ROM

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ROM — LessWrong

Replying toWhy people like your quick bullshit takes better than your high-effort posts

Why people like your quick bullshit takes better than your high-effort posts

The quick post is has a casual style, the effortpost is inscrutably formal

Since you mentioned him earlier, this is something Scott Alexander manages to avoid with his effort post (not to say that he doesn't put effort into all his posts). He can write 30k words of careful reasoning on the Miracle of Fatima and yet reading it doesn't feel like engaging with a dense, wordy academic paper.

ROM10mo

I believe he means rationality-associsted discourse and it's not like there are so many contenders.

That would make more sense. Am curious if that was OP's intended meaning.

ROM10mo

I think calling them "one of the biggest online threats to rational discourse" seems like a wild overstatement. That said, I was surprised to learn that RatWiki had a much higher reach compared to LW until very recently (when going by google trends).

Hey Chris!

I have a few thoughts on this, though I have strong anti-advertising sentiments and might be overly sensitive to these things, so take it with a grain of salt.

The title sounds a little click baity. It's directed at the reader. The title "Do patients need years of therapy, or can one conversation resolve their issue?" is functionally identical, but feels less like an advert.

The opening reads somewhat like a common advert tactic: "I hated how business did [thing x] since it was bad for the customer, so I started my practice by doing [thing y] which is both more appealing to a potential customer and delivers better results!'.

I think the advertising... (read more)

Replying toLocally optimal strategies

ROM1y

Locally optimal strategies

If there were no downsides to resolving a persistent issue, then why has it lasted so long??

If I understand correctly, your claim is that when we see long-standing issues like depression, chronic neck pain, or patterns of emotional avoidance persisting for years, it's more likely than not to be some sort of adaptive coping strategy—essentially a way the mind or body protects itself from harm–otherwise the issue would have been resolved.

Why do you think this is more likely than a mundane explanations such as "bad luck in the genetic lottery, no obvious levers to pull"?

Replying toThe Median Researcher Problem

ROM1y

The Median Researcher Problem

a field where replications fail so badly that they result in firings and polemics in the New York Times and destroyed careers-

A field can be absolutely packed with dreadful research and still see virtually no one getting fired. Take, for instance, the moment a prominent psychologist dubbed peers who questioned methodological standards as “methodological terrorists.” It’s the kind of rhetoric that sends a clear message: questioning sloppy methods isn’t just unwelcome; it’s practically heretical.

Replying toThe Median Researcher Problem

ROM1y

The Median Researcher Problem

People did in fact try to sound the alarm about poor statistical practices well before the replication crisis, and yet practices did not change,

This rings painfully true. As early as the late 1950s, at least one person was already raising a red flag about the risks that psychology^[1] might veer into publishing a sea of false claims:

There is some evidence that in fields where statistical tests of significance are commonly used, research which yields nonsignificant results is not published. Such research being unknown to other investigators may be repeated independently until eventually by chance a significant result occurs—an 'error of the first kind'—and is published. Significant results published in these fields are seldom verified by independent replication. The possibility thus arises that the literature of such a field consists in substantial part of false conclusions resulting from errors of the first kind in statistical tests of significance.

^{^}
Sterling isn't explicitly talking about psychology, but rather any field where significance tests are used.

ROM1y

I understand the claim you were making now and I hope the nitpicking isn't irritable.

Replying toWhy I quit effective altruism, and why Timothy Telleen-Lawton is staying (for now)

ROM1y

Why I quit effective altruism, and why Timothy Telleen-Lawton is staying (for now)

This post seems to be arguing that veganism involves trade offs (I didn't read through the comments). I don't disagree with that claim^[1] (and am grateful for you taking the time to write it up). The part I take issue with is that the two surveys you conducted were strong evidence, which I don't think they are.

^{^}
Though I do lean towards thinking most people or even everyone should bite the bullet and accept the reduced health to spare the animals.

ROM1y

I agree with the claim you're making: that if FHI still existed and they applied for a grant from OP it would be rejected. This seems true to me.

I don't mean to nitpick, but it still feels misleading to claim "FHI could not get OP funding" when they did in fact get lots of funding from OP. It implies that FHI operated without any help from OP, which isn't true.

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[Linkpost] Guardian article covering Lightcone Infrastructure, Manifest and CFAR ties to FTX

ROM

Response from Habryka:

[Linkpost] Please don't take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

ROM

Update:

Trevor Klee (author of the linked post) has published an update in which he (arguably) moderates his view (or at least that which he expresses publicly). Specifically, he states:

I believe (note the libel-friendly phrasing) that:
1. Lumina’s manufacturing process follows legally mandated GMP protocols, if not the probiotic trade association’s voluntary best practices.
2. It is weird to be secretive about your manufacturing until pressed on it, especially when you have made a point of trying to evade regulations. See Zbiotics for a great example of how to behave responsibly and communicate openly when selling genetically modified bacteria for human health issues. It’s especially weird to threaten lawsuits when people ask follow-up questions about

... (read 1192 more words →)

Dublin – ACX Meetups Everywhere Spring 2024

ROM

This year's Spring ACX Meetup everywhere in Dublin.

Location: Hotel Motel One Dublin, 111-114 Middle Abbey St, North City, Dublin, D01 H220, Ireland – https://plus.codes/9C5M8PXP+6H

Group Link: https://www.lesswrong.com/groups/qiu5TGJHxaZyb3p5o

Contact: romahone@tcd.ie

ACX Dublin March Meetup

ROM

Next months ACX Meetup in Dublin will be held at its usual location.

Location: Clement & Pekoe, 50 William St S, Dublin 2, D02 DE93 – https://plus.codes/9C5M8PRP+JV

Here is a link to our WhatsApp groupchat ->https://chat.whatsapp.com/Fg9KWUEqyUU3RauvsXtMxo

Contact: bayes[at]therom.addy.to

Who Should Attend:

Anyone in the LW/EA ecosystem
Readers of ACX, LessWrong or other adjacent sites
Anyone interested interested and wants to go but who feels "I'm not really the kind of person this is for" or "people won't like me". They probably will since it's a welcoming space.

ACX Dublin February Meetup

ROM

The topic(s) / post(s) to be discussed have yet to be decided. Should you wish to be involved in the decision making process, you can do so by joining the ACX Dublin chat.

I think everyone who attends is already in the group chat, so these posts are mostly for LWers who aren't but are interested in attending. Anywhere between 3 and 10 people usually show up.

Who Should Attend:

Anyone in the LW/EA ecosystem
Readers of ACX, LessWrong or other adjacent sites
Anyone interested interested and wants to go but who feels "I'm not really the kind of person this is for" or "people won't like me". They probably will since it's a welcoming space

Hope to see you there!

ACX Dublin August Meetup

ROM

Come join us in Clement and Pekoe for a lively discussion on cults. Specifically, we'll be discussing the following LessWrong / Medium posts:

I asked GPT4_Eliezer^[1] for his "thoughts" (human Eliezer is probably busy with ainotkilleveryonism). Below are a selection of them:

Ah, an ACX meetup! It sounds like a delightful event...

Remember the importance of careful thought and the virtue of epistemic humility. Engage in meaningful conversations, challenge your beliefs and those of others, but do it in a manner that respects the truth above all else. It's not

... (read more)

ACX Dublin July Meetup

ROM

As usual, the meetup will be in Clement and Pekoe.

Most of the meetups this year have had at least one new person. If you're shy about attending or worry that you'll be trying to join a tightly nit "in crowd", don't worry, there'll probably be at least one other new person.

You can join the ACX Dublin WhatsApp here.

ACX Dublin Monthly Meetup

ROM

This month's ACX meetup will return to Clement and Pekoe after a an unsuccessful attempt to visit Books Upstairs.

If you're tempted to join but are worried you won't know anyone or nobody will like you, I think you should still join even if its scary.

You can join the ACX Dublin WhatsApp here.

ACX Dublin Monthly Meetup

ROM

This months meetup will take place in Books Upstairs rather than the usual Clement & Pekoe.

We organise in a WhatsApp groupchat which you can join here.

Dublin, Ireland – ACX Meetups Everywhere Spring 2023

ROM

This year's ACX Meetup everywhere in Dublin, Ireland.

Location: Clement & Pekoe, 50 William St S, Dublin 2, D02 DE93 – https://plus.codes/9C5M8PRP+JV

Here is a link to our WhatsApp groupchat ->https://chat.whatsapp.com/Fg9KWUEqyUU3RauvsXtMxo

Contact: rian[at]eaireland.org

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ROM

[Linkpost] Guardian article covering Lightcone Infrastructure, Manifest and CFAR ties to FTX

[Linkpost] Please don't take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

What happened to the annual LW demographic surveys?

ROM

ROM

ROM

[Linkpost] Guardian article covering Lightcone Infrastructure, Manifest and CFAR ties to FTX

[Linkpost] Please don't take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

What happened to the annual LW demographic surveys?