I would like to try NSI-189: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSI-189

People's experiences with this drug and suggestions for vendors would therefore be welcome.

Learning programming languages:

I want to start learning programming languages for use in my occupation. What are some learning resources that would make this an effecient and worthwhile experience?

I, like many people, have a father. After a long time of not really caring about the whole thing he's expressed an interest in philosophy this Christmas season. Now, as we know a lot of philosophy is rather confused and I don't see any big reasons for him to start thinking truth is irrelevant or other silly things. I don't think the man is considering reading anything particularly long or in-depth.

So, I'm asking for book recommendations for short-ish introductions to philosophy that don't get it all wrong. Solid, fundamental knowledge about how we know what we know, why we can know it and so on. The whole less wrong thing really. I think i'll also send him a copy of epistomology 101 for beginners.

All ideas are welcome even if it's not 100% the right book.

These aren't so much "stupid" questions but ones which have no clear answer, and I'm curious what people here feel have to say about this.

-Why should (or shouldn't) one aspire to be "good" in the sense of prosocial, altruistic etc.?

-Why should (or shouldn't) one attempt to be as honest as possible in their day to day lives?

I have strong altruistic inclinations because that's how I'm predisposed to be and often because coincides with my values; other people's suffering upsets me and I would prefer to live a world in which people are kind and supportive of each other. I want to be nice, but I don't want to want to be nice; I can't find strong rational reasons to be altruistic.

I'm honest with people I voluntarily interact with, but ambivalent about lying in general. For example, I'm currently on sort of intermittent fasting regimen and if someone I'm not particularly familiar with offers food, I tend to say "I've already ate" rather than giving my real reason for abstaining from. I've seen it argued that lying to others will make you more likely to lie to yourself, but I'm unconvinced this is the case.

As Ray Kurzweil's predictions have come up in the comments, here's his "Predictions Essay" (4.1MB) where he grades himself on them and responds to some critics.

Perhaps this is juvenile, but I think it would be amusing if part of the meetup consisted of zealously handing out "The Twelve Virtues of Rationality" pamphlets (which conveniently is available in pamphlet form: http://yudkowsky.net/assets/pdf/twelve_virtues.pdf); like you see Christians handing out evangelistic paraphernalia in shopping malls, street corners etc. Ideally in some sort of uniform dress, like monastic (Bayesian master inspired: http://lesswrong.com/static/imported/2008/03/27/elimonk2darker.jpg) cloaks.

Or if you could integrate the pamphlet distribution as part of a flash mob activity/public prank.

I haven't been taking choline, and overall I haven't noticed any effect with Piracetam by any metric I'm taking except that I've been late for meetings and classes much less than normal (this has always been a big problem for me.)

I'm coming up on two weeks of use (1.6 g per day), so I expected more effect by now. I'll probably try adding choline to my diet and I'll see if that makes a difference. In any case, I'll continue taking Piracetam until I run out since I don't mind swallowing pills anyway.

Since I'm about to start using Modafinil, I might not be able to distinguish whether choline makes any difference.

While I understand where you're coming from, I was disappointed to not see much about how to better participate on LW. Some elucidation of the implicit norms of what kind of posts or comments are worthwhile could be useful to newcomers. I also expect to find this useful. It may be difficult to make such norms explicit though.

I'll get things started.

Today I started taking Piracetam (1600 mg), the definitive nootropic. Like most nootropics, reports on its efficacy are mixed. Some people claim huge dramatic benefits, and others claim no change at all or minimal improvement.

In my case, I didn't notice any huge subjective effects, like I did with amphetamine. Amphetamine creates a positive, buzzed feeling that really is noticeable, along with a sense of potency, power, and a strong focus.

While I didn't feel very different, I was much more productive than usual, and a bit more talkative and positive. Obviously this could be coincidental (I got plenty of sleep last night) or placebo effect. I'll keep using it and see if the (apparent) effects continue.

Although I think this is a great list of books to have on LW, is anyone else vaguely disturbed by this idea that you can't contribute meaningfully unless you know about all of these topics? Isn't LW supposed to be about raising the sanity waterline by making rationality more accessible? Posts like this, while useful to people already interested in LW, probably sound extremely off-putting to new users.