What am I doing?: Bug testing a program for my thesis. (A mathematical computation.)
Why?: Because I want it to work perfectly (and it doesn’t).
Why?: Because I want to impress my advisor.
Why?: two reasons: a) to have a good working relationship since I will be at the same school for a while. (why?: because it’s unpleasant to work with people you don’t get along with; terminal value.)
b) to get better recommendations.
Why?: to have better career prospects.
Why?: to make more money.
Why?: a) to make my life more pleasant (terminal value) b) to donate to reducing existential risk (terminal value).
What am I doing?: Bug testing a program for my thesis. (A mathematical computation.)
Why?: Because I want it to work perfectly (and it doesn’t).
Why?: Because I want to impress my advisor.
Why?: two reasons: a) to have a good working relationship since I will be at the same school for a while. (why?: because it’s unpleasant to work with people you don’t get along with; terminal value.)
b) to get better recommendations.
Why?: to have better career prospects.
Why?: to make more money.
Why?: a) to make my life more pleasant (terminal value) b) to donate to reducing existential risk (terminal value).
Why am I on Less Wrong meanwhile? My code is compiling.
Other questions: why am I studying math? Why am I staying in school?
Because it is interesting; because if I don’t do something interesting I will be (a) less happy, (b) less effective.