LESSWRONG
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All of mjk1093's Comments + Replies

Dunbar's Function
mjk109310

(Just like our instincts expect that sugar goes with vitamins.)

We have the instinct to consume sugar because it is the most concentrated form of energy that humans can process, not because it is naturally paired with vitamins.

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1wedrifid
Sugar is desirable as the most easily accessible form of energy. Being concentrated is more useful for long term storage in a mobile form, hence the use of the more concentrated fat.
4Lumifer
That's obviously false. Counterexample: fat.
Dunbar's Function
mjk109320

BMI assumes you are the normal semi-sedentary modern person. It's not meant to be used on serious athletes or weightlifters. For 95% plus of the population, BMI is a pretty accurate metric.

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5Lumifer
More importantly, BMI assumes you are of average height. Human weight doesn't actually scale by the square root of height, so BMI has a systemic bias for tall people (too high) and for short people (too low). As far as I recall, BMI was designed as a tool to compare whole populations (where the height bias averages out) and people who created it explicitly said that it's not a good metric to evaluate individuals.
Dunbar's Function
mjk109300

Maybe not generalists, but cross-specialists to work against the silo effect. For example, someone who knew both number theory and quantum physics deeply might make some important discoveries.

Then, these cross-specialists could themselves caucus to create a kind of synthetic "generalist" viewpoint, like a Council of Experts.

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