I am curious too of why the donwvote, I am guessing that it is more of an open thread type of post.
I would be great if you actually link the publication.
The most important benefit from less wrong ist that before lw I hat a very fixed mindset of things I know and I don't, like if it were properties of the things in itself, and when I wanted to improve at something I just do it in a very vague directionless way.
A more concrete example is that I always liked modding video games but in modding is very limited what you can do comparing to coding, so at least once a year I make a half hearted attempt to learn get better at modding, which result in nothing because the next step always was to learn to code (which was in the "I can´t" bin ). After reading posts here of people doing awesome stuff , internalize that the map is not the territory and so, I realized that I could likely learn to code , an then the "I can't" bin broke. Exactly two years later know I'm fairly good with python , java and some of haskell just for the fun. I'm currently close to releasing an android game.
A life changing benefit I gain was to "cure" my social anxiety, it was mostly thanks to a post make here linking to Mark Manson, but it totally changed the way I interact with people from being all fear and uneasiness to flow and actually enjoying being around people (especially women).
Other less direct benefits are clearing a lot of philosophical confusion, save me from a couple of death spirals, I have the memorization problem mostly solved with spaced repetition, I change my mind more often, strategic thinking, meta-thinking and more stuff that's getting more abstract and I don't think is in the spirit of the question.
To answer the question, I DO think that my past self was dumber than me now, so in a way I'm gotten smarter.
I'm 24 and I currently learning to play the piano without a tutor since last year, I play for my amusement and also because i like to learn things on my own, I surely have bad finger positioning and so, but If your goal is less about being the best piano player and more about having fun / flow, I think is totally realistic. But I you hire a tutor it will speed things up.
Maybe you should crowdsource less and hire a professional designer with a clear aesthetic and judge just his final product has a whole, the T-shirt look like a collection of suggestions without coherence, I mean, 6 sentences, 3 fonts, 2 colors of letters and 2 different images all in the same space.
I am tempted to make an analogy between democracy and private government but I hope you get the point.
btw I find your capacity to update and the way you take criticism quite impressive (sometimes to the point of being cringeworthy).
Sorry my bad english, non native speaker here.
All this can enter the framework of chaos Magick, but I very much dislike the aesthetics of what you propose.
In my "Magickal practice"(like 1 or 2 times a month) I do mindfulness and some Sigil contemplation and Godforms.
With mindfulness I make a very specific practice designed deal with uneasy emotions, it's got 3 parts,
First: the idea is to focus on the body sensations until you identify a bundle of then and you then name it (i.e anger), focus on the named emotion without any effort in increase it not lessen it, after you can feel the emotion better give it a color that suits it and displace the emotion half a meter away from you with your arms (like moving a ghost), the turn 90° and repeat with another emotion.
Second: once you go full circle return the first emotion to you (catch it with your arms) and feel it inside you, and keep feeling it until you notice some change in the sensation, It doesn't have to feel nice just different, then put it away and repeat with each emotion.
Finaly: make the 4 emotions around you move upwards and combine them in one big orb, and imagine how it goes through a filter that purify it, slowy dropping dropplets of the now golden/white energy to your head. when it feels like there is no more emotions above you finish with a basic banish (2-3 minutos of breathing do the trick).
It's kinda late, if anyone is interested in know more, say so and I will most likely reply
P.S. I do not believe magic is real
I have to say that it was one of most influential book in my life, along side with the motivation hacker, Demian, from AI to Zombies (to a lesser extend) and a couple more I can't recall now.
I had not thought of that, I will do some calculations, correct from outside view and such, and report back to later know how off the mark I was.
to make the Android game I'm developing ready for launch in google play (only in regard of product development), before the end of this year.
Is a great idea, I can hardly find anything but meetups in main, so I almost never check now.