LESSWRONG
LW

All of Deniz's Comments + Replies

Defeating Ugh Fields In Practice
Deniz40

There's a difference between the psychology of being in a lottery by taking your medication and receiving cash every time you take your medicine.

There is also evidence that bribing people reduces their inherent interest in an activity. There was a study that showed that kids paid to do homework did it enthusiastically for a while, but then quickly lost interest over time as they became habituated to the possibility of reward and began to lose inherent interest in the material.

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Selfishness Signals Status
Deniz130

For me, the answer for each question appears to be "both".

  1. Standing up straight-- High: Politician addressing an audience, wanting to show confidence Low: Soldier, at attention

  2. Saying what's on your mind, without thinking it through-- High: Confident person, assured of their status in the group Low: Person revealing emotions which are considered taboo to discuss.

  3. Making an effort to have a pleasant conversation-- High: Skilled businessman or other "people person" trying motivated to accomplish a positive outcome with that person. Lo

... (read more)
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6Rain
These are good examples showing that status signals are not singular, isolated actions, but are interpreted by combining many different signals into a larger, complex whole with highly variant outcomes depending on which signals are being combined (alternatively, "context"). I think recent posts on the topic are simplifying too much and providing overly broad, vague definitions of "signal" and "status".
Improving The Akrasia Hypothesis
Deniz20

I am currently a yoga instructor in training and am sick of the new-age, self-help, ideas I see regularly (the worst are "quantum consciousness", "law of attraction", etc). Basically what "spiritual teachers" try to teach is anti-akrasia techniques, to overcome addictions, low self-esteem or whatever your problem might be that they think they can help. Their suggestions are a mix of exercise, sharing stories of their personal emotional experiences and "tools that work for them" (usually superstitious, e.g. "conn... (read more)

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Logical Rudeness
Deniz20

I like your reply because to me it comically resembles the Sin of underconfidence. You are being cautious about what you say about Sacred Beliefs, so you say they eventually need to be forcefully examined and probably opposed.

Well I think we need to just call a spade a spade. Religious beliefs are obviously whacky, and they should be opposed now. There is no way all of society is going to have a civilized debate about religion, so we just need to start forcefully objecting to sacred cows and any protection that people's unfounded beliefs have in "polite conversation".

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3MatthewB
I said eventually, because not every belief is going to come up at once, and I said probably because not every belief in the set of religious beliefs is toxic or wrong. The belief may be true in some sense, but its underlying reasoning will need to be adjusted. You are correct though that the basis of most (almost all) religious belief is outright crazy and needs to be opposed as soon as it is encountered. As an example of a belief I am describing: The only thing wrong with this belief is that the set of things in the second category is empty, and the set of things in the first category needs to be adjusted based upon that second category being the empty set. Thus, this is an accurate belief. Vacuous for the most part, but accurate. It should be amended to just (Edit: What Eliezer is describing in his post on the Sin of Underconfidence is a phenomenon called the Dunning-Krueger Effect)
Logical Rudeness
Deniz70

I was in a discussion with a man at a yoga studio after he overheard me telling someone that Bikram's Yoga was "kind of cultish".

He proceeded to make one illogical argument after another, and then smiling and laughing confidently as though in triumph after each one. When I shot down what he said or explained how he misunderstood a comparison, he would not acknowledge or think about what I said, but simply move on to the next "winning comment" that he wanted to say. He thought he was superior for having made his points even though my rep... (read more)

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1sketerpot
This happens so often that it's probably best to call people on it. Politely, of course. Ask them ever so sweetly if they agree with your refutation of what they just said, and do not let them continue on to the next argument until they at least acknowledge that you've said something. This way you can stop bad reasoning and make them feel bad for it, instead of getting pissed at you. Hopefully.