adamzerner comments on How has lesswrong changed your life? - Less Wrong

15 Post author: mstevens 31 March 2015 10:12PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (55)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: adamzerner 01 April 2015 01:07:02PM *  14 points [-]
  • Introduced to AI. I actually might not die. There's also a risk of unfriendly AI.
  • Introduced to cognitive biases more formally, which has helped me become more aware of them in real life. In particular, the System 1 vs. System 2 analogy is something I think about a lot and is helps in any introspection I do.
  • I now understand a lot of what I already thought about reductionism more formally, and was introduced to a good amount of new ideas as well. This has had a huge positive impact on me, and has allowed me to grow as a thinker. Along similar lines, I was introduced to the ideas of Bayesian reasoning more formally, although I've always reasoned in a similar way by default.
  • I realized that there were way more smart people in the world than I had previously thought. Although people are still far from perfect.
  • Introduced to the field of EA.
  • Introduced to HPMOR. HPMOR has made me more strategic. In particular acting more "Slytherin" and taking advantage of stupid people instead of just becoming frustrated with them.
  • LWSH has been helpful.
  • Learned to take the approach of understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind confused thinking instead of just knowing that the thinking is confused and knowing the correct approach.
  • There have been a ton of incredibly practical posts like Immortality A Practical Guide, Optimal Exercise, and How to Be Happy.
  • Introduced to the ideas of Inside View vs. Outside View. I've learned that the way I approach things is way more "Inside View centric" than is normal, even here, and that this explains a lot of my unconventional beliefs.
  • Introduced to Prediction Book and to the idea of being well calibrated.
  • Understanding Your Understanding worded Level 3 to me in such a way that it "clicked" for me, and I strive to achieve it.
  • Mundane Magic articulated really well how amazing the abilities we have really are, and has made me a bit more appreciative. But unfortunately this isn't something I think about too often.
  • I was formally introduced to the idea of noticing confusion, and have since got very good at it.
  • The ideas of Virtue Ethics and Cached Thoughts have helped me to understand how other people think.
  • A lot more. LW has had a HUGE positive impact on my life. If this task involved recognition instead of recall, I'd be able to say a lot more.

I'll be editing this as I think of more things.

Comment author: [deleted] 03 April 2015 09:25:08AM 1 point [-]

In particular acting more "Slytherin" and taking advantage of stupid people instead of just becoming frustrated with them.

Which chapters, if I may ask? I don't really intend to read the whole thing anytime soon, but this can be useful.

Comment author: adamzerner 03 April 2015 12:35:00PM 0 points [-]

I have a really bad memory for that sort of stuff and can't recall, sorry. Others would probably know though. Maybe post in open thread?