LESSWRONG
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All of dregntael's Comments + Replies

You Don't Exist, Duncan
dregntael40

I am very glad that you wrote this post, and just want you to know that You Are Not Alone. Hearing over and over again that you are Not Normal, do not fit within any of the boxes, and eventually you start believing it yourself. So thank you for this reminder that It Is Okay To Be Weird.

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Third Time: a better way to work
dregntael160

Non-serious suggestion: Fractional-reserve breaking (in analogy to fractional-reserve banking)

Serious suggestion: Liquid Breaks (since the duration of the next break is like a reservoir you are filling slowly, and you can drain it when you want. It also implies flexibility.)

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2Mart_Korz
a proposal that is related in meaning to Liquid Breaks would be organic breaks - I like some of the connotations (organic growth of e.g. trees has a lot of flexibility, while still following simple rules; the method (work:break ratio) can be organically adapted to the user and one's current capacity)
3celeste
"Liquid breaks" sounds like a music genre.
1bfinn
Interesting. If 'liquid break' were already a phrase - meaning e.g. coffee break - it would work as a pun. I see what you mean by the metaphor, but it might be unclear to others. I'll give it more thought, as there might be something similar.
Shoulder Advisors 101
dregntael60

Thank you for writing this, it really got me thinking. I'm one of those people who don't really have a firm cast of shoulder advisors. In fact, when I saw this appear in fiction (and in particular in HPMOR), I kind of assumed it was just a convenient narrative device and not something real people actually do. I suppose I should read HPMOR again and try to figure out what other blatantly obvious advice I've missed.

This does seem like a extremely useful skill to have, so I'd like to practice it if possible. I just tried to imagine one of these shoulder advis... (read more)

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6Kaj_Sotala
I think that getting a stable visual appearance isn't very important; I'm sure it can make things more realistic if you do get it, but the most essential thing is getting a hold of the person's felt sense, as well as a feeling of how they would react to different things. If you get a sense of "ah in this situation, they would say X", then it doesn't matter if you're unable to clearly visualize them.
Critch on career advice for junior AI-x-risk-concerned researchers
dregntael40

Thank you for posting this here, I mostly agree with the statement that acquiring skills early on is more important than producing anything directly. There's one thing that bugs me, however.

Early in your research career, you need to be in "consume" mode more than "produce" mode [...]

Counterpoint: if you spend most of your early research career in "consume" mode, you won't get any practice at producing valuable research or even know whether producing science is a good fit for you personally. I've personally seen ... (read more)

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