All of Duke's Comments + Replies

Duke00

Will be there. Any suggestions on where to park?

1Danny_Hintze
Parking is $2 per hour at the bookstore right next to the MU. You usually have to wait a few minutes for a spot, but that's what I'd do.
Duke00

Ah interesting. I don't think the gender thing influenced my interpretations of the writing. Plus I started to figure out that he was a male fairly quickly but wasn't totally sure. I will say that he subverted my I-don't-listen-to-teenagers heuristic with some thoughtful, well-written posts. Funny too that reading his bio he strikes me as quite similar to myself, especially when I was in my late teens. In fact, I have posted on a forum with a girl-sounding name before.

0[anonymous]
How did you do so? Are certain writing styles employed more frequently among males?
Duke00

Thanks to my previous employer, I actually went a step further and took a Dale Carnegie class called Effective Communications & Human Relations / Skills for Success Course. I think it was $1600 or so a couple years ago. My manager thought that I was doing a good job but that I was not particularly nice to people, which was accurate. So, thankfully, he paid for me to take the course and, as far as I can tell, it had a strong influence on me in a positive way.

The course was geared towards professionals of all flavors--engineers, salesman, executives, ... (read more)

Duke20

What is the gender of gothgirl420666?

1Richard_Kennaway
Spoiler warning! gothgirl420666's answer is here. Before looking at that, can you say if you would attribute different meanings to what gothgirl420666 writes, depending on the gender you imagine gothgirl420666 being? The same for anyone else whose gender you do not know. Preferably leaving aside the additional complications of people who, for whatever reason, present as the opposite gender to their physiological one. ETA: More by gothgirl420666. Tvira gur anzr naq traqre, V'z vzntvavat na navzr pngobl glcr. Ohg V'z whfg znxvat gung hc.
Duke30

Can anyone recommend a book on marketing analytics? Preferably not a textbook but I'll take what I can get.

I have a technical background but I recently switched careers and am now working as a real estate agent. I have very limited marketing knowledge at this point.

Duke30

Your can start by reading the Tim Ferriss' The 4-hour Workweek book, by the way.

Keep in mind that Tim Ferriss works extremely hard. You are not as successful and prolific as he is on a 4-hour workweek. Ironically enough.

Duke-30

I am unclear whether you are claiming that you're disabled or that you're simply lazy. So I am going to assume that you're lazy. But if, in fact, you are suffering from a medical condition, then it would be best to deal with that straightaway.

But I think I would always find being a 9 to 5er unappealing.

This seems to be the null hypothesis by which you basing your desire to work as little and as easily as possible on. I think your null hypothesis should be that developing a full time career will be most beneficial to you. A career is rewarding financia... (read more)

Duke00

Depending on you current skill level, I'd think that the less than 2% likelihood is a generous estimate. Online poker was a bubble back in the early to mid 00's. Presently, edges are razor thin and only a very elite group are making 100K+/year.

Players are highly skilled--and getting better all the time--and able to populate multiple tables simultaneously (as opposed to live poker where you can play only a single table at a time); rake is high; online poker legality is hazy in many parts of the world; transferring money off the site is problematic; you'll ... (read more)

Duke80

For the sake of clarity, my criticism of Josh's book was developed within the context of Josh promoting his book in a LW thread titled "The Best Textbooks on Every Subject."

9joshkaufman
Useful clarification. In that case, you should know that the book is currently being used by several undergraduate and graduate business programs as an introductory business textbook. The book is designed to be a business primer ("an elementary textbook that serves as an introduction to a subject of study"), and business is a very important area of study that rewards rationality. At the time of my original post, no one had recommended a general business text. That's why I mentioned the book in this thread. I appreciate your distaste for perceived self-promotion: as a long-time LW lurker, my intent was to contribute a resource LW readers might find valuable, nothing more. If you're interested in the general topic and want a more academic treatment, you may enjoy Bevelin's Seeking Wisdom. I found it a bit disorganized and overly investment-focused, but you may find it's more to your liking.
Duke50

I think the title--and especially the subtitle, " Mastering the Art of Business,"--signals that the book will be a thorough examination of business principles. As well, I think that hocking your book in a thread called "The Best Textbooks on Every Subject" signals that the book will be, at least, textbook-like in range, complexity and information containment. You now call your book "not densely written or overly technical." I call it cotton candy.

Duke40

What is the status of this contest? Has there been another submission since mine? If not, then I would like my submission re-considered.

If, in fact, the spirit of the contest was to accomplish something, then, in retrospect, the value of my submission should have increased. I knocked out the article in a matter of days (here we are now, many weeks later) and it received a net of 14 upvotes. It may not have met the initial standards of the judges, but in light of new evidence--specifically, that there has been zero submission since--I think my accomplishment deserves renewed consideration.

3gwern
As the only other person to enter the contest (inasmuch as it's now August 2nd and no one else has turned in anything), I'd appreciate your thoughts on my entry. Regardless of the verdict, I hope to continue to improve it. (For example: I'm not really satisfied by the quotes from the reviews about the limits of spaced repetition, but they seem to be paywalled and thatwill take time to overcome.)
1jsalvatier
Yes, we will consider your submission too.
Duke40

This book, or, to be accurate, the 20 or so pages I read, are terrible. For someone who prefers dense and thorough examinations of topics, The Personal MBA is cotton candy. It is viscerally pleasing, but it offers little to no sustenance. My advice: don't get an MBA or read this book.

The mistake I made was considering the author's appearance in this thread as strong evidence that his book would offer value to a rationalist. In fact, the author is a really good marketer whose book has little value to offer. Congratulations to him, however, since he got me to buy a brand-new copy of a book, something I rarely do.

Wow, Duke - that's a bit harsh.

It's true that the book is not densely written or overly technical - it was created for readers who are relatively new to business, and want to understand what's important as quickly as possible.

Not everyone wants what you want, and not everyone values what you value. For most readers, this is the first book they've ever read about how businesses actually operate. The worst thing I could possibly do is write in a way that sounds and feels like a textbook or academic journal.

I don't know you personally, but from the tone of y... (read more)

Duke00

It depends on how much time you are willing to devote. I spend 0-3 minutes per day on the cognitive biases deck which allows me to spend the additional 17-30 minutes I have allocated for Anki working on the NVC deck, which is massive. I plan to add a spanish vocab deck soon.

Duke60

I'm not asking for a Rationalist of the Month Award, just a measly upvote.

Duke10

After some deliberation, I've decided to withdraw this request. I am content with my submission. I am also content not to receive the prize or any portion thereof.

Duke70

After some deliberation, I've decided to withdraw this request. I am content with my submission. I am also content not to receive the prize or any portion thereof.

0Benquo
I want to express my approval. You practiced the difficult discipline of taking some time to deliberate on something that clearly engaged your emotions strongly, and the yet more difficult art of actually changing your mind. No upvote, though; a more advanced rationalist wouldn't get an upvote because they would have remembered to deliberate before expressing their first opinion.
Duke20

I request arbitration and that it be done publicly.

2jsalvatier
OK, choose someone with 5k+ Karma who is willing to arbitrate (or I can choose someone if you prefer) and have them post here.
Duke00

Cross-commented from submission thread:

I think it is unfair of you to post a public critique of my submission since this is a contest. I have effectively been penalized for being first. Every submission that follows will have the benefit of seeing this critique.

I am also concerned that you have decided to change the contest format immediately following my submission. In my estimation, you had either already decided to change the format prior to my submission (clearly a major disadvantage to me), or you decided to change the format based on my submission, w... (read more)

0jsalvatier
Link
Duke40

I think it is unfair of you to post a public critique of my submission since this is a contest. I have effectively been penalized for being first. Every submission that follows will have the benefit of seeing this critique.

I am also concerned that you have decided to change the contest format immediately following my submission. In my estimation, you had either already decided to change the format prior to my submission (clearly a major disadvantage to me), or you decided to change the format based on my submission, which, again, effectively penalizes me for being first.

8gwern
If we are comparing fairness against some platonic ideal, I would point out that you already started with a significant advantage - being able to draw upon my Mnemosyne article advocating SRS and covering many of the questions jsalvatier asked. (You quote me, most obviously, but I also suspect you came to Wozniak's equations by way of my own discussion of Wozniak's equations for calculating the five-minute rule, among other things.) I did not want to be first to criticize this because it would look like sour grapes for not having my act together enough to submit my own article (I was waiting for you to email or IRC me & I only have 4.6k karma anyway), but your article is exactly what you suggested in the contest thread: something rushed together, and a good example of what I meant by a contest not being a good incentive structure for such a spaced repetition article. For example, lukeprog suggested a number of solid useful references, which you did not use, and the review article you did link includes discussion and references for some of the questions jsalvatier is most interested in! That said, I do understand why you are upset, and this is part of why I was against a contest format. If jsalvatier denies you the $300 or whatever, then you will feel aggrieved that a promise was broken and yourself deprived of a pretty substantial sum. If jsalvatier awards it to you, then competitors like myself will feel aggrieved that a low-quality product won and that the community was not as well-informed as it could be. Currently, this seems to be a moot point. The terms of the contest were that the winner was the article be promoted to the main page, not merely present in article-space. Right now, after roughly 3 days, this article is still lingering at 10 points. I have the impression that articles tend to level off after a few days, having done most of their rising or falling by that point. So purely on the karma aspect, it seems pretty unlikely that this article will be
4jsalvatier
I agree that changing the contest immediately following your submission negatively affects you. Basically you provided me with information about how this kind of contest would work and have not been compensated for it. Please note that you can still participate in the reworked contest. I'd like to address this, but feel moderately uncomfortable discussing this in public (not sure why), would you email me (my username at gmail) ? I disagree that critiquing your submission in public gives you an especially unfair disadvantage since in the original contest there was a big first mover advantage and because you have personalized feedback about how to modify your submission.
Duke50

I agree with all of this. Maybe it doesn't come across clearly in my post, but I tried to differentiate between rank trivia and applicable knowledge, such as cognitive biases, decision theory concepts, logical fallacies, stuff you listed, etc. I don't know what exactly differentiates applicable knowledge with near-worthless trivia, however.

1Kaj_Sotala
Alright. I suspected that that might have been the case, but your post was a bit ambiguous.
Duke00

I was trying to avoid re-inserting the links, so thanks so much for your time!

Duke10

I am working on this vigorously and expect to produce a submitted product soon. Proceed at your own risk if you are considering competing for this prize.

2jsalvatier
Can you describe what does and does not increase your motivation? Does more money increase/decrease? The race aspect? The competitive aspect?
Duke20

Getting it done to other's satisfaction and getting it done to your own are not mutually exclusive. You can work quickly to win the prize and then go back and expand.

-1gwern
No, I can't. That's my problem, as I've been explaining in my comments.
Duke40

Why do you care if it is done to your satisfaction when the prize is awarded based on other's satisfaction with it?

This is an expected value problem. Decide how much a unit of your time is worth, how much time you are willing to invest and then (the hard part) estimate your likelihood for success.

So, if you value your time at $10/hr, are willing to invest 10 hours and estimate you will win the $155 X% of the time then we get this equation:

P(winning)$amount won - P(losing)$amount not won = initial investment

x$155 - (1-x)$0 = $10/hr * 10 hours

solve for x

x ... (read more)

-1gwern
Why do I care... what I care? Seriously? But I do agree with your expected utility calculations. The problem is, I can't motivate myself to write under conditions of uncertainty like that. I understand that shouldn't matter, especially since I consider such a project worthwhile even in the absence of $155, but it does.
Duke20

I am an Anki user and I am interested in working on this project.

Duke10

While for a couple periods I counted my calories, measuring nutrients--either of the food or my own--is a low priority for me. If I could afford to pay someone to do these things for me I wouldn't hesitate. I'm content for now with this simple reasoning: How bad could it be to eat only fruits and vegetables? Plus, I can alter the diet in a moment if needed.

Duke00

Redacted because I misread Manfred's comment the first time.

0Alicorn
After a while of doing that, you will no longer need willpower to prevent you from chatting with friends.
Duke20

The diet is the result of a 5-ish year development. The major changes were, first, elimination of animals, then animal products, then processed products and finally everything that wasn't fresh fruits and vegetables and some pb and tofu. I heard a couple reasonable talks in the past year making the case that fresh fruits and veggies are unequivocally the healthiest foods. I said fuck it, why not just eat all fruits and veggies then? This was ~3 months ago.

In every way that matters to me it has been an overwhelming success: it's cheap, it tastes good, it gi... (read more)

1wedrifid
The results here seemed unrealistic to me until I saw the earlier comment which revealed that 'pb' meant peanut butter. With that in mind the diet seems both sustainable and fairly healthy (assuming a lot of attention is paid to nutrient levels.) If not optimal then at least far better than most people's default eating habits.
3D_Malik
Whoa. I have also been vegan for a few years. You might want to look into creatine (which boosts intelligence, especially in vegans) and IF/CR if you haven't already. Have you ever tried recording what you eat to see how the nutrients add up? I might try something like what you're describing in a few years.
Duke20

I wouldn't be reading LW right now.

0[anonymous]
I'd finish reading the sequences (I've only read about 2/3 of them).
Duke10

I try to eat only fruits, vegetables and peanut butter. I live alone and prepare my own food. I am at the grocery store 5 to 7 days a week. When freshness is essential and overstocking is bad, then I don't know of a better way.

A tip on consuming more vegetables and fruits when you have them: don't also keep other food around that you prefer to veg/fruits. If you prefer x to mangoes and have x and mangoes available to eat, then you'll eat more x than mangoes. Take willpower out of the equation. Force yourself to eat what you "should."

1NancyLebovitz
Why did you choose that diet? What advantages have you found from it?
Duke20

You should say something like "Now that we can agree on x, let's discuss y." (Given that agreeingt on y is dependent on a prior agreement about x.) Getting someone to agree with you is not the end of the conversation, it is the beginning. Thanking them for agreeing with you makes it seem like all matters are settled and now you may peacefully part ways.

Also, I disagree that it is intrinsically rational or polite or part of some gentlemen's agreement to thank someone when they concede your point.

0rysade
Ok, sure. I am following your criticism, I think. In a conversation I expect to be temporarily conceding points and suspending disbelief, etc. I don't plan on thanking them every step of the way while we build toward a fully formed argument. I plan on thanking them at the end, when they feel like the ultimate outcome of our discussion has led them to change their mind on the topic under debate. The feeling of changing your mind on something is pretty uncomfortable, and I sometimes feel like the guy who talked me into it owes me big. This is purely an emotional, non-rational of thing. It's following that sensation that led me to ask the question if we should thank people for updating. "The gentlemen's agreement of rationality" was a metaphor I was using to describe the way I feel when I'm talking to somebody else who understands what it is like to know that there is a truth out there which we are both trying to find. It contrasts the butting-of-heads you'll find when you are just arguing with someone. Would you please explain further why it is not rational to thank someone for becoming less wrong?
Duke70

Judging both from experience and after reading the original comments for this post, it seems that many people share the misconception that betting--be it on ideas or sports, etc--is always done at odds of 1:1, ie I bet $100 that my prediction y will occur by date z and if i am wrong I lose $100 and if I am right I win $100 (plus my original wager). In fact, astute gambling is about predicting the likelihood of an event and then finding someone to bet with whom you think has done a worse job than you at predicting the likelihood of the event.

For instance, ... (read more)

4Matt_Simpson
The key to take advantage of suckers of this kind (that only bet on 50/50 odds) is not to make them realize their mistake by changing the odds. This is precisely when they start to realize something is up. I've won two bets against friends in the past six months doing this (though in the first bet the friend would have probably done something at uneven odds). On the other hand, I have another friend that makes lots of overconfident assertions and, when possible, I try to make even-odds bets with him, but he usually refuses with some excuse about why it wouldn't be appropriate to bet. Even when I tell him to take advantage of my ignorance. I'm unsure how to crack nuts like this. (For those of you who find the idea of taking advantage of your friends offensive, this practice also raises the sanity waterline - both your own sanity and your friends. So long as the stakes aren't too high, I think it's a great practice)
Duke20

What's the evidence that knowing about cognitive biases is more dangerous than knowing math? My claim is that it is just as easy to apply math in an unbalanced way that favors one's already-held beliefs as it is to apply cognitive biases in a similarly unbalanced way.

In other words, why did EY speak specifically to cognitive biases as opposed to the general problem of using your knowledge more vigilantly to attack others arguments than to attack your own arguments?

4Maelin
I dispute your claim. It doesn't seem, to me, that it would be anywhere near as easy to translate an understanding of maths into a Fully General Counterargument, as it would be to do so with an understanding of cognitive biases. If someone disagrees with me, I can readily call to mind a number of cognitive biases of which I could accuse my opponent, which would, at least at the surface level, appear relevant. This would with high likelihood undermine his position in the eyes of (human!) observers even if my accusations are not true. On the other hand I am struggling to imagine how I could do the same with my understanding of mathematics. This doesn't mean it's not possible, but it certainly seems a lot more difficult.
Duke00

I don't understand what makes learning about cognitive biases intrinsically different from obtaining any other type of knowledge. That is, couldn't you make a parallel argument that learning math (or any rationality skill) is dangerous unless it is applied evenhandedly to your own beliefs and to the beliefs of others?

1Eugine_Nier
The problem is that it's much easier to apply knowledge about biases to dismiss people who disagree with you as biased then to apply knowledge about math to...I'm not even sure what the analogous thing you're thinking about is.
Duke10

GMO tech is used for a broad set of purposes and on a broad set of organisms. Monsanto uses GMO tech for specific purposes (firstly, to profit) on specific organisms. I don't see why this is a big problem for GMO tech even if there is an ethical breach by Monsanto.

2rysade
Sorry, it was my crime against specificity that led to this, but what is your reason for rejecting the statement as false?
Duke00

The claim that "the purpose of GMOs is so Monsanto can have a plant they own.." is false. One tiny aspect of GMOs which objectors constantly harp on is Monsanto's business model.

2rysade
Considering David Gerard has a very upvoted comment, I'd be interested in hearing more about your objections to his comment.
Duke30

I tend to treat anger and frustration as resulting from my map not matching the terrain somewhere. I suspect that your frustration is rooted in inaccurate mapping concerning the prior commitment that prevented you from meeting Patri. My guess is that you correctly assumed that there would be a small chance that something “better” than your commitment would pop-up that you would have to miss; but, you failed to properly assess the emotional impact this unlikely scenario would have on you. Now you can update your priors, do some re-mapping and be better prepared emotionally to deal with low-probability/high-annoyingness events.

Also, how similar is the present Patri-hysteria in Finland to the Beatles-hysteria in the 60's?

2Aleksei_Riikonen
One difference is that I'm aware that the former happened, but not that the latter would have. (edit: by "former" and "latter" I mean the chronological order of events, not the order in which they were mentioned in the quoted comment :)
Duke10

Somehow I doubt that the part about needing a guy to have lots of sex with you is worth mentioning.

Duke10

I was going to say that same exact thing in 10x as many words.

Duke130

While I would be interested in contributing to someone's independent research, a vague post on LW doesn't come anywhere close to meeting my minimum threshold for confidence to do such a thing. I would recommend that you continue working and spend your free time writing a paper or an intricate analysis or something else to inspire confidence in your potential to contribute significantly to the singularity/AI body of knowledge. Otherwise, why shouldn't I just donate my money to SIAI?