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Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Beware of Other-Optimizing - Less Wrong
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"And because I have encountered a great many people trying to optimize me, I can attest that the advice I get is as wide-ranging as the productivity blogosphere"
This is awesomely hilarious. People are constantly trying to optimize me too. Since I'm constantly trying to optimize myself, I kinda like it :). But it is true that they often seem very confident about what will work, when it doesn't for me.
The worst one is sleep apnea. Here I have a serious medical condition, confirmed by sleep studies, that I've tried several surgeries for, and I make it clear that this is the case on my blog...and intelligent people constantly, for years, have responded to my posts about it by suggesting random folk remedies for insomnia that don't address sleep apnea at all! Blows my mind, but I guess it's just what you are talking about here.
Hey, you know what I've discovered that really works to stop that?
...no, just kidding. So is that because they care about Seasteading or because you seem to them like such a rational person? Do you know?
Definitely not Seasteading. The sense I have is that it's a combination of my being openly into self-optimizing, and a prolific blogger. The former means I'm the kind of person who may listen or try their suggestions, and the latter means that all my difficulties in life are blogged and so people get the chance to make suggestions. I think people just really like offering advice (the warm glows of altruism and proving themselves expert / useful), and so all they need is an excuse and an opportunity.
Most of the time I don't mind, but sometimes I feel insulted when the level of research I've done on a problem and the level assumed by the suggestion vary wildly.
Weirdly, no-one I know face-to-face is trying to optimise me, and I actively solicit advice on how to get more done.