I've actually tried to track this sort of thing before. Like, periodically I'll do a Review of My Life So Far and recall specific trends in the general evolution of my character. There are usually three threads I reflect upon, which not coincidentally are things I consider important: my happiness levels, the music I listen to, and my rationalism.
In explaining the origins of my rationalism I initially thought that I just had an unusually strong aversion to appearing foolish or stupid, but now I think there's something else going on as well. For instance, w...
I enjoy the polls, but I'm new here and lack the karma to even vote in them (indeed, the desire to see the results of the polls is part of what motivated me to make an account in the first place). Hopefully my rationalist backstory will be interesting enough to gain the requisites! Then I can go back and vote in all the polls I've lurked in the past...
I have a similar experience with music. In my mind I can hear hugely complex compositions but in practice I'm nearly tone deaf and am incapable of transposing these sounds to the outside world. When I do write music it is always spontaneous and improvised with an instrument in my hands. I agree these must be different systems and I'm sure we can come up with other such divisions -- the gap between understanding meaning and expressing it in words, for instance. I suppose child prodigies are those with a natural bridge between these systems?
Hello LW! Long time lurker here. Got here from HPMOR a few years ago now. This is one of my favourite places on the internet due to its high sanity waterline and I thought I'd sign up so I could participate here and there (plus I finally came up with a username I like!). I've got a B.Sc. in math with a concentration in psychology (apparently that is a thing you can get, I didn't know either) and my other passions are music, film, humor, and being right all the time ;)
Thanks to LW and the rest of the rationality blogosphere, I've added effective altruism to... (read more)