All of Antiochus's Comments + Replies

I find more sophisticated theologies as unconvincing. The fundamental problem is the more coherent and logically provable your god is, the less she matters, until it's nothing left that could be thought of as a god at all, let alone produce any real consequences that we should worry about. It's like the driving paradox - to paraphrase George Carlin, everyone that drivers slower than you is an idiot, everyone that drives faster is a maniac. If someone has a more literal god than you (you in the general sense) they're clearly just a straw man or an idiot. If someone has a less literal god than you, they're misguided or heretical or cowardly.

In this analogy, I choose not to drive.

I've heard that. I suppose it's for the best that I moved into a style less lunge-happy (German and Italian longsword.)

I once had the same problem with a weak core. Fencing cured it for me within a few months, though for the first two months I ended the classes with pain in that area.

3IlyaShpitser
Fencing is extremely bad for your knees :(. -- An ex-foilist.

This rings false. Greek learning didn't disappear just because the already faltering Hellenistic dynasties were toppled.

4Douglas_Knight
How, or even whether, Greek learning disappeared in not important to my point, which is that many Romans tried and failed to learn science from Greek books. The most important event was Ptolemy VIII's persecution of scholars, an event not directly involving Rome. But Greek learning in Pergamon also disappeared, around the same time, which was a fairly peaceful Roman takeover.

As a reader, it's less work for more reward.

This is interesting enough that I'd like to see some more explanation, too.

0brazil84
See my reply to Lumifer above.
3Lumifer
In reality there is both sophisticated theology and a scary weirdo on the corner with the "REPENT THE END IS NEAR" sign.

No problem. It seems like programming is a perfect example of something with a very large working memory requirement and the manipulation of a lot of symbolic, linguistic information.

Antiochus290

In computer programming, this is commonly called rubber ducking.

5chaosmage
Fascinating. I'm a programmer and I do that (minus the rubber duck), but I didn't know the term. Thanks!

Ask five gamers what WIS means, get five answers.

What I'm getting at is that it doesn't matter if the software is expressed in electron arrangement or plugs or neurons, if it's computable. I don't see any trouble here distinguishing between connectome and neuron.

-3TheAncientGeek
What I am saying is that ifnyiu can't separate software from hardware, you are dealing with software in a reifiable sense. Hardware is never computable, in the sense that simulated planes don't fly.

You could think of software as being any element that is programmable - ie, even a physical plugboard can be thought of as software even though it's not typically the format we store it on.

0TheAncientGeek
You could think of a plugboard as hardware, too, hence there is no longer a clean hardware/software distinction

This might be counter-intuitive and impractical for self-teaching, but for me it was an assembly language course that made it 'click' for how things work behind the scenes. It doesn't have to be much and you'll probably never use it again, but the concepts will help your broader understanding.

If you can be more specific about which parts baffle you, I might be able to recommend something more useful.

0iarwain1
Nothing in particular baffles me. I can get through the material pretty fine. It's just that I prefer starting from a solid and thorough grasp of all the fundamentals and working on up from there, rather than jumping head-first into the middle of a subject and then working backwards to fill in any gaps as needed. I also prefer understanding why things work rather than just knowing that they do.

I bought a new office chair. My selection process was to take my coat off and sit on every single damn chair in the store until I found which one was the least awful. The most comfortable (at any price) that I found was this one - the multiple points of adjustment turned out to be the key so that I had both enough padding and lower back support. Link

That's a question with an answer. Do wild animals suffer so much their lives aren't worth living? Then yes. My gut feeling is that it isn't the case, however, or it varies a lot from specie to specie - some might inherently suffer more than others by being kept in a naturally high state of stress, etc.

This might not be as much of a problem in IT as you might worry, especially if you have personal projects or open source contributions to show for it. It's difficult enough finding skilled developers that if your skill is in demand, a good recruiter will still go to bat for you. I'd say it harms your chances, but it won't kill a career.

Antiochus-10

Looks like I'm going to have to rethink my lunches.

I wouldn't mind seeing an off-topic forum either.

I had no idea vehicular cycling was a thing, but most of the recommendations on the wikipedia page are commonly accepted as good cycling safety when there's no bike lanes - and around here bike lanes are rare. I'll use bike lanes if they're available and clear of obstructions, and I won't take a lane unless the lane's too narrow to share (like on a bridge or in construction) or unless I can keep up with traffic. I always signal, use turning lanes, stop at lights and stop signs, etc, as expected by the MTO guidelines. I ride a hybrid bicycle instead of a road bike because of cost, posture, and the condition of the roads.

As for why? Health benefits, pleasure, and I arrive at work more awake and alert.

I feel like there's a meaningful distinction here, but calling them 'true' and fake' smuggles in connotations that I don't feel are accurate.

We're kind of kicking at different goalposts here. You're trying to show that archery isn't the best possible use of time (presumably for fitness) and I'm skeptical of your specific claims about it.

A couple things to consider.

  • Archery, by a formal reading of the term, is a martial art.
  • Not all forms of archery and martial arts are made equal. There's considerably overlap in physical requirements. Compare a sport crossbow to an English longbow; compare tai chi to muay thai.
  • I practice martial arts, but not archery. When I had a chance to spend an afternoon
... (read more)
1ChristianKl
Given that the whole thread is about ways a rationalist can spend money to improve his life, if archery isn't a good use of your time buying a bow probably isn't good use of your money either. To the extend that I have used strong words to dismiss archery as suboptimal it's because I dislike the idea of people recommending activities like archery, sailing or go-kart racing without any thought about secondary benefits. I do think it makes sense to think seriously how about one spends his time. I think I get around 8 separate benefits from dancing. 1. Fun 2. Physical Confidence with women. It both provides heavy reaction therapy and an enviroment where it's socially expected that the men leads the woman. 3. Physical exercise that improves body coordination. I think that leads to more expressiveness in my body language in tasks such as public speaking. 4. It's a general sport and fits the recommendation that one should do sport to be healthy. 5. It trains sensitivity of perception what happens physically inside other people. 6. Practical understand about human physiology that I can't get from a physiology testbook. A limit space to experiment and check theories. 7. I'm in an enviroment with woman that are potential romantic partners. 8. I learn to listen to music on a deeper level (but compared to the other points that's not really useful in other stuff I do) That doesn't mean that I think everyone should take up Salsa. I don't even argue that it's the perfect dance but I do think I have much better reasons for it than were provided here for taking up archery. I don't care for the semantics. Even if it does grow some muscles, it doesn't grow them symmetrically. Good muscle training should train both sides evenly. Having uneven muscles distribution isn't good.

Upvoted. A lot of cycling safety is counterintuitive. Being hit from behind is not as big a risk as people think while cycling, and behaving as predictably as possible (ie like a car) will keep you alive.

That still doesn't seem right to me, but I should point out that a good motivation to do a thing is as valuable as the thing itself, if otherwise you wouldn't.

1ChristianKl
Taking a hobby costs a lot of time. For me I don't see any reason to prefer archery over a martial art. The martial art does provide a bunch of secondary benefits.

Could you post a link to the kind of chair that you got?

1garabik
It's not quite what I have (this one is some year old model), but seems close: link here I either misremember the price, or it went down significantly (or the combination...)

How much is it worth spending on a computer chair? Is a chair for both work and play (ie video games) practical, or is reclining comfort necessarily opposed to sit-up comfort?

4garabik
It makes a difference - I now have a good, high quality chair that cost over 250€ (not from my own pocket) and it's close to perfect - I can recline it to a comfortable position that is not possible with an "ordinary office" chair (I used to break them down on a regular basis). Despite being advertised as "super-resistant", this one already broke twice (covered by warranty). And when I had to sit on an "ordinary office" chair, I found out that I cannot work for more than an hour or two before I get serious pain in my back - this seems to be related to the monitor being beneath the eyes and the inability to recline - I (like to) have the monitor exactly at the eye level and looking slightly upwards.
1Metus
I want to extend this to mattresses. About a third of my time is spent sleeping, how much can I spend before marginal returns kick in?
5DaFranker
In an attempt to simplify the various details of the cost-benefit calculations here: If you spend: * 1-2 hours on this chair per day: Might be worth spending some time shopping for a decent seat at Staples, but once you find something that fits and feels comfortable (with some warnings to take in consideration), pretty much go with that. You should find something below 100$ for sure, and can probably get away with <60$ spent if you get good sales. * 3-4 hours / day: If you're shopping at Staples, be more careful and check the engineering of the chair if you've got any knowledge there. Stuff below 60$ will probably break down and bend and become all other sorts of uncomfortable after a few months of use. If your body mass is high, you might need to go for solidity over comfort, or accept the unfair hand you're dealt and spend more than 150$ for something that mixes enough comfort, ergonomy and solid reliability. * More than 4 hours / day on average: This is where the gains become nonlinear, and you will want to seriously test and examine anything you're buying under 150$. At this point, you need to consider ergonomics, long-term comfort (which can't be reliably "tested in store" at all, IME), reliability, a very solid frame for extended use that can handle the body's natural jiggling and squirming without deforming itself (this includes checking the "frame" itself, but also any cushions, since those can "deflate" very rapidly if the manufacturer skimped there, and therefore become hard and just as uncomfortable as a bent chair), and so on. At this point, the same advice applies as shopping for mattresses, work boots, or any other sort of tool that you're using all day every day. It's only at this point where the differences between more relaxed postures, "work" postures and "gaming" postures starts really mattering, and I'd say if you actually spend 6-8 hours per day on average on this chair, you definitely want to go for the best you can get. How much that ne
0IlyaShpitser
Do you spend a lot of time in front of the computer at home? (I assume this is for home use..) It might be worth it to optimize: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
0Shmi
I have always been able to find a comfortable computer (arm)chair for $100 or less, usually on sale at Staples.
1niceguyanon
Not an answer, but I did discover kneeling chairs, because I am also in the market for a new chair. I'd try one with back support, but none of the reviews of the products on amazon compel me to make any purchases. http://www.amazon.com/Office-Star-Ergonomically-Designed-Casters/dp/B002L15NSK/ref=nosim?tag=vglnk-c319-20 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18810008
Antiochus-10

Are you sure? Archery requires a lot of strength and full-body coordination. Archers that I know have to do strength training for it. I'm not going to make any claims about how optimal it is, but that seems untrue on its face.

1ChristianKl
Exactly. Archery doesn't provide strength training if you have to do strength training to do archery. If it would be good at strength training than archers wouldn't need separate strength training. Yes, there might be some effects but if your goal is strength training I would guess that there are better ways. As far as full-body coordination goes, archery forces you into being still in a quite unnatural position. I don't think that's what you want to train. A good martial arts or a good dance class provides you with better training.

Just bought a different model of this last week, because my bedroom is blissfully dark at night, but also dark in the morning, making it more difficult to wake up when I'd like to. I can confirm that it's made a really big difference for easing me out of bed. I don't need the usual snooze routine, or to set a second alarm in a different room anymore.

Antiochus100

I've always felt similarly, and found myself thinking about how plastic we are with our own body sense - we seem to be very capable of remapping our motor functions into completely new devices, cars, video game characters, etc, and gaining a sense of body with them. This seem to be supported by how tied driving is to which part of your body performs the control - for me, going from a hand clutch on a motorcycle to a foot clutch completely failed to translate the skill. I have no idea if this is neurologically correct.

Completely language-agnostic programming book is a bit of a contradiction. You're better off finding books on the subject that use the language you're most comfortable with. I'd look at books on object oriented programming and algorithm design, and when you're completely comfortable with those topics, move on to design patterns.

They're mostly copy-and-pasted descriptions from wikipedia, tweaked with added info from Design Patterns. I'm not sure they'd be very useful to other people. I used them to help prepare for an interview, so when I was doing my cards I'd describe them out loud, then check the description, then pop open the book to clarify anything I wasn't sure on.

edit: And I'd do the reverse, naming the pattern based on the description.

I've used SRS to learn programming theory that I otherwise had trouble keeping straight in my head. I've made cards for design patterns, levels of database normalization, fiddly elements of C++ referencing syntax, etc.

0ChristianKl
Do you have your design pattern cards formatted in a way that are likely to be useful for other people?

I don't agree with the tone of this comment, but I admit there's something about this that feels deeply weird to me.

-4OptimiseEarth
Yes.
Antiochus110

In that case, research will just need to discover the necessary properties of soul-attracting substrate.

0mwengler
Exactly. Souls are no more essentially supernatural than was radiation. It wasn't known before Marie Curie, and afterwards it became known and was characterized.
Antiochus390

Taken. Quite tickled by the prize question.

Any and all! Though I have a lot of interest in military history in particular, which lead me to wargaming, with some specialized interest in the Hellenistic period and the ancient world in general, medieval martial arts, and the black powder era of linear battles.

0telms
Sad to say, my only experience with wargaming was playing Risk in high school. I'm not sure that counts.
Antiochus190

Hi. I'm a software engineer and history enthusiast. Been reading for years, and just recently got around to making an account. Still building up the courage to dive in, but this place has done wonders for reducing sloppy thinking on my part.

-1telms
Hi, Antiochus. What areas of history are you interested in? I'm similarly interested in history -- particularly paleontology and archaeology, the history or urban civilizations (rise and collapse and reemergence), and the history of technology. I kind of lose interest after World War II, though. You?