Does anyone else feel like this sort of threads/comments should be somehow better archived/presented/integrated? Threads like this are vanishing far to fast into oblivion. Low-hanging fruits of lesswrong: better "advertising" the possibilities/chances of the LW-network.
Examples include:
If there were ever an additional category besides Main and Discussion, I would vote for some kind of "sticky" category of a limited number of posts promoted from Discussion.
A related idea is for people who have some goal they want to achieve, like having a romantic relationship with someone of their preferred gender
I am 22 years old, and I have never had a girlfriend. At no time in my life have I remained single by choice.
I strongly suspect that this has more to do with a general inability to form social contacts, than anything specific to forming a pair-bond. Wherever the difficulty, the goal is to meet and befriend someone with whom I can share a meaningful and lasting intimate relationship, and socializing-in-general would be no more than a means to that end.
It is likely that I have heard all the general advice on this subject, multiple times, and enacted it where applicable. Nothing in the cached wisdom has proven helpful. I am still single. And not merely single but genuinely alone without friends or associates, and starting to feel frustrated in helplessness about it.
If there's help to be had, I would be glad of it.
A while back I had an open offer to provide suggestions to LW-ers OKC profiles. I had a lot of fun doing it, and giving some general one-on-one advice as well. The offer still stands, if more people are interested!
I'm 28 yo female. I've been involved in many kinds of relationships (married, divorced, mono, poly, serious, casual, and everything in-between), and am a former hired gun (aka professional flirt).
I'm willing to give whatever one-on-one advice that I can.
Joining the swing dancing club at my college did more for my social skills/life and romantic opportunities then any other single choice in my life. Swing dancers as a culture tend to be open, friendly, and lacking in personal space boundaries. If you have a club in your area, go to lessons and go to social dances until you start getting complimented on your dancing. Work at becoming a good dancer. I assume you have already read advice on how to make small talk, which is all you need while dancing. Once you become a proficient dancer, girls will start flirting with you. This is just a thing among swing dancers: good dancer = attractive. Provided you aren't creepy (again, I will assume you've read enough to prevent this) you will find dancers an incredibly accepting group.
Tl;dr swing dancing clubs are an excellent way to meet people without having to maintain long conversations.
*consults Google Maps*
*reads OKC profile*
If you're poly-friendly and want to haul yourself down to Berkeley sometime after, call it January 10, and you're interested, I'll go out with you at least once. We can talk about worldbuilding and Nightwish and whatnot.
If not I could just give profile-optimizing tips. Or if so I could give profile-optimizing tips, for that matter.
I don't know if there are enough upvotes in the world to express the value of actually taking action over merely dispensing verbal platitudes.
I need a mentor from a patient person who has their shit together.
I made poor choices in college and graduated this summer with a meager GPA in an unprofitable major. I am now working a $9/hr job in food service. In the five months since I graduated I've added a significant achievement to my resume, but I've also wasted a lot of time on frivolous pleasures. I fear the comfort of living with my parents is inhibiting my drive to get a real job.
I would appreciate a mentor who could guide me through the process of finding a "real" job. (Defined as paying $30k per year, with benefits and advancement opportunity). In return, I can donate a token amount to the charity of your choice.
I'm past 40 and have done a few things right in my life. Already in contact with one Thiel candidate, but willing to advise more. "Mentoring", depending on the time commitment - i.e. if that doesn't entail more than some email exchanges and the occasional live conversation.
I am a female high school student who aspires to develop into a self-made, rational thinker. To realize this aspiration, I would like to explore logic-related studies such as physics, mathematics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science. While I have involved myself in math and science initiatives in school and continue to do so, I am more interested in devoting myself to the pure study in a method which I can control.
My circumstance demands that I cope with and finish high school. I am trying to turn my appreciation for rationalism int...
Great idea. But it will only happen if one or more heroes put in lots of work to make it happen.
This sounds cool to me. I'm an 18 year old guy, and I've made some incredibly poor choices throughout high school. Since I spent most of my early high school days in a depressive funk, I had a very low GPA and almost no social life whatsoever. I wish I could say that I picked up my GPA after I grew out of my depression, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't, and I dropped out of high school recently. I can't make any excuses for that, only that academia wasn't doing anything for me and I was learning more as an autodidact. I'm currently working on a scholarship ...
I'm in my last year of studying CS/Math as an undergradate at MIT (I'm going to do a Master's next year though). I'd really like some advice about what I should do after I graduate - Grad school? Industry? Any alternative?
I care a fair amount about reducing xrisk, but I am also fairly skeptical that there is much I can do about it right now.
I have job offers with Google and some tech start-ups, and I suspect I could get a job in finance if I tried. I personally have some desire to start a tech company one day. I'm not sure what the tradeoff between...
I'd totally like to help people!
For reference, I ran a robotics team, got into Harvard, am taking a gap year, and am currently being paid to do things that I find interesting.
I'd also like to reduce x-risk and encourage a friendly singularity, and my current plan is to create a rationalist community capable of developing and empirically testing other rationality moves like kicking. I don't think that I have the skills necessary to achieve that yet, but I'm optimistic about my ability to acquire them.
I am in my last year of undergrad trying to finish up my Economics major, which I am disliking more and more. I am dismayed at myself for the sudden jump in akrasia I experienced when I got to college, which I partially attribute to my general dislike of my classes and partially because I had given up on being pre-med-which I suspect was a driving motivation to do well back in high school.
Long story short, I would like help combating my procrastination/akrasia tendencies, and if anyone has any advice on how to find a new passion or drive in life, I'd love to hear it.
I'm 20 years old and interested in mentoring folks 18 and younger.
I'm interested in helping folks of all ages waste less time on the Internet.
Hi,
It looks like I could be a couple of years late, but I could quite do with a mentor.
The things I could do with some help are:
1) I've been offered a place at University in the UK to study philosophy and psychology, but after reading a few fairly damning articles about philosophy, I'm not sure if it's really for me anymore. I'm contemplating something more cognitive sciency.
2) I could do with someone to ask a few basic questions about the less wrong community and how it all works, because i'd quite like to get more involved, but i'm not quite sure how.
3) ...
I'm a junior in high school. My GPA isn't terrible, but isn't good. 3.6ish. Meh. I'm of relatively average intelligence, I just possess a genuine curiousity for learning and stuffs. So... learning for me requires more effort than most people on here, it seems.
Basically, I'm confused about politics. I don't really know how to define myself, or even what side I like better (US politics, Republican vs. Democrat), or even if I should identify with a certain party. I have trouble even determining what I think about political issues, because it seems to me like...
I love this plan, and would be excited to participate, both as mentor and mentee. I would even be happy to hear advice from people younger than myself. I am a software developer, machine learning researcher, and philosopher of science living in Cambridge (I often go to the meetups there).
consider it an experiment in tapping Less Wrong's social capital in a novel fashion.
This is a good idea. We should be doing more to help each other win.
I mainly need an anti-akrasia partner.
I am a young person who graduated from college with, like MileyCyrus, an unprofitable major. However, my GPA should be good enough to go to a grad-school. There, I intend to pass the time while learning more profitable skills. In the mean time, I am working on my applications and attempting to find a temporary job.
If someone is willing to go further than an anti-akrasia partnership, and form a mentor-mentee relationship, I am in tentative favor of this. Like MileyCyrus, at a pre-defined point in the mentor-mentee relationship, I am willing to make token donations to a suitable charity.
TL;DR: Should I give up my highly risky and possibly even immoral career pursuit and go into charity work or not?
I've spent the last 6 years (from ages 24-30) trying to get into a career that’s incredibly competitive, with little to show for it (I’m purposefully not revealing what it is, so as not to conjure up any biases people may have about it). From what I've read, this is par for the course, and it could easily take a few more years to break in, but the base rate of success is about 1%. Of course, strategizing and training smarter than I have been sh...
got a degree in psychology and a couple credits short of a minor in philosophy. I had a poor gpa due mostly to the fact that i started as a computer engineer and have some learning disabilities that i didn't realize then. I want to be able do something with my psych degree such as go to grad school to do research in psych but have no idea if i can make it. Also, currently i am a cashier who is looking for a tech job (i have an associates in information technology and 6 years of part time experience) but i can't seem to get one. Any help would be appreciated, I could use help both in figuring out what i want to do, how to conduct a job search and many other things.
Life goal is effective altruism / x-risk reduction. Requesting mentorship for
I have undergrad math/comp sci and I work as a computer programmer. I'm 27 but <1 year sane.
If anyone in the san jose area would like to workout but doesn't know how to start or needs motivation email me. You can get a membership or just day passes to the gym I go to and I can help.
I'm 17 and going to my final year of high school in January. I'm having some trouble making up my mind about what to do after high school and would appreciate some help with this.
I've skimmed a few books on career choice but they all just spout platitudes. I don't think I should do "What Interests Me" because I think I'd become bored of almost anything after a few weeks. I don't think I should do what I'm "talented" at because I doubt talents are specific enough to narrow down career-space enough. (Yes, a person might have high g and th...
I just had a 17-year-old Less Wronger e-mail me for advice regarding the Thiel Fellowship after reading my application essay from last year when I was 19. We had a long instant message conversation where I gave him a lot of advice which he seemed to find highly useful (my biggest piece of advice was to start teaching himself programming using Learn Python the Hard Way, shamelessly asking for help using a pseudonym on IRC channels, forums, and Stack Overflow if he got stuck).
It seems likely that there are other Less Wrong users who still live with their parents who could benefit from life and career advice. I'm especially interested in reaching those who see reducing existential risk as a major life goal.
A related idea is for people who have some goal they want to achieve, like having a romantic relationship with someone of their preferred gender or being admitted to a prestigious graduate school, to pair up with someone who has accomplished that goal.
So if you're a young person who would like advice, an older person who would like to give advice, a person who wants to accomplish a goal, or a person who has accomplished a goal and is willing to help others accomplish that goal, consider leaving a comment on this post so you can find your counterpart.
I realize this post is a bit open ended--consider it an experiment in tapping Less Wrong's social capital in a novel fashion.