Overview for D_Malik - Less Wrong

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-16T17:32:28.343930+00:00

probably unethical anyway

Sure, but it's a way to sell a small part of your soul for lots of money. You can then do an arbitrage operation, by using that money to buy lots of cheap soul, e.g. through efficient charity.

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-16T17:18:18.690678+00:00

An example of this might be Bob Ross. Apparently doctors, psychotherapists, hairdressers, audiobook readers, etc. also do this to some extent.

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-16T07:37:38.330873+00:00

I would be interested in hearing more about rational financial planning. :)

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-16T06:51:12.512340+00:00

The most promising idea is to exploit your interpersonal instincts: trick your brain into thinking someone is there. This has benefits for social extraverts

It may also have benefits for people who want to be more comfortable in social situations. For instance, if you used tulpa techniques to hallucinate that a crowd was watching everything you do, public speaking should become a lot easier (after some time). But it would probably be a lot easier to just do Toastmasters or something.

Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:27:19 +0000

Submitted by D_Malik • 39 votes • 850 comments

Thus spake Eliezer:

A Munchkin is the sort of person who, faced with a role-playing game, reads through the rulebooks over and over until he finds a way to combine three innocuous-seeming magical items into a cycle of infinite wish spells. Or who, in real life, composes a surprisingly effective diet out of drinking a quarter-cup of extra-light olive oil at least one hour before and after tasting anything else. Or combines liquid nitrogen and antifreeze and life-insurance policies into a ridiculously cheap method of defeating the invincible specter of unavoidable Death. Or figures out how to build the real-life version of the cycle of infinite wish spells.

It seems that many here might have outlandish ideas for ways of improving our lives. For instance, a recent post advocated installing really bright lights as a way to boost alertness and productivity. We should not adopt such hacks into our dogma until we're pretty sure they work; however, one way of knowing whether a crazy idea works is to try implementing it, and you may have more ideas than you're planning to implement.

So: please post all such lifehack ideas! Even if you haven't tried them, even if they seem unlikely to work. Post them separately, unless some other way would be more appropriate. If you've tried some idea and it hasn't worked, it would be useful to post that too.

850 comments

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-15T22:18:53.999839+00:00

Right, maybe it would be best to let yourself have unlimited amounts of plain water. Or you could e.g. let yourself have as much water as you want for the first hour you're at work, to encourage yourself to go there earlier while still avoiding serious dehydration. Or have an optional sip of water with every non-water reward you take.

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-15T02:43:05.398743+00:00

This sounds interesting. Could you say why this isn't enough reason for you to stand erect and forward-facing more often?

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-15T02:32:49.983420+00:00

Thanks for the link! The page's arguments don't seem to strongly support its recommendation to spend most of the day sitting, though; my takeaway is that you should look at ergonomics, and you shouldn't stand all day.

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-14T23:08:49.180821+00:00

Wow, I think that link is the most useful thing I've gotten from this thread; thanks. I've had similar ideas for a while but never knew there was this much info online about it. Their techniques look like they could be very useful for people interested in hardcore professional philanthropy.

D_Malik on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas!

2013-05-13T17:23:10.114409+00:00

You might be able to solve that problem easily. For instance, you could reward yourself for putting the collar on, and punish yourself for taking it off (even when you had to take it off, eg to take a shower), or even for thinking about taking it off. You could try visualizing that the pain was caused by whatever you did wrong, rather than by the collar.