... I'm getting the takeaway that you can influence policy by just emailing good papers to your local policymaker.

True, if you were gonna vomit repeatedly. I suspect the association might be forged after only one or two times. Maybe it fades after one week, so you do it again, then it fades after one month, then a year... like it's an Anki card.

Counterpoint: This sort of thing seems more efficient for my brain to take in, compared to if it were phrased in a more "friendly" way. At least if that'd mean a long-winded and less passionate phrasing that relies more on the reader's own motivation to pay attention.

It's true that this quote is more suitable for informal chat than the front page, but also, a community must be free to be caustic about some things it finds sufficiently basic, else it gets watered down. Sometimes a caustic tone serves a purpose for the current readers.

So there's a balancing act, where the balance Eliezer strikes tends to cause a new discussion about tone, again and again, and I imagine it gets a bit discouraging after the tenth such comment thread.

Well pointed out.

I've done both at different times, so here's a way to tell the difference between "waiting for a reset" and "running towards a reset": it's a good sign if I'm looking forward to waking up!

I recognize myself. Thank you for putting that into words. Out of curiosity, do you have an ADHD diagnosis or consider getting one?

Thanks for the first link, it led me to demand avoidance, where caregivers/friends can make it easier with declarative language. I've been working on similar thoughts about "how to talk to someone with ADHD". E.g. I find it more comfortable to hear "let me know if you want support with that", rather than be asked "do you need support with that?". Somehow, no demand for response makes it easier to think and respond.

Zooming in on one of your examples,

Eating something tasty, or going to a party, or otherwise “indulging” yourself, every time you do something that contributes to your long-term aspiration.

AFAICT, this classic indulgence-as-a-reward can aim at one of two things:

1. it can be something you only think to do after having completed a task, to build positive assocations for the future
2. it can be something you think of to motivate yourself to start on a task to begin with

I believe that the first thing is generally good advice, but that a lot of people can't do the second thing. At least brains like mine, I go for the reward regardless of whether or not I earned it!

So I found a different formulation that works better: fist-pump.

Just fist-pump each success. It is no reward in itself, no indulgence: the gesture feels meaningful only after there is something to celebrate, so it can not be short-circuited. And yet, it can still work as something to look forward to: "oh, if I finish up that task, then I'll get to fist-pump about it"!

P.S.: The “radical cure for sugar enjoyment” described in your linked post (taking emetic drugs when you consume sugar) is a really bad idea.

Not disagreeing, but what's your reason? Loss of gut flora?

It is currently in a somewhat awkward hybrid state.

And you may see it that way for the rest of your life. Using CLI is like having a taste in coffee, there's always new frontiers. I'd advise embracing the "hybrid state" you've got at any given time as Your System, rather than always be enduring an awkward state of transition.

Well-spotted!  My other comment mentions an example of literal "|" in Warcraft 3.

Wow, blast from the past! |n|n|cfffcc00 is in many tooltip strings in Warcraft 3 (with the result of coloring the following text some light gold hue). 

Lots of examples: https://www.hiveworkshop.com/threads/tooltip-tutorial.51966/ (archived)

Saw it so many times making custom maps, cffffcc is burned into my memory.  I guess the first "c" stands for "color"; it's not part of the hex code.