kdorian

And that doesn't even bring up the fact that if the farmers have no way to plow the field once they are no longer being harassed, they're going to starve regardless of what the adventurers do to the elves.

I can't see how but that both the victims, and everyone else they affect, deciding. That doesn't mean they'll all come to the same conclusion, of course.

I'm pretty sure that's where politics comes from, personally...

Edited to add: I do not mean to imply that if one group decides X, another Y, and a third Z, that it necessarily means that any of them are wrong.

It isn't a rationalist quote. It doesn't belong here.

I am forced to disagree; a quote about conquering the (colloquially) impossible with sufficient thought and planning is very appropriate for this site.

No, but your "hodge-podge of inaccurate 2D maps", while still imperfect, is more accurate than relying on a single 2-D map - which is the point I took from the original quote.

I suspect, with no data to back me up, that is those who were ambivalent when they stepped into the polling booth that genuinely misremember. Others know they voted for the other guy, but want to be seen as one of the 'winners'.

There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is seeing something that isn't there.

Thomas Hardy

Very few people see their own actions as truly evil.... It is left to their victims to decide what is evil and what is not.

Laurell K. Hamilton

A quote I find useful when considering both rationalizing, and the differences of relative perspective.

Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative.

William S. Burroughs

Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

We will find the key to our liberation only when we accept that what we once did to survive is now destroying us.

- Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking.

- David Mamet

Excellent article, thank you for the link!

I have always read it as intentionally ironic commentary on the 'slippery slope' more than anything else.

Are there any guidelines, or does anyone have any significant thoughts, about mentioning Less Wrong in text in fanfiction (or any other type of fiction)? I know a lot of people came here by way of HP:MoR, myself included, but I'm interested if anyone has reasons that they believe it would be a bad idea, or an especially good one.

Absolutely true. I test as I can, as difficult as that can be with a sample size of 1. But the magnesium/calcium supplement combo reliably stopped and restarted my nail-biting through three rounds of taking/not taking the supplements, which is as good a track record as I require. When I started testing my supplements I was not surprised to learn that several that had initially seemed beneficial didn't provide any sustained benefit.

A half truth is more frightening than a lie.

-Bengali proverb

Magnesium & Calcium supplements are cheaper still - nail biting can be a symptom of a deficency in one or both. And one advantage of suppliments is that you should know pretty quickly if that's the cause or not; in the admittedly few people I know who tried suppliments it either significantly reduced nail biting within a week or it never helped at all.