Liriodendron

Karma: 61

Liriodendron 28 Sep 2025 3:49 UTC
9 points
1
on: By default, capital will matter more than ever after AGI
The Psmiths have a good parable about the origins (and impending decline) of democracy that involves similar ideas. Search for “parable” to skip to that part.
https://www.thepsmiths.com/p/review-miti-and-the-japanese-miracle

Liriodendron 26 May 2025 18:56 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: jefftk’s comment on: Elastomeric Fitting Session
Having never used an officially reusable respirator, I’m wondering what the advantage is over disposable ones.
I use my disposable ones for many hours total, until they either look or smell a little dirty, before I discard them. Do you know if this is significantly bad? I’ve been assuming not.
With reusable respirators, there’s still a disposable filter that you have to replace regularly, right? Plus you have to clean the reusable parts. Do you expect that filter replacement frequency, supply reliability, and cost to be approximately equivalent between N95s and the filters for reusable respirators?
I can imagine the filters are probably cheaper. But it’s easier for me to store a few silicone-sealed N95s in the car and house. It’s also less unusual-looking to wear them at high-risk locations like the pediatrician’s office. Finally, if one gets irreversibly dirty for some reason, it’s no big deal to toss it.
I’m not trying to convince you that disposable N95s are better than reusable respirators (though I do feel those particular Softseal ones are less widely known about than they ought to be). I am genuinely confused why people would prefer reusable ones and think I might be missing something.
Is the eponymous difference between 95 and 100 really due to the filtration of the fabric itself? Or is it mainly due to the assumption of an excellent seal on the P100 and only a moderate one on most N95s? A comparison of N95s to KN95s suggests it’s not the latter reason, since KN95s have very poor seals; but since that also mixes different countries’ standards, I’m not sure it means much.

Liriodendron 21 May 2025 22:14 UTC
1 point
0
on: Elastomeric Fitting Session
Have you tried Softseal N95 3D respirators? These have been my family’s standard “serious” masks since early 2020. We love the tight seal created by the silicone gasket. They’re $31.95 for a box of ten masks with valves.
I do wonder how inferior the filtration is compared to the respirators you list. Certainly this one feels much more effective than KN95s which do not seal.
https://softsealmask.com/

Liriodendron 11 Aug 2024 14:05 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: mako yass’s comment on: Dragon Agnosticism
Congrats, we’ve just solved alignment! The AI now wants to know whether we want our utopia optimized in a way that accounts for dragons or not.

Liriodendron 2 Feb 2024 22:04 UTC
1 point
0
in reply to: Nathan Helm-Burger’s comment on: On Not Requiring Vaccination
Hopefully you’re joking. Given the common (average?) reaction of two days of feeling flu-like and feverish after Covid vaccination, not to mention people who predictably react worse than average, I can think of a lot of times I’d rather schedule that sadly worthwhile experience than the first two days of an international trip.

Liriodendron 10 Mar 2023 19:42 UTC
3 points
0
on: Bus-Only Bus Lane Enforcement
I am a fan of combined bus + bike + right turn lanes. But I say this as a bicyclist and motorist, not a bus user.

The benefit to bicyclists is that we get a real full-width lane to bike in the center of, without much traffic. This provides generous distance from debris on the right, and from traffic in the lane to the left, as well as optimal sight lines to and from traffic at intersections. And bus drivers are more courteous, attentive, and law-abiding than the average motorist. I have never had a problem using the full lane ahead of a bus.

However, after reading your post I have a new appreciation for how much that could slow down buses, depending on how common bicyclists are. Of course buses can change lanes to pass just like everyone else, and buses in a bus lane have to change lanes to make left turns anyway, but in heavy traffic it would reduce some of the benefit to buses of having a special bus lane.

Liriodendron 26 Jan 2023 5:29 UTC
1 point
0
on: How are you currently modeling COVID contagiousness?
My understanding is that rapid antigen test positives indicate high viral load, especially if the line is darker rather than lighter. So I would expect her to still be significantly contagious.

Being symptomless does help prevent transmission some, since she won’t be coughing or blowing her nose. But regular talking, and to a lesser extent breathing, are often enough to transmit it.

You didn’t ask this, but if I were you and I wanted her to be able to still visit while minimizing risks, I would consider some or all of the following:
- Having her sleep alone unmasked in a room with a HEPA filter (and a window cracked if your weather is mild)
- Spending much of your days outdoors with at least surgical quality masks on
- Wearing at least N95 quality masks, preferably silicone-sealed N95s (Softseal 3D masks), while indoors together
- Using improved ventilation such as HEPA filters, continuous HVAC, and/or open windows if the weather allows, while indoors together.
You could also consider not minimizing risks as much as you theoretically could, especially if you’ve had Covid or a bivalent vaccine within the past four months, don’t have any high risk conditions, have access to Paxlovid, don’t have any other upcoming events you’d hate to miss, and are willing to take extra precautions around vulnerable people for the week or so after she leaves.

Liriodendron 1 Jan 2023 1:11 UTC
3 points
0
on: Monitoring devices I have loved
As a gardener, a simple rain meter like this one has been a useful tool I found in recent years. AcuRite 5″ Capacity Easy-to-Read Magnifying Acrylic, Blue (00850A2) Rain Gauge https://a.co/d/iRd0phK

Weather forecasts will often predict how many inches of rain are probably coming, but it’s surprisingly hard to find records after the fact of how much rain actually fell. So you might not know, especially if the rain falls at night or when you’re out of the house.

Knowing whether we got 0.1 inches or 1 inch of rain can make a difference in my watering plans.

A soil moisture meter probe can also be useful, but usually I don’t think about using it, so it hasn’t done much for me personally other than calibrating my instincts the few times I did use one. I would recommend one for gardeners with less experience or less willingness to kill plants than I have.

Liriodendron 17 Sep 2022 14:51 UTC
6 points
2
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Why doesn’t China (or didn’t anyone) encourage/mandate elastomeric respirators to control COVID?
Most fads, including moral ones, readily admit that previous versions were suboptimal. If anything, the more rapidly changing the style, the more virtuous the ones who can keep up look.

(FWIW, I do think better masks would have provided more protection for less suffering than other preventative measures. In the absence of state-mandated good masks, I wish the social pressure had been there to make good masks trendy.)

Liriodendron 18 Aug 2022 16:30 UTC
3 points
2
on: Spoons and Myofascial Trigger Points
FWIW, I’ve never heard anyone use the term spoons to refer to their degree of willpower. Rather, I’ve always heard people use the term spoons to refer to their level of physical energy/stamina.

For example, someone might say that having to stand (rather than sit) on public transit wiped out their spoons for the day.

If I heard someone say that clearing out their email inbox wiped out their spoons for the day, I would be surprised. I would assume they were using the term at an additional level of remove from the original metaphor. That’s fine, but nonstandard in my experience.

Many tasks take both physical and mental energy, like running errands. So I can see how some people might assume, from hearing spoons refer to such tasks, that it meant both kinds of energy. Or they could assume the opposite from me in terms of which one it refers to more. Or, the consensus on its definition could be different now than a decade ago when I formed my impression. Still, here’s my data point.

Liriodendron 8 Apr 2022 19:24 UTC
1 point
0
on: What would the creation of aligned AGI look like for us?
I think we’re much closer to AGI than we are to being able to upload human minds.

So, although an aligned AGI would probably accelerate research for uploading, I don’t think it’s guaranteed it would succeed in short order or even ever.

Liriodendron 5 Dec 2021 6:45 UTC
28 points
0
on: What have your romantic experiences with non-EAs/non-Rationalists been like?
My husband and I have been married for 8 years and have known each other for 18.

We share a sense of humor (very important for my everyday life) and some tastes in fiction, but have divergent hobbies and intellectual pursuits. He is not interested in rationality.

Although I sometimes wish we had more interests in common, it’s relaxing to not have him be competition in those areas. With regard to rationality, he rarely calls me out on biases or tries to get me to explain a problem more precisely than I already have. I have other friends who do that, and although I respect and appreciate it, it’s not always comfortable. My husband is someone comfortable I can always turn to. He sympathizes, reassures me, and helps me brainstorm solutions. He’s intelligent, motivated, and has good ideas that often cut across the ruts I’ve been wearing in my thought process. He respects and trusts my ability to think through things thoroughly, and doesn’t denigrate it as overthinking, though sometimes I’m disappointed he doesn’t always want to hear the saga of how I came to make a decision.

As for EA, we currently donate 5% of our net income to mostly effective charities, primarily due to my wishes. My husband appreciates GiveWell’s guidance, reads up on their top charities, and voices some preferences about which ones he’s feeling each year during our allocation conversation. He understands behind-the-scenes tools like QALYs but doesn’t geek out about them like I do, which I am fine with.

Liriodendron 20 Aug 2021 4:15 UTC
2 points
0
on: A Better Time until Sunburn Calculator
This isn’t a criticism that would be easy to improve your calculator based on. Still, I will report that the main impediment to its practicality for me is that I usually try to stay in the shade. I don’t have a good way of adjusting the weather report’s UV index to account for being in the shade. For example, today I spent 2.5 hours in the shade at midday without sunscreen and got a slight burn on my chest.

Liriodendron 27 Dec 2020 16:45 UTC
15 points
0
on: How to reliably signal internal experience?
You can say:

“My body’s telling me I’m stressed.”

“My body’s telling me this isn’t sustainable.”

“My body’s telling me no.”

Internal experience is very important for things like this. Citing it is a valid response, and your friends ought to respect that, even in an “ask culture” where they are welcome to push you and ask hard questions.

Personal effort does generate stress (sometimes distress, sometimes eustress). Although a doctor can use crude tools like e.g. checking your blood pressure, you have a much more sensitive ability to understand your body and stress level than anyone else. Most of us have less of that ability than would be ideal, so we should value and cultivate what we do have.

That said, “this is stressful/unsustainable” doesn’t mean that it was a bad idea to give that thing a try. Like you said, “have to try it to know it.” Nor does it necessarily mean that it would continue to be equally stressful/unsustainable if you were to continue. New routines come with a transaction cost of added stress. Sometimes if you can get over that hump, it gets better. Sometimes not.

Even “my body is telling me no” about something that would not in fact get easier with practice doesn’t necessarily mean that your productivity is capped at that level. It just means your “working harder” is capped at that level, currently. “Working smarter” is sometimes an option. And your personal budget for stress will wax and wane depending on outside factors. E.g. sleep, nutrition, security, social affirmation, etc. We are still in a pandemic, and many coping methods for replenishing ourselves have been unavailable for a long time. So maybe now just isn’t the time.

I think it was good that you listened to your body, and good that you’re asking these questions about the value and nature of personal experience and how to communicate it.