2+ hour, 2+ min ago (665+ words) Written for the CEEALAR / EA Hotel Winter Solstice on the 12th-14th December, which is still open for signups for the next few days. If you're attending already, consider whether you want spoilers for the emotional peak of the event. One of the most powerful archetypes I know is The Comet King from the book UNSONG, perhaps Scott Alexander's greatest work of art. This reading will have mild spoilers, so feel free to close your ears and gently hum until I raise my hand if you're strongly averse, but the extracts chosen should more whet than spoil your appetite. In the story, the Apollo rocket crashes into and damages the crystal sphere around earth which had been installed by the (autistic) archangel Uriel to force the world to run on math rather than magic, which he set up to keep the devil…...

8+ hour, 29+ min ago (1136+ words) Here's a fun format: get a big white board, and write the years of the 21st century. Write a category; something that has many variations come out every year. Next, write your picks or favourites. Now invite everyone attending to replace a year's pick if they want and replace it with something they like. This was a rolling game played last month at Lighthaven. I put up "Best blog post of every year" when the opportunity arose. This Joel SPolsky piece is applicable to far more than software. It's been the foundation or ancestor of all my good project management. Billy Joy writes with foresight about new technologies and their ethical dimensions. A stream of conciousness, half manic fever dream, half calculatingly ruthless ode to victory. Don't worry about the Magic: The Gathering details, they don't matter. Paul Graham had not…...

16+ hour, 34+ min ago (339+ words) It's done. I made it to the end. A Finnish proverb fits the situation perfectly: Paska reissu mutta tulipahan tehty" Which translates to something like "A crappy journey but in any case it's over now". I forced myself to do this. It was not fun. I rarely enjoyed writing. Every day I kept looking at the word counter, hoping that it would be over already. Sometimes the text was not done when I reached 500 words, which meant I had to write more. I managed to not neglect my work too badly. Sure, I skipped a day or two because I had to write instead, but it's not like I don't do that to play videogames every now and then, something I completely avoided this month. Scott Alexander's quote from the Inkhaven site was something that motivated me to do this…...

18+ hour, 39+ min ago (396+ words) I'm writing from my grandparents-in-law's living room. We just finished watching the Ohio-Michigan game, now we're watching the Minnesota-Wisconsin game, and my wife and I will soon be driving to the airport to fly home. It was a cozy Thanksgiving, even if about half the family has come down with a cold, and I got to see my first snowfall in several years. I initially made good book progress this month, finishing up revisions on Chapter 6. Then I got sick and did nothing for a week. The following week I was busy catching up at work, and then I got obsessed with a special project that I'll be posting about soon, so needless to say I didn't make as much progress on Chapter 7 as I would have liked. And December is shaping up to be a busy month! There's a…...

19+ hour, 6+ min ago (524+ words) I wish I had a thought recorder for this. It's much easier to think while walking, not interrupted by note-taking. Woo was discussed last night. It's hard to say what it means, exactly. The defining example is meditation, and anything related to it. I think the extreme case is psychedelic drugs. Many components won't work unless you already believe they do, but they do actually work, sometimes. I'm very woo-averse. Just a second, something's happening I just jumped into a train. Twilight and the pleasant, gusty freshness of late autumn turn into a cramped, unpleasant space full of people. Air feels heavy. But it's the lights that bother me the most. It's tempting to just jump out and walk for a bit. But I've got somewhere to be. An obligation, even if it's a pleasant one. I stop for just…...

19+ hour, 29+ min ago (879+ words) We attempted a replication. I won't bury the lede. You can just steal things. Manifest replicates. This post tells the story of the event. If you're just here for take-aways, you may want to skip to: This post originally included more personal reflections, which I left out of this public version. I'm not posting it to LessWrong, but if you want the full story, it's available in this Google Doc (please feel free to request access if you're interested and we've met in real life). I had a very strange time in Berkeley last June. I came with a message to deliver, ideas to refine, and work to do. In the week between LessOnline and Manifest, I frequently worked from the gazebo in the center courtyard of Lighthaven. I got a lot done, advanced work that continues to compound. I'm…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago (591+ words) There is a joke format which I find quite fascinating. Let's call it Philosopher vs Engineer. It goes like this: the Philosopher raises some complicated philosophical question, while the Engineer gives a very straightforward applied answer. Some back and forth between the two ensues, but they fail to cross the inferential gap and solve the misunderstanding. It doesn't have to be literal philosopher and engineer, though. Other versions may include philosopher vs scientist, philosopher vs economist, human vs AI, human vs alien and so on. For instance: But, what fascinates me the most, is that this joke captures my own intellectual journey. You see, I started from a position of a deep empathy to the philosopher. And now I'm much more in league with the engineer. Let's look at one more example. This time of philosophers being bullied by scientists....

1+ day, 8+ hour ago (876+ words) An old pub that nobody much visits. An owner who is always in a drugged-out stupor. Background music that never changes. A pub that has remained throughout war and revolution, and a single brick-wall that has not changed all that time. You are supposed to be investigating a murder. A gunshot in a distant land, far away from Revachol. YOU " Run your fingers through your greasy hair, finish your eighth beer. SHIVERS [Challenging: Success] " People pass in through here occasionally, and tap a pattern out on the wall. Then they aren't in the pub. SHIVERS " Not in this city any longer. SHIVERS " A man in a tall hat and a long coat taps the top brick, the bottom brick, then beside it to the left then the right 10 times. INLAND EMPIRE " An ominous, foreboding feeling fills you, as you look…...

1+ day, 10+ hour ago (1766+ words) And none of that is wrong. That is the bulk of what happens in the movie. What happens is this: Noah sees Allie at a carnival and asks her out. She says no. He asks why not, and she says "because I don't want to?" Her date, who was nearby the whole time, leads her away. Noah follows them, sees her on a ferris wheel, and climbs it until he can force himself to sit between them. As they're freaking out, he introduces himself and says he'd really like to take her out. The ferris wheel operator stops the ferris wheel and yells at him that the seats are designed for two. He says okay, climbs out of the seat, then'hangs from the bar in front of the seat,'well over 600 feet above the ground, so he can ask her…...

1+ day, 15+ hour ago (440+ words) I stopped reading when I was 30. You can fill in all the stereotypes of a girl with a book glued to her face during every meal, every break, and 10 hours a day on holidays. And then it was not. For 9 years I've been trying to figure out why. I mean, I still read. Technically. But not with the feral devotion from Before. And I finally figured out why. See, every few years I would shift genres to fit my developmental stage: And then I wanted babies and there was nothing. I mean, I always wanted babies, but it became my main mission in life at age 30. I managed it. I have two. But not thanks to any stories. See women in fiction don't have babies, and if they do they are off screen, or if they are not then nothing…...