Ruby

Conversational Cultures: Combat vs Nurture (V2)

You are viewing Version 2 of this post: a major revision written for the LessWrong 2018 Review. The original version published on 9th November 2018 can be viewed here. See my change notes for major updates between V1 and V2. Combat Culture I went to an orthodox Jewish high school in Australia. For most of my early teenage years, I spent one to three hours each morning debating the true meaning of abstruse phrases of Talmudic Aramaic. The majority of class time was spent sitting opposite your chavrusa (study partner, but linguistically the term has the same root as the word “friend”) arguing vehemently for your interpretation of the arcane words. I didn’t think in terms of probabilities back then, but if I had, I think at any point I should have given roughly even odds to my view vs my chavrusa’s view on most occasions. Yet that didn’t really matter. Whatever your credence, you argued as hard as you could for the view that made sense in your mind, explaining why your adversary/partner/friend’s view was utterly inconsistent with reality. That was the process. Eventually, you’d reach agreement or agree to disagree (which was perfectly legitimate), and then move onto the next passage to decipher. Later, I studied mainstream analytic philosophy at university. There wasn’t the chavrusa, pair-study format, but the culture of debate felt the same to me. Different philosophers would write long papers explaining why philosophers holding opposite views were utterly confused and mistaken for reasons one through fifty. They’d go back and forth, each arguing for their own correctness and the others’ mistakeness with great rigor. I’m still impressed with the rigor and thoroughness of especially good analytic philosophers. I’ll describe this style as combative, or Combat Culture. You have your view, they have their view, and you each work to prove your rightness by defending your view and attacking theirs. Occasionally one side will update, but more commonly you develop or mod

144Dec 31, 2019

Ruby

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LessOnline 2026: June 5-7, Berkeley, CA (save the date)

Save the date: LessOnline will be back again in 2026! As usual, it will take place at Lighthaven in Berkeley, CA. Further details will be posted to LessWrong, or subscribe here for further updates, such as ticket sales going live. Details about who's attending, housing, relation to Manifest will be...

Feb 1156

Metric-haven (quick stats on how Inkhaven impacted LessWrong)

The data here only reflects posting activity on LessWrong itself. In 2021, the admins of LessWrong had the idea that we'd pay people to write book reviews. In 2025, we had a much better idea: people would pay us to write all kinds of posts! I think this went pretty...

Dec 2, 202526

Ruby's Ultimate Guide to Thoughtful Gifts

> Give a man a gift and he smiles for a day. Teach a man to gift and he’ll cause smiles for the rest of his life. > Gift giving is an exercise in theory of mind, empathy, noticing, and creativity. > “What I discovered is that my girlfiend wants...

Nov 28, 202589

Ruby's Inkhaven Retrospective

Most interesting takeway? To my disappointment, my attempts at substantive intellectual contribution flopped in comparison to fun/light/easy-to-write filler. So that we can better understand the experience ourselves, Lightcone stuff have been participating in Inkhaven as their primary assigned for 7+ days each. My officially-supported stint ended yesterday though I hope...

Nov 25, 202522

I'll be sad to lose the puzzles

My understanding is that even those advocating a pause or massive slowdown in the development of superintelligence think we should get there eventually[1]. Something something this is necessary for humanity to reach its potential. Perhaps so, but I'll be sad about it. Humanity has a lot of unsolved problems right...

Nov 23, 2025112

Why your sports car isn't a racecar (tradeoffs everywhere)

Continuing the motorsports series. Sports cars, the kind you encounter out and about, amuse me. And sadden me. For sure, most have potential, but they're not set up for sport, nor will they see it in their lifetimes. Functionally, they're set up to be commuter cars that can accelerate a...

Nov 22, 202529

Habitual mental motions might explain why people are content to get old and die

The fifth post in my recent series. More rambly than ideal, but Inkhaven is relentless. People are perplexing. They do not seem to follow through on the logical conclusion of the information they have in combination with the values they have. The most blunt example I have: I think it...

Nov 22, 202518

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Conversational Cultures: Combat vs Nurture (V2)

Plans are Recursive & Why This is Important

Ruby's Ultimate Guide to Thoughtful Gifts

I'll be sad to lose the puzzles

Ruby

LessOnline 2026: June 5-7, Berkeley, CA (save the date)

Metric-haven (quick stats on how Inkhaven impacted LessWrong)

Ruby's Ultimate Guide to Thoughtful Gifts

Ruby's Inkhaven Retrospective

I'll be sad to lose the puzzles

Why your sports car isn't a racecar (tradeoffs everywhere)

Habitual mental motions might explain why people are content to get old and die

Conversational Cultures: Combat vs Nurture (V2)

Plans are Recursive & Why This is Important

Ruby's Ultimate Guide to Thoughtful Gifts

I'll be sad to lose the puzzles

LessOnline 2026: June 5-7, Berkeley, CA (save the date)

Metric-haven (quick stats on how Inkhaven impacted LessWrong)

Ruby's Ultimate Guide to Thoughtful Gifts

Ruby's Inkhaven Retrospective

I'll be sad to lose the puzzles

Why your sports car isn't a racecar (tradeoffs everywhere)

Habitual mental motions might explain why people are content to get old and die