P. João

Karma: 170

I wanted to learn and publish my questions in lesswrong to make less mistakes, but...

Then comes someone named gwern. He completely ignores my cuestion and simply asks:
”Tell military firefighter stories.”

My first instinct was to dismiss him as an oddball—until a friend told me I was dealing with a legend of rationality. I have to admit: I nearly shit myself. His comment got more likes than the post I’d spent years working on.

So, I decided to grant his request with a story that blends military rigidity with… well, whatever it is I do. I didn’t want to expose my ass in LessWrong, but here we are:

1. The Semi-Rational Militar Firefighter

2. Field tests of semi-rationality in Brazilian military training

3. When the Wannabe Rambo Comedian Cried

4. Emotional Theory for a Disorder Manual on How Not to Freeze Completely

I am a dyslexics guy living in Argentina, writing in English for LessWrong feels like a paraplegic playing for the major leagues—ambitious, awkward, and, every now and then, a miracle of technology.

P. João 24 Sep 2025 10:11 UTC
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on: Does the Universal Geometry of Embeddings paper have big implications for interpretability?
And how do they do that?

P. João 24 Sep 2025 10:11 UTC
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on: Does the Universal Geometry of Embeddings paper have big implications for interpretability?
And how do they do that?

P. João 24 Sep 2025 10:08 UTC
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on: Which things were you surprised to learn are not metaphors?
I am still amazed when I see that uncertainty can be measured.

P. João 24 Sep 2025 10:02 UTC
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on: “Pastor Selfie,” How would you teach what you learn about rationality from scratch to the general public?
I published it, the script video is here: https://www.tiktok.com/@pastorselfi

P. João 21 Sep 2025 0:45 UTC
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on: Rationality outreach vs. rationality teaching
An old success case I found on my first search. I have had a pretty decent success rate with leftist-tribe friends and acquaintances as well and plan to continue testing.
Could you describe some of these experiments?

P. João 21 Sep 2025 0:27 UTC
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in reply to: Vladimir_Golovin’s comment on: Spreading the word?
Would it be possible to stimulate mental masochism? Make the unpleasant pleasant?

P. João 21 Sep 2025 0:25 UTC
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in reply to: JulianMorrison’s comment on: Spreading the word?
I don’t know, for you, rationality is expensive, so I invest at a certain level. But perhaps it could be cheaper, like instead of lack of illusion, and if we extract a little bit of illusion from that part of the path in particular? Isn’t 0.1% of rationality a victory?

P. João 21 Sep 2025 0:16 UTC
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in reply to: stcredzero’s comment on: Spreading the word?
Could you give me an example?

P. João 13 Sep 2025 14:26 UTC
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in reply to: Garrett Baker’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
how i find how they do?

P. João 12 Sep 2025 17:46 UTC
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in reply to: abstractapplic’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
woww! tks a lot!

P. João 12 Sep 2025 17:45 UTC
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in reply to: Arjun Pitchanathan’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
Sometimes it’s hard to define bets, especially if they’re predictions about myself, right? Are you trying to make this type of bet?

P. João 12 Sep 2025 17:44 UTC
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in reply to: Garrett Baker’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
Could it be that I can do this, but if I focus on making predictions about my behavior?

P. João 12 Sep 2025 17:43 UTC
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in reply to: Ustice’s comment on: How do you manage to have more satisfaction in your expectations?
this is important to me too, And what would you say is your level of success?

P. João 11 Sep 2025 17:16 UTC
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in reply to: Garrett Baker’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
Sorry, haha well i mean, on the racetrack of my life, I see horses of different breeds, trainers, and odds I could bet on: professional careers, relationships, personal projects, skills to develop. How can I bet better?
Some bets are very expensive, like the bet I made with myself that I could be a genius at probabilistic reasoning here at LessWrong, haha. And others just seem weird, like when I bet that eating a kilo of cheese would relax me and help me think better… (Well, it didn’t. I could talk about other, weirder bets, but that one seems less likely to be canceled.) The point is, I left two expectations to analyze: one very difficult and one very easy.

P. João 11 Sep 2025 16:31 UTC
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in reply to: abstractapplic’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
I appreciate those points: more control, forcing agreements, and operating. But what if I bet on myself based on my own beliefs, my capabilities, expectations, and personal goals, to learn about myself?

P. João 11 Sep 2025 16:28 UTC
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in reply to: Garrett Baker’s comment on: “A bet is a tax on nonsense.” Does that work for self-boycott?
I appreciate that, betting on the market, but it requires that I study well to actualize my beliefs about the market. And if I bet on my own beliefs, my capabilities, expectations, and personal goals, to study myself?

P. João 31 Aug 2025 15:49 UTC
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in reply to: Raemon’s comment on: How can I bet on my values and goals to get better, and faster, information?
With all the love and care, my personal example of how I did all this. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yzquFnvNapay9otjW/to-raemon-bet-in-my-personal-goals

P. João 29 Aug 2025 22:43 UTC
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in reply to: Raemon’s comment on: How can I bet on my values and goals to get better, and faster, information?
Wow! I post here without expecting much feedback, and when it comes, it gives me a thrill. Well, as a practical example, I asked Claude.IA to simulate detailed use of the framework. here https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EPFpZDLDDMaAjsK7q/if-we-can-educate-ais-why-not-apply-that-education-to-people-1 I have an apk with the functional model that I store in CSV format. Also, if you’re interested in seeing it installed, I can send it to you.

P. João 16 Aug 2025 17:36 UTC
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in reply to: momom2’s comment on: The Twelve Virtues of Rationality
Thanks for your attention. I’m going to answer you with my dyslexia, because it seems better than going through an LLM and something less personal. Be prepared, haha.
Yes, it was difficult for me, but I read the rationality from A to Z and everything, and I see that there’s a lot of sense in everything here. I just miss that more rational connection. I’m saying, take a leap of faith, without showing all the inferential steps necessary for the conclusion.
Yes, I see that it’s more poetic and inspirational, even though he didn’t explicitly cite it, it seems the most likely.
Yes, I see many signs of Yudukowski’s struggle. He’s the Bayesian rationality fighter I love the most, both for his goals and his style.
However, I’m particularly looking for that, how to structure latent virtues or values with the fewest possible inferential steps. Level of objective greed: very difficult. Risks: even more so. Haha.
And you, how are you trying to be better?

P. João 5 May 2025 20:19 UTC
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in reply to: Sergii’s comment on: Prison Journal: Building Better Thinking Skills—Altruistic Person Saved > 100 Gorillas saved
Thanks! I was eagerly awaiting feedback. And I see something in common, but you don’t see any significant difference?