If other states follow Colorado's lead and legalize marijuana, there could be opportunities related to that. Not very 'techie' though.
Doubt it. I've heard rumors -- and I would be very surprised if this turned out not to be true -- that tobacco companies are prepared to fill the market the instant marijuana is legalized.
(But have tobacco companies moved into the medical marijuana market? Outright legalization seems less near-future likely than expansion of medical.)
What's the best way to improve at writing? I was surprised at how much harder it is a few years out of school.
Things that aren't typically suggested that worked for me and may generalize:
I. Read mediocre writing. If you only read good writing, you can't tell what makes it good; it just looks like all writing is good. By comparing good writing to mediocre (or bad) writing, you can see what the good writers did that the mediocre writers didn't (or, as is often the case, what the mediocre writers did that the good writers didn't). My writing only started improving after getting out of English class and replacing cultured reading with mediocre fanfiction.
You want to s...
Unfortunately, there aren't too many ways to cheat the learning curve. "Write a lot" really is the first-order answer, and it's usually the one given by professionals that don't stand to make any money from their answer. Writing workshops and other 'accelerants' seem to be very questionable.
A friend who was recently signed as a science fiction author at Tor suggests that you could try compressing things that you have already written. Take something like a blog post, and express the same ideas and content using half the words. This will help with clarity and concision, as you get better at the exercise- one of the telltale signs of an amateur writer is that they use words inefficiently.
the divers models of Harry Potter-Yudkowsky gathered dust
Divers has gradually been replaced by diverse, in fact this is the first time I've seen it in a text written after 1900. Unless you are going for an 'archaic' feel in your work, I'd suggest limiting your use of homonyms like this.
It has a different meaning. It implies "sundry", with connotations of "diverse". (Also, that's not quite what "homonym" means.) I'm okay with some archaism if I get some precision thereby. If that gets lost on the audience then that audience isn't the one I'm most trying to speak to. But I appreciate the critique!
Thanks.
After a bit of random googling it seems there are a lot of results about 'saying no to people who want to get coffee/pick your brain' so it seems like reasonably successful people with an internet presence get a lot of these requests.
So I often find that interesting people live near me. Anyone have tips on asking random people to meet up? Ask them for coffee? I suppose a short email is better than a long one, which may come off creepy? Anyone have friends they met via random emails?
It is to an established biomedical researcher's favor to promote the impression that they have a rare and valuable skillset, and to imply that there is a shortage of people like him. As you pointed out, for 200,000 you could have your pick of top employees, so he obviously doesn't actually believe that one is worth that. When I was considering a career in biomedical research, these are the factors that swayed me away from it:
Frequent layoffs and closing of research centers by industry.
An abundance of highly qualified people - when I talked to post-
Its expensive to get health insurance when you aren't buying with a group.
Does anyone have advice for getting an entry level software-development job? I'm finding a lot seem to want several years of experience, or a degree, while I'm self taught.
Ignore what they say on the job posting, apply anyway with a resume that links to your Github, websites you've built, etc. Many will still reject you for lack of experience, but in many cases it will turn out the job posting was a very optimistic description of the candidate they were hoping to find, and they'll interview you anyway in spite of not meeting the qualifications on the job listing.
Ancillary Justice is one of the best debut science fiction novels of 2013. It concerns an AI that used to control a ship with its own humans it had direct control over. There are two alternating narratives, one when the ship is complete and another when the ship has been reduced to a single human. As you can imagine, much of the story involves the identity of beings that control numerous individual bodies.
I'd like to know how many techniques you were taught at the meetup you still use regularly. Also which has had the largest effect on your life.
I'd like to go against Robin Hanson's recommendation and tell people to go see Her. The visual direction is beautiful, as one would expect, and quirks like fashion, advertisements, and art are just jarring enough to remind you that its the future. I found it easy to overlook the 'why don't they just buy an AI and make it write the letters' problems because it isn't really a movie about technology changing us, but how relationships and their endings do.
What's the difference between corrections and criticism? Did you get any that changed the way you do things?
“Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.”
Neal Stephenson - "Quicksilver"
What strikes me most about this quote is how well Stephenson understands the psychology of his audience.
I suspect that many traditions and protocols promote competent decision making. Do you think that, say, the U.S. military would do better in Afghanistan if President Obama issued an order declaring "when in battle ignore all considerations of tradition and protocol"? Group coordination is hard, organizations put a huge amount of effort into it, and traditions and protocols often reflect their best practices.
Whenever a group of subcompetent people get together to do something, they assume they are competent enough to throw tradition and protocol out the window...
Regarding touch-typing, do you find yourself reaching 'top speed' often while programming?
What's the minimum amount of people it needs to be effective for you? Not sure how I'd do with just one other person.
Is the idea with the case studies to conduct an email interview with the subjects? Or just collect publicly available information from around the internet?
If anyone feels even remotely inspired to click through and actually learn python, do it. Its been the most productive thing I've done on the internet.
This makes me wonder how much my writing skills would improve if I retyped excellently written essays for a while.
Could anyone comment on the market for biomedical engineers? I'm specifically interested in regenerative medicine, so the common advice of "get a degree in MechE or EE and apply to biomedical companies" doesn't seem like it would apply.
To clarify, the cost of meals and accommodation was $40/week.
Would this really make WBE emulation much harder? We already know som neurons synapse with several thousand others, so adding a few hundred adjacent neurons doesn't seem that much more difficult.
I disagree. It also provides several other examples for those (like Kaj_Sotala) who didn't find the post's example of agency sufficient.
In the previous post it was suggested that to be Level 1 you should be able to do any of the Level 1 tests at any time. Perhaps have a quarterly testing schedule, with the date chosen at random? Post a table for each of the attributes showing Levels and actions, and have something like you can consider yourself a level X if you do at least Y actions at that level.
This would encourage building habits rather than ramping up for a week or two and testing yourself, like one-and-done leveling does, as you would have to be ready for a test at any time. If it...
Do you have an example of a valuable search you made recently that you wouldn't have made last year? I'm having trouble telling whether I use search engines an optimal amount.