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What's your favorite LessWrong post? — LessWrong

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[ Question ]

What's your favorite LessWrong post?

21st Feb 2019

1 min read

27

27

What's your favorite LessWrong post?

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Feb 21, 2019

110

Set up for Success: Insights from 'Naive Set Theory'

I very much doubt anyone else will care much about this post, so I will give my reasoning.

Please vote before you read my reasoning. :)

This is the only post I've ever read that actually convinced me to do something with substantial effort, that is, actually read Naive Set Theory. I really, really wanted to practice kata on sets before I attempted a math minor and I still look back on that as the best 3 weeks of last summer.
Reading NST the way I did taught me a lot about how not to read a math book. Don't try to memorize everything. Don't try to get every detail on the first pass. And definitely don't copy the book almost verbatim into a spaced repetition system ending up with over 8,000 cloze deletion cards which you then practice for 6 months. There is a really good reason why we learn math through proofs, problems, and puzzles.
Also I like the tradition of having several smart people read the same classic book and give their slightly different spins on it. The information is mostly redundant, but my all-too-human memory is thankful for it.

Feb 21, 2019

110

Making Beliefs Pay Rent

Feb 21, 2019

50

Boring Advice Repository

Mar 20, 2019

40

Beyond the Reach of God

Feb 21, 2019

40

Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity

May 26, 2020

20

How an algorithm feels from inside

Feb 22, 2019

20

Feed the Spinoff Heuristic!

Feb 22, 2019

20

Parapsychology: the control group for science

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This was last asked in 2014 on the annual survey. Since we have strong upvotes, you may vote for 2 posts. Each answer should link to a single post, and I will delete repeats. Please use a strong and weak upvote each for at most one answer (and posting an answer is a vote).

Basically any LessWrong URL is ok - links, events, questions, and archive links to pages only on LessWrong 1.0 are fine. I only expect regular posts and links to be chosen though.

Feel free to comment on answers if you're dying to explain your reasoning, or comment on this post if you're dying to mention your third favorite and lower posts.