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EDIT: Oops, I forgot the most important part. LOL! The topic is "anything that makes you happy" (basically Open Thread / Bragging Thread / etc., but only the positive things).

on the 22 August 2015, I wrote an apps list of useful apps, in the comments were a number of suggestions which I immediately tried.  This is an update.  Original can be found at this link:

http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/mnm/a_list_of_apps_that_are_useful_to_me_and_other/

I rewrite the whole list below.  

But first - my recommended list in short:

• Get an external battery block (and own more than enough spare power cables)
• Wunderlist
• Ingress
• How are you feeling?
• Alarm clock plus
• Twilight
• Business calendar
• Clipper
• Rain alarm
• Data monitor
• Rescuetime
• Powercalc
• Es File viewer
• WheresmyDroid?
• Google Docs/sheets etc.
• (possibly pushbullet and DTG GTD but I have not had them for long enough)

New:

Timestamp Widget. - on clicking to open it - it logs a timestamp.  Can include notes too.

Wunderlist - Recommend it - for shared shopping lists, or any kind of list of things to do.  It's not perfect but it works.

T2 mood tracker - as a second backup to my other mood tracker.  This one takes more effort to do so I only enter the data every few days.  YMMV it might be useful to you.

HOVBX - an overlay for google hangouts that sits on top of the call buttons so you don't accidentally call people (useful for groups who butt-dial each other)

Fleksy - A different keyboard - it seems faster but I am used to swiftkey so I don't use this one.

Tagtime - useful to try.  reminds you hourly or so to tag what you are currently working on.  I used it for a while to help keep me on track.  I noticed I was significantly off track and eventually stopped using it because I felt bad about it.  I feel like I spend more time on-task now but because I want to.  This was a step in the journey of deciding to do that.

Alarm clock plus - it's the best alarm clock app.  I don't use alarms often but this one does everything.

Squats/Push ups/sit ups/pull ups - Rittr labs - good at a simple exercise routine.  Just tells you what to do.  designed to get you from zero to "up to N" of an exercise (250 or 100) so gives you instruction on how many to do each day.  Worth trying.  Didn't work for me, but for other reasons about my lifestyle.

Twilight - mentioned above, replaces night mode and does what f.lux with a PC (filters to be less blue at night)

World clock - started talking to people in different time zones and this was handy.

CPU-Z - lists out all the phone's sensors and tells you their outputs.  cool for looking at gyroscopes/accelerometers.

Coffee meets bagel - dating app.  One profile per day, accept/reject.  Has a different feel to tinder

Bumble - US only; Like Tinder but the girl has to message you first or the connection disappears.

Business Calendar - Best calendar I have found so far

Clipper - Clipboard app for holding the last 20 or so things you have copied.  Also for showing you what's currently on the "copy" 

Pixlr - photo editor.  It's a good one, don't use it often

Rain Alarm - Very good app.  Tells you if it's raining anywhere nearby.  Can be enough to tell you "I should walk home sooner" but also just interesting to have a bit more awareness of your environment.

Audio Scope - Cool science app for viewing the audio scope

Spectrum analyze - Cool science app for viewing the audio spectrum

Frequensee - Fun science app for viewing audio spectrum data

PitchLab lite - Neat for understanding pitch when singing or listening to musical notes.  Another science-visualisation app

Spectralview analyser - another spectrum analyser

Pulsepoint AED - Initiative to gather a public map of all AED's worldwide.  To help; get the app and check the details of nearby AED's

FBreader - Ebook reader.  Pretty good, can control brightness and font size.

KIK - Social app like whatsapp/viber etc.  Don't use it yet, got it on a recommendation.

Wildwilderness - Reporting app for if you see suspicious wildlife trade going on anywhere in the world.  Can report anonymously, any details help.  

DGT GTD - Newly suggested by LW, have not tried to use it yet

Pushbullet - Syncs phone notifications with your PC so you can access things via PC.

I have noticed I often wish "Damn I wish someone had made an app for that" and when I search for it I can't find it.  Then I outsource the search to facebook or other people; and they can usually say - yes, its called X.  Which I can put down to an inability to know how to search for an app on my part; more than anything else.

With that in mind; I wanted to solve the problem of finding apps for other people.

The following is a list of apps that I find useful (and use often) for productive reasons:

The environment

This list is long.  The most valuable ones are the top section that I use regularly.  

Other things to mention:

Internal storage - I have a large internal memory card because I knew I would need lots of space.  So I played the "out of sight out of mind game" and tried to give myself as much space as possible by buying a large internal card.  The future of phones is to not use a microSD card and just use internal storage.  I was taking 1000 photos a month, and since having storage troubles and my phone slowing down I don't take nearly even 1 photo a day.  I would like to change that and will probably make it a future bug of mine to solve.

Battery - I use anker external battery blocks to save myself the trouble of worrying about batteries.  If prepared I leave my house with 2 days of phone charge (of 100% use).  I used to count "wins" of days I beat my phone battery (stay awake longer than it) but they are few and far between.  Also I doubled my external battery power and it sits at two days not one (28000mA + 2*460ma spare phone batteries) This is still true but those batteries don't do what they used to.  Anker have excellent service and refunded the battery that did not stay strong.  I would recommend to all phone users to have a power block.  Phones just are not made with enough battery.

Phone - I have a Samsung S4 (android Running KitKat) because it has a few features I found useful that were not found in many other phones - Cheap, Removable battery, external storage card, replaceable case. I am now on lolipop, and have made use of the external antenna port for a particularly bad low-signal location.

Screen cover - I am using the one that came with the phone still Still

I carry a spare phone case, in the beginning I used to go through one each month; now I have a harder case than before it hasn't broken. I change phone case colours for aesthetics every few months.

I also have swapped out the plastic frame that holds the phone case on as these broke, it was a few dollars on ebay and I needed a teeny screwdriver but other than that it works great now!

MicroUSB cables - I went through a lot of effort to sort this out, it's still not sorted, but its "okay for now".  The advice I have - buy several good cables (read online reviews about it), test them wherever possible, and realise that they die.  Also carry a spare or two.  I have now spent far too much time on this problem.  I am at the end of my phone's life and the MicroUSB port is dying, I have replaced it with a new one which is also not great, and I now leave my phone plugged into it's microUSB cable.  I now use Anker brand cabled which are excellent, but my phone still kills one every few weeks.  The whole idea of the MicroUSB plug is awful.  They don't work very well at all.

Restart - I restart my phone probably most days when it gets slow.  It's got programming bugs, but this solution works for now.

The overlays

These sit on my screen all the time.

Data monitor - Gives an overview of bits per second upload or download. updated every second. ✓

CpuTemp - Gives an overlay of the current core temperature.  My phone is always hot, I run it hard with bluetooth, GPS and wifi blaring all the time.  I also have a lot of active apps. ✓

M̶i̶n̶d̶f̶u̶l̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶-̶ ̶M̶y̶ ̶p̶h̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶h̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶l̶f̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶h̶e̶c̶k̶,̶ ̶"̶A̶m̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶-̶v̶a̶l̶u̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶?̶"̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶p̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶d̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶r̶a̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶.̶ Wow that didn't last.  It was so annoying that I stopped using it.

Facebook chat heads - I often have them open, they have memory leaks and start slowing down my phone after a while, I close and reopen them when I care enough.✓ memory leaks improved but are still there.

The normals:

Facebook - communicate with people.  I do this a lot.✓

Inkpad - its a note-taking app, but not an exceptionally great one; open to a better suggestion.✓

Ingress - it makes me walk; it gave me friends; it put me in a community.  Downside is that it takes up more time than you want to give it.  It's a mobile GPS game.  Join the Resistance. Highly recommend

Maps (google maps) - I use this most days; mostly for traffic assistance to places that I know how to get to.✓

Camera - I take about 1000 photos a month.  Generic phone-app one. I take significantly less photos now, my phone slowed down so the activation energy for *open the camera* is higher.  I plan to try to fix this soon

Assistive light - Generic torch app (widget) I use this daily.✓

Hello - SMS app.  I don't like it but its marginally better than the native one.✓

S̶u̶n̶r̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶e̶n̶d̶a̶r̶ ̶-̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶e̶n̶d̶a̶r̶;̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶e̶n̶d̶a̶r̶.̶ ̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶b̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶u̶n̶d̶.̶ ̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶"̶f̶a̶c̶e̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶s̶y̶n̶c̶"̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶p̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶l̶i̶f̶e̶.̶

Business Calendar - works better, has a better interface than Sunrise.

Phone, address book, chrome browser.✓  I use tab sync, and recommend it for all your chrome-enabled devices.

GPS logger - I have a log of my current gps location every 5 minutes.  If google tracks me I might as well track myself.  I don't use this data yet but its free for me to track; so if I can find a use for the historic data that will be a win. I don't make use of this data and can access my google data just fine so I might stop tracking this.

Quantified apps:

Fit - google fit; here for multiple redundancy✓

S Health - Samsung health - here for multiple redundancy✓

Fitbit - I wear a flex step tracker every day, and input my weight daily manually through this app✓

Basis - I wear a B1 watch, and track my sleep like a hawk.✓

Rescuetime - I track my hours on technology and wish it would give a better breakdown. (I also paid for their premium service)✓

Voice recorder - generic phone app; I record around 1-2 hours of things I do per week.  Would like to increase that. I now use this for one hour a month or less.

Narrative - I recently acquired a life-logging device called a narrative, and don't really know how to best use the data it gives.  But its a start. I tried using the device but it has poor battery life.  I also received negative feedback when wearing it in casual settings.  This increases the activation energy to using it.  I also can't seem to wear it at the right height and would regularly take photos of the tops of people's heads.  I would come home with a photo a minute for a day (and have the battery die on it a few times) and have one use-able photo in the lot.  significantly lower than I was expecting.

How are you feeling? - Mood tracking app - this one is broken but the best one I have found, it doesn't seem to open itself after a phone restart; so it won't remind you to enter in a current mood.  I use a widget so that I can enter in the mood quickly.  The best parts of this app are the way it lets you zoom out, and having a 10 point scale.  I used to write a quick sentence about what I was feeling, but that took too much time so I stopped doing it. Highly recommend I use this every day.

Stopwatch - "hybrid stopwatch" - about once a week I time something and my phone didn't have a native one.  This app is good at being a stopwatch.✓

Callinspector - tracks ingoing or outgoing calls and gives summaries of things like, who you most frequently call, how much data you use, etc.  can also set data limits. I dont do anything with this data so I think I will stop using it and save my phone's battery life.

Misc

Powercalc - the best calculator app I could find ✓

N̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶m̶o̶d̶e̶ ̶-̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶(̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶m̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶e̶n̶)̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶t̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶.̶ ̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶i̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶m̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶l̶u̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶e̶m̶i̶t̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶e̶n̶;̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶n̶e̶g̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶l̶e̶e̶p̶ ̶e̶f̶f̶e̶c̶t̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶

Advanced signal status - about once a month I am in a place with low phone signal - this one makes me feel better about knowing more details of what that means.✓

Ebay - To be able to buy those $5 solutions to problems on the spot is probably worth more than $5 of "impulse purchases" that they might be classified as.✓

C̶a̶l̶ ̶-̶ ̶a̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶e̶n̶d̶a̶r̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶a̶t̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶s̶e̶s̶.̶ Nope just using business calendar now.

ES file explorer - for searching the guts of my phone for files that are annoying to find.  Not as used or as useful as I thought it would be but still useful.✓

Maps.Me - I went on an exploring adventure to places without signal; so I needed an offline mapping system.  This map saved my life.✓ Have not used this since then, but I will not delete it.

Wikipedia - information lookup✓

Youtube - don't use it often, but its there.✓

How are you feeling? (again) - I have this in multiple places to make it as easy as possible for me to enter in this data✓

Play store - Makes it easy to find.✓

Gallery - I take a lot of photos, but this is the native gallery and I could use a better app.✓

Social

In no particular order;

F̶a̶c̶e̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶s̶ was so annoying I got rid of it, Yahoo Mail, Skype, Facebook Messenger chat heads, Whatsapp, meetup, google+, Hangouts, Slack, Viber, OKcupid, Gmail, Tinder, Chatango, CoffeeMeetsBagel, Signal.  Of which I use very little.

They do social things.  

I don't really use:  Viber, OKC, Gmail, Tinder, Chatango, CMB, Signal, whatsapp, G+.

I use: Slack, Facebook messenger, yahoo mail  every day.

Not used:

(ticks here mean they are still in this category and are not used)

Trello✓

Workflowy✓

pocketbook✓

snapchat Deleted.

AnkiDroid - Anki memoriser app for a phone. ✓

MyFitnessPal - looks like a really good app, have not used it ✓

Fitocracy - looked good✓

I got these apps for a reason; but don't use them.

Not on my front pages:

These I don't use as often; or have not moved to my front pages (skipping the ones I didn't install or don't use)

S memo - samsung note taking thing, I rarely use, but do use once a month or so.✓

Drive, Docs, Sheets - The google package.  Its terrible to interact with documents on your phone, but I still sometimes access things from my phone.✓Useful for viewing, not effective for editing.

bubble - I don't think I have ever used this Deleted

Compass pro - gives extra details about direction. I never use it.Deleted

(ingress apps) Glypher, Agentstats, integrated timer, cram, notify Don't use them, but still there

TripView (public transport app for my city) Deleted

Convertpad - converts numbers to other numbers. Sometimes quicker than a google search.✓

ABC Iview - National TV broadcasting channel app.  Every program on this channel is uploaded to this app, I have used it once to watch a documentary since I got the app. Deleted

AnkiDroid - I don't need to memorise information in the way it is intended to be used; so I don't use it. Cram is also a flashcard app but I don't use it. Not used

First aid - I know my first aid but I have it anyway for the marginal loss of 50mb of space. Still haven't used it once.

Triangle scanner - I can scan details from NFC chips sometimes. Still haven't used it once.

MX player - does videos better than native apps. Rarely used

Zarchiver - Iunno.  Does something.  Rarely used

Pandora - Never used Deleted

Soundcloud - used once every two months, some of my friends post music online.  Deleted - They have a web interface.

Barcode scanner - never used

Diskusage - Very useful.  Visualises where data is being taken up on your phone, helps when trying to free up space.✓

Swiftkey - Better than native keyboards.  Gives more freedom, I wanted a keyboard with black background and pale keys, swiftkey has it.✓

Google calendar - don't use it, but its there to try to use.✓

Sleepbot - doesn't seem to work with my phone, also I track with other methods, and I forget to turn it on; so its entirely not useful in my life for sleep tracking. Deleted

My service provider's app.

AdobeAcrobat - use often; not via the icon though. ✓

Wheresmydroid? - seems good to have; never used.  My phone is attached to me too well for me to lose it often.  I have it open most of the waking day maybe. ✓ I actually set this up and tested if it worked.  It doesn't work from install, needs an account (which I now have) make sure you actually have an account

Uber - I don't use ubers. Deleted

Terminal emulator, AIDE, PdDroid party, Processing Android, An editor for processing, processing reference, learn C++ - programming apps for my phone, I don't use them, and I don't program much. Deleted some to make space on my phone.

Airbnb - Have not used yet, done a few searches for estimating prices of things. Deleted - Web interface better.

Heart rate - measures your heart rate using the camera/flash.  Neat, not useful other than showing off to people how its possible to do. ✓

Basis - (B1 app), - has less info available than their new app. ✓

BPM counter - Neat if you care about what a "BPM" is for music.  Don't use often. ✓

Sketch guru - fun to play with, draws things. ✓

DJ studio 5 - I did a dj thing for a friend once, used my phone.  was good. ✓

Facebook calendar Sync - as the name says. ✓

Dual N-back - I Don't use it.  I don't think it has value giving properties. Deleted

Awesome calendar - I don't use but it comes with good reccomendations. Deleted Use Business Calendar now.

Battery monitor 3 - Makes a graph of temperature and frequency of the cores.  Useful to see a few times.  Eventually its a bell curve. ✓

urbanspoon - local food places app. ✓use google mostly now.

Gumtree - Australian Ebay (also ebay owns it now) ✓

Printer app to go with my printer ✓

Car Roadside assistance app to go with my insurance ✓

Virgin air entertainment app - you can use your phone while on the plane and download entertainment from their in-flight system. ✓

Two things now;

What am I missing? Was this useful?  Ask me to elaborate on any app and why I used it.  If I get time I will do that anyway. 

P.S. this took 1.5 hours to review and rewrite.

P.P.S - I was intending to make, keep and maintain a list of useful apps, that is not what this document is.  If there are enough suggestions that it's time to make and keep a list; I will do that.

My table of contents links to my other writings

(Content note: This is a story about one of the times that I've applied my understanding of rationality to reduce the severity of an affect-laden situation. This may remind you of Bayesian Judo, because it involves the mental availability and use of basic rationality techniques to perform feats that, although simple to perform in hindsight, leave an impression of surprising effectiveness on those who don't know what is generating the ability to perform the feats. However, I always felt dissatisfied with Bayesian Judo because it seemed dishonest and ultimately unproductive. Rationalists should exude not only auras of formidability, but of compassion. Read assured that the participants in this story leave mutually satisfied. I haven't read much about cognitive behavioral therapy or nonviolent communication, but this will probably look like that. Consider moving on to something else if what I've described doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would interest you.)

My friend lost his comb, and it was awful. He was in a frenzy for half an hour, searching the entire house, slamming drawers and doors as he went along. He made two phone calls to see if other people took his comb without asking. Every once in a while I would hear a curse or a drawn-out grunt of frustration. I kind-of couldn't believe it.

It makes more sense if you know him. He has a very big thing about people taking his possessions without asking, and the thing is insensitive to monetary value.

I just hid for a while, but eventually he knocked on my door and said that he 'needed to rant because that was the headspace he was in right now'. So he ranted about some non-comb stuff, and then eventually we got to the point where we mutually acknowledged that he was basically talking at me right now, and not with me, and that he was seriously pissed about that comb. So we started talking for real.

I said, "I can hardly imagine losing any one of my possessions and being as angry as you are right now. I mean, in particular, I never comb or brush my hair, so I can't imagine it in the most concrete possible sense, but even then, I can't imagine anything that I could lose that would make me react that way, except maybe my cellphone or my computer. The only way I can imagine reacting that way is if it was a consistent thing, and someone was consistently overstepping my boundaries by taking my things without asking, however cheap they were. I can't relate to this comb thing."

He said, "It's not about the comb, it's that I hate it when people take my stuff without asking. It really pisses me off. It would be different if I had just lost it, I wouldn't care. It's just like, "Why?" Why would you ever assume anything? Either you're right, and it's fine. Or you're wrong and you seriously messed up. Why would you ever not just ask?"

"Yeah, why?" I said. He didn't say anything.

I asked again, "Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you were to really ask the question, non-rhetorically, "Why do people take things without asking?", what would the answer be?"

"Because they're just fundamentally inconsiderate. Maybe they were raised wrong or something."

I kind of smiled because I've tried to get him to notice black boxes in the past. He gets what I'm talking about when I bring it up, so I asked,

"Do you really think that that's what's going on in their heads? 'I'm going to be inconsiderate now.'? Do you really think there's a little 'evilness' node in their brains and that its value is jacked way up?"

"No, they probably don't even notice. They're not thinking they're gonna screw me over, they just never think about me at all. They're gathering things they need, and then they think 'Oh, I need a comb, better take it.' But it's my comb. That might be even worse than them being evil. I wouldn't have used the word 'inconsiderate' if I was talking about them being deliberate, I would have used a different word."

I replied, "Okay, that's an important distinction to make, because I thought of 'inconsiderateness' as purposeful. But I'm still confused, because when I imagine having my things taken because someone is evil, as opposed to having my things taken because someone made a mistake, I imagine being a lot more upset that my things were taken by evil than by chance. It's weird to me because you're experiencing the opposite. Why?"

He said, "It's not about why they took it, it's about the comb. Do you have any idea how much of an inconvenience that is? And if they had just thought about it, it wouldn't have happened. It just really pisses me off that people like that exist in the world. I specifically don't take other people's things. If someone takes your arm, through accident or evil, and they say "I took your arm because I'm a sadistic bastard who wanted to take your arm", or they just take your arm by being reckless and causing a car accident, then it doesn't matter. You'd still be like, "Yeah, and I don't have an arm right now. What do I do with that?""

I looked kind of amused, and said, "But I feel like the arm thing is a bad analogy, because it doesn't really fit the situation with the comb. Imagine if you could also misplace an arm, as you would any other object. That's...hard to imagine concretely. So, I'm still confused because you said before that you wouldn't have been as mad if you had just lost the comb. But now you're saying that you're mostly mad because of the inconvenience of not having the comb. So I don't really get it."

He thought for a minute and said, "Okay, yeah, that doesn't really make sense. I guess...maybe I was trying to look for reasons to get more pissed off about the whole thing and brought up the inconvenience of not having a comb? That was kind of stupid, I guess."

I said, "I really am curious. Please tell me, how much did the comb cost?"

"I got it for free with my shears!" He started laughing half-way through the sentence.

I laughed, and then I got serious again after a beat, and I continued, "And that's my main point. That something that costs so little and that wouldn't have riled you up if it wasn't so likely that it had been taken rather than misplaced, stresses both of us out on a Friday night, a time during which we've historically enjoyed ourselves. When the world randomly strikes at us and it's over before we can do anything, I feel like the only thing left to control is our reaction. It's not that people should never feel or express anger, or even that they shouldn't yell or slam things every once in a while, but that to keep it up for a long time or on a regular basis just seems like a cost with no benefit. And I don't want to sit in here suffering because I know one of my friends is suffering, unable to forget that all of this began with a missing comb, something that I would literally be willing to pay to replace. But that wouldn't have worked. And once again, this is not the same as someone stealing something extremely valuable or consistently violating your personal boundaries."

He sighed. And then he said somberly,

"I just wish...that I lived in a world where my cup runneth over with comb." And we both laughed. And the tension was gone.

Trigger warning: politics is hard mode.

"How to you make America safer from terrorists" is the title of my op-ed published in Sun Sentinel, a very prominent newspaper in Florida, one of the most swingiest of the swing states in the US for the presidential election, and the one with the most votes. The maximum length of the op-ed was 450 words, and it was significantly edited by the editor, so it doesn't convey the full message I wanted with all the nuances, but such is life. My primary goal with the piece was to convey methods of thinking more rationally about politics, such as to use probabilistic thinking, evaluating the full consequences of our actions, and avoiding attention bias. I used the example of the proposal to police heavily Muslim neighborhoods as a case study. Hope this helps Floridians think more rationally and raises the sanity waterline regarding politics!

EDIT: To be totally clear, I used guesstimates for the numbers I suggested. Following Yvain/Scott Alexander's advice, I prefer to use guesstimates rather than vague statements.

Wait But Why published an article on cryonics:

http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html

For some time now, "Promoted" has been reserved for articles written by MIRI staff, mostly about MIRI activities.  Which, I suppose, would be reasonable, if this were MIRI's blog.  But it isn't.  MIRI has its own blog.  It seems to me inconvenient both to readers of LessWrong, and to readers of MIRI's blog, to split MIRI's material up between the two.

People visiting lesswrong land on "Promoted", see a bunch of MIRI blogs, mostly written by people who don't read LessWrong themselves much anymore, and get a mistaken impression of what people talk about on LessWrong.  Also, LessWrong looks like a dying site, since often months pass between new posts.

I suggest the default landing page be "New", not "Promoted".

I have compiled many suggestions about the future of lesswrong into a document here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hH9mBkpg2g1rJc3E3YV5Qk-b-QeT2hHZSzgbH9dvQNE/edit?usp=sharing

It's long and best formatted there.

In case you hate leaving this website here's the summary:

Summary

There are 3 main areas that are going to change.

1. Technical/Direct Site Changes

1.  

   1. new home page

   2. new forum style with subdivisions

      1. new sub for “friends of lesswrong” (rationality in the diaspora)

   3. New tagging system

   4. New karma system

   5. Better RSS

2. Social and cultural changes

   1. Positive culture; a good place to be.

   2. Welcoming process

   3. Pillars of good behaviours (the ones we want to encourage)

   4. Demonstrate by example

   5. 3 levels of social strategies (new, advanced and longtimers)

3. Content (emphasis on producing more rationality material)

   1. For up-and-coming people to write more

      1. for the community to improve their contributions to create a stronger collection of rationality.

   2. For known existing writers

      1. To encourage them to keep contributing

      2. To encourage them to work together with each other to contribute

Less Wrong Potential Changes

Summary

Why change LW?

How will we know we have done well (the feel of things)

How will we know we have done well (KPI - technical)

Technical/Direct Site Changes

Homepage

Subs

Tagging

Karma system

Moderation

Users

RSS magic

Not breaking things

Funding support

Logistical changes

Other

Done (or Don’t do it):

Social/cultural

General initiatives

Welcoming initiatives

Initiatives for moderates

Initiatives for long-time users

Rationality Content

Target: a good 3 times a week for a year.

Approach formerly prominent writers

Explicitly invite

Place to talk with other rationalists

Pillars of purpose
(with certain sub-reddits for different ideas)

Encourage a declaration of intent to post

Specific posts

Other notes

---

Why change LW?

Lesswrong has gone through great times of growth and seen a lot of people share a lot of positive and brilliant ideas.  It was hailed as a launchpad for MIRI, in that purpose it was a success.  At this point it’s not needed as a launchpad any longer.  While in the process of becoming a launchpad it became a nice garden to hang out in on the internet.  A place of reasonably intelligent people to discuss reasonable ideas and challenge each other to update their beliefs in light of new evidence.  In retiring from its “launchpad” purpose, various people have felt the garden has wilted and decayed and weeds have grown over.  In light of this; and having enough personal motivation to decide I really like the garden, and I can bring it back!  I just need a little help, a little magic, and some little changes.  If possible I hope for the garden that we all want it to be.  A great place for amazing ideas and life-changing discussions to happen.

How will we know we have done well (the feel of things)

Success is going to have to be estimated by changes to the feel of the site.  Unfortunately that is hard to do.  As we know outrage generates more volume than positive growth.  Which is going to work against us when we try and quantify by measurable metrics.  Assuming the technical changes are made; there is still going to be progress needed on the task of socially improving things.  There are many “seasoned active users” - as well as “seasoned lurkers” who have strong opinions on the state of lesswrong and the discussion.  Some would say that we risk dying of niceness, others would say that the weeds that need pulling are the rudeness.  

Honestly we risk over-policing and under-policing at the same time.  There will be some not-niceness that goes unchecked and discourages the growth of future posters (potentially our future bloggers), and at the same time some other niceness that motivates trolling behaviour as well as failing to weed out potential bad content which would leave us as fluffy as the next forum.  there is no easy solution to tempering both sides of this challenge.  I welcome all suggestions (it looks like a karma system is our best bet).

In the meantime I believe being on the general niceness, steelman side should be the motivated direction of movement.  I hope to enlist some members as essentially coaches in healthy forum growth behaviour.  Good steelmanning, positive encouragement, critical feedback as well as encouragement, a welcoming committee and an environment of content improvement and growth.

While at the same time I want everyone to keep up the heavy debate; I also want to see the best versions of ourselves coming out onto the publishing pages (and sometimes that can be the second draft versions).

So how will we know?  By trying to reduce the ugh fields to people participating in LW, by seeing more content that enough people care about, by making lesswrong awesome.

The full document is just over 11 pages long.  Please go read it, this is a chance to comment on potential changes before they happen.

Meta: This post took a very long time to pull together.  I read over 1000 comments and considered the ideas contained there.  I don't have an accurate account of how long this took to write; but I would estimate over 65 hours of work has gone into putting it together.  It's been literally weeks in the making, I really can't stress how long I have been trying to put this together.

If you want to help, please speak up so we can help you help us.  If you want to complain; keep it to yourself.

Thanks to the slack for keeping up with my progress and Vanvier, Mack, Leif, matt and others for reviewing this document.

As usual - My table of contents

John Ioannidis has written a very insightful and entertaining article about the current state of the movement which calls itself "Evidence-Based Medicine".  The paper is available ahead of print at http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(16)00147-5/pdf.

As far as I can tell there is currently no paywall, that may change later, send me an e-mail if you are unable to access it.

Retractionwatch interviews John about the paper here: http://retractionwatch.com/2016/03/16/evidence-based-medicine-has-been-hijacked-a-confession-from-john-ioannidis/

(Full disclosure: John Ioannidis is a co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), where I am an employee. I am posting this not in an effort to promote METRICS, but because I believe the links will be of interest to the community)

I was invited by a stranger I met on a plane and actually went to a meeting of Raëlians (known in some LW circles as "the flying saucer cult") in 沖縄, Japan. It was right next to Claude Vorilhon's home, and he came himself for the "ceremony" (?) dressed in a theatrical space-y white uniform, complete with a Jewish-style white cap on his head. When saying his "sermon" (?) he spoke in English and his words were translated into Japanese for the benefit of those who didn't understand. And yes, it's true he talked with me briefly and then hugged me (I understand he does this with all newcomers, and it felt 100% fake to me). I then went on to eat lunch in an 居酒屋 with a group of around 15 members, who were all really friendly and pleasant people. I was actually treated to lunch by them, and afterwards someone gave me a ~20 minute ride to the town I wanted to be in, despite knowing they won't see me ever again.

If you have ever wondered how it is possible that a flying saucer cult has more members than EA, now it's time to learn something.

Note: I hope it's clear that I do not endorse creating cults, nor do I proclaim the EA community's inferiority. It hasn't even crossed my mind when I wrote the above line that any LW'er would take it as a stab they need to defend against. I'm merely pointing to the fact that we can learn from anything, whether it's good or bad, and encouraging a fresh discussion on this after I gathered some new data.

Let's do this as a Q&A session (I'm at work now so I can't write a long post).

Please ask questions in comments.