I started a meditation blog from a rationalist perspective. 10 posts so far.
MarkL
Karma: 242
Developmental Thinking Shout-out to CFAR
The point is that these speed runs presumably involve backtracking. They can rewind time and explore different paths until they find one they like.
My meditation blog from a (somewhat) rationalist perspective is now past 40 posts:
transcendental meditation
Robert Forman has done TM for many, many years, and he writes about his experience in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Aint-What-Its-Cracked/dp/1846946743/
His perspective is balanced and thoughtful.
You might also be interested in my meditation blog which is often (particularly in earlier posts) but not always from a rationalist perspective:
http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/experiences-of-long-term-meditators/
Writing is hard.
Alright, here’s my list of writing resources (in no particular order):
Books:
This is an excellent article about writing:
http://nautil.us/issue/18/genius/shakespeares-genius-is-nonsense
Some more inspiration:
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/01/11/seeking-density-in-the-gonzo-theater/ http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/05/03/rediscovering-literacy/
AI luminary Schmidhuber has written about complexity and beauty, and I’ve found his thoughts helpful:
http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/beauty.html
My blog is one, long, ungrammatical, rough-draft experiment, for reference, e.g.:
On the Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science by prof. dr. Edsger W. Dijkstra:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD1036.html
I think the issue is that driving is a process of tiny course corrections, where if you’re slightly off course you don’t die. But, programs are fragile. One bit wrong and you die.
Not a book, but a blog post and a paper:
PRISMs, Gom Jabbars, and Consciousness
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=791
http://www.rifters.com/real/articles/Morsella_2005.pdf
Anyone do “mechanism design” in their day job? What are jobs that have aspects of this? (Besides implicitly, like every web startup ever, which is still interesting to think about.)
Perfectly beautiful nude people, on demand, with infinite rapid novelty is a superstimulus.
I have updated my user page.
This is all stuff that I use:
My “foreground background meditation” http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/how-to-do-foregroundbackground-meditation/
Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing http://www.amazon.com/Focusing-Eugene-T-Gendlin/dp/0553278339/
Eugene Gendlin’s Thinking at the Edge http://www.focusing.org/tae.html
Eugene Gendlin’s concept of “direct reference” http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Creation-Meaning-Philosophical-Psychological/dp/0810114275/
Jay Earley’s explication of Internal Family Systems Therapy http://www.amazon.com/Self-Therapy-Step-By-Step-Wholeness-Cutting-Edge-Psychotherapy/
The discovery techniques of Coherence Therapy http://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Emotional-Brain-Eliminating-Reconsolidation/dp/0415897173/
structured analytic techniques http://www.amazon.com/Structured-Analytic-Techniques-Intelligence-Analysis/dp/1608710181/
Hurlburt’s “experience sampling method” http://www.amazon.com/Investigating-Pristine-Inner-Experience-Moments/dp/0521279127/
I’ve been using a personal wiki to develop my rationality skills, and I’ve recently written about it, here:
As encouragement to OP, I haven’t read The Things They Carried either, but OP totally makes sense, and it’s interesting and helpful, and I’m glad ze posted it. (… But now I realize OP has been edited before I got to it, so maybe parent applied more beforehand. :-)
Here is a self-link to my meditation blog; this post has links to other posts:
The blog is a mixture of personal experience, unscientific references, and cherry-picked peer-reviewed research. I specifically talk about the dangers of meditation, with included citations, but unfortunately it’s all mixed in with other stuff. Here is one place to start:
Venkatesh Rao has tips on this exact topic:
http://www.tempobook.com/2013/04/29/sensitive-dependence-on-paperwork-conditions/
I’m coming at this from ten years of brain fog, unrefreshing sleep, “feeling sick all the time,” etc. Mostly better now; I did a lot of stuff highly specific to my situation. The below mostly helped with enduring it. Remember, I’m just some random idiot on the internet, hope this is helpful, and in no particular order:
http://www.amazon.com/Awareness-Through-Movement-Easy—Do/dp/0062503227/
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lover-Within-Opening-Practice/dp/1581770170
http://www.amazon.com/Male-Multiple-Orgasm-Step—Step/dp/1882899067/
http://store.breathingcenter.com/books—in-english/buteyko-breathing-manual-download
http://www.amazon.com/Acceptance-Commitment-Therapy-Second-Edition/dp/1609189620/
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-Mind-Into-Life/dp/1572244259
http://www.amazon.com/Exposure-Therapy-Anxiety-Principles-Practice/dp/146250969X/
http://meditationstuff.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/additive-meditation/
http://www.amazon.com/Compassion-Focused-Therapy-Distinctive-Features/dp/0415448077/
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/
http://www.amazon.com/HIIT-Intensity-Interval-Training-Explained/dp/1477421599/
Some of John Sarno’s stuff
The idea is to start a thread for people to discuss 50 Shades, or something else perceived as trashy, and try to find what’s likable in it.
The links in this MetaFilter post will make it harder:
Or maybe it won’t.
But, seriously, I genuinely enjoy trashy, extremely problematic stuff like 50 Shades. I am curious to see a poll, too, to get a sampling of things that provoke, “I DO NOT GET WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THIS THE CONTEMPTIBLE FOOLS.”
I cannot participate, but things that give me hives off the top of my head are Sex In The City and professional sports.
But, it’s usually not the what but the why that makes me insane and contemptuous. Like, I don’t mind if you watch hours of reality TV, but you better have a damn good reason, even if it’s not easy to articulate. I have to trust you see something I don’t, the metabolizing of which is gratifying to you in a me-approved way. /channeling-my-most-pathologically-judgmental-aspects-of-self
This made me hate Sex In The City less, though I’m still suspicious:
It’s my pleasure. Feedback greatly appreciated—I have over a decade of thinking and doing on this; Help me expand on the parts that people most care about.
See also: Warnock’s Dilemma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warnock%27s_dilemma
The problem with no response is that there are five possible interpretations:
The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There’s nothing more to say except “Yeah, what he said.”
The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.
No one read the post, for whatever reason.
No one understood the post, but won’t ask for clarification, for whatever reason.
No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.
—Bryan C. Warnock