"Paras 7.2 and 7.3 (the slavery and gladiator questions) left me with an odd impression. The "test" you propose in both cases is more or less the same as Rawls' Veil of Ignorance. So at that point I was wondering, if you apply Rawls' procedure to determine what is a preferable social contract, perhaps you're a Rawlsian more than you're a consequentialist. :) BTW, are you familiar with Rawls' objections to (classical) utilitarianism?"

I can't speak for Yvain but as someone who fully agreed with his use of that test, I would describe myself as both a Rawlsian (in the sense of liking the "veil of ignorance" concept) and a Utilitarian. I don't really see any conflict between the two. I think maybe the difference between my view and that of Rawls is that I apply something like the Hedonic Treadmill fully (despite being a Preference Utilitarian), which essentially leads to Yvain's responses.

...Actually I suppose I practically define the amount of Utility in a world by whether it would be better to live there, so maybe it would in fact be better to describe me as a Rawslian. I still prefer to think of myself as a Utilitarian with a Rawlsian basis for my utility function, though (essentially I define the amount of utility in a world as "how desirable it would be to be born as a random person in that world). I think it's that Utilitarianism sounds easier to use as a heuristic for decisions, whereas calling yourself a Rawlsian requires you to go one step further back every time you analyze a thought experiment.

Not sure if people are aware, but there are a lot of studies backing up that claim. It is more taxing (to well-being, not to fitness, of course) What's more, the alpha is is most stressed member of groups with high status-uncertainty, and the least stressed in a group with low status-uncertainty.

This continues to be a puzzling topic...

My most recent explicit thought about this had to to with teamwork: it's become a commonplace that "conflict in a team isn't actually bad", and I was thinking that conflict per se may not be counterproductive, but I would certainly view engaging in dominance contests as a waste of time all around.

When I coach teams I often consciously adopt (and advocate for others in a similar position) a "low posture" - a cluster of heuristics, really, such as "I'm happy to help the group work through a problem but I'm not the one who makes the decision", or "invest significant time in hearing people out".

There can also be a question of perspective: some people are determined to view the world through dominance-tinted glasses, others to see it in tints of warm fuzzy.

I've just run my first half-marathon, coming in with an official time of 2h0m44s, close enough to my 2h objective that I'll call it a win.

Also this month, I reached a first milestone in writing video games using FRP (Functional Reactive Programming) in the Elm language, coding a proto-game that reproduces the basic gameplay of "The Company of Myself".

I came across a good example of this. I recently graduated from a coding bootcamp and am looking for jobs. I applied to a selective company and was declined. They said, "unfortunately we won't be able to move forward with your candidacy at this time". They didn't say anything about the actual reason why I was rejected.

(paraphrased conversation with my friend)

• Me: I hate when people sugarcoat. I wish they just said, "you don't seem as smart as the other candidates".
• Him: It isn't necessarily true that they don't think you're as smart. Maybe it's for some other reason. Like maybe it's because you're in NY and they're looking for people in SF.
• Me: They asked if I was able to relocate to SF, and I said "yes, I want to relocate to SF".
• Him: Maybe they thought that you were smart, but just that it wasn't the right fit.
• Me: The position is for a software developer intern. I just graduated from a coding bootcamp. They use JavaScript-based technologies. I learned the same/similar technologies. They're an education company. I'm very interested in education. They want unconventional and ambitious people. I'm definitely unconventional and ambitious.
• Him: ...
• Me: So what do you think the reason is for why they rejected me?
• Him: I don't know, they didn't tell you so I can't say.

I'll be there.

Donated $300. Happy New Year!

Ran 21k for the first time, within a few seconds of 2h. Reasonable grounds to hope for a sub-2h finishing time in the half-marathon I'm signed up for this coming March 8.

The "98,000 patients" claim is really interesting as an example of Dark Arts, aside from its having been debunked often.

It is often presented as follows: "98,000 deaths per year from medical errors (the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every day)".

It would be... provided every single jumbo jet flying in the US was populated by people already seriously ill or injured in the first place, rather than (as is actually the case) not only healthy but generally also wealthy passengers.

Of course you're supposed to overlook that trivial difference in the demographics of people who are in planes and those who are in hospitals, and picture hospitals killing healthy rich people by the planeload.

(This also suggests that "number of deaths" is a poor metric for making such estimates and comparisons; it would be better to compute "overall loss of expected QALYs resulting from preventable mistakes in medical care" and compare that with aggregate loss of QUALYs from other causes. Of course that's much less catchy.)

Now that running regularly, for fitness and to keep my weight down, is a well established habit, I've signed up to run a half-marathon next March. (Not without a twinge of sadness, thinking of Hal Finney.)

Instead of just going out for a run on sundays and the occasional weekday, I'm now "following a training plan", that is, running workouts with specific targets, using a heart rate monitor, and so on. It makes some interesting differences and I've learned a few things.

One aspect of keeping fit that I'm still somewhat failing at, despite much self-monitoring and various attempts at behavior change, is getting more sleep. I'm still sleep-deprived (less than 5h) two or three nights a week.