All of Michelle_Z's Comments + Replies

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.

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.

0Adam Zerner
... but clearly open-minded enough to change your mind about a lot of stuff. What I mean is that I've told a lot of people about LessWrong, but I don't think it really "changed" any of them, and almost no one continued to read more than one or two articles. So what do you think makes you different?

I was accepted into graduate school at a nice university for bioinformatics.

5[anonymous]
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.

4Lachouette
We did have 6 owls, one eagle, a duck, an octopus and an angry bird, to count only the plush toys I remember right now. I think we were missing a six feet plush crocodile though. It was oddly bird-centered.

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...

-1Velorien
It's also a misleading statement. In a world where there is an artefact granting permanent transfiguration just down the corridor, there is nothing to stop Harry (or anyone) incapacitating Voldemort long enough to permanently transfigure him into air.

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... (read more)

"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?

3FeepingCreature
Okay. Hm. I think maybe you can't transfigure Hermione into Hermione if you don't have a true image of what Hermione was like. But if you had the Resurrection Stone, maybe you could use it to create a true image to work from? No idea about the wand/cloak.
0solipsist
Maybe under Harry's other invisibility cloak. He has two -- a time-turned one and a non-time-turned on.
0buybuydandavis
Isn't the whole shtick with the Mirror that it will only give the stone to someone who doesn't want to use it? Doesn't Harry want to defeat Death more than anyone? And is likely hauling around a transfigured Hermione to do just that? Is Harry just the backup ritual in case they can't find the Stone? Or, is it all just a Harry and Hermione plot to get the Stone to mass produce immortality for all?

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.

0Michael Wiebe
He went with Lesath, not Cedric.
0[anonymous]
Under Harry's other Invisibility Cloak. He has a time-turned one and a non-time-turned one.
4Alsadius
There's what, 16 chapters left? Still plenty of chaos left to ensue.

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.

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... (read more)

1polymathwannabe
I appreciate the time you took to describe a very detailed plan. Just one thing: I live in Colombia, not Cambodia.

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.

0hamnox
Congratulations! What's the business? What inspired you to go freelance?

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.

0Viliam_Bur
Impressive! Both the art and the web serial.

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... (read more)

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... (read more)

0ChristianKl
Don't try to push an idea in a way that costs you something. When it comes to convincing others it helps to understand the other person. Nobody get's angry if you show genuine interest into how they think the world works. Listen a lot. It might also help to reduce the amount of things that make her furious with you. If those wouldn't exist it might be easier to convince her on other questions.
3satt
This aside's quite important; it sounds like the inferential distance between you and your parents is huge. Trying to bridge it in one fell swoop is quite ambitious, so I'd err towards a slow & subtle approach. (Not that I have much experience with this problem!)
2hyporational
I think subtlety usually works the best with stubborn individuals, but might easily backfire now that you've been in their face. If you were to use that strategy, I'd recommend you let the issue settle for a while so that they don't immediately see what you're trying to do. If they realize you're manipulating them, that might make them even less susceptible to your ideas. Planning is the key, unless it's an emergency.

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.

3Emile
Cool, congrats! Care about sharing what actual techniques you used?

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.

0Shmi
I'm interested to know what comes out of these discussions and if you guys manage to converge. Keep us posted.

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... (read more)

2hyporational
Have you read this? Might give you some useful tools to speak against that idea. Would you rather act on your own preferences, or some lesswrongian's? Anger is temporary, so not a great basis for long term decisions. Also, anger will affect your tone and therefore make you less convincing.
7Shmi
First, there is no objectively right thing to do. At this point you are expending effort on an essentially selfish goal: saving your mother's life against her current wishes. Not that "selfish" is in any sense bad or negative. But if you actually cared about saving lives in general, you would apply your effort where it is more likely to pay off. Your current position is no more defensible than hers: you selfishly want her to have a chance to live in some far future with you, she selfishly disregards your wishes and wants to expire when it's her time. Certainly telling her that her wishes are less valid than yours is not likely to convince her. You can certainly point out that by deciding to forgo cryo she behaves just as selfishly as you do by wanting her to sign for cryo. Maybe then you and her can discuss what "selfish" means to each of you, and maybe have some progress from there. Of course, you should be fully prepared to change your mind and do your best to steelman her arguments. Can you make them better than she does, have her agree and then discuss potential weaknesses in them?
4Lumifer
As the first step I would recommend to stop being angry with her. Also keep in mind that for a true-believer Christian cryonics is basically trying to cheat oneself out of heaven -- not a very appealing idea :-/

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... (read more)

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.

[This comment is no longer endorsed by its author]Reply
3Risto_Saarelma
I don't think the odds are good. Getting serious about cryonics will break a whole bunch of implicit assumptions about the order of life, and people who haven't signed out from the norms and conventions layer of mainstream society to the degree of your average outcast LessWronger are going to be keenly aware of the unspoken rules that are being broken. Telling people that there's reason to think cryonics is a valid option and that you support it is good, but trying to get to the bottom of all disagreements beyond that seems like taking it on yourself to make a religious fundamentalist relative accept evolution. It's probably not going to happen, because the surface level argument is tied up to a head full of invisible machinery that won't respond to reasoning about technical feasibility.
2Shmi
I wonder how you framed it. * Do you think that any resuscitation technology, including defibrillation is a sin (or use their favorite objection against cryonics)? * How about one that enables resuscitation on a longer time frame? How long is still OK? Hours? Days? Years? * Would you take a treatment that makes one feel younger and live longer? * Would you approve of being cooled down for a day or two until a life-saving liver/heart/kidney transplant is available? What if it requires cooling deep enough that your heart stops beating? Their replies, if any, might give you a hint of their true objections. If they are truly religious in nature, and your family attends church regularly, consider having a talk with your local pastor (or whatever religious authority figure they look up to). To paraphrase Ender's game and HPMoR, children's opinions have zero weight, so try to engage someone actually being listened to.
0ChristianKl
If someone really believes in going to heaving after they die, then being locked up in some state between being alive and dead is an issue. Various religious people do believe that proper burials are important for letting the soul pass on.

I raised money for AMF by running a fundraiser at my school.

I haven't heard much about that. Links?

0Transfuturist
Google.

For the overpopulation problem: stop having kids.

0Transfuturist
We're going to be facing a big underpopulation problem in the next century or so.

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.

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!

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 ... (read more)

6Claire
Try giving game. http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/blog/2013-06-02/how-giving-games-can-spread-the-word-about-smarter-charity-choices-0 Avoid "teaching" and instead set up conversations and activities that introduce these ideas. Many people resist it their peers try to "educate" them. Look for movie, comics, webshorts, etc. that can start off the conversation in the right direction. Remember that it will take people time to become comfortable with these ideas. Look to make progress over the course of months and years, not hours. Good luck!

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.

8Raemon
At the summit, I gave a talk on community building. One of my main thesis was that I think it's actually better to do a rationality/self-improvement club that is also an Effective Altruism club than an EA club that's also a rationality club. You'll get people who don't just self identify as world savers (and who can, over time, be influenced by the world savers) The self-imp/rationality group I run begins sessions by talking about our successes from the previous week, and ends with setting goals from the previous week. This means the thing that gets positively reinforced via social pressure is actually doing things, whereas with EA it's easy to simply reward signaling.

Talking to THINK might be helpful. They coordinate a bunch of EA meetups at various schools. They have a set of "modules" that you could do meetups around.

4William_Quixote
I've noticed similar situations as well. The sequences did a pretty good job conveying information to me, but I'm a math guy who grew up reading scif and watching animie so I'm about as close to the target demographic as its possible to be. I've often wished for a less flavorful more generic / corporate version of the content in the sequences that I could point people outside the target demographic towards.

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.

0Yuu
I think we should plan set of topics to discuss. I prefer to start with the same topics that were discussed on the regular meet ups.

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.

5Luke_A_Somers
That would need to be qualified somehow - I don't care what the second volume of the rules of FATAL are, the system as a whole is irredeemably anti-feminist. I think this may not be a 'fridging' simply because we don't know what role it plays in the story yet. It may be a Damsel In Distress + Girl In The Refrigerator combo, and it may be something else. It could be both a DiD+GitR AND something else. It could subvert or twist the tropes (Hermione helps fake her own death). It could play them straight but make up for it in other ways (as is already happening with Minerva also gaining a level despite not being the typical beneficiary of this trope, but I'm thinking more so).

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.

6cody-bryce
That's ridiculous. That only serves to shut down discussion. Not only are analysis based on only part of the work fundamentally valid, they are exceedingly popular at the moment, and they are being participated in by the author. Besides...as Akin's 9th law of spacecraft design states, "Not having all the information you need is never a satisfactory excuse for not starting the analysis."

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.

3Fuyu
Thanks. My first reaction was just this seems too surreal. Any other story in which Harry Potter does not kills dementor and there's a reasonable explanation and laughter would have been my first reaction.

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.)

6Desrtopa
I wouldn't infer from this that the culprit was necessarily different, since after all in the case of the attack on Draco, the intent was to frame Hermione, and thus the methods used should not have involved anything Hermione herself was not capable of.

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.

0solipsist
The boy is not much like David Cameron either. I haven't met David Cameron, but still feel qualified to make that assertion.

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"...?

0ikrase
Presumably the cursed fire prevents regeneration, means that mundane repairs (magical or mechanical) will not properly integrate, or something like that.
Load More