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"Stuck In The Middle With Bruce"

I was somewhat disappointed to find a lack of Magic: the Gathering players on LessWrong when I asked about it in the off-topic thread. You see, competitive Magic is one of the best, most demanding rationality battlefields that I know about. Furthermore, Magic is discussed extensively on the Internet, and many articles in which people try to explain how to become a better Magic player are, essentially, describing how to become more rational: how to better learn from experience, make judgments from noisy data, and (yes) overcome biases that interfere with one's ability to make better decisions. Because people here don't play Magic, I can't simply link to those articles and say, "Here. Go read." I have to put everything into context, because Magic jargon has become its own language, distinct from English. Think I'm kidding? I was able to follow match coverage written in French using nothing but my knowledge of Magic-ese and what I remembered from my high school Spanish classes. Instead of simply linking, in order to give you the full effect, I'd have to undertake a project equivalent to translating a work in a foreign language. So it is with great trepidation that I give you, untranslated, one of the "classics" of Magic literature. Stuck In The Middle With Bruce by John F. Rizzo. Now, John "Friggin'" Rizzo isn't one of the great Magic players. Far from it. He is, however, one of the great Magic writers, to the extent that the adjective "great" can be applied to someone who writes about Magic. His bizarre stream-of-consciousness writing style, personal stories, and strongly held opinions have made him a legend in the Magic community. "Stuck in the Middle with Bruce" is his most famous work, as incomprehensible as it may be to those who don't speak our language (and even to those that do). So, why am I choosing to direct you to this particular piece of writing? Well, although Rizzo doesn't know much about winning, he knows an awful lot about what causes people to lo

107Apr 9, 2009

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[Linkpost] "Higher glass transition temperatures reduce thermal stress cracking in aqueous solutions relevant to cryopreservation"

I found this on Reddit; it's an open access journal article relevant to cryopreservation of organs (including brains). Abstract: Cryopreservation by vitrification could transform fields ranging from organ transplantation to wildlife conservation, but critical physical challenges remain in scaling this approach from microscopic to macroscopic systems, including the threat of...

Nov 26, 20254

Cryonics without standby services?

If you can afford the basic cryonics fee but not any standby services and expect there to be quite a while between when you're declared legally dead and when you're put into liquid nitrogen (and therefore suffer a lot of damage from ischemia and so on), is it still worth...

Aug 13, 202525

I wrote a song parody

Since Tom Lehrer passed away recently, I thought I'd honor him by adapting one of his songs to be about a more recent existential risk. Presenting... "We Will All Go Together When We Go (ASI version)" When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner or Later...

Jul 29, 202544

Possible AI regulation emergency?

I apologize for breaking the "no contemporary politics" norm, but I read that one of the less talked about provisions in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that recently passed the US House of Representatives forbids individual US states from regulating AI for ten years. This sounds bad for AI risk....

Jun 1, 202519

Game theory of "Nuclear Prisoner's Dilemma" - on nuking rocks

Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote, in a place where I can't ask a follow-up question: > * A rational agent should always do at least as well for itself as a rock, unless it's up against some other agent that specifically wants to punish particular decision algorithms and will pay costs itself...

May 12, 202511

AI for medical care for hard-to-treat diseases?

With LLM-based AI passing benchmarks that would challenge people with a Ph.D in relevant fields, I'm left wondering what they can do for real-world problems for which nobody knows the correct answer, such as how to treat potentially fatal medical conditions with no known cure. Are we at the point...

Jan 10, 202512

"25 Lessons from 25 Years of Marriage" by honorary rationalist Ferrett Steinmetz

The Ferrett isn't an official member of the Rationalist Diaspora, but he's been blogging for longer than LessWrong has existed and often has useful insights that align with what the LessWrong community likes to talk and think about, and when I find one, I link to it. The advice in...

Oct 2, 202424

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"Stuck In The Middle With Bruce"

Suspended Animation Inc. accused of incompetence

I wrote a song parody

[Link] Short story by Yvain

CronoDAS

[Linkpost] "Higher glass transition temperatures reduce thermal stress cracking in aqueous solutions relevant to cryopreservation"

Cryonics without standby services?

I wrote a song parody

Possible AI regulation emergency?

Game theory of "Nuclear Prisoner's Dilemma" - on nuking rocks

AI for medical care for hard-to-treat diseases?

"25 Lessons from 25 Years of Marriage" by honorary rationalist Ferrett Steinmetz

"Stuck In The Middle With Bruce"

Suspended Animation Inc. accused of incompetence

I wrote a song parody

[Link] Short story by Yvain

[Linkpost] "Higher glass transition temperatures reduce thermal stress cracking in aqueous solutions relevant to cryopreservation"

Cryonics without standby services?

I wrote a song parody

Possible AI regulation emergency?

Game theory of "Nuclear Prisoner's Dilemma" - on nuking rocks

AI for medical care for hard-to-treat diseases?

"25 Lessons from 25 Years of Marriage" by honorary rationalist Ferrett Steinmetz