All of Suryc11's Comments + Replies

Good comment; I've noticed this myself. Fyi, in case you didn't know and might be interested, Nate Soares has written a few blog posts on this exact topic: Self-signaling the ability to do what you want and Productivity through self-loyalty.

Took the survey! Some very interesting questions; I look forward to the analysis.

Ah, okay. That makes sense, thanks.

Hm, I'm confused. I agree that at least part of the disagreement was over Arthur's willingness to lie for his cause, but how is that not captured by Viliam_Bur's post?

Lying for a cause or otherwise playing "dirty" to win for your cause, as Arthur seemed to be advocating, seems to straightforwardly line up with Viliam_Bur's theory about "Nice Greens", "Nasty Greens", "Nice Blues" and "Nasty Blues"; specifically, in this theory, Arthur would be a "Nasty" player on the side of progress/civilization/neoliberalism-ish/etc. and Yvain would be a "Nice" player on the same side.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by tone?

5Eugine_Nier
The nastiness Viliam talks about is mostly in the form of trolling or making insulting statements with little semantic content. Lying of the type Arthur advocates goes beyond that since it injects false statements into the discussion and tends to result in one's side filling up with people who believe said lies and thus willing to lie further.

Relevant SMBC. It illustrates my political theory that in every political conflict that seems to be between Greens and Blues, there are actually four sides of the conflict, let's call the "Nice Greens", "Nasty Greens", "Nice Blues" and "Nasty Blues". And there is more than one line of conflict.

Officially, "Nice Greens" + "Nasty Greens" and "Nice Blues" + "Nasty Blues" should be the only existing coalitions. But there is also the value of niceness, which somehow connects "

... (read more)
2Eugine_Nier
The disagreement wasn't just about tone. It was about Arthur Chu's willingness to lie for his cause. The only reason it appeared to be mostly about tone is that Yvain didn't make the strongest argument he could have.

Thanks!

I compete in powerlifting, so the programs I've done--since starting to lift seriously/intentionally--are focused around that, especially recently. A quick summary (let me know if you have questions or want more details!):

  • My own linear progression program that employed a split and emphasized heavy compounds
  • Smolov (2 cycles)
  • Sheiko/Cube Kingpin (both were only done for a few weeks)
  • GZCL Method (current)

Of all of those, I saw the most squat gains by far from Smolov. The hype is well-deserved. Just started GZCL and I can tell that it's approximat... (read more)

2ephion
Awesome. I keep seeing awesome reports on the GZCL method... I might have to make that my plan when my back is better.

I squatted 400 lbs at a bodyweight of 154 lbs!

I've been doing squats for around 7 months now, and been lifting seriously for slightly over a year total.

4ephion
Fuck, that's awesome. I've been stuck with a max of 360 for about a year now, after two years of lifting. What is your lifting program?

I think the barrier to posting a comment in the Open Threads is higher than posting a post in discussion

I think you may have meant this instead: the barrier to posting a post in discussion is higher than posting a comment in the Open Threads.

4Vaniver
Yeah, I had it flipped. Fixed, thanks!

Agreed, that's a great way of putting it.

I agree, though to be fair the author himself seems to use malicious and fallacious to describe a privilege framework.

First, I am arguing that no one’s participation in public discourse should be denigrated by appeal to essential features of their identity. If we, as leftists, want to be unashamedly critical of discourse—as we should be—we should do so with reference to structures of power, such as heterosexual hegemony, rather than with reference to essential identities, such as the ‘straightness’ of particular individuals.

...

Second, I am arguing t

... (read more)

This is a really great take on why use of privilege-based critique in (often leftist) public discourse is flawed:

http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/privilege-leftist-critique-left/?fb_action_ids=10152177872632732&fb_action_types=og.likes

(Tl;dr: it's both malicious, because it resorts to using essential features of interlocutors against them--ie, quasi-ad hominems--and fallacious, because it fails to explain why the un(der)-privileged can offer arguments that work against their own interests.)

0ChristianKl
Does the article say anything that shouldn't already be obvious to the average LW reader and is therefore worth reading?
6V_V
I'd always thought that using 'privilege' arguments was the plain and simple ad hominem fallacy.
0NancyLebovitz
I don't think "malicious" quite does the delicacy of that sort of very abstract Marxist argument justice, though I'm not sure what word would be better. "Unfair" doesn't quite do the job, either, though the author does point out that a privilege framework means that the same argument will be approved or ignored depending on who makes it. "Consciousness itself is complicit." is kind of cool. It could almost be something from LW (or at least Peter Watts), but the author probably means something else by consciousness.

Re the growth mindset, exactly! It's really quite gratifying to be able to literally quantify how much you've become a "better" version of yourself through your direct efforts.

I just think it's unfortunate that the rational component and the weightlifter component of self-identity are often not found together, when both can learn so much from each other. (Plus, of course, it's kinda contrarian-ly cool being both a nerd and a gym rat.)

Nice to see a fellow powerlifter here! My first meet was just last month and it was an amazing experience. By the way, those are impressive stats, especially for 6 months.

1kbaxter
Thanks! Those are my stats after my most recent meet though, about 2 years in. My first meet 6 months in was 180/95/230 @ 123. It's sad how much progress slows down :(

I find this bit incredibly confusing:

If "you" is your conscious brain, then clearly you do affect your decisions for if this were not the case you would not have evolved a conscious brain in the first place.

I pattern-match this to attributing agency to evolution?

Also, there is an obvious distinction between your deciding an action freely and affecting a decision (second and third sentences).

I appreciate the example, but I think the terseness here significantly lowers the informational value.

1Sophronius
Admittedly, a one sentence explanation of identity was always going to be confusing (even assuming I didn't screw it up) Ah, no. I was saying that if a conscious brain didn't do anything useful, we wouldn't have a conscious brain. Survival of the fittest and all that. Therefore, the claim that our conscious selves have no control over our actions at all is silly. (unless our consciousness is merely an accidental by-product of something that does have a function... but that seems unlikely) There is indeed a difference between deciding an action freely and affecting it, which is why I ended with "it can be said that we have limited free will". I appreciate the input you and others are giving me here. I agree that covering Free will in one paragraph is too optimistic. One post instead of 11, however, still seems quite reasonable to me.

Anecdotal support for exercising:

Exercise (specifically weightlifting) has been the single most valuable lifestyle change I've implemented. It's drastically improved my confidence and self-esteem, instilled in my self-identity usually beneficial characteristics like "able to persevere through hardship for some goal," and greatly increased my social status.

Highly, highly recommend it.

(Cred: meet conditions 375/245/425 @ 140 lbs.)

5kbaxter
More anecdotal support: I've experienced the same things. For me, it's helped establish and reinforce a growth mindset. Fitness is an area where with consistent effort, you can really see drastic and measurable improvements in a relatively short time. In 3 months I went from thinking I was a person who "couldn't run" to being able to run 5k nonstop. In 6 months I went from thinking I was a person who "couldn't squat" to competing in a powerlifting meet. This feels awesome and makes me feel like I can achieve anything if I set my mind to it. (210/115/255 @ 132, female) :)

Took the survey. Very interesting questions overall, especially the site-wide Prisoner's Dilemma.

I'd like to note that I was very confused by the (vague and similar) CFAR questions regarding the possibility of people changing, but I'm assuming that was intentional and look forward to an explanation.

(I ctrl-F'ed this but couldn't find anything similar.)

Could you add a question or questions along these lines:

In a typical week, approximately how many minutes do you spend in moderately vigorous physical activity (at least as strenuous as brisk walking)?

If you lift weights, what is your (non-estimated) one rep max for bench press? Squat? Deadlift? Overhead press?

This is really, really cool.

Is there a similar iPhone app to TagTime? I can't seem to find one.

Or even some app that randomly notifies me to record my happiness level, etc.?

Thanks!

Yes, definitely. I frequently use Evernote to save online references (one of my notebooks is actually named "(Intellectual) References" and has stuff like academic articles that I later want to refer to) because the ability to tag, comment, and later search these web clips makes bookmarks seem completely useless. I also use Evernote for journaling purposes and as a way to improve exam studying.

Before an exam, I go through my handwritten notes and other class materials and compile a summary in Evernote. This ensures that I have a record of... (read more)

2gjm
(That was two paragraphs. I weep for the future of humanity :-).) Thanks!

Seconding Evernote for managing both citations and information in general.

The ability to tag content is indispensable, and combined with a powerful search, Evernote becomes an external hard drive for your brain.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is one of those things that becomes progressively more useful the more you use it and invest in it (e.g., clip anything of interest, tag religiously).

Thank you!

Hm, interesting. Are you currently weightlifting? What's your routine like?

I'm not an expert or anything, but I have done quite a bit of research on weightlifting-type stuff, so I can offer some advice if you wish.

At a bodyweight of 145 pounds, I deadlifted 350, squatted 305, benched 225, and overhead pressed 145 pounds!

I now also frequently receive compliments on my clothing style and muscles/physical appearance.

Not that brag-worthy, perhaps, but still feels good after a tough break-up a few months ago.

3[anonymous]
Considering that I weigh 175 pounds and would be incapable of coming close to any of those records that is pretty amazing. I've always had the physique where working out my lower body has rapid effects, but cannot make upper body training do anything at all.

This is fairly late, but better late than never.

I stopped using this system several weeks ago. It proved to be more effort than it was worth, at least in the context of frequent college assignments and meetings. Since very few of the things that I needed to get done were "assigned" through email, the very cool ability to forward emails to one's Evernote address to automatically convert them to notes did not see much use.

I've since transitioned to a very simple (physical) calendar and planner system, combined with flagging emails which need further attention.

0gjm
Upvoted for providing a useful experience report. Are you still using Evernote for other things, and are you still finding it awesome?

Hm, I think the "!Daily" sub-tag under the ".When" tag is meant for things like that, i.e., things you're trying to do every day.

Two problems with that, though:

What about repeating tasks that aren't daily? One solution might be to just create another appropriate sub-tag, say, "7-Weekly".

Another problem is that this implementation doesn't really have tasks "automatically come up." You still have to put in the motivation to look through your to-dos; the system just makes it easier by ordering them by several filters, most critically by when you want them done (i.e., the ".When" context tag).

And will do!

Interesting article, but do you have any empirical evidence that people's thinking styles can be divided so neatly into intuitive vs. logical?

On its face, you seem to be taking this thinking style distinction for granted.

Reflecting on this some more, is an intuitive thinker synonymous with one who primarily uses System 1 style thinking and a logical thinker synonymous with one who primarily uses System 2 style thinking? If so, it'd clarify things quite a bit (for me at least) if you made that clear in your post.

1pwno
Yes, those are synonymous. I should clarify that.

So far, not too intense, which is why I'm a little hesitant to fully recommend it. I'll have better information once the school year starts.

I like it right now not so much because it helps me be that much more productive, but primarily because it is a very natural extension to the way I already use Evernote. Evernote becomes better the more you do with it and the more you put into it, so a productivity/to-do system that allows me to make use of Evernote's features (tagging, searching, etc.) is great.

1Dorikka
Ah, okay. Please let me know how this went once it's been pushed a good bit.

Yay! I don't want to wax too positive about it this early on, but I really do feel like it will continue to work wonders for me, especially during the school year.

I implemented the Secret Weapon--a productivity system that combines Evernote and GTD--and have been making use of it quite effectively. I also have kept up on my recently started gratitude journal.

In other news, Evernote is simply awesome.

0pinyaka
I skimmed through the methodology there but didn't see anything about how to handle repeating tasks. For instance, if you're trying to train yourself to floss, having a task that automatically comes up every day that you can "check off" can be very helpful. Is there something like that in this GTD implementation? I have been using a modified GTD system for a few years using ToodleDo (and Remember the Milk before that), and definitely think it's a great system. For me, there was a significant reduction in stress as I came to rely on my task list and calendar to let me know what's what. I still haven't found a really good way to track task dependencies without having to retag every task in a tree (or review the tree after completing each task to change something from "waiting" to "next action"). Keep us posted on how this works out for you.
1Dorikka
How hard have you pushed this system? As in, how intense was the work required of you during the period in which you tested it?
4Gimpness
You have also lead to me implementing Secret Weapon by mentioning it here. EDIT:Having now done this for 6 months I can attest to sticking to it and it very much being helpful for both checking on what I have done that day and planning for future days. Will keep doing it

What kinds of gymnastics skills?

Just bodyweight exercises like muscle-ups?

1RomeoStevens
muscle ups, planche, l-sit, back and front levers, elevators (eventually), freestanding hand stand pushups, and that's all the "easy" stuff as far as real gymnasts are concerned.

Same here. This feeling is especially prevalent for me in weightlifting--my strength/dexterity/stamina attribute is increasing! Too many RPGs played as a kid.

0RomeoStevens
I've found gymnastics skills are a great complement to lifting in this regard. When lifting is getting mundane and/or stalling you still have physical skills you can level up.

Right. I should have specified that No Contact, the way I'm using it and have seen it used, doesn't only involve no contact; like you said, No Attention may be a better way to put it.

Thanks! I actually hadn't thought of it in terms of self-hacking, but that's a really appropriate term for what I've been trying to do.

And I suppose the former. I don't think it's quite possible to fully move on unless I really have no feelings (either positive or negative) about my ex. I drew an analogy between breaking up and withdrawal, and I think it sort of holds here; if there are still feelings lingering, it makes it so much harder to resist the temptation to "relapse," in a similar way to how it's harder to prevent relapsing if one hasn't... (read more)

1cousin_it
Yeah. I think of it as No Attention rather than No Contact. Out of sight out of mind works.

I posted this comment on how to optimally (in the vast majority of situations) handle a break-up.

Since the parent thread was massively downvoted and my comment itself received relatively positive feedback, I thought it may be beneficial to post a link to the comment here.

Also, I'd like to note that LW massively helped me in getting through my break-up. It seems like a sort of trivial/silly situation to talk about on LW, but (at least for me previously) it's tough to understand just how painful heartbreak can be until it actually happens to you. If it were... (read more)

1Frood
Upvoted the original comment. Is your goal to do a self-hack to eliminate the (now) troublesome feelings towards the SO or to simply 'move on' while maintaining some of those feelings?

I just recently went through a break-up (SO broke up with me, it was a long-term relationship).

To be frank, this is not at all what you should be doing (i.e., doing a Bayesian calculation re the probability that she's over you, or calling her and analyzing why she hasn't called back), regardless of whether your goal is to get back together with her or to move on as quickly as possible.

The best possible piece of advice I could give you is to start a reflection document. Document your feelings, your emotions, everything. It will help, I promise. What also he... (read more)

I was broken up with recently, and keeping a reflection document has proven tremendously helpful (in dealing with my emotions, feelings, etc.).

That motivated me to start journaling, and this post will likely motivate me to continue journaling, so thank you!

This was my thought process as well last night.

I was going to post something similar!

If you haven't yet jumped onto the GoT bandwagon, you should consider doing so. As a data point, I did not want to get into A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones mainly because so many people were into it (I know, silly; another reason was that I have high expectations for fiction that will take up much of my time), so if that describes you, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Exactly. I actually first thought Mr. Money Mustache was almost a crackpot, but I think he has a good point here. His advice on making frugality a habit and part of your identity, combined with the points from this paper on how to get the most happiness for the buck and our knowledge of the hedonic threadmill/adaptation, strikes me as very instrumentally rational, despite how unconventional it seems at first glance (very munchkin-esque actually).

At the same time, it seems so right that I'm a little suspicious, although maybe that's a result of a status quo... (read more)

Having just discovered Mr. Money Mustache's blog, I would be interested on discussion concerning early retirement.

I did read your comment that the lifestyle this blogger advocates is unrealistic for many people, but it seems that he has a good counterargument w/r/t hedonic adaptation--i.e., we may think that living frugally will make us unhappier, but in fact, it likely will not, and vice versa--and preferences changing over time.

1RomeoStevens
I would assume that most of our ideas about the stress of living frugally come from situations in which people are forced to live frugally. Choosing to live frugally is a whole different game, and probably not all that stressful when you have tens to hundreds of thousands in assets to absorb bumps along the way. In fact I could see one deriving lots of enjoyment from mentally gamifying it.

I came across this post on Quora and it strikes me as very plausible. The summary is essentially this: "Become the type of person who can achieve the things you want to achieve." What's your (considered) opinion?

Also, this seems relevant to the post I linked, but I'm not sure exactly how.

The comments are somewhat disappointing: not very charitable readings of the article and no real attempt to speak to the thrust of the argument.

Also, the oft repeated phrase--w/r/t the risks of technology--that we face "losing our humanity" desperately needs to be taboo-ed.

This is really well done. I don't know the background(s) of your students, but there are some relatively technical terms that you don't fully define (e.g., signalling, updating) but perhaps you'll do so in the course of the presentation.

Other than a minor typo on one of the slides ("people's'"), great visual presentation.

ETA: Just saw that this is for a game theory class, so nevermind about the terms.

I'm disappointed by EY's response so far in this thread, particularly here. The content of the post above in itself did not significantly dismay me, but upon reading what appeared to be a serious lack of any rigorous updating on the part of EY to--what I and many LWers seemed to have thought were--valid concerns, my motivation to donate to the SI has substantially decreased.

I had originally planned to donate around $100 (starving college student) to the SI by the start of the new year, but this is now in question. (This is not an attempt at some sort of b... (read more)

This is similar to how I feel. I was perfectly happy with his response to the incident but became progressively less happy with his responses to the responses.

Here's a report by the National Research Council of the National Academies (specifically, the Committee to Improve Research Information and Data on Firearms). It is a rigorous report that extensively discusses the issues with demonstrating a causal connection (or lack thereof)--between level of gun control and innocents killed--and generally refrains from making particular policy prescriptions.

Good point. I think the main similarity derives from a specific understanding/definition of harm that holds that harming another is acting counter to another's preferences, in some sense. In that way then, it's similar to (the OP's trouble in getting his interlocutors to understand) preferences being sustained after one's death.

This seems isomorphic to the mainstream debate, in academic philosophy, over whether one can be harmed by things happening after one's death; in other words, precisely how do one's preferences (for certain states of affairs) after one's death work?

See: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death/

"Third, what is the case for and the case against the harm thesis, the claim that death can harm the individual who dies, and the posthumous harm thesis, according to which events that occur after an individual dies can still harm that individual?"

0Manfred
Hm. I think worrying about whether something can "harm" a dead person carries much more semantic baggage, so the key ideas will probably be different.

Live practice, as RomeoStevens mentioned, was definitely on my list of things to do to improve interviewing skills. Your advice about seeking out direct training programs was something I did not even consider, so thank you! That would indeed seem very helpful.

3DaFranker
Indeed, it's something I had not considered until I was urged to try it and did it, and it proved extremely effective. My interview skills went from the equivalent of "Hurr Durr my resume iz shitty but plz hire me I need job!!!11one" to "Greetings. I have here an enticing offer that shall certainly prove beneficial to all parties involved. If you would please look at these numbers, I believe I can demonstrate how to arrange something that will exceed your expectations." Definitely glad I took that course. YMMV, but at the organization I went to they had very impressive satisfaction ratings and job-finding rates (which is probably the entire reason why they are surviving solely on government funding, since the government is probably getting more money from the additional employment than they are spending on these programs, judging by how impressive the numbers sounded).

I'm not sure if this is a procedural knowledge gap, but I figure it's close--and instrumentally important--enough to warrant some mention here. Basically, I've never really had to formally interview (whether for a job, or something similar), and I'm sure there are some things I should know that I currently do not. There are plenty of sites that purport to offer this information, but often they are neither as precise/specific nor as extensive as I'd like--given this community's focus and high standards, I think we can do better.

Any tips to maximize the chances of winning an interview? Anecdotes are welcome, from either end of the interview process.

4DaFranker
As RomeoStevens said, practice is your best bet, but even better is to practice with people who have a decent grasp of what prospective employers and HR people will be thinking while interviewing you. There are surprisingly many community centers that offer direct training programs for finding good jobs and winning interviews, and they almost always include at least a little bit of interview practice. Up here in Canada, they're almost always free thanks to government funding, but for U.S. it'll depend on the local specifics, I'd wager. However, you want to be looking at the very local stuff, i.e. town/district or community newspapers, the city hall's list of community organizations, the local section/version of the "yellow pages", and so on. These are the places where you're most likely to find or learn about the kind of places / community centers that offer these training programs. But again, the key point is practice and experiments with good feedback (most honest feedback is good feedback, but much more so if the other person(s) are experts in this, which is much more likely in the aforementioned community centers).
3RomeoStevens
I would do live practice as there really is no replacement for this. Find someone who can give you honest feedback without it being awkward and go through a bunch of times over the span of a few weeks/months.
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