Dec 30 2022
On getting paid. Or not.
Dec 29 2022
40 Useful Concepts – from Twitter via Dead Wild Roses
We often try to avoid info that we fear will cause us stress. Thus bills and work emails remain unopened, bank balances remain unchecked. This is counterproductive because ignoring a problem doesn’t eliminate the problem or your anxiety; it only prolongs them.
When we notice something new, like an unusual word, we start seeing it more often. It feels like it’s become more common but really we’re just more alert to it, and we confuse our attention with reality itself. Hence conspiracy theories.
We idolize those who excel in a particular field, inflating their egos and afflicting them with the hubris to opine on matters they know little about. By celebrating people for their intelligence, we make them stupid.
Online content that provokes people gets more engagement than content people merely agree with, which incentivizes content creators to be provocative.
So much is alarming and enraging only because so much is trying to get your attention.
We all get our answers from whatever tops the search results, so these results come to dominate a topic, muscling out unluckier viewpoints. Google has trapped us in an orgy of intellectual incest where everyone is drawing from the same tiny meme-pool.
Researchers Gunn et al. (2016) found that when eyewitnesses unanimously agreed on the identity of suspects, they were more likely to be wrong.
The more people agree, the less likely they are thinking for themselves.
Therefore, beware of consensuses.
Instead of trying to be right, try to be less wrong. Avoiding idiocy is easier than achieving genius, and by beginning from the position that you don’t know enough (which you don’t), you’ll gain more awareness of your blindspots and become harder to fool.
Craving is contagious; watching other people want a thing makes us want it too. It’s why ads are so effective. But it puts us all into unnecessary competition as we fool ourselves into chasing what others are chasing simply because they are chasing it.
We think people judge us by a single success or failure, but they don’t. If you mess up 1 meal no one thinks you’re a bad chef, and if you have 1 great idea no one thinks you’re a genius. People just aren’t thinking about you that much.
—@emollick
People prefer a clear risk over an unclear one, even if it’s no safer. E.g. They’d rather bet on a ball picked from a mix of 50 red & 50 black balls than on one where the exact ratio of red to black balls is unknown. Helps explain market volatility.
We often attach value to things simply because they’re hard to get. People will be more attracted to a painting if it costs $3 million than if it costs $3. The price becomes a feature of the product in that it allows the buyer to signal affluence to others.
People in a hierarchy such as a business or government will be promoted until they suck at their jobs, at which point they will remain where they are. As a result, the world is filled with people who suck at their jobs.
We often feel we’re owed luck for being unlucky. “The coin was heads 10 flips in a row, the next flip has gotta be tails!” But probability has no memory; it won’t make amends for its past behavior. Therefore, treat every possibility independent of the past.
We often procrastinate because we’re intimidated by our task. So make your task less intimidating by dividing it into steps and focusing only on the next step. Action creates traction, so each step you take will facilitate the next.
h/t: @IAmMarkManson
An ideology parasitizes the mind, changing the host’s behavior so they spread it to other people. Therefore, a successful ideology (the only kind we hear about) is not configured to be true; it is configured only to be easily transmitted and easily believed.
The longer a non-biological system has existed, the longer it’s likely to exist, because its age demonstrates its ability to weather the fickleness of fashions and the erosion of eons.
Teaching people about deepfakes and other disinfo doesn’t make them skeptical of falsehoods as much as it makes them skeptical of reality. Amid such confusion, they default to believing what they want to, discounting anything they don’t like as disinfo.
An absurd ideological belief is a form of tribal signaling. It signifies that one considers their ideology more important than truth, reason, or sanity. To one’s allies, this is an oath of unwavering loyalty. To one’s enemies, it is a threat display.
Alice has 100kg of potatoes, which are 99% water. She lets them dry till they are 98% water. What is their new weight?
50kg.
Sound crazy? A reminder that the truth is often counterintuitive.
Before criticizing their own tribe, people feel the need to reaffirm their loyalty to the tribe. “I support X but…”
They do this because their peers cannot comprehend that someone could see flaws in anyone other than the enemy team.
h/t: @SarahTheHaider
A company needs a nuclear reactor and a bike shed. Few workers understand reactors, but all understand sheds, so the shed becomes the focus of debate as everyone tries to enact their vision.
Projects that require the least attention tend to get the most.
When punishment for what people say becomes widespread, people stop saying what they really think and instead say whatever is needed to thrive in the social environment. Thus, limits on speech become limits on sincerity.
Joseph Goebbels said* “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,” and he was right; repetition can make people believe things they otherwise wouldn’t.
*Goebbels didn’t really say this, but everyone thinks he did because of the Reiteration Effect.
We know others are biased, but think we see the world as it is. Thus, teaching people about biases & fallacies doesn’t make them doubt their own beliefs, it only makes them even more doubtful of their opponents’.
Members of political tribes inevitably begin competing with their fellows to be the most ideologically pure. The constant one-upmanship toward moral superiority causes the whole group to gradually become more extreme. E.g. Maoist China, Twitter echo-chambers.
Politics is pro-wrestling in suits. Opposing parties are collaborators in a greater system, whose choreographed conflict entertains and distracts us from what is really going on.
h/t: @EricRWeinstein
The press lost its monopoly on news when the internet democratized info. To save its business model, it pivoted from journalism into tribalism. The new role of the press is not to inform its readers but to confirm what they already believe.
Curiosity is the desire to fill gaps in knowledge. Thus, curiosity occurs not when you know nothing about something, but when you know a bit about it. So learn a little about as much as you can (like you’re doing now!), and it will spur you to learn even more.
What’s the minimum number of grains of sand needed to make a heap? We don’t know, because human language (in this case the word “heap”) is imprecise. If our language can’t even quantify a heap, how can it resolve the complex questions we so fiercely debate?
It takes a lot more energy to refute bullshit than to produce it. Hence, the world is full of unrefuted bullshit.
We find growth while searching for other things. Algorithms give us exactly what we want on demand, so we never need to search, and never find what we never knew we needed.
If you wish to grow, defy the robots’ recommendations.
h/t: @david_perell
a) Future people matter morally as much as people alive now.
b) There are likely many more future people than people alive now.
c) Small changes now can have huge repercussions in future.
If these are true, should we be doing more for future generations?
If a task would take less than two minutes, do it immediately. This is because adding the task to your mental to-do list, keeping it in your memory, and managing the anxiety of not having done it will take far more effort than just doing it now.
Technology is outpacing wisdom; we’re changing the world faster than we can adapt to it. Lagging ever more behind accelerating progress, we’re increasingly unable to foresee the effects of what we create. We’re amassing the power of gods, yet we remain apes.
The mark of useful info is that it makes us act differently. Most info we consume doesn’t make us act differently; we just passively graze on it like cattle before defecating it undigested.
Stop mindless scrolling and seek out info that changes you.
In order for you to beat someone in a debate, your opponent needs to realize they’ve lost. Therefore, it’s easier to win an argument against a genius than an idiot.
Writing has existed for <2% of human history, so our brains are not evolved for reading; we need vocal/facial cues for context. Thus, accept that you’ll be misunderstood online, but never stop tweeting, for the only way to write clearer is by writing.
An online stranger doesn’t know you; all they have are a few vague impressions of you, too meager to form anything but a phantasm. So when they attack “you”, they’re really just attacking their own imagination, and there is no need to take it personally.
Every single person is exactly what you would be if you were them. This includes your political opponents. So instead of dismissing them as evil or stupid, maybe seek to understand the circumstances that led them to their conclusions.
We can be convinced that a concept is real by the mere fact that it has a name, but the world is full of names for things that aren’t real (e.g. Batman). As such, assume nothing is true just because it has a name (including every concept in this megathread!)
Dec 20 2022
The Assistants by Camille Perri – highly recommended!
Just finished reading Camille Perri’s The Assistants — highly recommended! It’s Nine to Five updated and with a great moral element; better than any nonfiction book about the income inequity between the top 1% and the rest of us … With attitude, to boot!
“Robert had tie-clips that cost as much as those [student loan] debts. one man’s private-jet ride to Key West was another woman’s second chance at life. …” (p219)
And the sexual harassment seminar — delightful!!
Dec 15 2022
Another reason to hate men
Another reason to hate men:
“By 2050 at the latest, and ideally before 2040, we must have stopped emitting more greenhouse gases [typically caused by the burning of fossil fuels] into the atmosphere than Earth can naturally absorb through its ecosystems (a balance known as net-zero emissions or carbon neutrality). In order to get to this scientifically established goal, our global greenhouse gas emissions must be clearly on the decline by the early 2020s and reduced by at least 50 percent by 2030.” The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, (architects of the Paris Agreement), pxxii
Snowmobiles and ATVs “emit 25 percent as many hydrocarbons as all the nation’s cars and trucks put together, according to an EPA study.”
“In one hour, a typical snowmobile emits as much hydrocarbon as a 2001 model auto emits in about two years (24,300 miles) of driving. “
“Two-stroke PWC engines dump 25 – 40% of uncombusted fuel in the lake, the air, or on the land.”
“In a single hour of run time, a 2000-model PWC will dump about 4 gallons (15 liters) of unburned oil and gas into the water [source: CO Parks].”
Snowmobiles and ATVs “emit 25 percent as many hydrocarbons as all the nation’s cars and trucks put together, according to an EPA study.”
Over 95% of those who drive snowmobiles, ATVs, and jetskis are men.
That is to say, men are producing fossil fuel emissions — lots of fossil fuel emissions — just for fun.
(And that’s quite apart from “”Snowmobiles create a noise corridor five miles wide” and “PWC produce noise levels in the range of 85-102 decibels (dB) per unit — levels at which the American Hospital Association recommends hearing protection (above 85 dB).” https://www.stopthrillcraft.org/statistics.htm)
Dec 06 2022
December, Like It’s 1989
December, Like It’s 1989
Tell it.
Geneviève Bergeron, civil engineering
Hélène Colgan, mechanical engineering
Nathalie Croteau, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, chemical engineering
Maud Haviernick, materials engineering
Maryse Laganière, finance department
Maryse Leclair, materials engineering
Anne-Marie Lemay, mechanical engineering
Sonia Pelletier, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, materials engineering
Annie St-Arneault, mechanical engineering
Annie Turcotte, materials engineering
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, nursing.
“Hey, come on.
Not all men are like that, okay.”
Not really a question.
Reductio ad absurdum.
That’s an order, okay?
Men are proud, they have all the good qualities.
A penis.
Inalienable rights.
Access to female bodies.
(Everyone knows the females don’t have real minds, okay?)
Not really a question.
Look, don’t men suffer?
Aren’t they brave?
Aren’t they manly?
Aren’t they courageous?
Aren’t they rational?
Not really questions.
They deserve what they get.
That’s an order, okay?
Cold day, ordinary winter day, right?
Not really a question.
“He told us to leave, and we did.”
Just walked out.
Not one of them tried to tackle him.
Not one of them tried to grab the semi-automatic.
Just walked out.
They were very rational.
Didn’t want to get hurt.
Weren’t they brave?
Weren’t they manly?
Weren’t they courageous?
Not really a question.
Reductio ad absurdum.
Not all men are like that, okay?
Don’t ask the question.
That’s an order.
Pat Parker said it, paraphrasing here…
“Brother, that system
you hit me with
is called
a fist.”
Tell it.
Geneviève Bergeron, civil engineering, 21;
Hélène Colgan, mechanical engineering, 23;
Nathalie Croteau, mechanical engineering, 23;
Barbara Daigneault, mechanical engineering, 22;
Anne-Marie Edward, chemical engineering, 21;
Maud Haviernick, materials engineering, 29;
Maryse Laganière, finance department, 31;
Maryse Leclair, materials engineering, 25;
Anne-Marie Lemay, mechanical engineering, 23;
Sonia Pelletier, mechanical engineering, 22;
Michèle Richard, materials engineering, 28;
Annie St-Arneault, mechanical engineering, 21;
Annie Turcotte, materials engineering, 23;
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, nursing, 21.
six decembre mille neuf cent quatre-vingt neuf
C. Osborne
Dec 05 2022
Why won’t misogyny die?
Dec 04 2022
barely tongue-in-cheek bit from Grant Naylor
“The GAS (Genetic Alternative Sports) … Sports fans were no longer interested in seeing a conventional boxing match, when they could witness two genetically engineered pugilists — who were created with their brains in their shorts, and all their other major organs crammed into their legs and feet, leaving their heads solid blocks of unthinking muscle — knock hell out of one another for hours on end in a way that normal boxers could only manage for minutes.” Red Dwarf Omnibus (Better than Life) p490
Nov 30 2022