Rational Feed

Scott:

Polyamory isn’t Polygyny by Scott Alexander – A quick review of how polyamory actually function in the rationalist community.

Unsong: Epilogue by Scott Alexander – All’s Whale that Ends Whale.

Rationalist:

BookReview: The Dueling Neurosurgeons by acesounderglass – Positive review. Author learned alot. Speculation on a better way to teach Science.

EA:

Peer to Peer Aid: Cash in the News by Give Directly – 8 Links about GiveDirectly, cash transfer and basic income.

Politics and Economics:

Nimby’s Economic Theories: Sorry Not Sorry by Andrew Gelman. – Gelman got a huge amount of criticism on his post on whether building more housing will lower prices in the Bay. He responds to some of the criticism here. Long for Gelman.

Podcast:

Meta Learning by Tim Ferris – Education, accelerated learning, and my mentors. Conversation with Charles Best the founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org

Rational Feed

Scott:

Bail Out by Scott Alexander – “About a fifth of the incarcerated population – the top of the orange slice, in this graph – are listed as “not convicted”. These are mostly people who haven’t gotten bail. Some are too much of a risk. But about 40% just can’t afford to pay.”

Rationalist:

I’m not Seaing It by Robin Hanson – A variety of arguments against seasteading. Long for overcomingbias.

Principia Qualia Part ii: Valence by Qualia Computing – A mathematical theory of valence (what makes experience feel good or bad). The theory is very speculative but the authors make concrete predictions. Music plays a heavy role.

Links (8) by Artir – Link Post. Physics, Technology, Philosophy, Economics, Psychology and Misc.

EA:

The Value of Money Going to Different Groups by the Center for Effective Altruism – “It is well known that an extra dollar is worth less when you have more money. This paper describes the way economists typically model that effect, using that to compare the effectiveness of different interventions. It takes remittances as a particular case study.”

Politics and Economics:

Whats Up with the Minimum Wage by Sarah Constantin – A quick review of the literature on the minimum wage. Some possible explanations for why raising the minimum wage might not reduce unemployment.

Like a State by Bayesian Investor – A quick review of “seeing like a state”.

Arguing About How the World Should Burn by Ribbonfarm – Two different ways to decide who to exclude and how community government should world. One focused on process the other on content. Scott Alexander and Nate Soares are quoted. Heavily [Culture War].

Podcast:

Bryan Stevenson on Why the Opposite of Poverty isn’t Wealth by the Ezra Klein Show – “Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release for more than 115 wrongly convicted prisoners on death row.”

Rational Feed

Rationalism:

The Amory Spectrum – “Your position on the Uniamory/Multiamory spectrum depends entirely on how many restrictions you place on your partner’s romantic/sexual behavior”. Aella gives detailed examples of each of levels 1-6.

Politics and Economics:

Geography is Politics – Geography is Politics. Links showing the importance of geography to economic growth. Caplan concludes from this that freer movement of people is the correct response.

Vast Literatures as Mud Moats – Demands to “read the vast literature” function as a huge hurdle to clear before debating a topic. A low quality vast literature can function as a “mud moat” around a political position. Noah’s solution is the “Two Paper Rule”.

You Got Any Better Suggestions? – The left needs to do the hard work of trying to convince people. [Culture War]

Misc:

Better Payment Systems for Pro Athletes – It would be better for Pro Athletes if most of their salary was held back. Much could be invested in bonds/index-funds and slowly control could be transferred to the athlete.

Amusement:

Philosophy News Network: Derrida Arrested Existenital Comics

Adjacent:

Fear Setting – Tim introduces the Stoic Technique of “defining your fear” – thinking through what you are afraid of in great detail. Experiencing what you are afraid of can help you understand that you can overcome it. Time gives examples from his business career. He also gives a specific seven step process the reader can use.

Rational Feed

Scott:

http://unsongbook.com/chapter-72-and-builds-a-heaven-in-hells-despair/ – The final, apocalyptic, chapter of unsong. Though there is an epilogue.

Rationalist:

https://hivewired.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/the-violence-inherent-in-the-system/ – A very long post about Maps and Territory. Written in a sequence-esque style. The opening is an extended metaphor.

http://agentyduck.blogspot.com/2017/05/meditation-design.html – “We are not broken. Meditation is. But maybe we can fix it”

https://thingofthings.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/book-post-for-april-not-about-parenting/ – Large variety of Books. Includes some books on sexuality and religion. Ozy reviews the rationalist-popular books “Myth of the Rational Voter” and “Crucial Conversations”. She also reads “Band” by Roosh.

https://qualiacomputing.com/2017/05/15/the-penfield-mood-organ/ – An excerpt from “Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep”

Adjacent:

http://andrewgelman.com/2017/05/14/whats-deal-yimbys/ – How much building would you need to significantly bring down rents in SF? Are YIMBY desires sincere or are they motivated by a desire to hurt their enemies.

http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/actually-good-silicon-valley-critiques.html – Noah tries his best to make “actually good” criticisms of Silicon Valley. He comes up with five.

Amusement:

https://protokol2020.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/chesslike-problem/ – A maximally entangled chessboard position.

Podcast:

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/05/cass_sunstein_o.html – Sunstein’s book “#Republic”. Sunstein argues that the internet has encouraged people to frequent informational echo chambers where their views are reinforced and rarely challenged.

Rational Feed

Scott:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/13/ssc-meetups-berkeley-san-diego-irvine/ – Meetups Scott will attend.

Rationalist:

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2017/05/when-to-parrot-pander-or-think-for-yourself.html – Rational persuasion strategies depend on whether you are “more capable”, “less capable” or “about as capable as your audience”. Implications of signaling.

http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/p0a/reality_has_a_surprising_amount_of_detail/ – Reality has alot of details. That means its easy to get stuck. A large part of the article describes the difficulty of building a staircase.

Research Analysis:

https://acesounderglass.com/2017/05/14/an-alternate-explanation-for-dieting-studies/ – “No one joins a university study as their first attempt at weight loss.”

https://acesounderglass.com/2017/05/14/why-not-calories-incalories-out/ – A brief Explanation of Gary Taubes’ anti-sugar theory of weight gain/loss.

Adjacent:

http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-should-theory-and-evidence-relate.html – Empirical results should be used to restrict the set of plausible models. While ingenuity enlarges the set of models. Instead of this combined approach “theory” and “data” are seen as conflicting by many economists.

Rational Feed

Rationalist:

http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/p06/slatestarcodex_meetups_everywhere_analysis/ – Analysis of how the SSC meetups went is now up.

https://mindlevelup.wordpress.com/2017/05/13/you-will-have-fortune-tellers-no-more/ – The author explicitly attempts to copy Scott Alexander’s writing style. “You too can sacrifice your statistical chastity in a bona-fide bid for dark magical power.”

https://mindlevelup.wordpress.com/2017/05/13/decision-theories-in-real-life/ – Analyzed Theories: Causal Decision theory, Regret Minimization, Evidential Decision theory, Functional Decision Theory (MIRI’s latest version of DT), Attractor Theory and Internal Advisor Theory (Coherent Extrapolated Volition).

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2017/05/compelling-accurate.html – Short. Compelling Stories differ systematically from true stories.

https://www.jefftk.com/p/pound-confusion – “The Pound Sterling (GBP) is a peculiar currency union. There are English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Manx, Jersey, and Guernsey Pounds”

https://protokol2020.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/some-ideas-ive-noticed/ – 10 interesting speculative ideas on AI, data, society and the future. Some of them are [Culture_War].

EA:

http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1a0/a_model_of_strongminds_oxford_prioritisation/ – StrongMinds treats women with depression in Uganda. A fairly short analysis of the projects effectiveness.

Adjacent:

http://wakingup.libsyn.com/75-ask-me-anything-7 – “Sam Harris answers questions from listeners about the illusion of the self, his podcast with Charles Murray, the future of brain-machine interfaces, his BJJ practice, reasoning with the extreme Left, mindfulness and parenting, his experience of going back to school after a long break, transgenderism, increasing one’s vocabulary, and other topics.”

http://tim.blog/2017/05/12/art-de-vany/ – Podcast: “There is no such thing as successful aging because aging is damage.”

Rational Feed

Scott:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/11/silicon-valley-a-reality-check/ – What a person finds in Silicon Valley mirrors the seeker.

Rationalism:

http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/ozz/gearsness_of_understanding/ – “I want to point at a property of models that isn’t about what they’re modeling. It interacts with the clarity of what they’re modeling, but only in the same way that smudged lines in a roadmap interact with the clarity of the roadmap. This property is how deterministically interconnected the variables of the model are.”. The theory is applied to multiple explicit examples.

https://thepdv.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/how-i-use-beeminder/ – Short but gives details. Beeminder is the only productivity system that worked for the author.

Research Analysis:

https://everythingstudies.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/the-eurovision-song-contest-taste-landscape/ – Analysis of Voting patterns in the Eurovision Contest. Alliances and voting Blocs are analyzed in depth.

https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/do-pineal-gland-extracts-promote-longevity-well-maybe/ – Analysis of hormonal systems and their effect on metabolism and longevity.

https://acesounderglass.com/2017/05/11/an-opportunity-to-throw-money-at-the-problem-of-medical-science/ – Help crowdfund a randomized controlled trial. A promising Sepsis treatment needs a RCT but the method is very cheap and unpatentable. So there is no financial incentive for a company to fund the study.

Amusement:

https://putanumonit.com/2017/05/12/dark-fiction/ – Jacob does some Kabbalahistic Analysis on the Story of Jacob, Unsong Style.

Adjacent:

https://fredrikdeboer.com/2017/05/11/study-of-the-week-rebutting-academically-adrift-with-its-own-mechanism/ – Freddie wrote his dissertation on the College Learning Assessment, the primary source in “Academically Adrift”.

Rational Feed

Scott:

http://unsongbook.com/postscript-1-wrap-parties-fan-music/ – Final chapter of Unsong goes up approximately 8pm on Sunday. Unsong will have an epilogue will will go up on Wednesday. Wrap party details. (I will be at the wrap party on sunday).

EA:

http://effective-altruism.com/ea/19y/understanding_charity_evaluation/ – A detailed breakdown of how charity evaluation works in practice. Openly somewhat speculative.

http://blog.givewell.org/2017/05/11/update-on-our-views-on-cataract-surgery/ – previously Givewell had unsuccesffuly tried to find recommendable cataract surgery charities. The biggest issues were “room for funding” and “lack of high quality monitoring data”. However they believe that cataract surgery is a promising intervention and they are doing more analysis.

AI-risk

http://lukemuehlhauser.com/monkey-classification-errors/ , http://lukemuehlhauser.com/adversarial-examples-for-pigeons/ – Adversarial examples for monkeys and pigeons respectively.

Adjacent:

https://medium.com/@freddiedeboer/politics-as-politics-12ab43429e64 – Politics as “group affiliation” vs politics as politics. Annoying atheists aren’t as bad as fundamentalist Christians even if more annoying atheists exist in educated leftwing spaces. Freddie’s clash with the identitarian left despite huge agreement on the object level. Freddie is a socialist not a liberal. [Culture War]