I’m curious why he didn’t just use incendio
sentientplatypus
I was thinking it would work as effectively because of the fire weakness thing and Harry shouldn’t be magically depleted yet. Also it would be a lot safer than transfiguring sulfuric acid. Although it’s possible the troll was enchanted to make it fire resistant and that Harry frankly didn’t care whether he was violating the rules of transfiguration, and merely was worried about speed, but I’m inclined to think incendio would be faster.
I thought the part right after Eliezer finds his notes was the best reply to the topic, and I particularly liked the smallpox comparison. Could have been better focused in general, as there was a lot of things that were a bit off track, but I feel it was worth watching on the whole.
Also the random flashes to Eliezer’s facial expression while PZ is talking sent me into hysterics for some reason.
Daily Schedules in Combating Akrasia
I hadn’t seen that thread, I’ll post there as well.
For two weeks I’ve been writing out a schedule for what I want to accomplish the next day before I go to bed, noting the time at which I intend to do something.
I’d give the technique a +9 so far as it has actually worked incredibly well for me in helping with my motivation problems, in fact in a couple days I felt more motivated to work than I can ever remember being before. I’m trying to change up my schedule and leave time for spontaneity to avoid having the plan become monotonous and it doesn’t feel that way so far. And the results I’m getting are great: I find I get about 95% of what I plan done when I have a specific time written down for when I’m supposed to do it as opposed to what I’d roughly estimate at 60% completion when I just have some general idea in my head of what to work on over the course of the day.
My theory for why this is working is that when I have a specific time to do something I feel as though I have to do it now or I’ve failed some test of willpower. If I just have general work to be done, it’s far too easy for me to defer to later, so that a lot of what was planned for doesn’t get done. I also feel like if I expect to brace my mind for dense technical learning I have a much easier time finishing the material instead of giving up and procrastinating on it halfway through.
I feel like this solution will work mainly for people who have more flexible schedules (as I do at the moment) but could still serve a purpose for anyone with a more rigid schedule who wants to be more productive in their free time.
I understand what you mean, and I’d suggest trying to keep different lists of time frames on which to accomplish your goals for free-time productivity so you know when you’ve done enough for a day. I’m usually able to guess reasonably accurately as to what I can accomplish in a given time frame though, as long as I stay motivated on a daily basis, which may be harder for others than it is for me.
On a daily level I try to think of about how productive I am on what I consider good days and try to equate that with what I’m working on any given day and plan to have a good day. Since I’ve been doing my daily schedule thing I haven’t had a day of poor motivation yet, which is tremendous as my motivation is usually temperamental as hell.
Not sure if that’ll help you at all, but I figured I’d throw it out there.
Yeah, I haven’t had a holiday or illness yet so I can’t say in regards to that. I plan the tasks for a particular day from lists of longer term goals, such as goals for the summer currently, of course adding in other tasks as they come up. I try to decide how much to do by comparing how much I accomplish on a really good day and planning on doing about that much work, which has been effective so far.
Improving Enjoyment and Retention Reading Technical Literature
About a month now
This definitely sounds like something that would help me feel more active with my research, I’ll have to try it, thanks!
I’ve got Anki downloaded, but I haven’t used it yet—I’ll definitely give it a shot now. Not having to make cards before I can start studying makes getting myself to try a lot easier, thanks.
Whoops, I didn’t notice the typo because I expected the misspell line.
Torture vs Dust Specks Yet Again
I just want to say thanks to everyone for your comments and I now realize the obvious flaw of incorporating any extremely personal connection into a mathematical morality calculation. Because, as BlueSun pointed out that causes problems on whatever scale of pain involved.
if you were faced with your Option 1: Save 400 Lives or Option 2: Save 500 Lives with 90% probability, would you seriously take option 2 if your loved ones were included in the 400? I wouldn’t. Faced with statistical people I’d take option 2 every time. But make Option 1: Save 3 lives and those three lives are your kids or option 2: Save 500 statistical lives with 90% probability I don’t think I’d hesitate to pick my kids.
I also learned not to grandstand on morality questions. Sorry, about the “would you do it? really?” argument, I won’t do that again.
However, I still fall on the side of the dust specks after rethinking the issue, but due to the reasoning that the 3^^^3 individuals would probably be willing to suffer the dust specks to save someone from torture, while the tortured person wouldn’t likely be willing to be tortured to save others from dust specks.
I am basing my reasoning on the probable preferences of those involved, so my answer would depend on the feelings of the people to being dust specked/tortured.
I’m not entirely clear what exactly you are asking with number 1: are you just asking 1.6 seconds of torture vs. 3^^^3/ 1 billion dust specks? If so, I’m essentially indifferent, it seems like both are fairly inconsequential as long as the torture only causes pain for the 1.6 seconds.
For number 2, a billion dust specks would probably get to be fairly noticeable in succession, so I’d prefer to get 1.6 seconds of torture over with, because that isn’t really enough time for it actually to really be torturous (depending on what exactly that torture was) rather than deal with a constant annoyance.
I may be missing something obvious, but what is the huge problem with releasing the logs?
This post of mine might be helpful to you.
1) check that its locked, then write a reminder, note, etc in your phone that you locked it 2) If you say “That sounds really interesting, let me write that down so I remember to look it up later” that’s not rude at all, its showing you’re actually interested in what he’s saying. 3)Put a giant yellow sign on the front that says ‘check that I’m closed!’ 4)If possible put it down on paper or in your phone. If not then make up a ridiculous story using the street names and turns, such that the non-sequitur helps you remember. 5) write up an outline of key points and memorize those, helping yourself remember them by creating an acronym from the letters that begin each point, so you’ll be able to check whether you’re about to skip one. 6) splitting it into three number chunks before memorizing it would help a lot, I think 7) I just get up, I’ve given up on this one. 8) Random associations, between firms and names and names and people would be my suggestion. 9)Read the book. Anki. Take a class on the same material while reading a different book on the same material. It worked for learning huge amounts about molecular biology in a short time for me.
In the way I view Devil’s advocacy it is not at all about coming up with any argument against a proposition, but coming up with a legitimate one against a belief. “What if a time traveler threw a cake into the asteroid belt?” is not an argument anyone would use in a legitimate debate and likewise is one I would avoid if I was attempting to argue against my own beliefs. Arguing merely for the sake of arguing is indeed useless and irrational, but arguing to try to expose your belief’s weak points is rather extremely helpful.