Comment author: therufs 14 February 2016 12:50:46AM 4 points [-]

What does it take to be a programmer, not just to become one?

Making peace with the fact that there will never be a day when perfect code springs full formed from your head like a Greek goddes, and that what you are getting paid to do (assuming you're getting paid) is to be aggravated.

If the job is good, the aggravations are the kind that you get to have fun eliminating: clients with use cases the product team didn't think of, someone changed an API and didn't tell you, you need to build a new feature, etc. (If the job is bad, the aggravations are probably the same as any other bad job: meetings or mismanagement.)

Comment author: therufs 29 January 2016 10:42:15PM 3 points [-]

Thanks for thinking this through.

A few questions:

Would there be a way for people who already maintain blogs elsewhere to cross-post to their LW subdomain? (Would this even be desirable?)

Do you envision LW2 continuing to include applied rationality type posts? Does that work with "everything should work towards Aumann agreement"?

users may not repeatedly bring up the same controversial discussion outside of their original context

How could we track this, other than relying on mods to be like "ugh, this poster again"?

professionally edited rationality journal

Woah. Is this really a thing that MIRI could (resources permitting) just like ... do?

Comment author: therufs 13 March 2015 01:59:27AM 1 point [-]

Durham, NC party -- 1:00 PM EDT at Fullsteam, 726 Rigsbee Avenue, 27701.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/721959147924349/

Comment author: gjm 09 March 2015 12:51:47AM -1 points [-]

Noted. I'll hazard a guess that it didn't have anything much to do with the Rationality Diaries. -- Did you by any chance get involved in discussions of politics, gender or race, and take a position that would not generally be described as "really right-wing"? Most of the cases of mass-downvoting I've encountered on LW seem to have been done by neoreactionaries. (Quite possibly just one neoreactionary, who has I think had two different accounts banned for doing this.)

Comment author: therufs 09 March 2015 01:04:58AM 2 points [-]

WAIT. NO. I have a good guess as to why and have for a few months, and I have not been clear about my motives.

What I really want is for the downvoter to come out and say "I hold you in such contempt that I'm willing to skirt both LW policy and norms to deincentivize you from participating."

I actually considered posting something like that, but could not figure out how to say it without it coming across as flagrant snark. Well. shrug

Comment author: therufs 09 March 2015 12:02:30AM 1 point [-]

The remark wasn't "jokily defensive", it's because for a while someone was serially downvoting everything I posted, and I wanted to know why.

I still want to know why!

Comment author: therufs 16 February 2015 10:17:01PM 0 points [-]

I finally set my sights low enough that I got some things done at work! :p (Which is to say, I reduced them from "I have to write this thing I don't understand" to "I have to write part of this thing I don't understand" and finally to "Okay, I have to write ONE LINE of code today.")

Group Rationality Diary, February 15-28

4 therufs 16 February 2015 04:40AM

This is the public group rationality diary for February 15-28. Once you've downvoted it, if you're so inclined, please identify and explain yourself. 

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like: 

  • Established a useful new habit
  • Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
  • Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
  • Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
  • Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
  • Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
  • Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
  • Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: February 1-14

Rationality diaries archive

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Group Rationality Diary, February 1-14

5 therufs 01 February 2015 03:04AM

This is the public group rationality diary for February 1-14. Now that you've downvoted it, and you know who you are, please identify and explain yourself. 

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like: 

  • Established a useful new habit
  • Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
  • Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
  • Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
  • Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
  • Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
  • Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
  • Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: January 16-31

Rationality diaries archive

Comments (10)
Comment author: therufs 23 January 2015 02:23:21AM *  1 point [-]

Archive of meetup topics:

3/17/2016: Go (the game)

3/4/2016:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/2qc/rationality_power_tools/
https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_power_tools

1/22/2015:
http://mindingourway.com/steering-towards-forbidden-conversations
http://mindingourway.com/enjoying-the-feeling-of-agency

3/5/2015:
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

5/21/2015 -- Gamification
http://lesswrong.com/lw/55i/failure_modes_sometimes_correspond_to_game/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBpsV1Hwqs

6/4/2015 -- Gamification, continued

6/18/2015 -- Three Worlds Collide

7/2/2015:
* The Infinite Trolley Problem
* The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics

8/6/2015:
* The General Factor of Correctness

Group Rationality Diary, January 16-31

3 therufs 16 January 2015 01:54AM

This is the public group rationality diary for January 16-31.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like: 

  • Established a useful new habit
  • Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
  • Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
  • Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
  • Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
  • Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
  • Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
  • Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: January 1-15

Next diary: February 1-14

Rationality diaries archive

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