[...] Ricardo’s Law Of Comparative Advantage was one of the most inspirational things he’d ever read. This is an economic theorem which says that under ideal frictionless capitalism, even if you’re the worst person in the world at everything, you can do the thing you’re relatively least worst at, trade with other people, and be guaranteed to make nonzero money. Maybe not very much money, but nonzero. It will mean that your actions have made other people nonzero better off, and they are nonzero grateful to you.
I do not find this inspiring! Under ideal frictionless capitalism, if you’re the worst person in the world at everything, you can make nonzero money, but most likely less then the cost of living, so the most likely outcome is that you die in abject poverty, having in the meantime done some things that made other people nonzero better off, and which might—or might not—outweigh any costly screw ups you may have made or suffering you may have undergone in the process.
And that’s under ideal frictionless capitalism! In the real world this can and does sometimes happen even to people who are pretty good at some things!
(A list of songs compiled from impromptu group singing sessions at several rationalist-adjacent events. Anything where the program was decided in advance is excluded from this list. This is all done from memory of events I happened to be at, and I’m more likely to remember songs I’m familiar with.)
added songs I remembered folks singing during Less Online and Manifest this year
tinkered with the categorization
added links to chords (whatever was the first search result, mostly; I don’t know if there are better or worse chord websites out there) and links to lyrics when lyrics weren’t given on the webpage with the chords
So, in general not having your values changed is an Omohundro goal, right? But would I suggest that if you you change your utility function[1] from U(w) = weightedSumSapientSatisfaction(w) + personalHappiness(w) + someIdiosyncraticPreferences(w) or whatever it is, to U(w) = weightedSumSapientSatisfaction(w) + personalHappiness(w) + someIdiosyncraticPreferences(w) + 5000, all your choices that involve explicit expected utility comparisons will come out the same as before, but you’ll be happier.
Ozy Brennan, as quoted by Scott Alexander, as (scripted? transcribed? I’m not quite sure) by Ozy Brennan, says that
I do not find this inspiring! Under ideal frictionless capitalism, if you’re the worst person in the world at everything, you can make nonzero money, but most likely less then the cost of living, so the most likely outcome is that you die in abject poverty, having in the meantime done some things that made other people nonzero better off, and which might—or might not—outweigh any costly screw ups you may have made or suffering you may have undergone in the process.
And that’s under ideal frictionless capitalism! In the real world this can and does sometimes happen even to people who are pretty good at some things!
What do the Rats Sing?
(A list of songs compiled from impromptu group singing sessions at several rationalist-adjacent events. Anything where the program was decided in advance is excluded from this list. This is all done from memory of events I happened to be at, and I’m more likely to remember songs I’m familiar with.)
Group singing standards
Country Roads (x3)
Hallelujah (x2)
Wellerman (x2)
Wagon Wheel
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Leave Her, Johnny
Songs which were written for Secular Solstice
Bitter Wind Blown
When I Die
A Little Echo
For the Longest Term
Our Favorite Things (lyrics, sheet music)
(and see the ‘Filk and filk-adjacent’ and ‘Uncategorized’ sections, which include some that weren’t written for Solstice but are oft sung at it)
Filk and filk-adjacent
Hymn to the Breaking Strain
Time Wrote the Rocks (x2)
Lucifer
Landsailor
Somebody Will
HaMephorash (lyrics, chords)
What’s it Like to Be a Bat (lyrics nowhere I can find on the internet, chords based on I Am My Own Grandpa)
Bold Orion
Bob Dylan
Blowin’ in the Wind
Make You Feel My Love
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
We went through the whole album Blood on the Tracks that one time:
Tangled Up in Blue
Simple Twist of Fate
You’re a Big Girl Now
Idiot Wind
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (x2)
Meet Me in the Morning
Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts
If You See Her, Say Hello
Shelter from the Storm
Buckets of Rain
The Beatles
Hey Jude (x2)
Here Comes the Sun (x2)
Revolution
With a Little Help From My Friends
Let It Be
A Hard Day’s Night
All You Need is Love
Imagine (Yes, this is John Lennon solo, but I’m putting it in the Beatles section since he was a Beatle, if not at the time he wrote it.)
Some Manifest Attendees Prefer Modern Pop Music
Shape of You (x2)
Complicated
Take Me to Church
Just the Way You Are
Take On Me
Believer
Uncategorized
The Mary Ellen Carter (x3)
We Will All Go Together When We Go (x2)
American Pie (x2)
The Mary Ellen Spider
(If You Ain’t Got That) Do Re Mi
Barrett’s Privateers
Unison in Harmony
The Water is Wide
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Sons and Daughters
Riptide
Viva la Vida
My Way
At the Bottom of Everything
Aeroplane Over the Sea
One
Fly Me To The Moon
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
Proud Mary
Sweet Caroline
Hotel California
Wonderwall
Call Me Maybe
Made some updates to this:
added songs I remembered folks singing during Less Online and Manifest this year
tinkered with the categorization
added links to chords (whatever was the first search result, mostly; I don’t know if there are better or worse chord websites out there) and links to lyrics when lyrics weren’t given on the webpage with the chords
So, in general not having your values changed is an Omohundro goal, right? But would I suggest that if you you change your utility function[1] from
U(w) = weightedSumSapientSatisfaction(w) + personalHappiness(w) + someIdiosyncraticPreferences(w)or whatever it is, toU(w) = weightedSumSapientSatisfaction(w) + personalHappiness(w) + someIdiosyncraticPreferences(w) + 5000, all your choices that involve explicit expected utility comparisons will come out the same as before, but you’ll be happier.There are a lot of issues with utility functions as a framing for describing actual human motivations, but bear with me.