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lukeprog comments on Spend Money on Ergonomics - Less Wrong
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What do you mean by "rational self-help" and "working on the Art," such that there is a distinction between them? I could guess, but I'd better just hear it from you.
"Rational self-help" is the vast majority of what Lifehacker et. al. do: they aggregate anecdotal evidence. It's what EY railed against in the other-optimizing mini-sequence (here, talking about the Shangri-La Diet -- I'm sure you've already read this, but it's a particularly interesting paragraph nonetheless; some emphasis lost in the interest of time):
(I would love to add here a particularly pithy, but unrelated, tangent, though I fear I've already exceeded my welcome.)
"Working on the Art" is a far different beast, best summarized as developing Practical Advice Backed by Deep Theories. Of course, that's much harder to do, but you've done a reasonably decent job of it in the past. Finally, I don't buy the hypothesis that you're anything more than a mere mortal. (For now. ^_^)
I do not think avoid other-optimizing is one of Eliezer's more helpful memes. In many ways it is a pernicious meme, as it causes people to flinch away from useful other-optimizing.
I am particularly talented at other-optimizing. I expect to win the Quantified Health Prize. I am close to convincing Eliezer to try my current ridiculous diet, which is "eat whatever you want as long as it is from this limited subset of foods and you are getting at least 50% of calories from healthy mostly saturated fat".
Very few people here have actually disagreed with the substance of my post, which is that ergonomics is very strikingly worth spending money on. It is almost entirely bike-shedding. I don't believe that ergonomics will absolutely improve the lives of everyone, but that it makes a difference in the lives of people in the aggregate, some of whom actually won't be effected or won't have enough bodily awareness to notice a difference.
What's the diet?
This is getting attention from being linked at the other thread, so I'll reply now since I'm awake. I'm not Kevin, but I talked about it with him at a nutrition seminar recently.
If I'm not mistaken, Kevin's diet is similar to the diet suggested by Will Ryan of Positive Vector (a rationality training company). You can get a brief PDF about it here. (You might know Will Ryan as Cosmos, the writer of Less Wrong NYC: Case Study of a Successful Rationalist Chapter.)
Yup, thanks.
I support Eliezer's warning about other-optimizing but certainly wouldn't say it is a warning that applies to your post here on ergonomics.
It was pretty clearly in the class of "look, stop annoying me" posts, rather than a categorical imperative. Unfortunately, it's in the sequences, so has attracted a "how shall we fuck off, oh Lord?" response.
Glad I asked, because I was guessing that by "rational self-help" you meant something like "practical advice backed by deep theories" (e.g. How to Beat Procrastination or Explainers Shoot High; Aim Low), and by "working on the Art" you meant a subset of that which focused on self-help for improving rational thought in particular.
But the way you're using the terms, it sounds like "rational self-help" means anecdote-grounded other-optimizing, while "working on the Art" means "rationally-grounded advice for self-improvement, including but not limited to improving rational thought."
Yes.