All of lejuletre's Comments + Replies

I would use an adblocker that compromised by only blocking ads (and "you're supposed to be seeing an ad here :(" notifications) that move and/or cover text. I said this in a comment on the last post, but I wasn't kidding when I said ads make some websites truly unusable (or slow them down to that point). Just last night I was using Chrome with no adblocker (I usually use Firefox with ublock origin), and citationmachine.net/ was so slow and cluttered that I ended up switching back to Firefox to make my single citation and copy it back to my document in Chro... (read more)

I see a lot of disagreement about whether ads are "manipulative" or not, and I generally agree with OP's example in another comment about a contra dance. I have also organized various clubs and activities before, and I don't really think "ads you see when using a website" and "ads you see when glancing at your university's activities wall" are all that different, ethically speaking. 

I think the "manipulation" aspect has far more to do with the content of an ad than where it's placed. Concerns of this sort are ones I would level at someone who works in... (read more)

Yeah I agree, I think you can get pretty far with educating yourself while having read maaaybe 1 or 2 of the 4+ books listed in the post, unless you find that that is something that really interests you. Of course reading nonfiction is a gr8 way to educate yourself (though you have to be careful, because a lot of published nonfiction has lower epistemic standards than would be ideal), but again, that nonfiction doesn't have to be about the flaws of the education system unless you really care about learning about the flaws of the education system.

sincerely, someone who reads a lot about the flaws in the education system

Is this the post you're thinking of ?

Do you think that instinctive drive to listen to experts "talk shop" applies to apathetic students, though? I worry that the chance to listen to "experts" (native speakers) chat at the front of the room would be too easily taken as a chance to tune out and relax (especially since what they're getting from the experience is more metadata about how a conversation in the target language works than any particular language content itself). I'm not sure how the "authenticity" rule applies either, for the same reason. I don't see how "We instinctively want to be ... (read more)

Hello ! I am Jaime who recognized your username on ACX and requested you publish this retrospective. Thank you so much for this; I found it very insightful and very helpful for my research.

I'm currently writing my thesis on spaced repetition in foreign language classrooms, and am planning to become a secondary school French teacher. The curriculum I'm writing integrates spaced repetition into the material reviewed on a given day, without using flashcards, and was heavily inspired by the model in this post. I have no idea if it'll work, but at the very leas... (read more)

I agree with the overarching sentiment of this post, especially as a tool for making one's writing more inviting to "new people," as it were. I do disagree with the avoidance of the word consent specifically. For one thing, I do remember reading the Tickling post and feeling like it was "somewhat detached from the broader conversation," but I also feel like normalizing using consent to refer to mundane, non-sexual, non-violent situations is a good thing. I suppose it's a personal opinion whether this expansion of the usage of consent is a good thing or not, but I feel like it's a bit less politicized compared to all of your other examples that it's worth considering on its own. 

I have generalized anxiety disorder, and in many ways the "panic attacks" i experienced on sprinctec were basically like my typical anxiety attacks, only more intense, so yeah in general i would say that's something I'm more predisposed to.

I'm really not sure how "prone" i am to depression personally, since while I have experienced it to varying degrees throughout my life, it was always as a sort of side effect of other issues in my life and never The issue on its own. However, i have a genetic history of it, so I'm definitely predisposed to it in that sense.

This is a very good post! I've found David MacIver to be a very effective translator for emotional processing, if that's something you're interested in.

FWIW, I'm a big fan of the color !

I love this so much!!! This is my favorite solstice song, and an excellent way to share it.

All of this is super interesting to me! Especially where we differ.

I can't really imagine a stubbed toe, the feeling of walking across carpet, grabbing a cabbage with my hand, but I can vividly imagine a drop of water running down my chest or a spider crawling across it. (Lower resolution is easier to fake?)

I can imagine all of these extremely vividly. Even multiple different types of carpets, and walking on carpets in different shoes. Could you imagine the feeling of lying on a carpet without a shirt on (ie the feeling of a carpet on your torso) ? What ab... (read more)

I have never understood what music teachers mean when they say things like this. I'm not a professional musician by any means, but in the before-times I was usually in 1-3 choirs at my university. One of the conductors would describe sounds as "round" or "purple" and then everyone would nod as if they agreed...but I was always utterly lost. I swear they're making it up, but maybe I'm even less of a synesthete than the average non-synesthete.

I also think there's some degree of consistency. If I was forced to imagine a "purple" sound I would probably imagine... (read more)

I am autistic, which I think contributes to my memory and my sensory imagination, and have anxiety and OCD* which makes it functionally impossible to stop all thoughts on command.

WRT sensory imagination, I've thought before that I can imagine the texture of almost any surface just by looking at this, which I imagine is a combination of a strong sensory memory (autism) and a large "texture bank" to draw from. My taste/smell imagination is weaker than my other senses probably because I use it less frequently.

I can do the thing where you can think in other pe... (read more)

Thanks for this ! For various reasons I often get a bit obsessive about tending towards one side of a pattern in situations like these; I can end up feeling like I'm "betraying" my identity or my tribe if I enjoy something which is generally opposite from what I normally enjoy. The examples about Bob and spending time with one's partner particularly stuck out to me. This is a really useful way for me to reframe how I think about things like this ! 

Can second the effectiveness of Pomodoros, but I usually need to keep doing them the whole time I plan to work. Usually I plan to do 3 pomodoros at a time, with a long break between the 3. I also use a site blocker which prevents me from impulsively opening youtube or pinterest. the add-on I use allows me to pause it for set intervals, which overlap neatly with pomodoro breaks.

About an hour ago I was thinking about how I need to work on my internal curiosity drive when it comes to other people, especially my roommate, since a lot of our conversations do end up feeling "disfluent and adversarial," as you said. I think part of this definite can be chalked up to my (unfair) assumption that they don't care about solving their problems, since I have a much lower level of comfort tolerance than they do, and a much stronger problem solving sense (and admittedly, fewer health issues in my way). 

This post is an excellent place for me to get started!

Even if people can die at age 90 in exactly the way they want, have their remains taken care of exactly how they want, and be assured that their decaying body won't negatively impact the environment, their death is still bad.

Would you say that a 90 year old who feels that they are ready to die is suicidal? Is being ready for death the same as wanting to die? I can definitely see how the DPM could lead to restructuring of resources which may be counterproductive. But I think that is only the case if full immortality is in fact achievable. Do you think that ... (read more)

There is a documentary about conlanging (I believe available through Amazon Prime Video) that interviews a couple who made a hand-holding language for themselves. It's unclear how extensive it is, but they use it to communicate covertly in situations where they don't have the chance to duck away for a moment to confer. 

The conlang toki pona has been converted into emojis, which is easy since it only has 122 words (or so). 

"drumming/tapping, received by ears or touch" sounds a lot like morse code, though I presume you mean whole words rather than letter-by-letter (which, while fast, is still slower than spoken English).

To me it seems intuitive that you wouldn't be able to form cogent thoughts, especially not in language. An interesting question to me is what would happen if you did receive stimulus of some kind. Say, a small red die appears in the bottom of the sphere. How much "random" stimulus of this variety would it take to stimulus consciousness? Would the stimulus have to be nonrandom in order to provoke any patterns of thinking?

As someone with a various cocktail of (admittedly well-managed) mental illnesses, I actually find this post very helpful! I've often observed a lack of correlation between the pain someone is enduring and their overall productiveness/life enjoyment/etc. I think this is a really useful way to address that the reason this doesn't correlate is because there really isn't a correlation. 

I wonder if you have any thoughts on better units of effort to use instead (either convoluted ones to ponder or Quick Tricks that could be quickly implemented into one's mental framework) ?

Is there a typo in the screenshot "...continue with calibration if you just want to sing along..."?

I haven't looked at the actual program, so this may have been fixed already. Either way, thanks for putting this together !!

Whatever your risk mitigation strategies may be, to me the goal of living 1000, 10,000 or 1,000,000 years is only worth it if they are fulfilling. I would rather live another 10 fulfilling years than another 100 disatisfying ones. The same may not be true for you. 

As another comment said, the effects of low exercise and social interaction may be worse than the benefit of 0% COVID risk. Expanding on that, physiological risks aside, getting consumed by your own fear and avoidance is another way of not fully living your life while you have it, and as a 2... (read more)

Who is organizing this ? Ie if i wanted to read something, who should I contact?

i haven't read all of the comments so idk if someone mentioned this further down, but there was a whole tumblr ordeal with this a few weeks back, and the conclusion that made the most sense to me was "don't share information about someone that could make them the victim of a hate crime," even if you think you know that the person you're about to disclose to would be a safe person. You don't know who that person in turn is going to share with.

i struggle with the topic of this post a Lot, and the tumblr rule of thumb has been helpful for me.

i had so much fun !! this was my first solstice and it was a really gr8 experience. i would've killed for sheet music (hymnal style) tho i know plenty of the songs probably dont have sheet music available. all in all a really gr8 event that i hope ill be able to make next year. also, ill be at the downtown amherst contra on jan 15 :D