David Chapman

🆕 "We want detailed case studies of meta-rationality," the people cried! "Software engineering is now all about architectural taste!" the pundits exclaimed. So: here is a detailed case study of meta-rationality in software architecting. 🔗 Link in reply tweet ⤵️

> It took me several years to figure [out that food intolerance was causing my chronic health issues] because the healthcare system was unhelpful and actively counterproductive, and most online information is actively misleading. And, for a long time I didn’t believe that food intolerance was even a thing. It sounded like neurosis, plus holistic woo. But, a definitive experiment showed that it is unquestionably a thing.

Quotidian Nobility The essence of nobility is assuming responsibility for uncomfortable trade-offs. Economics is applying rationality to trade-offs while bracketing responsibility. There is no singular ultimate rational approach; even when drawing on economics, nobility must choose which rational system to apply. And there is always what lies beyond rational trade-off altogether, such as Sophie's Choice. Economics, nonetheless, offers a useful map of how everyday life continually presents small occasions for nobility, such as: — Time preference: now vs. later — Opportunity cost of action: do this now, forgoing doing that now — Opportunity cost of attention and commitment: focus on this, forgoing focusing on that We will never find a single moment in life without the opportunity to step into nobility.

There’s a persistent religious confusion between: - faith-as-existential-stance, the trust in the phenomenal world that’s necessary for action itself - faith-as-belief, the confidence that conditional reality is conspiring to your benefit AI risk debates share this confusion

@tom_swiss @_valerix I like that! Agree strongly re wildness.

@Meaningness @_valerix ...went about my dream business. I've never had the dream again. Wrote about it at Patheos; an expanded version was included in a book on "Pagan Consent Culture". patheos.com/blogs/agora/20… (Warning: carefully posed nude photo included!)

@_valerix Reminded of a time driving home from a week-long neopagan gathering when we stopped to get gas and a snack and it was hot and we started to strip off to change and then remembered only at the last moment that being nude while pumping gas violates local social norms

@tom_swiss @_valerix That's very funny, thank you!

@Meaningness @_valerix I used to have the dream where you're out and about and you realize that you're naked and OMG it's awful. After a while of attending clothing-optional events, I had it one last time; in that dream, I looked down, realized I wasn't wearing pants, said "Ok. Anyway..." and...

eG offers several in-person retreat formats, each with a quite different vibe. This was a Community Retreat: charlieawbery.substack.com/p/what-is-an-e… (My recent audio post “Creating conduits between the visionary realm and the actual world” was from a Vajra Retreat. There are others!)

.@_awbery_ post: 📺 video and description of the atmosphere of an Evolving Ground Community Retreat. Quite different from mainstream meditation retreats, and also from traditional Vajrayana! 🔗 Link in reply tweet ⤵️

Asking the open-ended question “what else might be relevant here?” is not within the scope of rationality. But, it is the way you extend your ontology, to build a better understanding of a domain. That's often a prerequisite to using rationality well!

@mroe1492 oh dear that's dire

@Meaningness On the other hand, the last time someone proposed using a floating pount approximation of a chaotic system as a cyptosystem got one of those reviews the program chair asked the referees to rephrase so it was politer.

“Normalization of deviance,” a conceptual framework due to organizational sociologist Diane Vaughan, might help understand the current shaky state of science. sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-s…

I really appreciate the "normalization of defiance" framing. Shoddy academic work is widespread, tweaks to the rules just add another level of ineffective beuracracy, responsibility is diffused across the enterprise, which is largely riding a reputation. Parallels are deep...

incredible new lore unlocked

I can not post this enough: if your "spiritual wisdom" has the flavor of "stay a child forever," it's not wisdom, it's postmodern psychological solvent and it's a near enemy "Become childlike again, with all the faculties and responsibilities of an adult" is the worthy endeavor

I think the optimal state of maturity for an adult is to be like a Wise Old Child. Jung had the archetypes of the “Wise Old Man” and the “Divine Child” but I think the most while people combine childlike and sage like qualities. Children have both Childlike and Childish qualities. To be Childlike is to be playful, curious, sensitive, present, mentally flexible and in touch with wonder and awe. But to be Childish is to be emotionally volatile, self-centered and petulant, and little awareness of how the world functions. Likewise, being “adult” has the connotation of both Maturity and Hardening. To be Mature is to be grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. But to be Hardened is to be overly serious, lacking in curiosity, mentally inflexibly, numb and burdened by the past. The optimal state of psychological functioning imo combines the best of the Childlike and Mature qualities without the corresponding Childish and Hardened qualities. Such a person is playful, curious, sensitive, present and mentally flexible. Whilst also being grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. The journeys to reclaiming our childlike nature and growing into maturity shouldn’t therefore be seen as heading in different directions. We can reclaim our childlike wonder for the world whilst expressing it through the lens of all the wisdom we’ve learned in adulthood. By doing this, we grow into Wise Old Children.

@St_Rev Filmed in the underground electric generation station at R'lyeh

this is the worst thing I've ever seen

𝚺 Fantastic thread of quotes on how we actually do mathematics! And perhaps topical right now: x.com/layer07_yuxi/s…

@layer07_yuxi @norvid_studies @quetzal_rainbow @lu_sichu I knew Tom and attended his funeral, at which he played his own composition on piano: x.com/search?q=from%…

@norvid_studies @quetzal_rainbow @lu_sichu "source?" "My dead friend told me in a dream but I had to prove him dead wrong."

Today everybody is WRONG on LessWrong, so I'm going into RAGING COMMENT STREAK

@sokatsat @St_Rev Well I'm sure there must be a way to increase gravity so magnets would work again. Science!

@Meaningness @St_Rev There should be, although much less in magnitude.

@anomalyuk Man, this is a great thread... I have zero memory of writing it... I wonder if I actually did, or if Grok is hallucinating that I did

🧵 (old, relevant to citations discussion)

AI will make us all write songs with no Bach in them