Been trying to put together a framework for analyzing the way people think, process, approach, and prioritize information; for some time now. The same few patterns seem to come up rather consistently. The following is an attempt to systematize them a little bit. To be clear, a few of these...
What are some of the most deep, profound, meaningful, impactful; ideas, notions, concepts, viewpoints, and considerations, relative to the amount of time an average layman would need to wrap 'eir head around them? Chain of thoughts so far: 1. not all ideas are created equal 2. some ideas are clearly...
On the 4th of January of 1643, in the yeoman's farmstead of the village of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England — a child was brought to life. His father had passed away just 3 months prior, leaving him with no figure to truly look up to. His mother, in a few years...
Appreciated: both footnote [corrected] and bluntness-wise. The whole post came out of somewhat of a hydraulic press for me, so that statement [among others] seems quite fitting. Might end up rewriting or heavily editing a few portions here and there in the future, though. For now, I definitely need a break and some time to recharge. One week of back and forth in order to compile and structure it all was enough.
Been trying to put together a framework for analyzing the way people think, process, approach, and prioritize information; for some time now. The same few patterns seem to come up rather consistently. The following is an attempt to systematize them a little bit.
To be clear, a few of these appear to be rather involuntary, naturalistic, and compulsive: less of a "this is the way people are", more of a "way they routinely choose to be".
Nevertheless, the more I think about them, the more they make sense.
By the far the most common, most reactive, most emotional, and the most vocal of all. In politics, the first to repost any and all "events" they... (read 6880 more words →)
It's at times like these that I absolutely love the distinction between "karma" and "agreement" around here. +1 for the former, as per the overall sentiment. -1 for the latter, as per the sheer nonsensical-ity of the scale of the matter.
The "world" doesn't need "saving". Never did. Never will. If for no other reason than there is no "one" world, to begin with. What you think about when mentioning the "world" itself will drastically different from what I have in mind, from what Eliezer has in mind, from what anyone else around here has in mind.
Our brains can only ever hold such a tiny amount of information in our short-term storage, that... (read 399 more words →)
Fair point. Didn't think it through that much when I first drafted it. Still, multiplication has its time and place - at least for a portion of them.
You can categorize an "idea", broadly speaking, into one of the two: a one-off change in state (e.g. any project), or a repeated execution of a particular behavior (e.g. building a new habit).
For a project, addition may be more suitable. Could you say the same about habits, though?
Semantics. What do we, or they, or you, or me, mean when we talk about "happiness"?
For some (hedonists), it is the same as "pleasure". Perhaps, a bit drawn out in time: as in the process of performing bed gymnastics with a sufficiently attractive member of the opposite sex - not a moment after eating a single candy.
For others, it's the "thrill" of the chase, of the hunt, of the "win".
For others still: a sense of meaningful progress.
The way you've phrased the question, seems to me, disregards a handful of all the possible interpretations in favor of a much more defined - albeit still rather vague, in virtue of how each individual may... (read more)
What are some of the most deep, profound, meaningful, impactful; ideas, notions, concepts, viewpoints, and considerations, relative to the amount of time an average layman would need to wrap 'eir head around them? Chain of thoughts so far:
the order of ideas, ordered by their respective impact, can further be enhanced, EA-wise, by considering the amount of time it would take to get acquainted with:
To anyone, who has been here long enough to tell, is there:
[1] Can't they both be not objective? Why make it a point of one or the other? A bit of a false dichotomy, there.
[2] There is no single "Internet" - there are specific spaces, forums, communities, blogs, you name it; comprising it. Each has its own, subjective, irrational, moderated (whether by a single individual, a team, or an overall sentiment of the community: promoting/exalting/hyping one subset of topics while ignoring others) mini/sub-culture.
This last one, furthermore, necessarily only happens to care about its own specific niche; happily ignoring most of everything else. LessWrong used to be mostly about, well - being less wrong - back when it started out. Thus, the "rationality" philosophy.... (read 393 more words →)
On the 4th of January of 1643, in the yeoman's farmstead of the village of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England — a child was brought to life. His father had passed away just 3 months prior, leaving him with no figure to truly look up to. His mother, in a few years time, would proceed to remarry another man. Leaving him in his grandmother's care.
In his adolescent years, he would go off to study Latin and Ancient Greek. Attending the University of Cambridge, becoming familiar with teachings of Aristotle and Descartes. He would soon generalize the binomial theorem. Set the foundation for what would be later known as calculus. Compile his Magnum Opus, for... (read 8483 more words →)
Not from the US either. I'd be far too biased if I were to express my personal stance, as well. Yet as far as irrationality goes, a few things stand out:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JEt2Tt8f/politics-is-the-mind-killer
A bit of a pushback, if I may: confirmation bias/motivated reasoning themselves only arise because of an inherent, deep-seated, [fairly likely] genetically conditioned, if not unconscious sense that:
A. there is, in fact, a single source of ground truth even, if not especially, outside of regular, axiomatic, bottom-up, abstract, formalized representation: be it math [+] or politics [-]
B. it is, in fact, both viable and desirable, to affiliate yourself with any one/number of groups, whose culture/perspective/approach/outlook must fully represent the A: instead of an arbitrarily small, blind-sided to everything else, part of the underlying portion it is most familiar with itself
C. any single point/choice/decision/conclusion/action reached must, in itself, be inherently sensible enough to... (read more)