I’m driven by a passion for self-stimat and self-estime. My work explores motivation by weaving together information theory. I am a dyslexics Brazilian guy living in Argentina, writing in English for LessWrong feels like a paraplegic playing for the major leagues—ambitious, awkward, and, every now and then, a miracle of technology.
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Wikitag Contributions
I'm grateful for your kind words, especially coming from someone who truly appreciates rationality. And that comment—"Your writing is more enjoyable than that of many native English speakers, and I am one"—is just so, so, so sweet!
Maybe my next story is going deeper into logos. Some about "How I Almost Got Arrested for Teaching CPR (And Why ‘Staying Alive’ Could Be Ironic)"—a.k.a.
How to Save Lives & Offend Generals
I've even got a video of my classes at the military school for you. Cheers, and thanks again for the encouragement!
Ben, my brother in chaos, you’re about to unlock Level 2 of my military lore.
Training duration:
Imagine a Brazilian telenovela directed by Bear Grylls—1 year total, culminating in a final jungle camp (but with more mosquito-borne diseases).
Cast of characters:
Around 120 firefighters, split into four platoons.
My origin story:
I trained for nine years just to get in—which is ironic, considering I was an asthmatic allergic to:
- Pollen
- Military hierarchy
- Taking life seriously
But first—somes links to you:
That time I almost got arrested for teaching CPR:
Because of that, I ended up working on projects like this:
Could My Work Beyond ‘Haha’ Benefit the LessWrong Community?
It wasn’t easy. I even failed the Brazilian Marines’ physical for... acne (true story!). Apparently, making enemy forces too scared wasn’t part of the strategic doctrine.
Want to understand BOPE?
Watch Elite Squad 1 & 2. Their training makes ours look like My Little Pony: Rescue Brigade. Fair warning—their version of "team building" involves fewer beach barbecues and more interrogating drug lords.
1Thanks! My goal with this story was to talk about a time when I was running away from rationality. Back then, I thought the adrenaline of military life was the real deal—the peak of intensity. But looking back, it was nothing compared to the kind of thrill I get from tackling complex problems with mathematics.
Fascinating post. It reminds me of how the human brain can 'fake alignment' through self-deception—rationalizing actions to seem aligned with values while masking deeper misalignment. Could insights into LLM alignment help us understand and mitigate this kind of 'auto-corruption' in ourselves?
Curious if you've thought about parallels like this.
How often do we risk losing something important by assigning too high a priority to a bad vibe?
Personally, I try not to ignore any vibe or thought, but I also attempt to prioritize them by importance. Maybe I should start a 'bad vibes journal'—a record of every time I feel something off and then compare it to the actual outcomes. My sense is that I often misjudge, but without tracking it, I can’t really calibrate my accuracy.
Thanks Lucie Philippon! Follow the video