Hi everyone! This is an experimental thread to relax and enjoy the company of other aspiring rationalists. Special rules for communication and voting apply here. Please play along!
(If for whatever reason you cannot or don't want to follow the rules, please don't post in this thread. However, feel free to voice your opinion in the corresponding meta thread.)
Here is the spirit of the rules:
- be nice
- be cheerful
- don't go meta
And here are the details:
On the scale from negative (hostility, complaints, passive aggression) through neutral (bare facts) to positive (happiness, fun, love), please only post comments from the "neutral to positive" half. Preferably at least slightly positive; but don't push yourself too far if you don't feel so. The goal is to make both yourself and your audience feel comfortable.
If you disagree with someone, please consider whether the issue is important enough to disagree openly. If it isn't, you also have an option to simply skip the comment. You can send the author a private message. Or you can post your disagreement in the meta thread (and then send them the link in a private message). If you still believe it is better to disagree here, please do it politely and friendly.
Avoid inherently controversial topics, such as politics, religion, or interpretations of quantum physics.
Feel free to post stuff that normally doesn't get posted on LessWrong. Feel free to be silly, as long as it harms no one. Emoticons are allowed. Note: This website supports Unicode. ◕‿◕
Upvote the stuff you like. :)
Downvote only the stuff that breaks the rules. :( In this thread, the proper reaction to a comment that you don't like, but doesn't break the rules, is to ignore it.
Please don't downvote a comment below zero, unless you believe that the breaking of rules was intentional.
(Note: There is one user permanently banned from this website. Any comment posted from any of this user's new accounts is considered an intentional breaking of the rules, regardless of its content.)
Don't go meta in this thread. If you want to discuss whether the rules here should be different, or whether a specific comment did or didn't break the rules, or something like that, please use the meta thread.
Don't abuse the rules. I already know that you are clever, and that you could easily break the spirit of the rules while following the letter. Just don't, please.
Even if you notice or suspect that other people are breaking some of the rules, please continue following all the rules. Don't let one uncooperative person start an avalanche of defection. That includes if you notice that people are not voting according to the rules. If necessary, complain in the meta thread.
Okay, that's enough rules for today. Have fun! I love you! ❤ ❤ ❤ ٩(⁎❛ᴗ❛⁎)۶
EDIT: Oops, I forgot the most important part. LOL! The topic is "anything that makes you happy" (basically Open Thread / Bragging Thread / etc., but only the positive things).
Hm, maybe I will. : )
It definitely feels like it's been a tremendously good influence on me, even if it might be more challenging to find hard evidence to support that feeling (and we know how important that is). At the very least, I feel that I've learned so much about advanced reasoning skills and about biases and pitfalls that can get in your way if you don't take them into account.
I'd say the Human's Guide to Words is a great example of a sequence that's helped me think in ways that are less likely to be baffled by or misinterpret complicated situations. The notion that a label has no intrinsic importance, and that its applicability is completely irrelevant and uninteresting if you already know all the features that would be implied by your possible usage of that label, sure saves you a lot of trouble when it comes to defining your identity and dealing (or not bothering to deal) with people who are going to insist that you are or are not an X.
I heartily agree. This xkcd sums it up really nicely I think.