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khafra comments on Insufficiently Awesome - Less Wrong Discussion

28 Post author: Cayenne 19 April 2011 07:28PM

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Comment author: khafra 21 April 2011 06:55:59PM 2 points [-]

Anecdotally, it's certainly possible to retain an active interest in martial arts, making music, and self-improvement in general when going from unintentional celibacy to a happy relationship; but it does blunt the edge of the "hunger" for those things.

I'm not sure if a rationalist approach to sex has anything better to offer than "do scholarship, and just try stuff, recording the results in whatever way interferes least," but even that is a step up from most people--who seem to have started their sexual education with stashes of skin mags found in the woods instead of in the library at Dewey Decimal 613.96.

Comment author: fdzf 22 April 2011 02:42:33PM *  3 points [-]

For a rationalist approach to sex, I agree that "do scholarship, and just try stuff, recording the results in whatever way interferes least" will get you a long way. I've known of two instances where the following tidbits would have been useful in addition:

  • Sometimes, but not always, make an honest attempt to figure out what your partner wants and do it. You'll probably want to limit that to activities that fit your own risk-taking preferences about pregnancy, disease, injury, legal problems, and so forth, but be sure to distinguish pragmatic limits from your habitual comfort zone and try to go outside the latter.

  • Set up your living arrangements so sex is convenient. If you have roommates and feel inhibited around them, that's a problem.