zntneo

Karma: 88

zntneo 22 Aug 2012 22:35 UTC
14 points
on: The Brain Preservation Foundation still needs money
I donated a small amount

zntneo 15 May 2012 22:11 UTC
13 points
on: Group rationality diary, 5/14/12
Hey I’m Zach, So today, using Critich’s idea for associative memory. I went to the cupboard 5 times pulled out my phone and did a little dance. This is to help get me in the habit of calorie counting.

Oh and i told a few people about this but i’ll share this too. I have always hated fashion with a passion (i did not mean the rhyme). I found out what i actually hate is “mainstream fashion.” For those at the fashion session watching luke’s part of the presentation left me with a “well crap i have to look like that in order to be “fashionable” ” feeling, it was a dreadful feeling. Reflecting on it and talking to Rick more i found out that i actually like more around what Colin was wearing.

zntneo 4 Apr 2011 18:35 UTC
6 points
on: Welcome to Less Wrong!
Hello my name is Zachary Aletheia (when my wife and i got married we decided to choose a last name based on something that had meaning to use aletheia means truth in greek and we both have a passion for finding out the truth). Looking back on my journey to being a rationalist i think it was a 2 step process (though given how i’ve repeatedly thought about it i probably have changed the details in my memory quite a bit). I think the first step was during a anthropology class i watched this film about “magic” (i was a neo-pagan at the time who believed i could manipulate energy with my mind) and how absurd the video seemed really made me want to find a way to be able to have beliefs that aren’t easy to see as absurd or laughable by others. From there i read quite a lot about logic (i still have a love affair with pure logic, i think i own 3 books on the subject and recently bought one from lukeprog). This all occured while i was a computer engineer undergraduate.

When i couldn’t pass physics (which at the time i thought , due to self-serving bias, was because i was more interested in what i got my degree in) i decided to switch majors to psychology. During this time i still took lots of vitamins and supplements and was even a 9/11 truther for a while. Then i took a class called “Cognition” where we learned about quite a few of the biases and heuristics that are talked about on LW. Since then I started listening to a ton of skeptic podcasts and in general have tried to be a better rationalist.

One area that i do seem to have a hard time being a rationalist about is myself. I hold my self in very low self esteem (for instance i truly debated if i should post on here because everyone seems so brilliant how could i possibly add anything). I am hoping on trying to apply reason to that area of my life.

When it comes to life goals i am still trying to figure that out. I am leaning towards becoming a psychology prof but really not sure.

Oh i found lesswrong due to lukeprog and CSA. I have since become basically addicted to reading posts on it.

Oh i live in seaside,ca if anyone lives near there i would love to go to a LW meet-up.

zntneo 6 Jun 2011 5:51 UTC
5 points
on: What are you working on? June 2011
*working on getting a better job I am currently a cashier at a gas station and is driving me nuts

*working on becoming more assertive using the book asserting yourself I have a really hard time asking anyone for anything which is probably related to point four below

*trying to make doing spaced-repetition flashcards a daily habit I want to learn some Arabic( so that I can understand some of what my wife is learning at DLI). I also want to learn less wrong deck and as many psychological biases as I can

*been trying to increase my self-esteem( it’s not just low I would say it’s a negative self-esteem)

zntneo 19 May 2011 6:28 UTC
5 points
on: Should I be afraid of GMOs?
A website that discuses this is BioFortified It is written by i think multiple graduate students in genetic engineering (full disclosure i am friends with one of the writers).

zntneo 2 Jan 2012 4:08 UTC
4 points
in reply to: Kutta’s comment on: Rationality quotes January 2012
I would say that for instance I don’t believe that most alt med stuff works but this is exactly the reason I care that others know this and how we know this. This attitude infuriates me.

zntneo 28 Jun 2011 18:03 UTC
4 points
on: [SEQ RERUN] Religion’s Claim to be Non-Disprovable
This is one of the posts that i wish everyone in the skeptical community would read.

zntneo 22 Aug 2012 7:30 UTC
3 points
on: Group rationality diary, 8/20/12
I have been trying to find ways to compensate for some of the worse problems of my low conscientiousness. I tend to not be thorough when it comes to things I do (for instance checking spelling before posting comments,checking to see if I made a mistake in a project I am working on, making sure I pay attention to detail). I really haven’t found anything worth noting so any help would be appreciated. (The seriousness of this is I am close to being fired for it and fear I wont be able to compensate well enough)

(I realize I cant change my conscientiousness score I am trying to compensate for having a severely low one)

I have also started rereading HPMOR so I can get caught up.

I have been thinking a lot about career choices and maybe long term goals lately and I feel like I am lost on both fronts. The goals/dreams I have had in the past are gone (due to me not being conscientious enough see above, being talked out of the other option , having medical problems that prevent me from doing them). So I feel kind of like I am a leaf being blown around by the winds of the situation I am in. Instead of an agent acting in the world (sorry for the rambling)

zntneo 18 May 2012 2:33 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Mercurial’s comment on: Group rationality diary, 5/14/12
Do you think an intro to CBT would be useful at a minicamp? It seems to me rationality applied to ones own thoughts about oneself (something that i am extremely irrational about)

zntneo 3 Jan 2012 1:08 UTC
3 points
in reply to: machrider’s comment on: Rationality quotes January 2012
I totally agree if its not your cup of tea fine. What pisses me off is the line about ” if you don’t believe it exists it seems like a good reason to not be concerned with it”

zntneo 1 Jul 2011 16:26 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Vladimir_M’s comment on: Reasons for being rational
As someone who is both into the skeptics movement and the atheist movement i’m not sure what skeptics “wouldn’t dare mutter” about. It seems to me that skeptics and atheists just have and interest in those things and want to stop the harm caused by them.

Also, i must be ignorant about all these other horrible delusions you are talking about.

Further you must be talking about instrumental rationality because i’m not sure how this is evidence against epistemic rationality.

zntneo 19 May 2011 23:27 UTC
3 points
in reply to: Zvi’s comment on: Designing Rationalist Projects
I wonder if we had someone who always disagreed with us if it would help prevent he cultishness. I know there is evidence that doing so increases decisions and i think i remember there being evidence that it helps stop groupthink. So maybe if we implemented what CalcSam said but add that someone be designated as the person who must disagree with us (this person could be different people or the same person)

zntneo 13 Mar 2012 2:09 UTC
2 points
in reply to: atucker’s comment on: Less Wrong mentoring thread
I got a degree in psychology and a couple credits short of a minor in philosophy. I had a poor gpa due mostly to the fact that i started as a computer engineer and have some learning disabilities that i didn’t realize then. I want to be able do something with my psych degree such as go to grad school to do research in psych but have no idea if i can make it. Also, currently i am a cashier who is looking for a tech job (i have an associates in information technology and 6 years of part time experience) but i can’t seem to get one. Any help would be appricated

zntneo 12 Mar 2012 18:55 UTC
2 points
on: Productivity tips for those low on motivation
Have you tried using implementation intentions they seem like they have good research backing. See this , and this

zntneo 28 Jun 2011 18:01 UTC
2 points
in reply to: AdeleneDawner’s comment on: The True Rejection Challenge
you are a lucky bastard then. I might even have my eyes closed with my headphones on and people will talk to me.

zntneo 17 Jun 2011 3:33 UTC
2 points
on: Building habits: requesting advice on installing mental software
I would be interested too. I have had huge problems not only with habits but routines in general. I have a bs in psych and understand operant and classical conditioning very well (along with the post by tim i would add this to your reading). None of this information has helped me in the following areas exercise eating healthy procrastination many many other things

zntneo 11 Jun 2011 17:42 UTC
2 points
on: Outreach to probably compatible groups?
I am pretty into the skeptic community and i do wish more people had heard of less wrong. I think it would be a great idea to try to make an outreach effort to those groups. For instance the skeptics usually want to improve their rationality (the other groups you list might). I know the biggest skeptic podcast talks about things related to rationality quite often. Although I am pretty disappointed at the lack of knowledge of bias, heuristics and things like bayes theorem amongst the people who i have talked to in the skeptics community

zntneo 22 May 2011 4:34 UTC
2 points
on: The elephant in the room, AMA
how do you deal with the book of Abraham not being the actual translation of Egyptian that the original should be (we have the originals). Also how do you deal with Adam god, the belief that adam was a god who came down as a man to create humanity?

zntneo 19 Nov 2012 15:11 UTC
1 point
in reply to: Kawoomba’s comment on: How well defined is ADHD?
You might also get diagnosed with things out of the blue. I have dealt with depression MST of my life and one Dr tried to say I had psychosis. I am pretty sure he was wrong.

zntneo 5 Nov 2012 16:08 UTC
1 point
on: Group rationality diary, 10/29/12
So I recently found out I have ADHD inattentive type. I think that is a cause of my current unemployment. I have been trying to say about ways to compensate that are science-based but having a hard time finding good information (I am on a medication now). Any suggestions would help.