All of Huluk's Comments + Replies

Relationships between grant-maker and grantee or professor and student are violations of professional norms. We rightfully blame the grant-maker and professor for them and we don't blame the grantee and student.

"Consent Isn't Always Enough" is a misleading phrasing to make this point: It mixes the personal and professional level. We may want a norm on the professional level that certain relationships are not accepted. The norm that there should be consent in the relationship happens on the personal level – we don't expect a manager to investigate consent in the relationships of their staff, nor is lack of consent mostly an internal disciplinary matter.

There's induction converters – basically metal plates with a handle – which you can use on an induction stove to heat your incompatible cookware. So no need for an electric burner, better get more induction for the added flexibility and lower complexity of the stove.

Agreed with all of this, except the last sentence. Induction is superior, so let people learn of that and switch to it on their own time.

Also note that many cheap induction burners aren't particularly great. They tend more towards making annoying noises, for one. You only get the full induction experience with the high quality equipment which puts you back a few k.

And national holidays don't even involve the same trade-offs as company holidays (i.e. for infrastructure usage), so even if we accept that there should be more company holidays, maybe there is an optimal number of national holidays.

But in practice, most people take a lot more vacation days than there are national holidays - which suggests that the current number of holidays is too small.

Wait, what? You're arguing that – from the business perspective – vacation days would be inferior to holidays. But now you're using that claim as an argument for itself.

Even after reading this comment it took me a while to find this option, so for anyone who similarly didn't know about that option:

On the start page, below "Latest", you can add a new filter. Then, click on that filter and adjust the numbers or entirely hide a category.

2. and 3) have been continuously happening, so I assume you want a revival of 1) the coworkings?

We don't have the location Dustin Space any more, so we'd need a place to host this. Do you have ideas for it?

Arne and me want to set up a new bigger EA/rationalist flatshare again (desired location ~Wipkingen), which would be able to host events. So far, we haven't gotten enough resonance to take further steps. So I guess this is also a request to contact me on that topic if interested :)

The likely result of public wealth information in third world countries is that you will get robbed or that relatives come to get a "loan" they never pay back. Any status signalling would be minuscule by comparison. So independently of whether this proposal would be a good idea in rich countries, your example doesn't help to motivate it.

It's interesting to me that you feel a stronger emotional connection to a language you speak less well – and other commenters seem to have a similar sentiment. I think I only have that for very emotionally charged statements (i.e. "I love you") and not for normal conversation. I usually prefer to talk in the language which I have recently used least, and also the language where there's most native speakers present. When I'm confused about the language spoken, I default to English – but I still get a weird feeling if I'm speaking English to a group which consists exclusively of other German native speakers.

I think you are treating this too much like a normal trade situation; my impression is that the whole thing is mostly driven by people wanting to stick it to hedge funds. They "spent" some money on the good fun and have written off the amount.

I moved around quite a bit and every move was worth it from my perspective: Moves for university brought a lot of friendships I still maintain, moves for work brought 10x increases in savings, both kinds brought valuable experience. I now have a strong network from multiple communities which is … distributed all over Europe.

Over the last 3 years I've been trying to optimise toward the more local investments you talk about, to find a place where there already is community and where I can imagine staying long-term (success) and where I can contribute to the ... (read more)

I'm holding my judgment for now on whether this whole non-coercion business, but I'd like you to know that I appreciate you writing about it and I'm looking forward to the continuation so that I can evaluate whether it sounds like a worthwhile experiment :)

Has anyone here looked into metal halide lamps? They seem to be cheap, similarly efficient as LEDs, and since they are available in basically arbitrary brightness they solve the problem that it's really hard to find space for all these fixtures for LEDs. I'm moving in a few months and I'm currently planning to outfit my new place with at least 1–2 of them in addition to LED, so any advice is welcome.

I agree with the point that we should reward people who change things to the better *in general*. However, I find it weird to transfer this sentiment to a game: There's nothing inherently bad about making espionage, sleight of hands and rules lawyering part of the competition. Different people will enjoy it, other people will end up on top, that's all. I get that you prefer the current situation, but from an outside perspective, this seems like a neutral change to me.

I committed to give up all obvious sugar except birthday cakes, which ended up being more like "give up obvious sugar except offered" – there were 3 non-birthday occasions where I caved in. I'm still happy with the result: Before this lent, I often found myself in the situation that I saw some sweets, knew that I actually don't like them that much, but ate them anyway. At least during the days since end of lent (2 days earlier for me because I went to Italy and the traditional and only breakfast available seems to be cookies and jam), I... (read more)

I found your point about your commute most interesting, in part because it is very different for me. I need movement in order to get active for the day, and if the commute provides this movement, it removes a possible failure mode – on days I do home office, I have to actively force myself to go outside for a run, and if I fail to do so and start working right away, I'll predictably less productive.

EDIT: The commute is also one of the parts of the day which provides time for reflection on my everyday activities, and I find movement intellectually stimulating.

I like the term "obvious sugar", and hereby commit to the same.

EDIT: On second thought, I'd like to allow for one slice of birthday cake per birthday, for social reasons.

Used the poll. Mostly check discussion in my feed reader (both smart phone and desktop), read easily digestible stuff right away, put off the harder stuff for later (and read about 1/3 of the things I intend for later consumption). Do vote, rarely comment.

How about #4, interrupt the conversation and ask for your definition ("If you use weird words you can at least save me the work of looking it up").

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your comment here gives me the impression that you are asking an awfully general question, but actually want the answer to a very concrete question: "Should I study X at a top uni abroad, any uni at home, or not at all, given that I'm good enough to choose myself but will have to make debts to study". This would be a much easier question for us to answer, especially if you tell us what X is, whether you'd want to continue with a postgrad, and maybe what you goals are for the time after your studies. It's perfectly ok not to know all of these yet, but some info would help.

The question was also if the effort is wasted. I agree that the prospects are better at a top school, but that's not the same as "don't bother".

This may be true if you want to go into research or in primarily reputation-based fields like politics and law. In engineering or technology, you'll be totally fine and get a reasonable job with a degree from other universities. Maybe in the US it's not worth the fees, but that's a different matter and does not apply in many countries.

I'm currently applying for jobs while finishing up my Master's degree, so I'm not technically in the group you are asking, but can hopefully still say something useful.

Background: I've been studying Computer Science with a natural language focus, both at a relatively unknown university in Eastern Germany and at University of Edinburgh. The latter is definitely top n in the field, although it does not have the same nimbus and does not offer as much of regular 1-on-1 teaching time with profs like Oxford and Cambridge do (you can get it if you ask, but it is ... (read more)

Distance does not matter, travel time does. As does pricing because prices for train and plane are basically unrelated and because I'm currently a student and don't have much money. My decision mostly depends on the events around my travel – sometimes I have to fly to make it in time. This means I find it difficult to give a simple function, so let me give some examples:

• I currently live in Edinburgh and I fly to visit people in Germany or the Netherlands over the weekend. On the other hand, I will move back to the continent in September and will visit th... (read more)

I think that "not be too far from any other country" would lead to a more open community with more fluent membership status. People who feel vaguely connected to a community will go to events which are closeby, but are less likely to attend if they have to fly (and consequently have to plan much longer in advance). At least I'm willing to travel much longer in a train – where I can do work – if I can avoid flying that way, which seems to consist solely of controlls and queueing.

We can't measure them on an individual level; especially not on immigration where people can pretend to care more for laws. In contrast, people cannot really pretend to be of higher IQ. We can however get estimates for groups of people or people who do not have to fear negative consequences for "wrong" answers.

Personally I'd assume that these differences are more cultural than genetic, so I don't think the argument for separation holds. But I can look up original HBD posts regarding this topic later.

Edit: First I found, HBD chick has a ton of the... (read more)

I think most of the allure of HBD comes from factors which are harder to measure than intelligence, like altruism or stronger bounds to kin and smaller bounds to state / nation / whatever. In general the point that some people are "better suited" for life in clan structure and some for life in other structures. I don't think you adressed any of this.

[Disclaimer: I'm not a proponent of HBD, so I don't guarantee to sum up the position correctly.]

I have taken the survey.

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By ancient tradition, if you take the survey you may comment saying you have done so here, and people will upvote you and you will get karma.

Let's make these comments a reply to this post. That way we continue the tradition, but keep the discussion a bit cleaner.