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hen comments on Group Rationality Diary, March 16-31 - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: therufs 16 March 2014 10:47PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 17 March 2014 02:46:53PM 0 points [-]

Attic Greek, and my motivations are serious and professional: I can't get the job I want without learning Greek. But on an hour to hour basis, that's still not enough pressure. My experience with myself is that I have to find something pleasurable about an activity to do it reliably. I'm just not disciplined enough to do things I find really unpleasant. Fortunately, I don't have to do unpleasant things very often, but this is an exception.

Comment author: gjm 17 March 2014 05:35:28PM 1 point [-]

What's the job you want?

Sorry about the repeated questioning. I'm just thinking along the following lines: If you are keen to get a particular job that requires knowing Attic Greek, then presumably there are things about that job that you're keen to do for their own sake[1]; it seems likely that some of them involve actually using Attic Greek, in which case aren't there fun things you can do more of as your knowledge of the language improves?

[1] I can't think of any jobs that (a) people do just because they want the money and (b) require skill in Attic Greek.

Comment author: [deleted] 17 March 2014 05:47:07PM 0 points [-]

No, you're right. It's a job in academic philosophy, and I want the job for it own sake. There are very enjoyable things I can do with attic once I have better command of it, but it's a terribly difficult language and I'm probably a year or so of hard work away from being able to enjoy them.