Hello I'm looking for the LW on investing advice. Any suggestions? Thanks.

EDIT:

Several commenters gave the standard advice of "buy index funds". If you bought into the Nikkei between 87 and 94 you would have made a loss or very little gains until now(30 years later). So I would appreciate some more in depth discussion regarding when is it good to invest into index funds? If you search in reddit/r/investing you will find more nuanced point of views.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5EN225+Interactive#%7B%22range%22%3A%22max%22%2C%22scale%22%3A%22linear%22%7D

In general index funds will reflect the underlying economy, in the case of the US it was a growing economy for the most part of the 20th century, so the index fund would be good advice in that time period. I have a hard time believing that it is still good advice now, when the economy is retracting or stagnating.

TLDR: reddit/r/investing has more nuanced discussions.

What are the best options for cryonics in Europe?

AFAIK the best option is still to use one of the US providers(e.g. Alcor) and arrange for transportation. There is a problem with this though, in that until you arrive in the US your body will be cooled with dry ice which will cause huge ischemic damage.

Questions:

1. How critical is the ischemic damage? If I interpret this comment by Eliezer correctly we shouldn't worry about this damage if we consider future technology.
2. Is there a way to have adequate cooling here in Europe until you arrive at the US for final storage?

Hello,

one question that I don't see answered is what is the duration of your life insurance? Should I buy life insurance for 20,30 years or unlimited?

I could pay more for a longer life insurance or pay less for an insurance that will cover 20 years and invest the difference and then some so that by the end of 20 years I will *hopefully* have enough money to pay for cryonics out of my own pocket.

Has anyone done an analysis on that?

Meetup tomorrow(Wednesday) at 19:30, lets go!

http://lesswrong.com/meetups/10j

Discussion article for the meetup : Zurich/Zürich meetup (come out of the woodwork)

Discussion article for the meetup : Zurich/Zürich meetup (come out of the woodwork)

http://ergoemacs.org/misc/xah_as_good_as_dead.html

Hi,

what good movies can you suggest that give ideas or inspirations on how to be more rational?

I just watched [Memento](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_%28film%29) last night and I was very impressed.

(No spoilers in this post)

The main character is a guy who suffers from amnesia, he forgets everything after a couple minutes so he has developed a system to cope with it. He takes pictures and writes notes. E.g. when staying at a hotel he takes a picture of it and put it in his pocket. So later when he doesnt know where he is staying he searches his pockets, finds the picture of the hotel and then he knows.

What I learned

I identified with the character in the movie because in spite of not having amnesia my memory as everyone elses isn't perfect either and I have all the quirks(biases) of a normal human brain. I cant exactly remember what I did last Thursday at 3 PM. Do I actually know why I am doing what Im doing or why I believe what I believe? I may have good rationalizations for both, of course, but that doesnt mean they are the real reasons.

I like to read LW but I havent developed much of a system to actually be more rational. If anyone has, I would be eager to read about it.

Practical Advice

What system could I develop to be more rational? One thing that a lot of management experts(e.g. Peter Drucker) have already pointed out is to write down how we actually spend our time because often how we spend it is not how we think we spend it and we end up spending much more time on unproductive activities than we are aware of. How much time went into random internet browsing last week?

I will start an activity log during work: how much time Im spending on what. This will be a first step.

Who would be interested in meeting? Please reply to this thread or msg me in private.

Thanks!

Edit: There doesnt seem to be enough people willing to meet so Im not planning anything at the moment. But if you happen to be in Zurich and want to meet a fellow LWer just msg me in private and we can go for a talk/drink.

Discussion article for the meetup : Rio de Janeiro Meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : Rio de Janeiro Meetup

Who would be interested? Please reply to this thread or msg in private.

Thanks!

Edit: It's Rio de Janeiro, RJ, in Brazil.

It seems it is going to happen, discussion also on fb now:

http://www.facebook.com/Ierfh/posts/108940625936257?comment_id=28607&ref=notif¬if_t=comment_mention

Ok, the meetup will happen, here is the link: http://lesswrong.com/meetups/fp