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Alicorn13y20

mathgods

I've seen "mathgoods" before. "Mathgods" must be even better!

[anonymous]13y00

But still nowhere near as awesome as superhero mathematicians.

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5 Less Wrong articles categorized by reading difficulty

by lukeprog

3rd Sep 2012

1 min read

5

One thing that could help new users dive into Less Wrong would be to make some reading recommendations based on reading difficulty. (I'm including some things not hosted on LessWrong.com when they're very LessWrong-ish and written by leading LessWrong authors.) For example:

For everyone

Yudkowsky, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
Yudkowsky, Twelve Virtues of Rationality
Yvain, The Worst Argument in the World
Yudkowsky, Reductionism
Lukeprog, How to Beat Procrastination

For those with some math and statistics

Yudkowsky, Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation
Yudkowsky, Timeless Causality
Yudkowsky, Bell's Theorem

For mathgods

Nisan, Formulas of arithmetic that behave like decision agents
Benja, A model of UDT with a concrete prior over logical statements
cousin_it, Bounded versions of Gödel's and Löb's theorems

Now, I ask: What are some of your favorite articles in each of these categories?

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Less Wrong articles categorized by reading difficulty

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[-]kilobug13y40

I think http://lesswrong.com/lw/od/37_ways_that_words_can_be_wrong/ is a good starting point too, it summarizes a lot of important things and give links to details for each (in the "for everyone" category).

[-]Bobertron13y70

I consider diseased thinking to be an unofficial part of the sequence on words (of which "37 ways words can be wrong" is the hub). It gives an example for how words can influence our thinking that is not contrived, practical, not obvious and important. It's a nice example of clear thinking.

[-][anonymous]13y20

The Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation link points to How to Beat Procrastination instead of the intended article.

[-]lukeprog13y00

Fixed.

[-]Alicorn13y20

mathgods

I've seen "mathgoods" before. "Mathgods" must be even better!

[-][anonymous]13y00

But still nowhere near as awesome as superhero mathematicians.

[-]NancyLebovitz13y00

For everyone: Alicorn's Ureshiku Naritai, though I suggest a clearer title.

[-]Alicorn13y00

It means "I want to become happier", a la "tsuyoku naritai" meaning "I want to become stronger".

[-]Zaine13y00

The analogue is clever and clear, however I don't think it carries the same cultural connotations. 強くなりたい is a somewhat commonly expressed phrase, whereas 嬉しくなりたい sounds just as odd in Japanese as it does in English.

Perhaps Nancy meant that the title stretches the apropos use of Japanese in evincing the message of an essay written in English.

[-]NancyLebovitz13y70

I meant that I wouldn't be nearly as likely to look at an article with a Japanese title (especially as someone new to LW who wouldn't know to expect good stuff from Alicorn) as an article with a title in English which gave me something specific to be interested in.

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