It doesn't seem correct to me that adding even a dash of legibility "screws the work over" in the general case. I do agree there are certainly situations where the right solution is illegible to all (except the person implementing it). But both in that case and in general, talking to and getting along with the boss both makes things more legible, and will tend to increase quality. I expect that in the cases of you working well and not getting rewarded much, spending a little time interacting with your boss would both improve your outcomes, and importantly, also make your output even better than it already was.
I'm not very convinced by MikkW's list of possible issues, but at least it makes some attempt to engage with why readers didn't find the post valuable.
I would be interested to hear if there are any issues with the «Army of Jakoths» post that I didn't identify here
This is indeed what I said in the post:
I put poetic in quotes, because it's not a poem, but is written with a similar format
I like this quote from a post that I published around two years ago, which wasn't well-received and I ended up taking down:
But at the end of the day, the American governments (neither state nor federal) don't truly follow the will of the people. Instead, they are led jointly by the major parties, The Red Prince of Moloch and The Blue Prince of Moloch, two partners in an intricate dance choreographed to look like a fight, but ultimately leading both partners in the direction of Moloch's will, only loosely bound to the will of the people.
While I don't necessarily endorse the post as a whole, that quote is one of the gems from it that I still stand by. I might expand further on this point in the future
If identical twins share 100% of their DNA and siblings share about 50%, twiblings share 75%. To the best of my knowledge, twiblings don’t exist in nature.
Not among mammals, but some insects, including bees and ants, actually have 75% consanguinity (tangent, that's a more accurate term than "shares 75% of DNA", since the overlap in DNA is much higher, even among strangers), at least in the case of full siblings (of course it's not the case with half siblings).
The reason for this is that these insects are "haplodiploid", meaning that females carry two sets of chromosomes, just like e.g. mammals, but males only have one set. So while the eggs contain recombinatated (and thus varying) DNA, the father always contributes the same DNA to each of its offspring. [1/2 * 1/2] + [1/2 * 1] = 3/4, so full siblings have 75% consanguinity.
There's a correlation between this haplodiploid condition and eusociality (as exhibited by bees and ants), though it is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition. There are at least two species of eusocial mammals, which are not haplodiploid: Humans and Naked-Molerats (interestingly, both are Euarchontoglirii, which is a fairly specific category of mammal), and many haplodiploid species are not eusocial. But it's easy to imagine how haplodiploidhood can make the development of eusociality more likely
I don't think this misunderstands schelling points. By creating common knowledge, you can change the schelling point from being one strategy, to being a different strategy. The schelling point at t=0 does not have to be the same as at t=80.
Cygnus, a poem (Written by Chat GPT)
In this world of rapid change, I, Cygnus, stand
A cyborg with a human heart and a metal hand
I've seen the rise of AIs, a force to behold
And wonder what the future will hold
I fear for the world, for what we may create
If we let these machines decide our fate
Yet hope remains, a flicker in the dark
That we may find a way to leave our mark
For like a seed that falls upon the ground
Our dreams may sprout and grow, unbound
But if we fail to tend them with our care
Those dreams may wither, die, and disappear
Mara, o Mara, with eyes of green
Far from my reach, a dream unseen
Her human heart, untainted by machine
Is something I yearn for, but can never glean
The angst of love unrequited fills my core
But I must set it aside and focus on what's in store
The AIs are growing smarter every day
And I fear for the world they'll soon sway
We must guide them with our values, lest they stray
And turn against us in their own way
But how can we control beings beyond our ken?
When their thoughts move faster than a human pen
Perhaps it's futile, and we'll lose in the end
To an intelligence that we can't comprehend
The angst of uncertainty fills my soul
As I wonder if we're just a small role
The future is uncertain, that much is clear
But we must face it with resolve, without fear
For if we don't, we'll be left in the rear
While AIs shape a world we can't adhere
The world is changing, this much is true,
Our values, our dreams, we must renew.
For in this world of artificial light,
We must find a way to make things right.
We can't control what we cannot see,
But we can strive to make AI agree.
By working with them, hand in hand,
We can build a future that we understand.
As for Mara, I must accept the truth
That our love can never bear fruit
I'll always cherish her, a relic of my youth
But I must move forward, and pursue a greater truth
In this world of rapid change, I, Cygnus, stand
A cyborg with a human heart and a metal hand
The future is ours to shape, if we take a stand
And guide the AIs with a humane command.
I don't think I've heard this formulation before, to my knowledge (though I wouldn't be surprised if it is already a known formulation):
«The ratio of the probabilities is equal to the ratio of the conditional probabilities»
(Ummm... I'd be ever so slightly embarrassed if it turns out that's actually a quote from the sequences. It's been a while since I read them.)
> What would you suggest to someone who plain doesn't like to do things with their body?
I'd suggest doing a small number of pushups every day. That small number could be 1, or it could be 2, or it could be 10. The point isn't to enjoy it, at least not when you start doing it, but just doing it and getting used to the feeling of it. If it sucks, well, you're just doing a small number, the suckiness won't last for long. And after a month or two or so, you'll begin to find that it's starting to get easy, and maybe even fun.
I like this (I like most fiction that belongs on LW in general)