The concept of privilege of the "check your..." variety. It's not without it's problems as a tool - it can too easily be used as a Fully General Counterargument - but it's an important thing to be aware of and probably the single concept I've learned in the last two years that has most changed my outlook on the world.

Over the weekend, a potentially unpleasant social situation I was involved in didn't turn into lots of horrible drama. Everyone involved, as far as I can see, handled it well and with great maturity; I was told by someone external to but aware of events that I acted very well in the aftermath. As far as I can tell, everything is cool and back to normal with all involved parties now.

What I have learned:

• I am better at certain social things, such as acting normally and avoiding awkwardness, than I had realized or expected.
• I am better at handling my own emotions, and I think at modelling and considering the emotions of others, than I had expected.
• I am not good at judging other people's level of drunkenness.

EDIT: Maybe it would be useful to put in some resources I feel have helped me to frame social interactions and lead me to these successes?

A very good advice-column blog called Captain Awkward has been great for helping me think about my own and others' emotions, and how to deal with them appropriately. Casually reading feminist blogs in general has given me a better insight to some social interactions (not necessarily to do with gender issues). I've been doing this on occasion for about 8 months, and I think it's helped a few times.

More recently, discussion of "creepiness" and social behaviour has been something I've read a bit about - not so much that I'm worried about being creepy myself (that's a small part of my motivation) but out of a general interest in gender interaction. A lot of this has been through Reddit; though it gets a bad press for misogyny, there's a lot of internal criticism that goes on, and areas dedicated to these topics, so it can be a useful resource for anyone who wants to read discussions in this area.

Family Fortunes Pub Quiz

On a Sunday night I take part in a pub quiz. It's based on a UK quiz show called Family Fortunes, which in turn is based on the US show Family Feud. To win you must answer all 5 questions correctly, the correct answer is whatever was the most popular answer in a survey of 100 people.

I'm curious to see if LessWrong does better than me.

We asked 100 people...

1. Name a part of your body that you'v had removed
2. Name something you might wave at a Football match
3. Name a female TV presenter
4. Name a country that has only 5 letters in it's name
5. Fact or fiction, name a famous pirate

Rules/notes

• In the pub you may not use the internet/reference material, but given the international audience I'll relax that rule.
• The questions are reproduced verbatim e.g. any ambiguity/odd wording you see was present to start with.
• Submit just the SHA1 hash of your answer, or your answer ROT13d - to keep it fairish/avoid spoilers.
• Include a second answer for any questions, if you wish. It won't count, except for "I knew it!" moments
• I'll reveal my answers and the correct answers no later than 72 hours from now (sha1 b91d4589b142dbf8c567dae83d3e4d7b18c4e826).
• You can work individually or as a team, your choice.

Does anyone know anything about, or have any web resources, for survey design? An organization I'm a member of is doing an internal survey of members to see how we can be more effective, and I've been tasked with designing the survey.

Does anyone know anything about, or experience ASMR?

They left out the part where the "good mother" rolled over her own baby two weeks later and everyone just threw up their hands and declared "What can we do, these things just happen, ya' know?"

Co-sleeping is controversial, not one-sided. It seems that co-sleeping increases the risk of smothering but decreases the risk of SIDS, leading to a net decrease in infant mortality. Always be wary of The Seen and The Unseen.

Music Thread

apologies over having not been in touch since last meetup

Oh noes that won't do. You'll go to rationality hell for that ;)

Looking forward to the meetup too.

This article is interesting, particularly as the topic of LW parenting does come up occasionally.

What the author describes doesn't exactly promote rational thinking in the kids, rather telling them how to win arguments, but there is a degree of evaluation-of-argument in there ("Mary should give you the car because she's a pig?") and it teaches a useful skill early. Rationalists should win after all.

Will try be there - apologies over having not been in touch since last meetup, life has been hectic. Looking forward to it.