4. Karma policy

I used to have a 50% positive/negative karma target (0 net karma).

Recently a LW user (feel free to identify yourself if you want to be known and not if you don't) asked about my former karma policy. I don't currently have a karma policy.

That user suggested I make a post about it, so here it is with answers to their questions:

Begin:

Thank you for your interest.

aim for 50%

Last evening I edited my wikipage (a couple of hours before you sent this) to edit out that line. It takes time for the wiki page to update. Did that edit play a role in bringing this to your attention?

I am wondering whether that may actually be the way to get the most of ones contributions.

Sorry, I am confident that I understand your wonder.

If you are interested in whether my karmic attitude can help understand my writing better than unequivocally yes. The higher my karma, the more I intentionally challenge the craft's community in ways that I expect are high impact, and neglected because the system of karma incentive that most users play by promoted conformity. A garden of roses is easier to maintain, yes, but a garden of roses with a couple of orchid's is lot more fun.

developed any specific techniques and whether you might write a post or Open Thread comment about it

One useful technique has been introducing cultural taboos. For instance, in the early days I would tip my hat at mental health issues and would be savaged for that. After months of inoculating the community, I can and have talked about my personal sex life in open threads without repercussion. When I notice pockets of conervatism, progressivism, or another ideological swing (libertarianism notably) that is other-than-radically-evidence-or-logic-based I see an opportunity to destabalise that and my intuition is that I have had an effect on the community

Keep up the learning maximizing!

You really got these questions in the nick of time. I will not tell you why I am going ghost on this (not on my wiki anymore) I'll post an open-thread comment about it since I have mentioned it in a thread before. I looked for it just now to show you without fortune. In summary, users were uniformly against the idea. However, I posted it in a thread were the general sentiment was we can use karma to infer yada yada yada and I was trying to contrast with that sentiment since I also expect underappreciation for that kind of post.

Since posting it on my profile, my karma has uniformly risen when I log in. Hypothesis: people are moderating their down-karma-ing because they may think they've fallen for a bit of bait to expose their irrationality to me and the wider community

5. Political infiltration

The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you

A few years ago I joined my country's conservative political party/right wing party (the Government party too) with the intention of promoting reason and evidence-based policy to turn it around. It's aweful, difficult work. And, someone with that mindset can't get elected without sacrificing the social circle of people who are actually like-minded too them since those people would think you have such different values. That's unacceptable even to me. Note: I am not left or right wing, I am a radical centrist.

Entryism and branch stacking has been show to work in history. However, I reckon deep-cover infiltration by lone wolves is extremely difficult pschologically.

6. Misc

• Turn your fear of imposing, into a fear of beholding, into no fear at all!

• Recently I didn't know how to choose between two options. A wise friend prompted me with the question: what is the difference between them to you

• worrying about something that you know how to deal with is futile since you can/have done all you can, and worrying about something you don't know how to deal with is futile as the situation can be changed

• EA's, what do you think about the is-ought problem

• friendship philosophy

• Death or deprivation of liberty? If the density of tobacco retail outlets is not associated with tobacco related harms then regulatory policies operationalising that are depriving retailers of the liberty to set up shop where they like. If it is associated with tobacco related harms, inaction will spell death and disease for smokers and those around them.

• Judgements - practice pereception: 'we have one mind, and if we teach it to judge others then we are teaching our minds to be equally as judgemental to ourselves. Our perception of the world around us can be more telling about who we are inside than anything else. Practice being non-judgemnetal. - diagram on 'true optimism'

• Don't Buddhist/Hindu monks 'cling' to their monastic vowes, ironically?

• A song recently prompted me to think about how blurry faced memories apparently care what I think, in my mind

• I wonder how propanolol affects psychopaths and scrupolotes?

• Ever get asked if your an introvert or extavert? I iidentify as an 'ambivert':

Put simply: ambiverts have the personality qualities of both extraverts and introverts. Ambiverts display these qualities at different times and have been described as socially bilingual, adapting successfully and easily to different situations and contexts. Ambiverts are socially and emotionally flexible.

In a recent study of the correlation between extroversion and income in software sales, contrary to popular expectation (that extraverts are the best salespeople), ambiverts turned out to be the most successful.

The ambivert advantage stems from the tendency to be assertive and enthusiastic enough to persuade and close, but at the same time, listening carefully to customers and avoiding the appearance of being overly confident or excited - Professor Adam Grant

• I just took a personality questionaire as part of the online testing for a entry-level management job with a major insurance company. The questions make me curious about the evidence base for personality testing the assumptions about the way people interpret and answer the questions. I will look that up so I can game the system/adjust it for my idiosyncratic interpretations in the future. The following personality points particularly piqued my interest:

I take a long-term view

Does 'take' mean that it's something you do compulsively, or aren't flexible about it?

I keep quiet about my strengths

What's desirable here?

I enjoy bargaining with someone

internal hassle for the company, external utility

I favour well proven methods

What's desirable here?

I am generally free from tension

what's desirable here?

I am interested in the welfare of others

desirable?

It also got me thinking about the way answers to multiple choice questions are generated. It seems they identify the answer, then present alternative options that have elements of the correct answers in different dimensions. The problem is then that I can simply identify the most common feature after parsing the answers for their dimensions, and that's likely to be the right answer. I don't know if anyone has stumbled upon this before, but it's part of how me, someone incredible stupid, has managed to get through a graduate worldclass science education. If you know any other hacks like this please share!

• Logical abstract reasoning quizes 'what comes next in the series' seem like a great way to train potential testee's in the gambler's fallacy...

• From experience and validation in this video DO NOT USE A TRIMMER ON YOUR GROIN OR SHAVE YOUR BUTT CHEEKS, IT WILL GET CUT.

• ‘Be confident - 'It is your beliefs about the importance of what other people think about you that makes the difference. Fear of public speaking has more to do with the fear of being negatively judged by others than anything to do with the fact itself"

-Dr. Gwendoline Smith, clinical psychologist’

• I asked her what kinda guys she likes. She said long her, emotionless, not bad tempered and not short. The last three she says I am (totally not true, actually!). I have quite short hair. In fact, other than the hair my other room mate is far more like that. I really gotta ask her why she only wants cheek kisses and won't be my gf. She later added the quality 'patience'. ARGH! And she says I don't know for any personal development type questions like what are three things you'd change about me, or yourself. She wants guy that aren't just interested in netflix and chill, pizza and sex, but she literally invited me for netflix and chill the otherday and I was too naive for it. My verdict is finally that this shit is cray and I gotta cut off everything - keep away: she's bad news. Devaluation is a skill of mine, anyhow. Finally met my first 'crazy bitch' :)