In response to comment by ChristianKl on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: IlyaShpitser 10 January 2016 06:08:40PM 2 points [-]

Yes I think even in math a lot of what is called "mathematical sophistication" is implicit knowledge that's hard to communicate without being steeped in the social context in which math is developed and read.

In response to comment by IlyaShpitser on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: btrettel 10 January 2016 08:18:44PM 0 points [-]

As an example, do you mean something like correctly understanding how to "abuse" mathematical notation in a way that remains rigorous?

Comment author: EHeller 09 January 2016 08:51:06PM 2 points [-]

In STEM fields, there is a great deal of necessary knowledge that simply is not in journals or articles, and is carried forward as institutional knowledge passed around among grad students and professors.

Maybe someday someone clever will figure out how to disseminate that knowledge, but it simply isn't there yet.

In response to comment by EHeller on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: btrettel 10 January 2016 04:06:20AM 0 points [-]

Interesting point. Can you give an example of this knowledge?

I'm working on a PhD myself (in engineering), but the main things I feel I get from this are access to top scholars, mentoring, structure, and the chance to talk with others who are interested in learning more and research. One could also have access to difficult to obtain equipment in academia, but a large corporation could also provide such equipment. In principle I don't think these things are unique to academia.

Comment author: btrettel 03 December 2015 10:40:13PM *  2 points [-]

I'll be making a visit to the Library of Congress sometime in the next month. I visit the Library of Congress a few times each year to scan things which basically can't be found elsewhere. If there's anything in particular you want from the Library of Congress next time I go, let me know here. I'd strongly prefer that you've tried other resources first, and checked that what you want is in the Library of Congress catalog (or likely so; sometimes you can't tell).

I might also visit the NIST library and National Agricultural Library.

Also, if there's anything who is going to make a visit to the British Library or any major library in Russia (e.g., the Russian State Library, the National Library of Russia, Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, any major academic library), let me know if you'd be willing to take some scan requests.

Comment author: btrettel 30 December 2015 01:01:39AM 1 point [-]

I went to the Library of Congress today. It's highly likely I'll go again next summer, so you can still let me know if there's anything you want scanned.

Comment author: username2 25 December 2015 09:43:55PM 0 points [-]

Given that the Wikipedia article about polyphasic sleep recounts the story, it's important for people debunking polyphasic sleep to respond to the story of Buckminster Fuller. That's easier when the article is available.

Comment author: btrettel 26 December 2015 03:33:30PM *  0 points [-]

The article is more of historical interest to me. I don't think Buckminster Fuller's claims are more trustworthy than those of other people, and from what I've read they aren't any different from what others claim. So the basic criticisms seem to hold against his claims. And the evidence for polyphasic sleep is quite bad, so bad in fact that I am surprised and disappointed that so many rationalists take it seriously. I suppose it comes from wishful thinking, but I'm not sure. (My intention is not to be mean to people who take these ideas seriously, but rather to check if there's anything I'm missing. It seems to me that I know considerably more about sleep science than polyphasic sleep proponents, though I'm still not an expert.)

Google Books shows a small part of the article.

Comment author: username2 14 December 2015 10:41:25PM 0 points [-]

I'm intersted in polyphasic sleep.

Wikipedia notes:

In order to gain more time awake in the day, Buckminster Fuller reportedly advocated a regimen consisting of 30-minute naps every six hours. The short article about Fuller's nap schedule in Time in 1943, which also refers to such a schedule as "intermittent sleeping," says that he maintained it for two years, and further notes "he had to quit because his schedule conflicted with that of his business associates, who insisted on sleeping like other men."[17]

[...]

"Dymaxion Sleep". Time Magazine. 1943-10-11. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2013-12-27.Closed access

The Time archive isn't accessible via SciHub. Can someone gave me the article through another way?

Comment author: btrettel 25 December 2015 09:35:48PM 0 points [-]
Comment author: gwern 16 December 2015 07:07:09PM 1 point [-]
  • DeLuca, A.M., Kranda, K.C., 1992. "Environmental enrichment in a large animal facility". Lab Animal 21, 38–44. Not in Google, just a cite in Google Scholar, not in Libgen, university access only goes back to 2010, and finally, the Lab Animal website doesn't seem to index earlier than 1993 so further info is not available. (/r/scholar)
Comment author: btrettel 25 December 2015 09:32:16PM 1 point [-]

Seems harder to find than I anticipated. WorldCat suggests my university has this journal, but I can't find it in their catalog. My university's proxy doesn't work on the site. Doesn't seem the Library of Congress has it either. Sorry, can't be of much more help.

Comment author: korin43 07 December 2015 06:15:23PM 2 points [-]

I'm planning to go to this, and I sent you an email. I'm glad someone is organizing another meetup in Baltimore itself. I moved here recently and assumed I could just go to D.C. meetups, but I haven't made it to one yet since an hour of driving plus figuring out how to park in D.C. just makes it too inconvenient (and meeting new friends who live an hour away isn't helpful..).

Comment author: btrettel 11 December 2015 05:50:48PM 1 point [-]

I can't help with the duration of your time in transit, but a lot of people will drive to a Metro station, park there, and then take Metro into DC. Seems to be the most convenient option to me, but I don't own a car, so take this with a grain of salt.

In response to comment by btrettel on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: hg00 11 December 2015 11:48:30AM -1 points [-]

Seems to me that most people aren't aware of the people making fun of the community.

One thing that can happen is that there will be an anti-community that springs up around making fun of the original community, and then a journalist will write a story about the community that the anti-community will discover and leave negative comments on (or the journalist will discover the anti-community and write a story on its existence--remember that journalists are strongly incentivized to drive pageviews).

In response to comment by hg00 on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: btrettel 11 December 2015 05:47:33PM 1 point [-]

Can you provide an example of the scenario you describe, or something like it? I agree that journalists can cause harm with irresponsible stories, but I'm less sure of the entire "anti-community" aspect. It could depend on what you mean by "anti-community", though.

In response to comment by btrettel on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: hg00 10 December 2015 08:11:58AM *  -1 points [-]

A reason to shut down the forum entirely instead of leaving it in its current state is that low quality posts made by randos here can hurt the reputation of the forum and the people & organizations that were at one time or another affiliated with it. See e.g. this farewell that someone linked to on SlateStarCodex. There places online like the /r/SneerClub subreddit where people will post something that one particular Less Wrong user said and make fun of it, which tarnishes the reputation of the site in general. Banning Lumifer and VoiceOfRa would help a little in the short term, but running a quality online forum requires ongoing maintenance.

In response to comment by hg00 on LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: btrettel 11 December 2015 01:40:37AM 8 points [-]

"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" is good advice.

There's no reason to shut down the entire forum if the problems can be solved with less collateral damage.

Having participated in online communities which would somewhat regularly get made fun of by others, I'm not sure I agree that others making fun of an online community tarnishes its reputation in the general population. Seems to me that most people aren't aware of the people making fun of the community. I think dishonest representations with wider distribution are much more harmful, e.g., RationalWiki's take on LessWrong. And we should do something about that, but again, I don't think shutting down the forum is the right approach.

Also, I tend to ignore farewell posts like that. In my experience, they happen regardless of the "health" of the community. I can think of one online community I've participated in that regularly has such threads, despite activity being at an all time high. They can describe real problems which should be fixed, but often don't.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 03 December 2015 11:22:33PM *  0 points [-]

It's a Mexican book that used to be available in libraries here in Colombia around 6 years ago. Today it's nowhere to be found, and all my known pirated sources for books in Spanish lack it. It's not available for Kindle, and the LoC happens to have it.

However, I just checked in Amazon that the printed version has 401 pages, which makes me feel embarrassed to ask for such a cumbersome favor. Upon further search, I discovered one public library in my city that has it available for loan. I'll do that.

Comment author: btrettel 04 December 2015 12:35:37AM 1 point [-]

To be honest, I'd be okay with scanning 401 pages if I could get something out of it. I mentioned here that I wish there was a website where you could get credits for the number of pages you scan and then use these credits to pay others (perhaps with a rating system for getting the correct item, speed, quality of scan, etc.). Might not be that hard to set up, actually, but I don't have the time to do it.

You're probably aware, but for those who aren't, WorldCat is a good way to see which libraries near you have which books. Unfortunately, participation of libraries outside of the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia seems to be incomplete, but at least some Colombian libraries participate. Another problem is that not all of the holdings of some particular libraries seem to be in WorldCat. The Library of Congress in particular seems to have problems with this for some more obscure items. I've gotten into the habit of checking the Library of Congress' catalog separately.

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