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Useful maxims
GoldenWolf60

Pillage then burn!

More seriously, the things you don't want to do right now are probably the things that you should be doing. Works for me.

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RolfAndreassen200

I don't want to repeatedly punch myself in the face with a large hammer. I suggest that your maxim may need a small asterisk indicating that a certain amount of pre-selection has happened. :)

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Group rationality diary, 7/9/12
GoldenWolf90

I'm in the military and have strict standards of appearance with regards to hair, uniform, etc. I've spent most of my life believing that spending any time at all on your appearance is a waste of time, as it has no effect on your ability to get stuff done. I've played along with Army regs because that's the rules, but I half-assed it a lot, because I really didn't see the point.

Then I realized (after thinking about it for 2,000 miles of driving) that "society expects it" is actually a really good reason for doing something. A lot of social norms ... (read more)

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1duckduckMOO
Fighting standards, especially shitty ones does not make you an arrogant prick. Are those your words or are you just repeating someone else's bullshit way of labelling anyone who resists their standard? You can play along without selling your soul you know. You can even take all pride in the careful preperation, the niceness of the diligence and the cleanliness and discipline, the oppurtunity to meditate etc etc whatever people like about cleaning uniforms, without hating people (like yourself very slightly previously) who think its silly. Why swallow the negative with the positive?>
2aelephant
Brigid (I assume also a military man) posted in the "Useful maxims" thread that the Marines have a maxim: I think it applies beautifully in this case.
8[anonymous]
I realized the importance of dress when I noticed how much more I respected a man because he was wearing a suit. We can try to pretend like that stuff doesn't matter, but it does.
Welcome to Less Wrong! (2012)
GoldenWolf50

Found HPMOR, changed my life, etc. Been reading for a couple years, and I figure it's finally time to start actually doing something. Not an academic at all. I'm in the Army and spend my free time with creative writing, but I understand most of the material, and I am capable of applying it.

I have a question that's not in the FAQ. I recently read The Social Coprocessor Model. I want to reread it again in the future without keeping a tab permanently open. There is a save button near the bottom, and I clicked it. How exactly does this work? I can't figure out... (read more)

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4Randaly
Welcome to LessWrong! If you get to either the main or the discussion page by clicking on either button, you should see a smaller row of buttons immediately beneath the two big buttons ("Main" and "Discussion"). One of them should read "Saved"; if you click on that, you'll see all of the posts you've saved.
[Book Suggestions] Summer Reading for Younglings.
GoldenWolf40

I remember enjoying the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander when I was at that reading level. It's a lot like Lord of the Rings for children. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld.

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Most transferable skills?
GoldenWolf20

Learning how to practice. I'm going through some rather rigorous hands-on training where more than half of the students end up failing out. It distresses me to see everyone wasting a full hour running an entire problem when the particular action they actually need help on takes 10 minutes, tops. Practicing efficiently is one of the best things my father taught me. Graduate+ level musicians are bound to have great tips for this. Of course, effective studying is in many ways similar, but it seems more intuitive. That is, no one could possibly be stupid enough to study for a literature exam by sitting down reading the book cover to cover several times.

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