I don't know how to delete an account yet, but I suppose it'd be easy enough to go and find out.
Right side of the page > Preferences > Delete
So it's going to be force then? You're not going to attempt to convince me?
The preponderance of the evidence suggests you're a troll, and as such I won't engage in discussion with you. If you delete your sockpuppet, however, this would be substantial evidence against that, and I would reconsider. I downvoted your sockpuppet to a score well below zero, because that will remove any downvoting power it has. I probably should not have blanket downvoted Rational_Brony as much as I did (I think I only gave it around 10 downvotes, and most of those were on comments I would have downvoted regardless), since presumably you would keep that account. Should you actually confine yourself to one account, I will go back through and remove downvotes that I don't feel are deserved. I downvoted Ritalin for a number of reasons though, primarily because you admit to having manipulated the karma system. Because you have said many times you have no respect for it as a system, it makes me even less likely to trust that you will not abuse it in the future. As good or bad as it is manipulating it makes it worse. My primary motivation was removing that sockpuppet's ability to abuse the karma system.
since I already said I've given up on using RB
I had actually assumed you would keep RB and give up on Ritalin, and if you delete RB, I am happy to go through and reconsider the blanket downvoting of Ritalin that I did, although it would be substantially more work.
This is my first attempt at starting a casual conversation on LW where people don't have to worry about winning or losing points, and can just relax and have social fun together.
So, Big Bang Theory. That series got me wondering. It seems to be about "geeks", and not the basement-dwelling variety either; they're highly successful and accomplished professionals, each in their own field. One of them has been an astronaut, even. And yet, everything they ever accomplish amounts to absolutely nothing in terms of social recognition or even in terms of personal happiness. And the thing is, it doesn't even get better for their "normal" counterparts, who are just as miserable and petty.
Consider, then; how would being rationalists would affect the characters on this show? The writing of the show relies a lot on laughing at people rather than with them; would rationalist characters subvert that? And how would that rationalist outlook express itself given their personalities? (After all, notice how amazingly different from each other Yudkowsky, Hanson, and Alicorn are, just to name a few; they emphasize rather different things, and take different approaches to both truth-testing and problem-solving).
Note: this discussion does not need to be about rationalism. It can be a casual, normal discussion about the series. Relax and enjoy yourselves.
But the reason I brought up that series is that its characters are excellent examples of high intelligence hampered by immense irrationality. The apex of this is represented by Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who is, essentially, a complete fundamentalist over every single thing in his life; he applies this attitude to everything, right down to people's favorite flavor of pudding: Raj is "axiomatically wrong" to prefer tapioca, because the best pudding is chocolate. Period. This attitude makes him a far, far worse scientist than he thinks, as he refuses to even consider any criticism of his methods or results.