MaxG

Map of maps of in­ter­est­ing fields

• MaxG 21 Nov 2021 10:18 UTC

  3 points

  0

  on: You are prob­a­bly un­der­es­ti­mat­ing how good self-love can be

  Cross-posting this from the EA forum, in case somebody here finds it useful:

  I enjoyed this post and really appreciate all the great resources! Recently I have also been thinking about this and just posted a short article on how to make metta meditation a bit easier for people who struggle with it. Maybe it will be useful to some of you, I would love to hear your feedback.

  Here is an excerpt:

  Instead of beginning with yourself, you first picture someone with whom you have a really uncomplicated and positive relationship. Wishing them well is much easier. Not only does this help with getting into the groove of building up the feeling of metta, but a certain framing can help you transition the focus to yourself more easily. Personally, I find this works best with a pet.

  For example, I may start with thinking of my dog and wishing him well using my preferred metta phrases. Then I try to imagine viewing myself through the eyes of my dog and also silently saying phrases like “May You be well.” To me, it comes very natural to imagine that my dog loves me a lot and is really happy to see me. Because of that, it isn’t hard to put myself into the position of my dog, imagining him e.g. being petted by me and wishing me all the best.

  Now comes the interesting part. Mirghafori gives the instruction of “joining voices” with, in this case, my dog. That means switching the phrasing to “May I be well” instead of You. Instead of viewing myself from the outside perspective of a friend, I now try to have a loving awareness of the body and mind which I experience from the inside.

[Linkpost] If You Can Be Bad, You Can Also Be Good

• MaxG 27 Feb 2021 14:45 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Dagon’s comment on: Can you be 100% con­fi­dent in your moral be­liefs?

  The clarification makes sense. As I wrote above, I should have thought of murder being defined this way.

  Well, I’m pretty sure that “1 + 1 = 2” but couldn’t I be convinced otherwise? In that case, is it still reasonable to say that I am 100% confident that “1 + 1 = 2″? I feel like this is exactly what I am trying to ask here.

• MaxG 27 Feb 2021 14:39 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: lsusr’s comment on: Can you be 100% con­fi­dent in your moral be­liefs?

  Yes, ethics often deals with stuff that is not clear cut and obvious.

  I guess my conception of confidences might be flawed, do you have any recommended reading or some video clearing up what confidences are exactly? It seems that a lot of disagreements boil down to using some term in a different way, right? Isn’t this what Yudkowsky wrote about?

• MaxG 27 Feb 2021 14:29 UTC

  2 points

  in reply to: Rudi C’s comment on: Can you be 100% con­fi­dent in your moral be­liefs?

  Thank you for the answer! I thought the Goodheart effect was about metrics turning bad when they become the thing you are optimising for. Does the term apply to something else here?

  The term “murder” refering to something immoral by definition makes sense, I should have thought about this more explicitely.

  Your advice in the last paragraph resonates with me. My experience has also been that people often seem to prioritize signaling. I am not a big fan of Jordan Peterson, but this reminded me of a quote of his: “If you can’t understand why someone is doing something, look at the consequences of their actions, whatever they might be, and then infer the motivations from their consequences.”

[Question] Can you be 100% con­fi­dent in your moral be­liefs?