the fact that God cannot do something that cannot be done does not limit His omnipotence.

The point is that "omnipotent" is itself a "hollow adjective", as you put it. Omnipotent doesn't mean "you can do anything that can be done", it means you can do anything, full stop.

The difference between activation energy and inertia is that you can want to do something, but be having a hard time getting started - that's activation energy. Whereas inertia suggests you'll keep doing what you've been doing, and largely turn your mind off. Breaking out of inertia takes serious energy and tends to make people uncomfortable.

I don't mean to nitpick, but this distinction isn't obvious to me. It seems like inertia is just a component of activation energy.

Great post regardless.

Here's what I remember of being a confused student:

You don't lie "yeah, I get it" to a tutor because you're afraid of admitting your ignorance. You do it because you don't think the tutor can actually help you with your problem. You realize "Shit, I should have read the book/slept last night/looked at this problem before this minute." Maybe you're so wiped that you're just not thinking about anything but the flash game and the cozy bed waiting for you back at the dorm. Or you're thinking about the shitty grade you just got and how miserable you are. What you positively, definitely, don't have the energy to think about, is math. So you're going to say "Yeah, I get it," and maybe at some point later you'll try to get it.

Thank you very much for doing this. You've clearly put a lot of effort into making it both thorough and readable.

Formulate methods of validating the SIAI’s execution of goals.

Seconded. Being able to measure the effectiveness of the institute is important both for maintaining the confidence of their donors, and for making progress towards their long-term goals.

Lack of empathy is not an autistic trait. Unconventional (possibly unreliable) channels for the apprehension of others' feelings, and unconventional channels for expressing empathy, are, which is often confused for outright lack. I'm also not sure why the position of her eyes is supposed to be relevant to any of this.

If you have not showered or bathed with soap in the last 24 hours and used deodorant, people will notice.

Soap is overrated. Deodorant is not.

Always wait for someone else to laugh at your joke before you join in.

This is generally good advice, but can backfire if you show no signs that you are conscious of making a joke. Making people laugh while remaining deadpan yourself is a high-level humour skill. Listeners who are not sure whether or not to laugh will look for cues from other listeners and from you, and if you're not laughing they may just go along with that.

Often it's better to make it obvious that you've amused yourself with your own joke, with a smile or small chuckle, but not react to whether others laugh or not. That displays confidence, and gives others the social room to laugh if they want.

I have an intuition that most people would find it less weird to hear a pro-cryonics advertisment from an actual cryonics company than a "Public Service Announcement" from a third party. The former would be processed more like a normal advertisement, to be judged on its merits, while the latter could invite suspicion of the creators' motives. I might be wrong - anyone from marketing or advertising have something to say here?

I'm confused by the idea that the kinds of meditation you are talking about have until now been practised by "small and somewhat private groups" in secret. Why would this kind of meditation be taboo? What did these groups have to fear that drove them to secrecy, and why has that changed?

Why is continuing to donate as you did previously mutually exclusive with your evangelism plan?