I read HPMOR. That got me interested in Lesswrong. The most I can say for pre-rationalist!me was that I was curious and a bit creative.
I was accepted into graduate school at a nice university for bioinformatics.
Me too.
A 6ft crocodile is necessary at such events. I'm really not sure how you all managed without Mr. Scaly. :)
Clearly, this event needed many more owls.
I wish my high school teachers had done this.
A+
The crocodiles and owls are our best residents. Especially the 6 ft (2 meter) long crocodile named Mr. Scaly. He is Great and Proud and Frolicsome.
I cannot be truly killed by any power known to me.
Prophecy, much? The power he knows not? I mean, that's a gimme but...
Yes. But two minutes before that he was thinking of taking Cedric, and then we get a cut scene to him sneaking about in the hallway with Lesath. That implies that Cedric might still be in play, otherwise we probably would've gotten a short sentence or two on why he chose Lesath over Cedric.
Cedric, who may or may not have a time turner, could quite possibly show up.
He's the Super Hufflepuff! He's taking all the electives, which is physically impossible without a Time Turner! He was mentioned right before Harry started making thorough off-screen preparations, and then conspicuously forgotten for the rest of the chapter! Dramatic logic dictates that he's got to show up at some point, probably in some way that involves time travel.
... Unless the whole thing was a throwaway joke about how useless Cedric was in Goblet of Fire, in which case yeah, I guess it was pretty funny.
As a freelance artist, I've illustrated a published book by age 21, and have been hired again to illustrate the sequel.
I'm working on chapter 17 of my ongoing web serial after a fairly long intermission. Currently, I've written 872 words out of an estimated 4000 for that chapter, and plan to release it by the end of February.
I'm graduating college in May with a B.S. in biological sciences, and for my senior thesis project I've been identifying orphan peptides on the genomes of arthrobacter bacteriophages. I'm hoping my work with genomics and proteomics w...
"Harry had refreshed the Transfigurations he was maintaining, both the tiny jewel in the ring on his hand and the other one."
Hermione, probably.
The play on words with the title of the chapter (Riddles and Answers) and the final reveal was neat. Harry might be a copy of Quirrell!mort who's had his memory erased (rememberall,) and good ol' Quirrell!mort needs Harry to get the stone because...?
I'm still really curious how the Deathly Hallows are going to tie into this.
Also, where the hell is Cedric Diggory? Will it be another situation like what happened with the troll? The spare gets killed, or Harry is the spare, and is found defective?
Who says he need Harry to get the Stone? For all we know, he wants Harry to look into the Mirror of Desire in the hope that this will explain what the %&* Harry wants.
Oh dear. Bets on how badly this will end?
I saw that and laughed irl.
There's probably no significance to a dead girl getting a grade for a class she did not complete. Probably.
This does read like a textbook case of narcissistic parents. I speak from both experience and research.
*edits advice! Oops!
Your parents did you a great disservice, though that doesn't mean you can't self-improve. I've faced similar struggles, though arguably not as severe. My parents were also a large driving force in my life and had me make decisions I did not want to make. For depression, I'd say to make it a habit to find a couple things every day to be appreciative of. For cash, I'd try tutoring people online english. A lot of parents of high school students concerned about their children's grades and getting into college, and will spend money to have them tutored, even i...
http://mjzart.paperplane.io/ Freelance art. I was doing it a few years ago, but stopped when college became more time consuming. I'm planning on going to Australia on a work/holiday visa this upcoming May, and I need some money to do that. So it was a plan born more out of necessity more than anything.
I started a freelance business and have a client already.
Thank you!
I made a website featuring my artwork and re-opened my freelance art business. I already have people asking about commissions! Yay!
I've written 12 chapters of my web serial, Watchmirror, over the course of the summer, and it recently topped 2000 page views. It doesn't sound like much, but it was way more than I ever expected.
I have completed and published the 10th scene of my web serial, Watchmirror. I completed a poster for my room in a new style, and did some art for that same web serial.
Yes. A number of people can recall a giant 6ft stuffed animal crocodile attacking Lachouette's head. There are plushies everywhere!
Any advice for someone who might be moving from the east coast to the west in the next year and a half?
I'm currently writing a fantasy novel. I plan on turning it into a web serial once I get enough of it written that I'm confident I won't fall behind in posting. So far I have 30,000 words written and have 90% of the book plotted out in detail. I don't have any specific goals for this project beyond wanting to finish it. I suppose when I put it up online, I will allow people to donate, but I don't really expect it to get that many reviews/etc. It's for my own pleasure, more or less. This is the prologue, if anyone is interested.
I am working on two workshops...
I've read it.
I feel my own judgement is suspect on this occasion. I don't know. I want to help her and she's alternating between being incredibly blase and being furious with me. It's not like I can just point her at some books to read, because her and my dad don't like to read. And the things that convinced me, my parents regard as rubbish or nonsense and get-your-head-out-of-space-go-get-married-and-be-normal-goddamnit!
If I continue to pursue this, either the relationship between my parents and I will suffer and they won't choose to freeze themselves, o...
After dealing with the effects of bad procrastination over fall semester, I started working on anti-akrasia techniques last week. So far, it seems to be working.
But if you actually cared about saving lives in general, you would apply your effort where it is more likely to pay off.
I already am. This is in addition to that.
It is definitely a good idea to talk to her about what selfish means, because my mother and I have differing views on what is selfish and what is not.
They weren't arguing that it wouldn't work. They think that being revived is selfish, that spending money on having your head frozen is selfish, and my mom says she wants to die. The old death=good cached thought seems to be one of the main driving factors. She also said there'd be no place for her in the future, that the world might be inconceivably different and strange, and that she would be unable to deal with it.
When I explained that some thousand people have done it, and a lot more are signed up, she said that was only "insane rich eccentrics&qu...
I did self help before I joined lesswrong, and had almost no results. I'd partially attribute Lesswrong to changing me in ways such that I switched my major from graphic design to biology, in an effort to help people through research. I've also gotten involved in effective altruism in my community, starting the local THINK club for my college, which is donating money to various (effective) charities. I have a lovely group of friends from the Lesswrong study hall who have been tremendously supportive and fun to be around. There are a number of other small t...
I want my family to be around in the far future, but they aren't interested. Is that selfish? I'm not sure what I should do, or if I should even do anything.
I raised money for AMF by running a fundraiser at my school.
I think it's the latter.
I haven't heard much about that. Links?
For the overpopulation problem: stop having kids.
Dumbledore placed a ward on Hermione that alerted him to any "hostile magic" or "evil spirit" that touched her. Someone either got very lucky, or knew about the wards.
The man sitting on the grass fell over, his head impacting the ground with a light thud. At the same time the sense of doom diminished so sharply that Harry leapt to his feet, his heart suddenly in his throat.
Doesn't look too good for Quirrell.
We are nearing the end of the school year, after all.
Edit for clarity: referring to the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position.
Thanks! I'll check that out.
That's a good idea. I could try to advertise it that way, since I'm having major issues finding a single person at my college interested in effective altruism. I might be wrong, but do you think it would be harder to get people interested in rationality, or to get them interested in effective altruism? My priors tell me that charity > rationalism in many people's minds, but I'm not sure.
EDIT: I decided to go with the rationality club idea. There's no real advantage in my original plan compared to opening a THINK club, which is basically the same idea except I can do more fun things with it. Thanks for the advice!
This looks very useful! Thank you!
I was going to post something about this in the open thread, but this post just popped up.
I've been putting together a club for Effective Altruism on my campus (Cavaliers for Effective Altruism), and I'm stuck. I can run fundraisers and donate the money to a charity Givewell supports. My college has a system for donating to charities and fundraising, so that isn't a problem.
The difficulty is getting other people interested in the club and teaching my club-members rationality, so the club continues existing after I graduate. I originally thought teaching ...
Giving What We Can has local chapters. They do a lot of speaker events, social events, games, etc. If you go to the Giving What We Can website they try to keep someone ready to chat with people at all times.
So, since tinychat seems to work, just use that and instead of the study hall where we all do work, in this we'll chat about...? I guess whichever topics are picked for that session.
Not my intention. I was attempting to say "Don't condemn the work as irredeemably anti-feminist or whatever before it's even finished." I see how I could have been misunderstood, though.
I think it would be prudent to wait until the story is completed to make those kinds of judgements. We simply do not know the intention yet.
They're not old enough to be in Hogwarts yet.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume laughter is the appropriate reaction. It's a joke.
It's a joke, yes. MoR has been known to be hilarious at time, although not so much recently.
Given Eliezer's commitment to truth, however, I'd say there's about a 30% chance he was telling the explicit truth, though I wouldn't think she'll stay that way.
Somehow this troll succeeded in injuring a student, without alarm from the wards until the point of her death.
So someone tricked those wards, wards that were apparently working when Draco Malfoy was attacked. (Someone tricked them before, but that was by killing him so slowly the wards didn't notice, not by disabling them so no one noticed a student was in mortal peril.)
Of course, the attacker could also have chosen to kill Draco slowly in order for the ward circumventions to go unnoticed...
Has anyone else noticed that Quirrell knew James Potter?
"James Potter," said Professor Quirrell, his eyes narrowing. "The boy is not much like James Potter.
No, this means that the person Quirrell is pretending to be knew James Potter. So, either Quirrell's image of David Monroe knew James or Quirrell is inserting an inconsistency.
If Quirrell is Voldemort, which is more or less a foregone conclusion at this point, then James and Lily are "those who have thrice defied him". It seems natural to assume that he would know a certain amount about them. He also observed James's behaviour in the face of mortal danger to him and his family, which I imagine tells you a lot about a person.
Defense Professor had knocked upon the door to her office and then entered without waiting for her answer, and spoken before she could say a word. Part of Minerva wondered distantly whether Harry Potter had picked up that habit from his Defense Professor
Huh. Drawing connections between the two of them seems obvious, but then again, I might be reaching.
Good catch. That slipped my mind. :o
Though, apparently the castle will be "scarred"...?
I read HPMOR and thought "if this stuff (meaning rationality) actually works, it's powerful in a way that I haven't seen before." I remember thinking something like that at the time, but memory is fairly unreliable. I'll have to dig through old journals to see if I mentioned it anywhere.
The sequences also had the advantage of being written in an entertaining way. Beyond that, I'm not sure what makes me any different. I'd like to think I'm special or have some trait that makes me more prone to rationality, but that's purely self-serving. More likely it's luck-- reading it at the right time when I was in a headspace to absorb that kind of knowledge.