This is an excellent post, which I'll return to in future. I particularly like the note about the convergence between Superforecasting, Feynman, Munger, LW-style rationality, and CFAR - here's a long list of Munger quotations (collected by someone else) which exemplifies some of this convergence. http://25iq.com/quotations/charlie-munger/
Thanks to ScottL for writing this concise yet (apparently) thorough overview of systems theory. I've long been curious about systems theory, mostly because the term systems biology sounds interesting, and this helps scratch that itch.
I may "Ankify" it, at least for org-drill.
RichardKenneway's posts here also added a lot of value. Based on this introduction, I basically agree that systems theory is a map without much predictive value. But I'll add that a map, or a vocabulary if you will, is useful in that it lets us indicate what we're talking abo...
I applaud your thorough and even-handed wiki entry. In particular, this comment:
"One take-away is that someone in possession of a serious information hazard should exercise caution in visibly censoring or suppressing it (cf. the Streisand effect)."
Censorship, particularly of the heavy-handed variety displayed in this case, has a lower probability of success in an environment like the Internet. Many people dislike being censored or witnessing censorship, the censored poster could post someplace else, and another person might conceive the same idea...
I thought your article on SRS in the classroom was one of the best articles produced on LW in recent years - it was a really useful case study. I'm similarly enthusiastic about this article. I'll write down and try these clever hacks, and let you know how it goes. Thanks!
"Thinking Physics is Gedanken Physics" is a brilliantly intuitive approach to physics from mechanics to relativity.
Hmmm. The fear of hell is a tough one: as I said above, I'd largely dealt with that fear before "leaving the fold." I suppose you somehow need to train your System 1 - to reprogram yourself, to experience that you have nothing to fear. For me, this happened over time as I gradually got more comfortable with increasing degrees of irreligion. Some other suggestions follow.
Hell and other people
For instance, it may help to think about the many non-Christians of superlative moral character. I mean, even the medieval Christians called Socrates a "...
Thanks for the paper, and that's a fantastic quote.
Sadly, you can no longer see the full version on Khan Academy.
The Exercise Dashboard is not as helpful for highlighting dependencies: https://www.khanacademy.org/exercisedashboard
You may be able to find other knowledge maps; Khan wasn't the first to have the idea. I like Kaj's idea as well. I compared the curricula of several majors at MIT to come up with a core curriculum, useful across engineering, computer science, and biology.
Thanks for the writeup, and an excellent article. Note that the students do still live together, in quasi-dorms - a smart move for motivation and for network-building. I believe the students are supposed to spend a significant amount of time in the other locations Minerva is opening around the world: a year here, a year there, and so on.
I find Minerva an exciting experiment. Law schools have a similar, if much lower-tech, philosophy about classes. In law school, ideally classes focus less on covering content (which you must do prior to class) and more on ...
I like this question, because I should get better at this myself. Since this sort of thing does require some time and effort, I'll focus on low-hanging fruit - the traits I most want to improve. While we're waiting for someone who has more experience with this, here are two nice articles I found:
http://quantifiedself.com/2011/04/how-to-self-experiment/
http://hplusmagazine.com/2012/11/14/quantified-self-how-to-designing-self-experiments/
How flattering; I've now done so. Also, I very much like your approach to learning math by grounding it in concrete subjects. Many people say they learned calculus best by learning it alongside physics, since calculus appears much more concrete when you look at the velocity and arc of, say, a fired cannonball.
Finally, here's an excellent article from Barbara Oakley, who learned math starting about age 26 after getting out of the Army. She's now an engineering prof, and teaches a MOOC called "Learning How to Learn" (I have not taken it, but I have...
I also agree with Ilya on the important algorithmic ideas, with one addition: algorithmic analysis. Just as you can describe the movement of the planets with a few simple equations, and that's beautiful, you can describe any sequence of steps to finish a task as an algorithm. And you can mathematically analyze the efficiency of that sequence: as the task gets larger, do the number of steps required to finish it grow linearly, quadratically, logarithmically (we hope)?
This is a broadly applicable and powerful idea, since pretty much everything (even learnin...
As Ilya recommended, a great choice for programming in general is the legendary Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (aka SICP, aka "the wizard book"). Here is an interactive version: https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/. (You can find solutions to the problems here, but of course use sparingly if at all: http://community.schemewiki.org/?sicp-solutions)
If you benefit from more instruction than a solo journey through SICP, I cannot recommend highly enough MIT's Introduction to Computer Programming course, which remains one of the best ed...
+1 for Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (aka SICP, aka "the wizard book") - this is a legendary programming book. Here is an interactive version: https://xuanji.appspot.com/isicp/.
I also agree on the important algorithmic ideas, with one addition: algorithmic analysis. Just as you can describe the movement of the planets with a few simple equations, and that's beautiful, you can describe any sequence of steps to finish a task as an algorithm. And you can mathematically analyze the efficiency of that sequence: as the task gets lar...
I'm just turning 30. I spent my 20s in education (undergraduate and law school) and the Army. I'm now interested in technology and entrepreneurship. For several years, I was extremely frustrated that I didn't know any math or programming: my humanities background felt like a huge waste of time. In other words - I really feel your frustration at being "behind the curve."
However, even a third of the way through life isn't too late to change course - remember, you and I are only a decade past the normal college years, when most people learn their tr...
As Dorikka ackowledges above, personal notes often use a hard-to-read shorthand (I know mine do). I have roughly translated this note to a form I can more easily understand, below.
"Mind-states are non-stable with respect to attributes valued by some agents." People change their minds and selves, in important ways.
"This is true not only with respect to death, etc but also biological/chemical changes that occur perpetually, causing behaviors in the presence of identical stimuli/provocations to differ substantially." People's minds chang...
"Indoctrination seems to plant a seed that is (almost) immune to purely rational debunking...You have to find a way to examine the indoctrination itself, not its manifestations." I like this concise way of putting it a lot, and it's heartening to hear someone else had this same difficult-to-articulate experience.
BTW, I think the people downvoting may have mistaken which side these posts are on, due to skimming through the thread.
I'm going to chime in here as well. I was also raised by an extremely devout family - they are pastors and Christian counselors, and have religious degrees. As an adult, I began the process of becoming a Catholic - this is not a very good Protestant move, but I was attracted by the relative sophistication of the theology, and a certain contemplative approach one can find there. So until I was 27, while I was finishing graduate school, I was a committed Christian.
You sound like you are already on the fence. You can put the arguments on both sides with great...
This is a very good point, actually. It'd be better to get an instant hit without destroying the ol' teeth, and Gwern's material through your link is fascinating. I'll report back if I try it out.
That's very interesting indeed.
I get one reward per pomodoro, unless I chain the pomodoros together, in which case the reward matches the number of pomodoros completed (so if I do three in a row, 75 minutes of work, then I get 3 M&Ms). If I want to take a break, then I accept that I'll only get 1 M&M, instead of 2 or 3, after the next pomodoro.
In practice, then, I'm using variable intervals. Based on your feedback, I'll experiment with eating all the rewards at the end of the time interval, instead of devouring them after each pom.
What Emile said, although I do have to make sure I don't cheat! (Also, the M&Ms are in a desk drawer where I can't see them) Before I tried this, every time I goofed off during a pomodoro, the mild buzz of surfing the internet served as a reward. Now, I tell myself, "don't goof off, or no M&M for you!"
There's a second reward as well, which may not apply to everyone equally. I work full-time, basically in legal research. I used to spread 10 pomodoros out over the day (okay, 8). Now I do 10 as fast as possible, and then switch to personal research. This makes the day much more pleasurable. The M&Ms reinforce this faster-moving, more engaging schedule.
Okay, here's a preliminary update. I dropped the R Programming course on Coursera because after a basic introduction to R, the first substantive assignment jumped a couple levels in difficulty. In other words, there was a gap between the instruction and the assignment. This was frustrating. So be aware that you will need a bit of extra time to invest in order to get past this gap, either before or during the course. (I contrast this with the Introduction to Programming with Python course I'm taking on EdX from MIT, which is simply a flawless course, with a smooth and sure conceptual slope.)
Also, I've heard the term "anti to-do list" used to mean a list you make of what you've actually accomplished, instead of what you planned to accomplish (and it's a very useful tool). So I got that term mixed up with your term.
I like your concept of trying to break the flow of time-wasting activities; it sounds like a situation for some sort of pre-commitment device. "Okay, I've got an implicit list of not-so-good activities putting itself together here...I'd better break the chain and commit to read only two more articles..." Or something. I realize that doesn't really solve your terminological difficulty!
I'll be taking the Coursera course, since I have no experience in R. It's part of the Data Science Specialization. Reviews online suggest the course may be somewhat disorganized, but also said Code School's introduction was easier. So I might check out Code School as well.
The Coursera course will repeat, as ShardPhoenix said, so I'll report back when finished.
This article has materially helped me over the past couple of weeks. Before, I believed that ego depletion occurred from physical, mental, or emotional effort, and I viewed it as a depletable resource. This gave me a massive excuse to slag off after I finished a task.
But the idea that willpower gets a boost as soon as the brain perceives a reward gave me a different way to look at it. Now, I focus on the reward/'hit' I get from achieving small goals. As long as I celebrate each finished task, I win, and my willpower should increase rather than decrease!
Thi...
Me! Me! I totally took the survey!