I really liked this article!
Soothsilver
Karma: 195
Thank you. I admit I didn’t understand most of what you said. Sorry.
I tried meditation once and it was terrible. Emptying my head allows all the negativity to come in :).
You’re referring to http://lesswrong.com/lw/js/the_bottom_line/, yes?
It just seems like those situations don’t present themselves very often. More often, a situation presents itself like this: A team member makes all the wrong arguments to support a thesis I disagree with. Previously, I would just fight against each of his arguments. Now, I don’t do anything much (I’m not good at convincing people) but instead keep thinking “yeah, yeah, arguments, soldiers, written the bottom line, blah, blah” without it actually being useful.
That’s not really related to my main problems, but in general, rationality for me poses that problem, that merely thinking in a Sequences-like fashion causes me to feel sad and doesn’t bring enough benefit to compensate, I suspect.
Huh, um, okay! ^^ I somewhat suspected that that is the case, but it’s still hard to believe it. (thank you)
That’s helpful, thank you! Your mention of Fluid Dynamics was particularly nice.
Happy to share.
Part of is what I replied to ChristianKl: that I feel like every important thing should be reduced to thinking about EA or AI. This makes me think that I can’t find any new areas interesting because they’re not good, or should be eliminated to divert resources into one of those two items.
Another part, I think, is that previously, I could always discover a… greater… area of interest once I grew out of the old one. When I got good at video games, I could move on to try making friends, then to do volunteering, then to attend college, then to try living alone, but, once I started to seriously think through the Sequences, which made read other Yudkowsky’s writing, including, sigh, “The Road to Singularity”, the next thing then was “saving the world” and it doesn’t feel like I can get much further from there.
Well, yeah, but it also gives a lot of answers and provides an argument to everything. Also it feels like reading from the community reduces everything to either effective altruism or AI. It may not be true but I’ve internalized it so much that now I can’t listen to, say, any politician’s statement on state budget, without EA or AI funding immediately coming to mind. Or even any economics or politics or important decision making without feeling like “this is all wrong and we shouldn’t care about it”. It’s a little disheartening :)
Thank you ^^
Not neccessarily cause of depression.
I mean, I am suspicious and I believe it has something to do with it. At my worst during depressive periods, I keep thinking about death, altruism, rationality, AI etc. Also, there’s these surveys that tell me that LessWrong members are unusually likely to have depression.
But I think my depression is mostly innate.
I keep doing that but it’s kind of hard, and I can’t easily get a proof of what’s causing the problem.
Being around here has made me think that I know everything interesting about the world and suppressed my excitement and joy from many minor things I could do. I also feel like my sense of wonder diminished. As I write this, I am a little unhappy, and in a period of depression, but I had similar feelings, if less intense, even before this period.
I was wondering whether you have any advice on how to restore this; or even better, how to “forget” as much rationality and transhumanism as possible (if not actually forgetting, then at least “to think and feel as I did before I read the Sequences”)?
I’ve tried Joylent Twennybars but not any other product. I found them very tasty, but I also got some stomachache. Maybe I would get used to that, though, or I may have been eating them incorrectly.
Addendum: I have just experienced the worst diarrhea I’ve ever had. However, I suspect it’s unrelatd.
I order Joylent Twennybars in response to this. They are rather tasty.
Wow, thank you very much! I would have thought most LessWrongers would answer the question “Why does anything exist?” with the answer “That question does not make sense.”
I didn’t know there was such a range of options.
Is there a European alternative for a MealSquares-like product, i.e. one that is eaten, not drunk?
For what it’s worth, I would enjoy reading about a squad of trained wizards raiding Voldemort’s compound ^^.
We’re consequentialists here, so I get all the credit for it even if it wasn’t much effort, right?
^^
I made a video compilation of Japanese songs that include the words “Tsuyoku naritai”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcXiT6An-U
I wasn’t really convinced that this concept was really present in Japanese culture before but I suppose I am, now.
Thank you very much.
The WHO guidance is that the person who is infected uses a mask as much as possible, that they use the bathroom for evening routine last (after you) and that they clean it/disinfect it after use.