If anyone else would like to reschedule the meeting, please contact lw-pgh@googlegroups.com soon.
The most important relic of early humans is the modern mind.
-Steven Pinker
The videos are basically explanations of investing terminology. On second thought, my suggestion was not really on point as a source of procedural knowledge.
Khan Academy also has a sequence of videos on stock market basics.
I figured out the non-existence of Santa Claus when I was about 5, I don't remember how. Someone posing as Santa visited a relative's Christmas party I was at and gave the children gifts and the local news in my city tracks "Santa's current location" on the weather radar periodically on Christmas Eve, which kind of made it a pink goo moment for me. I was angry and confused, but mostly kept this to myself. From this experience I concluded that my parents were not completely reliable and that society has a significant disrespect for children, altho...
Hi Kevin. You're thinking of someone else but I'd very much like to meet you.
We had a good turn-out and some interesting discussion at the meet-up tonight. Pittsburgh is a vibrant tech/university center, and I think LW meet-ups should occur here regularly. It's been suggested that future discussions should loosely center on a pre-determined topic, and I agree that this is a good idea. I invite anyone interested in planning further Pittsburgh meetings to PM me here, email me at mattduing at gmail dot com, or post on this thread.
Eliezer writes,
Note also that I have a general policy of keeping anything related to religion out of the >rationality book - that there be no mention of it whatsoever.
I just wanted to say that I think this is an excellent decision. I wish there was more material that challenges the practice of mental compartmentalization yet avoids triggering emotional bias.
Happy birthday Eliezer.
The examples on www.patrickjmt.com might help.
wrt sleep deprivation, according to a DOT driver's manual, driving without having slept in 18 hours is equivalent in risk to driving with a .08 blood alcohol level. Driving without having slept in 24 hours corresponds to a .10 blood alcohol level.
"They never do tests. Not many real deeds either. Oh, conversation with your grandmother's shade in a darkened room, the odd love potion or two, but comes a doubter, why, then it's the wrong day, the planets are not in line, the entrails are not favorable, we don't do tests!" -Tyrian, Dragonslayer
A troubling possible implication of this is if the impact we can expect to have on existential risks diminishes over time, then as the competence of our plans and actions increases, the expected importance of those choices tends to decrease.
I have the same problem also and it sounds like this will help. Thank you.
I live in Pittsburgh and would like to participate.
My feelings on this are mixed. I've found LW to be a refreshing refuge from such quarrels. On the other hand, without careful thought political debates reliably descend into madness quickly, and it is not as if politics is unimportant. Perhaps taking the mental techniques discussed here to other forums could improve the generally atrocious level of reasoning usually found in online political discussions, though I expect the effect would be small.
"Sanity is conforming your thoughts to reality. Conforming reality to your thoughts is creativity."
-- Unknown
"It's wonderful how much we suck compared to us ten years from now!"
-- Michael Blume
I'm delighted to hear this.
The cause of death of people suitable to be organ donors is usually head trauma.
Has anyone read "Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey" by R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa? Any thoughts on its quality?
I support setting the posting threshold to 50 karma and the grace period proposals. I understand that up votes and down votes are generally given without comment, but providing constructive criticism to new users would be helpful.
Perhaps a monthly or quarterly lounge thread could serve this function, provided it does not become too much of a distraction.
Thank you. Another factor that helped me was that I was encouraged to read the Bible. I actually did read all of it and was disturbed by some of the things I found. Something that particularly sticks out in my mind is the story of Jephthah from Judges chapter 11. Here God basically demands that a man sacrifice his young daughter (i.e. stab her to death and burn her body) as repayment for answering a prayer. God also claims responsibility for creating evil somewhere in the book of Isaiah, though the exact reference escapes me. It took me several years after...
There was a time that I prayed intensely and experienced the presence of God on a nearly daily basis. Reading identical reports from people of other religions and learning about the many frailties of the brain helped me greatly to discount these experiences.
I hope I don't sound too effusive if I say that's borderline heroic.
But yeah, I suppose if you read "The Varieties of Religious Experience" or some other such book, you realize pretty fast that an experience like that is not really evidence.
I'm nonetheless surprised at your ability to do that calculus, as opposed to just closing the book. It impresses me almost as much as, say, the family of a murder victim speaking up in the defendant's cause. You were surely working through the Venus-of-Willendorf of all biases (I would imagine).
I've had about one episode of sleep paralysis per year starting around the same age. I haven't had any visual hallucinations, though there have been occasions where I've heard ambient sounds that very likely weren't real. It was terrifying the first time I experienced it, but they no loger bother me at all.
"If it works for you, it works because of you." -- Mark Greenway on marriage
"It is said that those who appreciate legislation and sausages should not see them being made. The same is true for human emotions." -- Steven Pinker
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." -- Isaac Asimov
I donated 250 USD to the general fund, and plan to continue giving in the long term.
"Seeing is believing, but seeing isn't knowing." -- AronRa
"In madness all sounds become articulate." -- "Language of the Shadows", Nile
"Do not ask permission to understand. Do not wait for the word of authority. Seize reason in your own hand. With your own teeth savor the fruit."
-"The Way of Analysis", Robert S. Strichartz
I second Morendil's thanks. This list provides a view of what material is being thought about and discussed by the SIAI volunteers, and I hope that it alleviates some of the concerns of potential applicants who are hesitating.
Name: Matt Duing Age: 24 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Education: undergraduate
I've been an overcoming bias reader since the beginning, which I learned of from Michael Anissimov's blog. My long term goal is to do what I can to help mitigate existential risks and my short term goals include using rationality to become a more accurate map drawer and a more effective altruist.
Thanks, fixed.