David Gross

Karma: 1,283

David Gross 14 Mar 2024 0:00 UTC
5 points
0
on: I was raised by devout Mormons, AMA &| Offer Advice
I have the vague impression that in spite of getting some obvious (to the outsider) things wrong (fervently believing the preposterous), Mormons or LDS culture get some less-obvious things unusually right (relative to non-Mormons/LDS culture generally). I’m curious about those things, how they felt from the inside, and how the rest of us look in comparison from inside that culture. What are some things you think LDS culture does well that the rest of us might be able to emulate?

David Gross 30 Jan 2024 17:10 UTC
5 points
1
in reply to: Said Achmiz’s comment on: Notes on Innocence
The reason I said “not funny” is not my sideways way of saying “I don’t approve of that sort of thing” but is more related to the point in your second paragraph. You can’t just state your opinion in the form of a joke and turn it into a joke that way. (Except perhaps in some rare edge cases: “Knock knock. Who’s there? Epstein didn’t kill himself.”) It’s like if I said “What do you call a ladder? An accident waiting to happen.” Have I said anything funny, or have I just chosen a strange way to say “I think a ladder is an accident waiting to happen”?
And in the case of Bob, I can certainly imagine someone from another culture, or who is young and sheltered, etc. not being up on American stereotyping and for whom such innocence would not be merely affected innocence.

David Gross 5 Jan 2024 16:39 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Mo Putera’s comment on: Notes on notes on virtues
I’ve been in a long pause on adding to the sequence, although I’ve been quietly updating some of the existing pages behind-the-scenes. I hope to pick up the pace again at some point.
As for the floundering of SotF&E… I still think it’s a good model, but getting something like that off the ground is hard work and requires that a lot of things go right. For one thing, it takes a critical mass of people who believe in the promise of it enough to put in the work; it’s not something people can absorb passively. It’s hard to find enough people who are willing both to stretch out of their comfort zones and to take time out of their already busy days to dedicate to an unproven eccentric project like this. When the early-covid isolation/quarantine stuff hit it really took the wind out of the sails of social projects like SotF&E, and I haven’t felt confident enough to try to restart it.

David Gross 20 Dec 2023 21:54 UTC
6 points
0
on: Heuristics for preventing major life mistakes
You might also find some food for thought by ordering from these menus:

David Gross 2 Dec 2023 20:45 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: gwern’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
I think I see where you’re coming from on this, but there are a few things to consider:
First, a lot of your criticisms apply most strongly to my own particular idiosyncratic method, and when evaluating it solely as an effective altruism strategy. In fact, I chose the method I did largely as a variety of conscientious objection, not as effective altruism. My post here highlighted the possibilities of tax resistance as an effective altruism strategy, but my own motives for my resistance are more complicated and I did not choose my own method of resistance to optimize its charitable donation possibilities. If you judge it by that standard, it will admittedly look pretty weak. But it’s also possible to choose tax resistance methods differently from how I have done, in a way that prioritizes effective altruism over conscientious objection, if your motives are different from mine.
Second, I think you exaggerate the precariousness of my position. I’m not impoverished. I’m actually doing pretty well. I put aside something like 35–40% of my income for retirement, and every year I put roughly the equivalent of my health insurance deductible into a Health Savings Account in case disaster (or distracted driver) strikes. I make about the median annual income for an individual in the U.S., and have saved up more than the median retirement savings for someone in my age bracket. I’m not “brutally curtailed” or living in “self-imposed poverty”. I’m a reasonably well-off person living in the lap of luxury here in California and enjoying the fruits of the most fabulously prosperous time our species has yet experienced. I can’t imagine feeling deprived like this.
Third, you underestimate the charitable impact of my resistance if you only include the $5k/year or so that I donate and ignore the hundreds of hours of volunteer work (not, perhaps, effective-altruistically optimized, but nonetheless good) my particular technique has helped me to put in.
Fourth, your argument that “if you wanted to fix any of this, you… couldn’t pay off your existing $90k+ liability” is incorrect. If for some reason I changed my mind about all this and wanted to wipe the slate clean, if I were too poor to just pay the full amount, the IRS is like many debt collectors in this regard: it would rather get something than fail to get everything, so it’s willing to bargain. It will ask you what you can afford (demanding that you fess up about your income and assets) and then come up with some figure that doesn’t totally bankrupt you, telling you that you can eliminate your tax debt entirely if you can come up with this lower sum. It’s called the Offer in Compromise program (https://www.irs.gov/payments/offer-in-compromise).

David Gross 1 Dec 2023 16:42 UTC
9 points
0
in reply to: MondSemmel’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
As I mention in my post: “There is a law on the books that makes willful failure to pay taxes a criminal offense. However it is almost unheard of for the U.S. government to criminally prosecute someone who files an honest and correct tax return but who will not voluntarily surrender the money.”
American “war tax resisters” have been willfully refusing to pay taxes for decades, often going out of their way to make public declarations of their willful intent (sometimes in letters to the IRS itself). In the last 80 years, of the tens of thousands of American war tax resisters who have done this sort of thing, exactly two have been prosecuted merely for willful failure to pay. One was in 1942, and targeted the leader of an emerging war tax resistance movement (he was prosecuted for failing to purchase a war tax stamp to put on his car, so also this was not really an “income tax” refusal prosecution). The other was in 2005, and targeted an attorney who had two previous tax convictions and whose legal practice tended to get on the nerves of prosecutors by specializing in the vigorous defense of dissidents like Huey Newton, Judi Bari, Dennis Peron, etc.
Given this track record, I think it’s accurate to say that criminal prosecution for willful failure to pay your income taxes is not the sort of thing the typical refuser has to worry about.

David Gross 14 Nov 2023 22:31 UTC
2 points
0
in reply to: Scott Alexander’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
Thanks for the response. This goes far enough afield of my expertise that I don’t think I can give very helpful answers to your specific questions. I don’t have any experience with corporate tax refusal of this sort. In the very limited anecdotal reports I’ve seen, it seems like the IRS is most likely to crack the whip and potentially pursue corporate officers when 1) the corporate entity fails to pay employment taxes (payroll/social-security taxes) after withholding them from employees’ paychecks, 2) when there’s actual fraud/dishonest filing involved, 3) when there’s no filing of required forms; in roughly that order of severity. I’m much less confident in anticipating the IRS’s behavior here than I am in the case of individual tax-nonpayers.
As far as the 10-year limitations deadline, again here I have much less information to go on for corporate taxpayers than for individuals. I know in the case of individuals, once the tax debt passes the “collection statute expiration date” it just sort of vanishes from the system and so they stop bothering you about it.
Note that if the corporate entity formally files for bankruptcy that this suspends the ticking of the statute of limitations clock until six months after the bankruptcy is resolved.

David Gross 14 Nov 2023 0:31 UTC
−6 points
−2
in reply to: Dweomite’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
Yeah, it’s an imperfect first-stab calculation at best. But that doesn’t mean that 1 in 12,000 is necessarily an underestimate because while the 8,143,000 denominator may be exaggerated for the reasons you suggest; the 699 numerator is too, for the reason I gave (“even if every one of those prosecutions had been of people who merely refused to pay”). In fact, few to none of those 699 prosecutions were of people who merely refused to pay. An appendix to their report shows how many indictments the IRS pursued in a variety of categories (this adds up to more than 699 because some non-tax crimes e.g. narcotics, money laundering are also prosecuted via the same unit). Non-payment doesn’t even make the list:
- Abusive Tax Schemes: 35
- Corporate Tax Fraud: 23
- Financial Institution Fraud: 20
- Bank Secrecy Act: 338
- Employment Tax: 142
- Healthcare Fraud: 69
- Abusive Return Preparer Program: 112
- Identity Theft: 88
- Money Laundering: 701
- International Operations: 143
- Narcotics: 475
- Non-Filer: 115
- Public Corruption: 27
- Questionable Refund Program: 51
- Terrorism: 33

David Gross 13 Nov 2023 22:43 UTC
4 points
−11
in reply to: Dagon’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
I believe it’s not actually true that, if you merely repeatedly neglect to pay your taxes, the I.R.S. will inquire into your motives and intent in order to decide whether to come after you with both barrels blazing. As far as I can tell they do not have the resources or inclination to do that sort of investigation.
I base this largely on the experience of American war tax resisters. They are often loudly self-incriminating about their willful intent: sometimes going so far as to write letters to the I.R.S. explaining their motivation. Of the tens of thousands of Americans who have engaged in war tax resistance over the years, I know of only two in the past 80 years who have been criminally prosecuted merely for willful refusal to pay taxes (there have been others who have been criminally prosecuted or jailed for things like filing inaccurate forms or contempt of court, but those were cases in which they were defying the law in ways that went beyond merely not paying). The war tax resistance movement keeps pretty good records on its “martyrs” so if there were other cases like those two they would probably have come to my attention.

David Gross 13 Nov 2023 22:30 UTC
−1 points
0
in reply to: antanaclasis’s comment on: Redirecting one’s own taxes as an effective altruism method
Last I heard, about 40% of U.S. citizens don’t have passports to begin with, so I expect that at least for some readers, this isn’t such a big deal. For the rest it is certainly a consideration to factor in. Note that it typically takes some time before it becomes a problem: you accumulate $59,000 (actually more, as this number is inflation-adjusted) in delinquent taxes, the I.R.S. notices you’re over the limit and submits paperwork to the State Department, then somewhere down the line your passport expires and you’re unable to renew it until you resolve the tax delinquency (and go through a State Department paperwork dance of your own).

David Gross 13 Oct 2023 1:26 UTC
2 points
0
on: How to make to-do lists (and to get things done)?
FWIW, some tips on how to improve your resolve here: Notes on Resolve

David Gross 20 Sep 2023 21:39 UTC
2 points
0
on: The stereotype of male classical music lovers being gay
Aesthetically, opera seems like it slots in well to a Very Gay modern niche, in that it is flamboyant, is dramatic to the point of histrionic, lends itself well to backstage scuttlebutt about prime donne and other such inside baseball dish, is nicely campy in its traditional overwroughtitude of costume and set design and vocal fireworks and Götterdämmerung, and is a good object to lavish conspicuous aficionado-points on. It’s as gay as green is Irish.

David Gross 8 Aug 2023 12:26 UTC
2 points
0
on: Notice your everything
I’d also like to see what work people have already done that I don’t already know about.
See Notes on Attention for some possible leads.

David Gross 19 Jul 2023 15:19 UTC
14 points
2
on: What Caused the Puzzling Decline in Activism Against Policy Violence Towards Black People?
I’d add “Covid” to the hypotheses. At the time it was difficult to sustain many varieties of coordinated grassroots activity, even something as banal as a book club, just because you didn’t want to meet indoors in groups and because alternatives like Zoom were off-putting to some and suboptimal in many ways. People may have relished the opportunity to come out in the streets and protest a bit, or to engage in social media histrionics, but to sustain this sort of activism in a meaningful way requires the sort of organizing and group deliberation that was unusually difficult at that time.

David Gross 15 Jul 2023 1:45 UTC
3 points
0
on: Physics is Ultimately Subjective
This reminds me of a POV that I find perennially tempting, a sort of Buddhism verging on solipsism:
“Reality Itself” is already completely here and completely available to you. That indeed is the definition of Reality Itself: the actual subjective contents of the present moment, your (pre-”assessed”) subjective experience. To discover Reality Itself, you don’t have to assess your subjective experience as though it were merely evidence left behind by the real reality that you have to examine for clues. It’s already the real deal. Our ideas about “objective reality” (atoms and quarks and fields, but even chairs and tables and people) are models and linguistic conventions we find helpful for discussing, finding patterns in, and predicting Reality Itself, but they are not themselves Reality Itself hiding behind our subjective experience. You can learn interesting things about Reality Itself by examining it and subjecting it to scientific analysis, but you can’t get any realer that way: any closer to reality. You’re as close as you can get already—it’s right here; you can’t miss it.

David Gross 10 Jul 2023 14:52 UTC
3 points
0
on: The virtue of determination
See also: Notes on Resolve

David Gross 3 Jul 2023 23:05 UTC
3 points
−2
on: What in your opinion is the biggest open problem in AI alignment?
This will probably be dismissed as glib, but: human alignment.

David Gross 28 Jun 2023 21:58 UTC
4 points
0
on: What is your financial portfolio?
FWIW, here’s how my “investment” strategy has been changing (“investment” considered broadly, in a time=money sense).
I’m weighting foreign language acquisition less than I used to, in part because advances in AI are making that a somewhat less-valuable skill than I had originally anticipated.
I’m googling for websites a lot less than I used to. This is partially because Google’s web search has declined in quality (and while its competitors can roughly match it, none have really leapfrogged it) and partially because the web itself has become such a morass of crap. I’m correspondingly increasing my investment in particular sources of web content (these seem vulnerable as well, so I’m keeping my options open, but by the time AI starts writing LW content on the regular it might be worth reading). I’m long on the wisdom of the ancients, short on anything expressed in an op-ed.
I’ve given up on Twitter/Facebook, and am finding my long-shot investment of time in Mastodon to be paying off better than I’d hoped. I’m tentatively exploring other fediverse options.
I’ve been divesting from politics / political arguments broadly for a while, and shifting to a more-local focus on political action (meaning not just action involving governments & elections, but any organized efforts for social goals). This is I think in part motivated by an inchoate hunch that our ability to rationally observe and engage in useful discourse about events outside of our own back yards is going to be terribly disrupted by AI/bot-fueled disinformation.
My retirement portfolio is slightly more tech-heavy now, but I otherwise don’t feel confident picking winners & losers among public companies or sectors and haven’t made any galaxy-brained I-think-I’m-smarter-than-the-market moves.
So far, my policy of frugality has paid good dividends. My spending has been largely in sectors less-affected by inflation, and I have accumulated enough buffer savings that if my job gets automated away I’ll have some time to pivot gracefully.
I continue to be long on health, and take steps to secure a vigorous longevity to the extent fortune allows. Whatever happens in the coming decades, I don’t want to miss it.

David Gross 30 May 2023 2:34 UTC
2 points
0
on: Wikipedia as an introduction to the alignment problem
Reduced it by ~43kb, though I don’t know if many readers will notice as most of the reduction is in markup.

David Gross 17 May 2023 15:43 UTC
2 points
−1
in reply to: Ruby’s comment on: New User’s Guide to LessWrong
Since you’ve gone with the definition, are you sure that definition is solid? A reasoning process like “spend your waking moments deriving mathematical truths using rigorous methods; leave all practical matters to curated recipes and outside experts” may tend to arrive at true beliefs and good decisions more often than “attempt to wrestle as rationally as you can with all of the strange and uncertain reality you encounter, and learn to navigate toward worthy goals by pushing the limits of your competence in ways that seem most promising and prudent” but the latter seems to me a “more rational reasoning process.”
The conflation of rationality with utility-accumulation/winning also strikes me as questionable. These seem to me to be different things that sometimes cooperate but that might also be expected to go their separate ways on occasion. (This, unless you define winning/utility in terms of alignment with what is true, but a phrase like “sitting atop a pile of utility” doesn’t suggest that to me.)
If you thought you were a shoe-in to win the lottery, and in fact you do win, does that retrospectively convert your decision to buy a lottery ticket into a rational one in addition to being a fortunate one? (Your belief turned out to be true, your decision turned out to be good, you got a pile of utility and can call yourself a winner.)