significant issues or drawbacks. I do occasionally go onsite for projects & team meetings at my job so I likely would want to not be gone for longer than a month or two at a time anyhow.

For a variety of reasons I don't really want to go too too far out of state and work until late summer, so I'll practise digital nomadism in the meantime by doing multiple local, near local, and nearby state trips so I can find remaining pain points and build the habits, get the equipment, or otherwise develop solutions to address those pain points. Then late summer I'd like to head out to the other side of the country (US) and visit up and down the west coast. It would be fun to visit rationalists in all the cities I travel to, so when I do travel I intend to reach out in the meetup groups, discords, and elsewhere to coordinate such visits for each city I end up in!

Shortform #146 Happy New Year! (a few updates; all dates from 2022 unless specified otherwise)

Resuming on October 16th didn't happen, oops. Looks like January 3rd (today) will have to do! Now for some updates:

• I changed jobs in October: I went from a contract employee to a full employee at the healthcare org I work at, with a promotion to a new team! Now I am supporting clinical & medical technology systems, it's cool stuff, I'm learning a ton, and I love the position, it's a very good fit.
• November disappeared into the abyss of working a lot, I can't say I did much this month besides my normal routine, work & lots of learning at work, and increasing healthy eating habits. I did journal a decent amount in November, so I can use those and other electronic items (messages to others) to piece together a memory prosthetic for that month if I become so inclined.
• December was a very long month, with quite a bit of activity. In addition to normal holiday stuff, I went to Texas for ten days and had a great time travelling & hanging out with friends. I'm happy that I was able to attend a Houston Rationalists meetup and an Austin LW meetup while in Texas, those were fun and it was great to meet a lot of new excellent people & see a few people I already knew too!
• The book club that another Rationalist Organizer and I co-organized ran to completion and finished in December. I learned a lot, and also really enjoyed participating in a book club with other Rationalists & Organizers. The discussions were excellent and everyone had helpful anecdotes to share related to the book we read: "The Art of Gathering: How We Meeting and Why it Matters", by Priya Parker
• Sadly, I was unable to make it to Washington D.C. for New Years like originally planned, but the large winter storm & mass cancelling of flights by Southwest Airlines prevented my friends from flying in to where I'm at (we were going to take the train to D.C.), so we had to cancel those plans. I look forward to visiting D.C. and also meeting up with the local Rationalists community while there another time!
• I don't have any explicit New Year's resolutions, more so I will be continuing with life improvements already deemed desirable (improving diet, sleep, and exercise) and continuing to learn more and do well at work. I'd also like to continue improving consistency & conscientiousness because I find those to be very high reward areas to skill-up in. I have a YouTube project in the works, but will not be launching that until I've written a more coherent business plan than my current draft and have completed scripts for at least five videos. I haven't forgotten about my Substack, but I think I launched that a little bit too early. I intend to continue that Substack and write more there, but this time without as much of a rush & with more deliberateness. I am hopeful and excited for 2023!

I can see the egregore of Overwork & Hustle looming as I think about how much I both have to do and want to do in 2023, but I will make sure to take time to rest & take care of myself. Staying deliberate with my time and actions helps with that, so I expect to write Shortforms at a decent cadence this year; they help with such deliberateness. It may be better to move to a personal blogsite for them...but I'm still on the fence about that.

May you have a most excellent and profitable 2023!
Cheers,
Willa

Fair Grounds is closed today, so we will be meeting up at Cafe Stella instead at the same time. The address is 1907 Colonial Ave, Norfolk, VA 23517

Shortform #145 Audio Journaling | Rethinking Shortforms

I tried audio journaling for the first time today, it felt weird but I think the experience was actually great! Recorded for about 30 minutes on an old non-internet connected phone (to pacify my paranoia) and then listened to the recording and got hit in the feels in all sorts of good and helpful ways.

I like writing these shortform posts, but am not sure how valuable they've been over the last few weeks in particular (I know writing the posts as a whole has been incredibly valuable to my personal development and overcoming shyness so just targeting the last few weeks). I've increased my in-person organizing commitments and have a lot going on in my life, including a possible job change. Those things plus...I do feel bad when I write a shortform post that feels rushed or low quality, and I've felt that way about too many of my shortform posts recently. My time is important and your time is important, so I'd like to ensure these posts are generating the kind of value I want them to. No more shortform posts this week, I will post again on Sunday October 16th.

No shortform post today...I developed a migraine early afternoon and it's still with me though not as intense as the worst part of it thankfully. I met my "wake up at 5am" commitment today and felt really well rested & great today until the migraine struck me in the early afternoon (not sure the cause, might have been too much caffeine). I enjoyed having the extra full hour or so in the morning to devote to whatever I wanted: I listened to more of a good audiobook, sent an email, and did another thing or two, it was pleasant.

Shortform #144 Pre-Registering commitment actions

This week I may have meat on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Saturdays I am intending to Sabbath hard and go home for the sake of supporting my increased workload on the rest of the days of the week and having one day where I really unplug and engage in pure non-work leisure. No shortforms on Saturdays.

Commitment: wake up at 5am three times per week, those days this week are: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

2 mile minimum walk: I will almost certainly do this on Sundays, probably before or after Virginia Rationalists' Sunday workshop.

Tomorrow I intend to go through the character sheet that I built today, sort the features by order of desired acquisition, and make my plan of action for acquiring those.

Shortform #143 Taking small actionable steps to improve my life

Starts Monday Oct 10. I am coasting now on my past commitments because they have become habits (for the most part). Time for new commitments! Note: I find that small continuous actions of improvement, (see also Kaizen), more sustainable & actually doable than big innovations, so those are my guidelines with most of my new commitments.

Health:

• Eat one or less egg per day instead of the two I've been averaging
• Eat meat no more than once every other day instead of the once a day I've been averaging
• Increase stairs climbed per day from an average of 7 flights per day to 12+ flights per day (note that this is a full weekly average, not just during workdays where it's easy to climb 10 flights a day given my current duties).
• Continue walking as much as possible to reduce car utilization, plus, commit at least one 2 mile minimum walk per week that's separate from my walking commutes.

Mind:

• Continue the habit of going to bed by 9:30 and falling asleep by 10 except for occasional (no more than once a week) staying up slightly later. Waking up at 5:45am every morning for the last few weeks has been great for me, I want to continue that and possibly move the wakeup time earlier.
• Set a five minute kitchen timer once per day and write in a designated notebook about thoughts that crossed my mind that day.
• Set a five minute kitchen timer once per day and read a designated nonfiction book or textbook about biology (this will be one recommended by commentators from my Have you considered getting rid of death? post that was also posted on LessWrong).

This feels like quite a few new commitments already, yet I'm feeling like writing several more paragraphs worth. Let's start with the above, I'll add more as I go.

Shortform #142 What entertainment are you consuming or interacting with?

Right now I am listening to Fragments, by Bonobo. I love that album!

Tonight was my once or twice a month "watch YouTube videos" night, and...I'm not sure how much I like that habit. I do skip a lot of videos I used to watch almost compulsorily when I watched YouTube videos multiple times a day...so that's an improvement at least.

I am not watching any TV shows right now, but I will possibly watch a movie this weekend. I'm reading a book on Kaizen which I'm quite enjoying and am also slowly making my way through Ward. I had hardly played video games for the past six months or more, but right now I'm occasionally playing Borderlands (first playthrough) with some forays into visual novels too.

Thank you :) I did not used to have regular hangouts like that, and now that I do, I find that they are a nice improvement to my life.

Shortform #141 Weekly workshops & good things to come

I will now be running weekly workshops for Virginia Rationalists: Norfolk. I'm excited for this and am looking forward to the growth and fun we will experience! Nothing will change with our weekly socials, I wanted workshops so am running those separately from social meetups as was recommended by many other organizers at the organizer's retreat in July.

I have an interview tomorrow for a job I'm a really good fit for on a team that would be great to work with. Here's to good things to come hopefully :)

I did not write last night's shortform because I was eating delicious homemade from scratch pizza with friends.

Shortform #140 Routine-breaking Weekend

I tend to settle into a fairly predictable routine, and this weekend roused me from that.

On Friday there was a tropical storm and no power in my apartment when I went home after work (though it did come back on that evening thankfully). Because my building sustained no damage, it was a pretty relaxing night, I read some while it was still light out and then the power was back on by nightfall so I hopped on my computer and was somewhat social virtually for a bit.

On Saturday I went to Richmond, VA for the ACX Meetup Everywhere meetup there and that was fantastic!!!! Had a wonderful time :) I then attended a lovely dinner at a friend's house after making it back to Norfolk.

On Sunday I helped take care of my niece for most of the day.

I don't feel as well rested as I usually do after a weekend, but I do think an occasional few interruptions to my routine is probably good for me in that it helps avoid stagnation in some ways in case my routine turns unproductive or unfulfilling (which does happen sometimes).

We are outside at the patio.

Shortforms will resume on Monday 3 October.

Shortform #139 Note to self: don't reschedule weekly meetup

Tonight's Virginia Rationalists: Norfolk meetup was great! We had a new individual join us who is familiar with ACX.

In retrospect, I think it was inconsiderate to suddenly reschedule the group's weekly meetup just because I couldn't attend. My co-organizer and others likely could have attended yesterday, and there were a few people who just couldn't make the rescheduled meetup but had included Wednesday nights in their routine as "meetup night". So, I intend to not reschedule the weekly social meetup unless literally everyone reaches out in advance and asks for that to occur. Weekly meetups = people build that into their routines, and should not be changed lightly.

Shortform #138 A good but slightly disorienting day

I applied for a promising job today, here's to hoping that bears fruit!

I am somewhat out of whack due to having to suddenly house sit instead of going to my own home after work. I do not enjoy this, but it's an obligation I'm fulfilling.

No meetup tonight, I rescheduled Norfolk's meetup for Thursday evening (the 29th). I'm excited for the meetup tomorrow!

Shortform #137 Meal Prepping & Rambutan

In pursuit of healthier eating, I prepared containers of seeds, fruits of various kinds, and vegetables that I can eat during meals & take to work for lunch. I also tried a new-to-me fruit called Rambutan, I like the flavor okay but it's a little bland, and now have a container of that fruit to eat through too.

I meditated for 5 minutes, rowed for 5 minutes, and did 5 pushups tonight. Small continuous improvements, here we go!

Shortform #136 Sugar* Considered Harmful

• = sugar in excess of what one would consume normally by eating fruits & vegetables and maybe 1 square of dark chocolate.

I splurged (everything else were essentials / healthy food) on one item this weekend from Trader Joe's: Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls. Yes they were tasty, duh. After consumption...now I feel physically ill: almost sweating and general discomfort, anxiety, elevated heart rate, trouble focusing, restlessness, etc. Oh! This is not an isolated set of bad feelings, these bad feelings occur every single time I eat sugar in excess of eating a few particular sweet fruits. (I have a great A1C level, for those who are worried this is due to something abnormal; I get full bloodwork done about 4 times a year [last time was late summer] and those levels have consistently been excellent)

I don't care for a fully general rule of sugar = always bad...but from my experiences...I think it's best for me to continue cutting unnatural amounts of sugar out of my life, because wow do I feel great when I do cut that out. The last few months I've steadily reduced my sugar consumption and now even eating two or three oreos feels intense and can trigger the bad feelings...eating a few cinnamon rolls at once was definitely a mistake. I intend to learn from this experience and the other bad experiences I've had with consuming unnatural amounts of sugar these last few months: stop consuming this particular drug [sugar], it's bad for me and makes me feel bad.

Thank goodness I like the taste of >=90% dark chocolate and even pure baker's chocolate. Figs are pretty great too, they almost taste too sugary but they don't make me feel bad so I guess they are fine. I can cut out unnatural amounts of sugar, feel better, and still get to enjoy tasty dessert-style foods that I like (very dark chocolate, figs, sauteed onions, berries, and more), it's a win win!

Shortform #135 Rest and Shrinking the "World"

Last week I read about 10 arcs of Ward, listened to a ton of UNspoiled! podcast network podcasts, and played video games some too. I increased how much I slept each night and averaged a bit over eight hours, and improved the healthiness of my food choices. As much as I escaped into fiction and the "other worlds" that come with fiction, I felt that that came at the expense of the reality / world we all live in (hence part of this post's title). The more I engage with fiction, the more I withdraw from reality / the world around me. I'm glad I took a week of rest, I think I needed it, especially with a few upcoming challenges, but I don't care for the "world shrinkage effect" that occurred during that time. I stopped myself from returning to shortforms and other work prior to today, because I wanted to rest the full week, but the last few days have been...challenging. I'm just ready to get back to working on immortality studies, writing, organizing, and engaging with nonfiction, and all the other things I like do. So, I'm back!

We’re at the pagoda!!! I’m wearing a green shirt and have a large green and yellow hat on. We have a music stand holding our sign.

Daily Shortforms will return on Sunday 25 September, 2022. I need to focus on building other habits right now, but also...a bit of extra rest is nice.

Shortform #134 Cloud Atlas

It is possible that Friday evenings after working all week may not be my most effective evenings for focused study.

Instead of studying anything tonight, I watched Cloud Atlas for the first time and wow, what a movie (how's the book? haven't read it). I was confused at first, because the movie begins by throwing multiple characters in different locations in time and space at you completely independent of context or exposition, but my confusion lessened as the movie progressed and I found the whole experience quite novel and deeply interesting. Very ouroboros. The plot took Inception's layers approach and instead did this cool recursive folding thing that I'm unable to describe very well but if you've seen the movie you might know what I mean (again, unhelpful). Definitely cried at the moments where certain characters chose certain permanent actions or lost someone or were killed. Did not care for the idea that "death is just a brand new adventure" or "death opens a new door", fuck that nonsense (thankfully it was not emphasized too much, only a few times).

Take small consistent steps towards improvement and kind actions.

Shortform #133 Knowledge Intake

As mentioned yesterday, I re-read the comments on Have you considered getting rid of death? and added what was recommended to my knowledge intake system. I believe I'd benefit from working methodically through a textbook while reading another more foundational conceptual book so to those ends I suspect the first two books I read specifically for increasing my Biology knowledge are:

• Molecular Biology of the Cell
• Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

If I notice significant gaps in my knowledge or struggle too much with either of those, I will try more introductory Biology related books.

My reading material tomorrow is to review and add to my knowledge intake system the reading list & recommendations from Richard & Michael's podcast episode Xenogenesis - Ageing and Immortality Special.

I use a clipboard manager at work (the built in Windows one, "clipboard history") and spent 5 minutes searching for a macOS equivalent because that's really useful functionality to go without, and I want it for my home or non-current job productive use cases too! I'm using Maccy because it's open source and it's pretty.

Shortform #132 Small but good actions.

Tomorrow evening's reading material is a re-read of the comments on Have you considered getting rid of death? where several people recommended good things to check out. I will add that material to my intake system and begin processing it.

I will post Friday's reading material tomorrow, I have got to get to sleep now. Tonight's Virginia Rationalists: Norfolk meetup was fantastic!

I have completed similar "prep for tomorrow" actions tonight like I did last night. The extra slack provided by those actions from yesterday came in handy today.

Thank you for the resources! I've queued up XenoThesis 53: Ageing and Immortality Special on my podcast player.

Thank you! Right now it seems like I'll be doing more organizing than research, but I intend to increase the research I do over time. Organizing in this space (i.e. community building for immortality studies & related things) seems like a comparative advantage for me at the moment relative to other actions.

A minor quibble because I agree with the three concepts you mentioned and how you used them, but I think increasing healthspan covers what you referred to as anti-aging. To increase a human's healthspan, one must necessarily decrease that "acceleration" and also do a few other things: rejuvenation biology, preventative medicine, holistic care (better diets, better & more exercise, etc.).

I've created a Google Group to facilitate more conversations on this subject and improve coordination, check out Immortality Studies.

A good LessWrong post about aging we could all read & discuss for such a meetup is johnswentworth's Core Pathways of Aging as recommended by ChristianKI in the above comment (thanks Christian!).

Shortform #131 TWI & Kaizen

In the spirit of continuous, sustained, small-step daily improvement (hello Kaizen or its precursor, TWI), I am adding a small component my daily shortforms: spend 10 minutes or less reading about a pre-registered subject each day and share my thoughts on what I read that day in my shortform.

Tomorrow I'm choosing or "pre-registering" my reading material for 14/09/2022 through 18/09/2022. Tonight I prepared tomorrow's lunch, set out tomorrow's clothes, and did a few other things to make tomorrow go more smoothly & increase my slack.

Shortform #130 More Slack

I passed my second cert exam (this cert requires passing scores on two separate exams) this morning and have thus obtained my new IT cert! I now have more slack in my life, which feels so good. I'm not completely out of churning waters yet, but they are quieter and a bit slower than before.

I look forward to discussing Twelve Virtues of Rationality in my upcoming meetups.

Shortform #129 More test taking

Tomorrow morning I take the second out of two exams for an IT cert I'm pursuing. I've studied well and know the material thoroughly. I'm excited to take that test and obtain that cert as it will help with short term survival with getting better IT jobs while I figure out how to transition to doing different work. Not much else to say tonight, the exam is the main thing on my mind. I'll gain some slack back in my life by obtaining the cert, so that's a nice thing too.

Be well,
Good night!

Shortform #128 Organizing for Immortality

Thank you to everyone who read and/or commented on Have you considered getting rid of death?! Your thoughts, resources, and support are welcomed :)

I've reflected on that post, discussions I had with others about it, and the comments, plus my current life circumstances: I have a small amount of time slack but zero financial slack, so what is the highest value added work I can put forth towards the bigger immortality project? Organizing, I think.

I intend to read, write, and produce original research for that project, but those things take time to do well and acquire subject matter expertise. I can and will write about the objections I listed in my post, some thoughts on governance, and then really spend more time reading & discussing research. However, there are a lot of possible cause areas within the overall / bigger immortality project, and I want to build a community around working on those. Immortality organizing here I go! Expect announcements about those efforts here soon (within about a week or less).

I missed my shortform yesterday, I am acknowledging that I missed it but am moving on. Dwelling on that won't help anything. I'm very happy that I wrote my shortform today :)

Shortform #127 CoWorking is Great!

I don't have much slack in my life right now, so working in the same space as a friend plus taking occasional breaks to talk is great. I get some amount of social hangout time and am able to work.

Problem: I'm hecking exhausted from working hours a day on other things in addition to my day job. Really need to change something in the next few months I think. I'm enjoying the work at least :)

Shortform #126 Running More Specific Meetups

We had nine attendees (including myself) at our [Virginia Rationalists: Norfolk] social tonight! It was great, I had a most excellent time, and everyone else said they enjoyed it too.

Only four out of nine attendees (including myself) were familiar with LW/ACX/EA, and when you don't have a group where most of the people are "in-group" so to say (i.e. familiar with things inside our walled gardens), that changes the dynamics of the experience quite a bit.

I may have to vary between open and closed socials in addition to adding some more workshop or discussion meetups. That strategy has worked well for most other organizers, time to copy (also ask for help a bit), tweak, and implement!

Shortform #125 Increasing Vegetarianism

I am still eating meat, but have steadily been cutting back on my meat consumption for the last few weeks. I feel better, my mind is sharper, and I tend to have more energy when I eat more fruits & vegetables and less meat. Not ready to make a full commitment, not sure if I ever will (parties do exist, and there are still things I like trying or would want occasionally), but I am thinking of the 80/20 rule and how that could apply well in this case.

If I eat vegetarian for >=80% of meals, I get the aforementioned benefits while still getting to eat some amount of meat. This seems like a good compromise.

Shortform #124 Returning, Exams, and Plans

Shortforms exist again! Yay :) I enjoy writing these, they are a nice ritual and anchoring part of my days each week, especially while parts of my life remain fairly fragile or uncertain.

The IT exams went well until there was a software glitch, and the second exam failed to even launch and no proctor ever reached out to me. I passed the first exam with room to spare, and opened a support ticket about the second exam, so hopefully the testing company will issue me a new voucher so I can take the second exam and finally obtain that dang certification.

A good friend helped me calculate current and projected expenses, this was very helpful, actively looking for jobs is in my best interest, as is getting a bit of assistance for organizing work. So those two things will be my extracurriculars on top of the rest of my work until I've settled money matters a bit more solidly.

I intend for my immortalityisgreat.substack.com release cadence to be once per week, but bi-weekly might be best for the moment while I build some more stability into my life. Expect a new post by the end of next weekend.

Daily shortforms shall resume on Monday 5 September, 2022. I am taking IT certification exams this weekend and need to focus.

Shortform #123 Learning Social Conventions via Scripting & Deliberate Practice

One topic discussed at Virginia Rationalists: Norfolk's social meetup tonight (we had six attendees and had a ton of fun!) was how many people had to consciously choose to learn & practice social conventions like eye contact, body language, customs, and more. Those are things I've had to do, as most social conventions or customs didn't or don't come naturally to me for some reason. This topic resonated with most of us at the meetup, so I'm wondering if it's also a topic that many here on LessWrong find relatable or useful.

To what extent and in which manner did you have to explicitly choose to learn & practice social conventions or customs?

Note to self: make a goodreads account, or use some open source alternative.

I value specificity & find that being too general with research foci or questions hurts both specificity and quality of work, so I agree with what you said. But, I'm not quite there yet regarding investigating narrowly focused hypotheses for specific biology questions. I'm approaching this [writing about immortality] in a few ways:

• I want to distinguish between longevity and immortality: I believe that longevity refers specifically to increasing human healthspan whereas immortality is the meta cause area which includes longevity (and other cause areas related to not dying) underneath its umbrella but itself [immortality] is specifically: the overall effort to eliminate every possible cause of death (e.g. another germane cause area that isn't longevity could be human mind uploading or mind backup & restore capabilities or indestructibility related body modifications, and more). Part of that distinguishing will involve mapping out other coherent cause areas underneath immortality.
• There are a ridiculously many causes of death, medical or otherwise, thus I believe a much larger community of people & organizations working in the immortality area needs to exist such that we increase the rate of germane problem solving progress. I want there to be a species-wide project towards immortality that dwarfs even what the Manhattan Project was so part of my writing focus & other work will be explicitly geared towards organizing and community building.
• I'm deeply concerned about politics & governance in a society with longer lived or immortal humans, this is one area where I will want to get very specific.
• I want to find a biology research niche or few to explore deeply & write quality research papers in, plus this will help me navigate through quackery and maintain an ongoing eye towards what "real" or decent research in the field looks like. Max Planck had insightful things to say about the issue of non-scientists or non-researchers attempting to navigate the minefield of what's rubbish and what's real in a scientific discipline in The Philosophy of Physics which I took to heart (it's a short book, very good, do recommend).