My posts since the last digest

• A Culture of Bullshit — Part of the reason society is going down the tubes — if it is — is because we have a culture of mediocrity, where bullshit is tolerated.
• The Flaw in the Paperclip Maximizer Thought Experiment — Most of the things I write are original ideas (whether brilliant insights or lazy hot takes), but this one was a bit more of an exposition of ideas I didn’t come up with.
• I Spent 30 Days Learning to Smile More Charismatically — Technically, this one took me 30 days to make. Talks about charisma and “looksmaxxing”, and how unhinged some looksmaxxing advice can be.
• In Defense of Sneering — This was just a LessWrong comment, which is allowed for Halfhaven. There was a LessWrong thread where everyone was complaining about sneering, and I chimed in because I think sneering isn’t inherently bad, it’s only bad if it’s too hostile. But not enough sneering risks letting bullshitters get away with their bullshit.
• Literacy is Decreasing Among the Intellectual Class — Looking at two books that have been in publication for over a century (Etiquette and Gray’s Anatomy) and comparing the old versions with the modern to see the degradation in writing quality typical of modern books.

I’m proud of a few of these ones. I was sick during this segment of Halfhaven, but I still managed to get things out, which I’m happy with. I had a few mostly-finished posts in the chamber.

Some highlights from other Halfhaven writers (since the last digest)

• Why is Writing Aversive? (Ari Zerner) — A relatable post asking why it is that writing can feel so hard. My general advice would normally be that if you find writing involves a lot of friction, but enjoy having written things, that means you just don’t like writing and should give up. But reading this post made me realize I used to feel a lot more like Ari than I do now about writing. As little as a few months ago, maybe. I think maybe developing taste and putting more effort into editing has been what’s helped. Then writing feels like a type of craft, rather than a brain dump. And building things is fun. As long as you’re not TikTok-brained (or Magic-Arena-brained), which is its own problem, and one I sometimes struggle with too.
• Menswear is a Subcultural Signaling System (Aaron) — A great post. In particular, I liked the concept handle of a “Type of Guy”, which conveys the archetypal nature of fashion. “You do not want different items of clothing you are wearing to signal you are incompatible Types Of Guy.” So no vest over a t-shirt and jeans! Has a follow-up post.
• No One Reads the Original Work (Algon) — People talk about things without actually having seen them. The equivalent of reading headlines without clicking through to the news article. I remember seeing a lot of this when Jordan Peterson was popular, and people who hated him would talk about him in ways that made it clear they’d never heard the man speak. They’d only heard people talking about him.
• against predicting speedrunners won’t do things (April) — I think April is winning the record for the most post topics that make me want to click. Speedrunning lore is inherently interesting. I like that she backs up her hypothesis with some concrete predictions.
• Diary: getting excused from a jury duty; models, models, models (mishka) — I’d never thought about how biased police are as witnesses. That’s a great point.
• To Write Well, First Experience (keltan) — Lots of good writing advice. In particular, that if you’re writing from stuff you’ve read rather than from real experience, you’re writing through a low-bandwidth proxy.
• Traditional Food (Lsusr) — A very thorough post about how our idea of a traditional diet doesn’t necessarily reflect what people actually ate in the past, and instead often reflects actual government propaganda. White rice and white bread are “fiberless blobs of carbohydrates” that nobody in history ever ate, and eating them makes us sick.

We’re entering the final segment of Halfhaven. Many won’t finish the full 30 post challenge by the end of November, but I’ve still gotten some good posts out of the people who didn’t make it all the way, so be proud of what you have done, rather than dwelling on what you didn’t do. Good luck in the final week everyone!