LW Meetup in Nuremberg (Germany)

0 MartinB 06 May 2014 02:57PM

Hi everyone,

 

we just reached the staggering number of four interested parties to meetup in Nuremberg. If anyone else is curious just mail me. We are so far working out the time. So no specific plans, just a get to know.

 

Martin

[link] Feynman lecture: The Character of Physical Law 1

-4 MartinB 01 July 2012 03:39PM

bridgeplan - a writeup on things one can actually do to increase lifespan

-1 MartinB 04 August 2011 07:05PM

real life sample: why am I so scarred of roller coasters

2 MartinB 02 June 2011 10:34PM

I currently visit a theme park with some friends. There I noticed that I am highly afraid of rides that involve heights and fast moving like roller coasters. We rode a few of them, and of course nothing happened, as it is supposed to be a lot of fun. But for me it is more like a constant situation with fear of falling.

Empirically I know that the park has been around for a while, that very few accidents happen, and that there is no particular reason to actually be afraid. The park makes its money by offering its rides to many visitors, and they really seem to know what they are doing. So why am I afraid? In the past I ONCE had an issue with my non-standard height being a minor problem. But I routinely check the size of other visitors, and the rides seem to be designed in a one-size-fits-all-unisex way that works for all shapes and forms there are.

I am also somewhat afraid of heights in general, which for the most part serves me pretty well. Should I turn that off while in a theme park? Is it reasonable to not ride the roller coaster?

There is probably a design principle in rides that elicits strong reactions in the user. And I am not sure if I would want to self modify to actually enjoy the ride. But being afraid seems also pretty useless. It is not rational.

Comments?

collecting successes and deltas

3 MartinB 22 March 2011 02:14PM

It might be useful if we fellow LW'ers collect actual big scale success stories of ourself in real world applications. Since we are supposed to win some real life experiences of actual winning would be great.

 

Interested in a European lesswrong meetup

8 MartinB 07 August 2010 04:43AM

There are readers on this blog from all over the world - many of them spread out over Europe. How many of you would be interested in a European meetup of LW readers?

We do not have big clusters like Silicon Valley, but we have low cost airlines, and lots of interesting places.

If interested please comment.

a meta-anti-akrasia strategy that might just work

18 MartinB 19 April 2010 02:21AM

For ages I've been trying to wrap my mind around meta thinking - not "what is the best way to do something", but "how do I find out which way is any good?" Meta thinking has many applications, and I am always surprised when I find a new context it can be applied to. Anti-akrasia might be such a context.

The idea I am about to present came to me a few month ago and I used it to finally overcome my own problem with procrastination. I'll try to present it here as well as I can, in the hope that it might be of use to someone. If so, I am really curious what other people come up with using this technique.

If akrasia is a struggle, continue reading.

Where I come from:
Procrastination was a big topic for me. I spent ages reading stuff, watching videos, thinking, collecting stuff and what not, but very little on actual action. One thing I did read was productivity blogs and books. I assume that some or even many of the posters here share that problem with me. I am familiar with the systems - I even gave a lecture once on GTD - but I struggled to get my own stuff out the door. It surely wasn't for a lack of knowledge, but simply for a lack of doing.

The method used consists of two layers.
(I) the meta concept used to develop a personal system
(II) the highly personalized system I came up with while applying (I)

continue reading »