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I'm afraid this is all starting to seem pretty narcissistic. Less autobiography, more signal please.
In response to
Avoid misinterpreting your emotions
Good article; Reminds me of the following scene from Lawrence of Arabia:
[Lawrence has just extinguished a match between his thumb and forefinger. William Potter surreptitiously attempts the same]
William Potter: Ooh! It damn well 'urts!
T.E. Lawrence: Certainly it hurts.
Officer: What's the trick then?
T.E. Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.
addendum: (5 Months later, I see that James "I'm King of the World!" Cameron used this scene in Prometheus; quite ruins it for me.)
In the UK, the only place where it is considered compulsary to tip is in restaurants, and then usually only ones where you are served at a table (some "gastro"-pubs have table service, in which case one should tip). I don't think tipping taxi drivers is a general thing- I tend to let them keep the change if its sensible, but I don't believe there is a rule. You certainly don't tip delivery people of any kind.
In France tips are usually included within the price of the meal. I found this out after going to Paris and tipping at every place we went to..
In France it's generally indicated on the menu and bill that a 15% service charge is included, but it's considered good form to leave the small change. If you think the service was bad, you have the right not to pay it. IN the UK this now varies widely, with an increasing number of restaurants adding a 10% service charge, so it's best to check. Apparently there was a minor "scandal" a few years ago when it was publicised that restaurant owners were often keeping the tips, so I always leave the tip in cash on the table.
Thanks for the info on taxi drivers, I generally have been rounding up, but if the fare is £7.80, say, I often leave £9 which is a bit steep. Maybe I'll start assuming that £8 is OK. Pizza delivery guys basically live off of tips in Canada, where I hail from, so it's a big adjustment not to tip at all.
I'll take a swing at it- let me know if it's helpful at all.
Ordering at a bar is easiest if you're friendly with the bartender. A jovial attitude, a confession of ignorance, and a vague description of a target drink (ie, "colorful and with rum", or "something delicious") will prompt a short exchange wherein the tender narrows their options down a little. Err towards generous tipping.
Note that I stick to quiet establishments. This probably doesn't work nearly as well in a very busy bar.
Err towards generous tipping
Of course, this depends on where you are. In UK pubs you order your drink - and generally food - at the bar. And you don't tip. Though apparently you can "offer to buy the barkman/maid a drink." Took me a while to get used to this. In fact, tipping in general in the UK is still a bit mysterious to me after living here for a year. The guides say tip your Taxi driver around 10%, but why do they so often seem surprised when I do? As for delivery people, some of them actually refuse a tip, because of rules etc. If all this means that these people get a reasonably good wage and don't need the tips, I'm happy to comply; but it still seems odd to me.
In response to
Living By Your Own Strength
"One really does want to try it from age seven, but I'm not sure how much of this stuff even I could have gotten at age seven. It'd be worth trying, though."
I fully intend to teach my children (when I eventually have them, that is) about cognitive biases and rationality from the time they are born. I think that we greatly underestimate what children are capable of understanding. (It is also possible that I am biased, since I was an unusual child and so I can't generalize my experience across all children - but even if that's true, there is at least a good chance it will work with MY children, so much the better for them.) In the future, our children might be taught concepts in their earliest books that we have not even discovered today.
As a soon to be father for the first time I have every intention to similarly teach my future child, I certainly won't count on the culture - much less the educational system - to do it for me, even here in Cambridge UK. As a theatre practitioner I do have some hope and ambition that rationalist principles might begin to find their way into the arts by the time my child is old enough to notice. The arts may not be the most obvious vector for the rationalist meme, but they may well prove surprisingly effective over time. Hopefully Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality will spawn a new generation of kids books that are fun and useful.
In response to
Cambridge Less Wrong Meetup Sunday, Sep 19
Phew - I thought from the title this was occurring in Cambridge, England. It would be a terrible slight if their meetups started before Oxford's! (expected to begin in October)
We're used to slighting Oxford here in ur-Cambridge, but I'd take a meetup anytime.
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Unfortunately I wasn't very clear there - I was referring to the general ideas I'm using, the content of previous and future posts, rather than the particular topic of this post.
Since you don't want to sound narcissistic, consider counting the number of times you use "I" "my" and "me" before posting. Also avoid the temptation to share your whole mental process and focus on conclusions and supporting evidence that moves beyond personal anecdote. Don't defend yourself, defend your ideas.