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6localdeity's Shortform
1y
6
</rant> </uncharitable> </psychologizing>
localdeity3h60

The use of the HTML end tag implies that this disclaimer would appear after the text it describes.  But it seems like it would be best put before the text?  (Perhaps this is just another thing that "ideally would be this, but in practice will often be that"?)  If the text is a series of chat messages, then, yeah, you may not realize a disclaimer should apply until after you've sent the things to which it should apply.  But if it's one big post, then it's always easy to move it to the top of the post.

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Less Wrong Reacts
localdeity5d20

After a couple of minutes of poking around, I can't figure out how to fix it in the interface the page editor gives me, but: The three images on this page in the agree/disagree/Moloch list use a url beginning with localhost:3000, instead of lesswrong.com or a "//" relative address (which seems most ideal), and thus don't load for those not running an instance of lesswrong at localhost:3000.

Reply1
Obligated to Respond
localdeity18d51

IMO, like almost every social, psychological, and cultural trait, it exists on a continuum.

For natural predispositions, I'm sure that's true; but to the extent that the trait is a result of learning / training / experience / habit, it's quite possible for there to be effects that push it towards one extreme or another, resulting in a bimodal distribution.

A category that comes to mind is, if there's a behavior that people have some normally-distributed natural inclination towards, but is suppressed in most of society, and if there's a place where that behavior is relatively unsuppressed, then (to the extent that the behavior is important to them) the people with a strong inclination to do it will move to that location, and that place will probably end up tolerating or even supporting it more, and this positive feedback loop can iterate.  If the result is stable, then it might form what you could call a culture.

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johnswentworth's Shortform
localdeity18d40

Seems like that depends on details of the problem. If the receptor has zero function, then yes. If functionality is significantly reduced but nonzero… maybe.

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Shortform
[+]localdeity19d-71
Childhood and Education #14: The War On Education
localdeity21d4-1

To the react: There were several classes in which I didn't do the homework, which accounted for something like 15% of the grade, and I got something like 92% on the tests and projects; but since they took away 15% for the homework, the result was 77%, a C instead of an A.  To my mind, a grade should be something like the best estimate of a student's abilities and knowledge of a subject, and since the homework problems don't measure anything the tests don't (I'm distinguishing "answer these 5-20 short problems" from a major project), other than obedience, it seems to me inappropriate to mark someone down for not doing the homework.

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Childhood and Education #14: The War On Education
localdeity21d71

– eliminate homework and weekly tests from counting toward semester grade

The homework part I would have appreciated.  I did not need to do all those homework problems to learn the material, as my test scores proved, and giving me a C because I didn't do the homework was, in my opinion, lying.

Reply1
In Defense of Alcohol
localdeity23d20

If you come from a drinking culture, then people who refuse to drink with you are obviously the people who want to keep secrets from you, so it makes sense to treat it as a red flag.

Of course, they might also be people who consider themselves high-risk for alcoholism and have chosen abstinence.  I hope the drinking culture is able to accommodate them.

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Viliam's Shortform
localdeity1mo102

how is it possible for them to develop a distinct style? Isn't that like the only thing they - practically by definition - shouldn't do? 

Consult King James Programming: https://www.tumblr.com/kingjamesprogramming

A much simpler Markov chain, trained apparently on "the King James Bible and the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (I think I read that "The Art of Unix Programming" or something is also in there).  Examples:

then shall they call upon me, but I will not cause any information to be accumulated on the stack.

How much more are ye better than the ordered-list representation

evaluating the operator might modify env, which will be the hope of unjust men

If you imagine that style 1 has traits A1, B1, and C1, and style 2 has traits A2, B2, and C2, then you could end up with style 3 having traits A1, B2, and C1, which is a novel combination.  Depending on your criteria of "style", this might count as a new style.  Here it's pretty clumsy and heavy-handed, and it looks more like switching between style 1 and style 2 (IIRC this particular Markov chain uses the last 3 or 4 words, which is higher than usual and more likely to just reproduce chains of text from the original); but if you imagine there being 100 styles, each having 1000 traits, it seems much more likely that the resulting thing would qualify as a "new style" by a layman's judgment.

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If I imagine that I am immune to advertising, what am I probably missing?
localdeity1mo20

I think "completely immune to advertising" would mean it has no effect on your behavior either way.  This sounds like advertising has an anti-effect.  Which, you know, can be a good thing for game theory purposes.  But it is a different thing.

Semi-related:

Particularly deplorable are the struggles of these children against dull or otherwise unworthy adults in authority. The very gifted child or adolescent, perceiving the illogical conduct of those in charge of his affairs, may turn rebellious against all authority and fall into a condition of negative suggestibility—a most unfortunate trend of personality, since the person is then unable to take a coöperative attitude toward authority.

A person who is highly suggestible in a negative direction is as much in bondage to others around him as is the person who is positively suggestible. The social value of the person is seriously impaired in either case. The gifted are not likely to fall victims to positive suggestion but many of them develop negativism to a conspicuous degree.

The highly intelligent child will be intellectually capable of self-determination, and his greatest value to society can be realized only if he is truly self-possessed and detached from the influences of both positive and negative suggestion. The more intelligent the child, the truer this statement is. It is especially unfortunate, therefore, that so many gifted children have in authority over them persons of no special fitness for the task, who cannot gain or keep the respect of these good thinkers. Such unworthy guardians arouse, by the process of "redintegration," contempt for authority wherever it is found, and the inability to yield gracefully to command.

Thus some gifted persons, mishandled in youth, become contentious, aggressive, and stubborn to an extent which renders them difficult and disagreeable in all human relationships involving subordination. Since subordination must precede posts of command in the ordinary course of life, this is an unfortunate trend of personality. Cynicism and negativism are likely to interfere seriously with a life career. Happily, gifted children are typically endowed with a keen sense of humor, and are apparently able to mature beyond cynicism eventually in a majority of cases.

Reply11
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64Perils of Generalizing from One's Social Group
10mo
1
6localdeity's Shortform
1y
6
20A Modest Proposal: Logging for Environmentalists
4y
5