Declan Molony

LESSWRONG
LW

Declan Molony — LessWrong

The book ‘Death with Interruptions’ is a 2005 speculative fiction novel written by Portuguese author José Saramago.

Because of this post, I checked out 'Death with Interruptions' from the library and read it this month. Wow, a really good read---thanks!

Replying toBackyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

Declan Molony25d

Backyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

"All cats are equal, but some cats are more equal than others." - George Pawwell, Animal Farm

Replying toBlogging, Writing, Musing, And Thinking

Declan Molony26d

Blogging, Writing, Musing, And Thinking

"If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking." - Leslie Lamport

Replying toBackyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

Declan Molony1mo

Backyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

"I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want catnip." - Aldous Clawxley, Brave New World

Replying toQuantifying Love and Hatred

Declan Molony1mo

Quantifying Love and Hatred

I am the ultimate rationalist! My willingness to sacrifice for someone follows a perfect distribution along kinship genetic similarity:

Siblings: share 50% of their genes, so I'd be willing to take a 50% chance of dying if it meant their genes could potentially live on and reproduce
First cousins: share 12.5% of their genes, so I'd be willing to take a 12.5% chance of dying
So what about for a random friend? If they could just take a quick DNA test, then our genetic relatedness would determine my willingness to sacrifice for them.

Supposing that I die while saving them, I would want a guarantee that they propagate their genes in proportion to our genetic similarity:

Siblings: I would want them to have at least 2 kids
First cousins: I would want them to have at least 8 kids
Random friend with 1% genetic similarity: That's right! 100 kids please! 😉

Replying toBackyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

Declan Molony1mo

Backyard cat fight shows Schelling points preexist language

Great post, and great cat philosopher quotes :)

"To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others...unless it's concerning that dastardly neighbor cat." - Albert Cameow

Replying toI dream every night now

Declan Molony1mo

I dream every night now

If you would be willing to experiment, I'd like to know if your experience of dreaming is affected by screen usage before bed.

You could just copy what I've done, which is eliminating screen time 1-2 hours before bed, then report back here any qualitative/quantitative changes in dreaming. I'm curious what you'll find! (even if there's no change)

Replying toI dream every night now

Declan Molony1mo*

I dream every night now

I reached the opposite conclusion, that "normal" people are misfortunate

When looking for the positives of aphantasia, I recognize that it's probably a lot easier for me to meditate since I can't be distracted by mental imagery.

Hm, it sounds like as if you were grieving a loss... How did you come to the conclusion that there is anything of substance that is desirable to have that you cannot have?

Nope, no grieving of losses. Ultimately, I can't change my neurological structure so I've come to accept it. Yet it's also nice to see images now if only in my dreams.

Replying toSelf-Help Tactics That Are Working For Me

Declan Molony1mo

Self-Help Tactics That Are Working For Me

Many years ago, I wrote down a list of successive feats I could accomplish to overcome social anxiety:

Say hi to the barista at a coffee shop when I order.
Ask a customer for the time.
Ask someone what they're working on or reading, then start a small conversation from there.

^I did this over a week and slowly desensitized to meeting and talking to new people. Baby steps got me there.

Also, as someone with aphantasia, your post heavily discussing visualization was mildly frustrating for me lol. Like, I want to participate!

I dream every night now

Declan Molony

1mo

When I close my eyes, all I see is darkness.

It’s always been this way.

I thought this was normal. When I was 22, I learned otherwise.

I learned that “imagination” is not merely a figure of speech—people can actually see images in their heads. They can picture their dog wagging its tail or their mother smiling at them, or see a lover embracing them after being away for far too long.

But not me. All I see is darkness.

When I was 22, a friend recommended I read Tolkien’s The Hobbit. A week later after trudging through a few chapters, I frustratedly told her, “With its pages-long descriptions of the landscape, it feels like the author is trying to paint... (read 1147 more words →)

Replying toParasocial relationship logic

Declan Molony2mo

Parasocial relationship logic

Somehow I stumbled upon being friends with the CEO of a construction company who is twice my age. We get coffee together regularly on the weekends. I tell him about what I worked on that week, and he either gives me approbation, or withholds praise, depending on if he thinks I spent my time wisely. In this way, I get feedback from a person IRL.

With parasocial relationships, it's entirely one-sided. We give online personas our tacit approval by repeatedly consuming their content; they sit back and watch their view counts go up and receive implicit validation. We, in turn, receive the semblance of a friendship but with none of the reciprocal validation that humans thrive on to determine if our actions are worthwhile.

Solution? Continue to seek out new friendships IRL and tap into their networks.

I said hello and greeted 1,000 people at 5am this morning

Declan Molony

2mo

At the ass crack of dawn, in the dark and foggy mist, thousands of people converged on my location, some wearing short shorts, others wearing an elf costume and green tights.

I was volunteering at a marathon. The race director told me the day before, “these people have trained for the last 6-12 months for this moment. They’ll be waking up at 3am. For many of them, this is the first marathon they’ve ever run. When they get off the bus at 5am, in the freezing cold, you’ll be the first face they see. Smile, welcome them, make them feel excited, and help them forget the next 26.2 miles of pain they’re about... (read 314 more words →)

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Your Digital Footprint Could Make You Unemployable

Declan Molony

2mo

In China, the government will arrest and torture you for criticizing them:

[In May 2022], Xu Guang…was sentenced to four years in prison...after he demanded that the Chinese government acknowledge the Tiananmen Massacre and held a sign calling for redress at a local police station. Xu was reportedly tortured, shackled, and mistreated while in detention.

In the UK, they don’t have freedom of speech, and up to 30 people a day (meaning 12,000/year) are arrested for the crime of posting or sharing “grossly offensive” content online.

In the US, we have freedom of speech enshrined in law—you can’t be arrested for saying politically inconvenient or offensive speech—but that freedom doesn’t protect you from the decisions of private companies. So... (read 620 more words →)

A Comprehensive Guide to Running

Declan Molony

6mo

Just because you can run, it doesn't mean that you know how to do it properly.

This systematic review showed that:

50% of runners experience an injury each year that prevents them from running for a period of time, and 25% of runners are injured at any given time.
Running-related musculoskeletal injuries (RRMIs) are common among runners. These RRMIs are usually caused by the application of relatively small loads over many repetitive cycles.

When your form is wrong, because running is a repetitive motion, you are compounding the same mistake over and over—a surefire way to get injured. So it’s important to not assume that you know what you’re doing. Running is more complicated than it looks.

I’ve been... (read 4695 more words →)

•••

When to Be Nice vs Kind

Declan Molony

9mo

While often used synonymously, there is a subtle yet meaningful distinction between being nice and being kind. Understanding when to prioritize kindness over niceness—and vice versa—helps me better navigate social situations with both authenticity and appropriate boundaries.

Definitions

Someone who is being nice is pleasant to be around, but internally their pleasantness may or may not come from a genuine place of warmth or love.

Someone who is being kind genuinely cares about another’s well-being, even if in the short-term they don’t necessarily make the other person feel good.

The distinction becomes apparent when someone is one, but not the other.

Being nice, but not kind

When baristas, for example, smile and ask me how my day is going, they’re being nice.... (read 277 more words →)

Once we cure aging, what happens to prisoners serving life sentences?

Declan Molony

9mo

Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey claimed that the first person who will live to 1,000 years old has already been born. He believes this unprecedented expansion in lifespan will occur with Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV).

LEV is defined by technologist Ray Kurzweil in his book The Singularity is Nearer as:

A tipping point at which we can add more than a year to our remaining life expectancy for each calendar year that passes.

This means that our life expectancy could increase faster than we age, which under different scenarios would look something like this:

Once we achieve LEV, we'll have effectively cheated death. How is this possible?

Kurzweil, an unabashed techno-optimist, predicts that during the 2020s, AI will combine... (read 1570 more words →)

A City Within a City

Declan Molony

My local gym is surrounded on all four sides by tent cities. At first I was nervous to walk there after work, but soon I got used to the tents and their residents.

When I’m passing through on my way to the gym, I feel like I’m traveling from Rome to the Vatican—a city within a city.

They have artisans skilled in various crafts: one tent citizen knows how to mend fabrics (for clothing and tent walls), another works as a mechanic fixing wheelchairs (for the many, many people missing limbs). Still more work in other professions: there are prostitutes wearing neon mini-skirts (even in wintertime), cooks who throw meals together in a pot... (read 1801 more words →)

5,000 calories of peanut butter every week for 3 years straight

Declan Molony

decided to lose weight. should be easy considering I haven't changed my diet in years and eat the same thing everyday.

breakfast: quarter cup each of black beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans; quarter cup of walnuts; 4 scrambled eggs with salsa on top

snack: sliced apple with peanut butter

lunch: quarter cup each of black beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans; quarter cup of walnuts; sautéed ground turkey spiced with onion powder & smoked paprika; 5 sliced cherry tomatoes; half an avocado; mushrooms; sliced bell peppers; turmeric; a variety of vegetables (onion, zucchini, broccoli, asparagus, butternut squash, spinach)

dinner: quarter cup each of black beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans; quarter cup of walnuts; baked... (read 252 more words →)

Will LLMs supplant the field of creative writing?

Declan Molony

Last year I remember seeing a Japanese novelist win an award with the help of an LLM.^[1]

Art forms frequently evolve, but there are several concerns with the use of LLMs for creative writing. For one, there's the issue of copyright infringement that famous writers are taking up arms against:

George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen are among the 17 prominent authors who joined the suit led by the Authors Guild, a professional organization that protects writers’ rights. Filed in the Southern District of New York, the suit alleges that OpenAI’s models directly harm writers’ abilities to make a living wage, as the technology generates texts that writers could be

... (read 712 more words →)

Don’t Legalize Drugs

Declan Molony

As someone with a libertarian bent, I was taken aback by the persuasiveness of author Theodore Dalrymple’s arguments in his 1997 essay Don’t Legalize Drugs.^[1] I’ve assumed for a long time, without ever investigating or challenging my belief, that full decriminalization and legalization of all drugs would do society more good than harm. But Dalrymple’s essay made me reconsider my position.

Dalrymple worked as a psychiatrist in a poor British neighborhood for over 20 years. He’s seen the dredges of society and that largely shaped his worldview. In his essay, he steers clear of any puritanical or moral arguments that doing drugs is bad, and instead examines what effect they have on society holistically.

He states... (read 2643 more words →)

LESSWRONG
LW

LESSWRONG
LW

I would have shit in that alley, too

I said hello and greeted 1,000 people at 5am this morning

Rejecting Television

A Comprehensive Guide to Running

Declan Molony

Declan Molony

I dream every night now

I said hello and greeted 1,000 people at 5am this morning

Your Digital Footprint Could Make You Unemployable

A Comprehensive Guide to Running

When to Be Nice vs Kind

Once we cure aging, what happens to prisoners serving life sentences?

A City Within a City

Declan Molony

I would have shit in that alley, too

I said hello and greeted 1,000 people at 5am this morning

Rejecting Television

A Comprehensive Guide to Running

Declan Molony

Declan Molony

I dream every night now

I said hello and greeted 1,000 people at 5am this morning

Your Digital Footprint Could Make You Unemployable

A Comprehensive Guide to Running

When to Be Nice vs Kind

Once we cure aging, what happens to prisoners serving life sentences?

A City Within a City

Definitions

Being nice, but not kind