Becoming Strongerhttp://becomingstronger.postach.io/feed.xml2021-10-21T16:33:26.926000ZWerkzeugThe End of a Beautiful Friendshiphttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/the-end-of-a-beautiful-friendship2021-09-02T04:11:04.052000Z2021-09-02T03:40:49ZBecoming Stronger<div>Over the past few years, I have changed a lot. These changes have caused me to drift apart from some friends, and closer to others. This tectonic shift in my life is not without its earthquakes, and has resulted in a couple close friends ending the relationship. It has been a source of heartache for me, but I can either mope around about it, or use it to continue growing. </div>
<div>Here are some lessons I am saying mostly for my own benefit, but maybe you will find them useful as well.</div><h2>Yes, it is your fault.</h2><div>The common denominator in all our social strife is us. You might not be an inherently toxic person, but you are the one who chose friends who consider you to be toxic. In any case, we all tend to underestimate our role in a broken relationship. Be willing to ask "if this was 100% my fault, what would I have to do differently to stop it from happening again?"</div>
<div>Odds are you won't be able to fully answer this question (because it probably isn't 100% your fault), but I'm willing to bet money that you're better calibrated than you were before.</div><h2>No, the other person is not an idiot, monster, or crazy person.</h2><div>Everyone's actions and feelings make sense to them internally, as much as yours do. When someone sends you *that* email or message, it can be tempting to get defensive, but try to be charitable and deliberate in how you respond. Maybe even sleep on it before responding.</div><h2>Do not gossip about the other person, or criticize them to mutual friends</h2><div>There's no surer way to become the toxic person they think you are by talking about them behind their back.</div><h2>Time is your friend</h2><div>If short delays in the conversation to gather your thoughts are not acceptable for you or the other person, then the conversation was never worth having.</div><h2>Something something social battery something</h2><div>Don't try to salvage every relationship. Friends should be the kind of people who recharge your batteries, not drain them. If someone is trying to end your relationship, that is strong evidence against compatibility, even more so if this is a regularly occurring conversation.</div><h2>You won't always get 'closure', and that is okay</h2><div><br /></div><h2>Sometimes you really are in the wrong. Sometimes you really are in the right.</h2><div><br /></div><h2>Be more picky about who you bring into your fold</h2><div><br /></div><h2>Be less picky about who you bring into your fold</h2>Building a Second Brainhttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/building-a-second-brain2021-08-03T05:28:07.855000Z2021-08-03T05:26:23ZBecoming Stronger<div>This will be a post describing what tools I use to keep track of information, and a review of a course I took recently on the subject.</div>
The Nutritionally Complete Burritohttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/the-nutritionally-complete-burrito2021-07-29T19:47:09.280000Z2021-07-29T19:00:31ZBecoming Stronger<div>This will be a blog post about my search for simple yet healthy meals, including my foray into meal replacements. The centerpiece will be my current diet, which includes a nutritionally-complete burrito that I meal prep each week.</div>
Bayesian Rationalityhttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/bayesian-rationality2021-07-29T00:53:55.315000Z2021-07-23T18:56:07ZBecoming Stronger<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i>"What do you think you know, and how do you think you know it?" </i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i>-The fundamental question of Rationality</i></span></div><hr /><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(24, 168, 65);"><u>What is it?</u></span></b></span></h1><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Rationality (more precisely "Bayesian Rationality") is a <b>community, philosophy, and epistemology</b>.</span></div><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">As a <b>community</b>, its nexus is the website '<i>Less Wrong</i>', and has various physical meetups across the world, ranging from coffee shop hangouts to large organizations.</span></div></li><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Some notable names in the movement are <b>Eliezer Yudkowsky</b> (a prominent AI researcher, author of '<a href="http://www.hpmor.com/" rev="en_rl_none">Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality</a>', and founder of the community), <b>Scott Alexande</b>r (psychiatrist, author, and founder of the Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten blog), <b>Julia Galef</b> (author, co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality), and <b>Robin Hanson</b> (professor of economics, founder of the blog where Yudkowsky began his writings)</span></div></li></ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">As a <b>philosophy</b>, it concerns itself with <b>knowing true things so you can</b> <b>accomplish one's goals most effectively</b> (or, as the community affectionately says, "winning").</span></div></li><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">This sounds simpler than it is. It includes understanding one's goals at a deep enough level that you do not actively work against yourself as people often do. It also requires learning how the world around you works well enough so you can influence it, which brings us to...</span></div></li></ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">As an <b>epistemology</b>, it exists with the <b>Foundherentist</b> framework, where <b>Bayesian Reasoning, Methodological Naturalism, and Skeptical Empiricism</b> mutually cohere and correct each other, while serving as the foundations upon which all other beliefs are derived.</span></div></li><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">It assumes that there is an objective truth which exists regardless of what one believes, that this truth can be incrementally discovered via experimentation and reason (<b>science, decision theory, General Semantics, and Bayesian probability theory</b> chief among its methods), but that cognitive biases and other errors of thinking often get in the way (which can be mitigated or solved outright if one trains hard enough). This is especially critical because in order for beliefs to cohere properly, they must be as accurate as possible so they can incrementally update each other and provide a foundation for one's Map.</span></div></li></ul></ul><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(87, 36, 194);"><u>What does it teach?</u></span></b></span></h1><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Rationality is not a set of tenets of <b>what</b> to think, but a framework of <b>how</b> to think.</span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">This is not an exhaustive list of everything, these are simply what I think are the foundational lessons. To learn more, visit <a href="https://www.readthesequences.com/" rev="en_rl_none">readthesequences.com</a></span></div><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b> "The Map is Not the Territory"</b></span></h3><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Your beliefs are a way to navigate the world around you, like a map for navigating a territory.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Your beliefs (and your ignorance) are a fact about you, not a fact about reality; no more than a map of New York City is actually New York.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Because a map can never be the territory, all your beliefs should be held with a confidence level (ie you should think probabilistically); this is what allows you to keep your mind open to new evidence.</span></div></li></ul><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b> "Make Your Beliefs Pay Rent"</b></span></h3><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Every belief that is worth occupying your head should be able to make an advance, falsifiable prediction about reality. A belief that doesn't make predictions is wishful thinking at best, delusion at worst, and is not paying its rent. Evict it.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Take your ideas seriously enough to recognize what it would look like if you were wrong.</span></div></li></ul><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b> "Notice Your Confusion"</b></span></h3><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Confusion or surprise means that either your map of the world is wrong/incomplete, or the information you are receiving is wrong/incomplete.</span></div></li><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">This should be treated as a large <b><span style="color:rgb(252, 18, 51);">STOP</span></b> sign. Do not attempt to rationalize it away with an explanation. You cannot reliably resolve confusion about the world using the same combination of map and information that became confused. Seek more data.</span></div></li></ul></ul><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b> "Politics is the Mind-Killer"</b></span></h3><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Your political/identity-based beliefs should always be held under extra scrutiny (<a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html" rev="en_rl_none">keep your identity small!</a>)</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">You can decry someone's actions, up to and including calling for the death penalty, while still acknowledging that they may have been doing what they thought was best. Nobody is the villain in their own story, and actual psychopathic monsters are exceedingly rare.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">It is okay to be sad when bad things happen to people, even when they "deserved it". That person could have been your friend and a noble/intelligent human being if things had been different.</span></div></li></ul><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b> "Know How to Communicate"</b></span></h3><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Arguing over definitions is a pointless exercise if you already know what the other person means; if a word gets in the way of communication, it has defeated its one purpose. "Taboo" a word if you and your conversation partner are having difficulty with it, forcing you both to articulate what you really mean.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Clear communication is clear thinking. The same thing that prevents you from communicating to others prevents you from communicating to yourself.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Do your words serve any purpose besides getting a rousing applause? Learn from the likes of Orwell on how to use speech to seek truth instead of just Virtue Signalling.</span></div></li></ul><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(182, 41, 212);"><u>Rationalist Values/Culture</u></span></b></span></h1><ul><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">We do not reject emotion or the value of subjective experiences. Spock is not a Rationalist.</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Seek to become stronger in the art of Rationality every day. "Tsuyoku Naritai!"</span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">We will hear out any evidence-based argument, no matter how inflammatory or controversial. However, if it is a bad argument, or if we think you are arguing in bad faith, we will be the first to call you out on it.</span></div></li></ul><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(252, 18, 51);">"If the box contains a diamond, I want to believe that the box contains a diamond. If the box does not contain a diamond, I want not to believe that the box contains a diamond. Let me not become attached to beliefs I may not want." </span></i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(252, 18, 51);">-The Litany of Tarski</span></i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(252, 18, 51);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(87, 36, 194);">"What is true is already so. Owning up to it doesn't make it worse. Not being open about it doesn't make it go away. And because it's true, it is what is there to be interacted with. Anything untrue isn't there to be lived. I can stand what is true, for I am already enduring it." </span></i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(87, 36, 194);">-The Litany of Gendlin</span></i></span></div>
Neo-Mohismhttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/neo-mohism2021-10-21T16:33:26.926000Z2021-06-16T16:21:53ZBecoming Stronger<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">"When one advances claims, one must first establish a standard of assessment. To make claims in the absence of such a standard is like trying to establish on the surface of a spinning potter’s wheel where the sun will rise and set. Without a fixed standard, one cannot clearly ascertain what is right and wrong, or what is beneficial and harmful."</span></i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i><span style="color:#000000;">-Mozi, ‘A Condemnation of Fatalism’</span></i></span></div><hr /><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#ff9900;"><u>Epistemic Status</u></span></b></span></h1><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">This is more meant as a </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">description</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> of my personal moral philosophy than a </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">prescriptive </span></b><span style="color:#000000;">philosophy/religion for others to follow, but I hope to refine it to the point where most people would be on-board with it while still being useful. </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">Please be charitable</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> with your critique, as this is a work in progress (as my own moral philosophy is) which I whipped up in the span of an hour, and I have yet to settle on where Neo-Mohism ends and my personal ethics begin (</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">if anywhere</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">!). But do let me know what should be clarified more, or what you think is incorrect!</span></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></span></div><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#4a86e8;"><u>High Concept (TL;DR)</u></span></b></span></h1><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#333333;">Humans accomplish goals more effectively when they cooperate</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">, but humans have different goals and different ways they wish to cooperate. Inspired by the ancient philosophy of </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">Mohism</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">, this is an attempt to find a </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">universal moral framework</span></b><span style="color:#333333;"> that most systems can agree on, a "meta philosophy" that can house most thought systems and provide a guidebook for refining them.</span><b><span style="color:#333333;"> </span></b><span style="color:#333333;">The primary philosophy of Neo-Mohism is two-fold:</span></span></div><ol><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#333333;">There are objective moral facts to be known</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">, due to defining the goal of morality as " the well-being of all conscious creatures" (which includes all sentient beings, such as animals and Artificial General Intelligence)</span></span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#333333;">All tenets of Neo-Mohism must </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">always be open to revision</span></b><span style="color:#333333;"> via the epistemology of Bayesian Rationality.</span></span></div></li></ol><div><br /></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#333333;">Currently, all Neo-Mohists take a specialized </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">Vow of Honesty</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">, as they value truth for its own sake and believe deception is inherently harmful. Most Neo-Mohists live a vegan lifestyle, all of them are some form of vegetarian/reducetarian, and consider </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">the killing/subjugation of animals to be immoral</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">. You will often find Neo-Mohists involved in work that advances the well-being of humanity in some way, as they consider it to be </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">their personal responsibility to improve the world </span></b><span style="color:#333333;">(they have a particular emphasis on </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">reducing suffering</span></b><span style="color:#333333;"> over improving happiness, given the current state of the world). They are also interested in </span><b><span style="color:#333333;">improving their thinking</span></b><span style="color:#333333;">, as they consider it to be the primary way well-being can be improved, and have few qualms about using technology to accomplish this.</span></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#333333;"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></span></div><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#6aa84f;"><u>Tenets</u></span></b></span></h1><ol><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">The first and highest tenet is that </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">all tenets are subject to revision (except for this one).</span></b></span></div></li><ol><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><a href="https://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/bayesian-rationality" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(13, 58, 153);"><u>Bayesian Rationality</u></span></a><span style="color:rgb(13, 58, 153);"> </span><span style="color:#000000;">is the epistemology of choice for Neo-Mohists. Neo-Mohism does not make certain proclamations of true/false; </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">all beliefs are required to have a confidence interval assigned to them</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> (</span><a href="https://www.williammacaskill.com/info-moral-uncertainty" rev="en_rl_none">including all moral conclusions</a><span style="color:#000000;">), and a Cardinal Sin of Neo-Mohism is to assign a probability of 1 or 0 to a belief. As per Bayesian Rationality, the ultimate arbiter of Neo-Mohist tenets is the ability to make advance, falsifiable predictions, allowing the universe to judge between competing ideas.</span></span></div></li></ol><li><div>It is unclear how useful it is to codify a moral framework beyond a certain point. It is important to pay attention to context, and <b>not let an ethical framework get in the way of being ethical.</b></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#000000;">Any moral framework adopted should avoid "repugnant conclusions" </span></b><span style="color:#000000;">that violate the principles of well-being (explained below), to the extent possible.</span></span></div></li><li><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">The word "</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">morality</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">" within this system is defined as "</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">[X action] is that which ought to be done/not done, given the goal of well-being.</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">" As such, Neo-Mohism does not concern itself with any is/ought problem, and uses </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">Consequentialism</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> as a meta-ethic. The only problem to solve is whether wellbeing is a shared goal. Neo-Mohists argue that everyone cares about this, and that there are objective facts to be known in pursuit of this goal.</span></span></div></li></ol><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#ff00ff;"><u>Well-being</u></span></b></span></h1><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Well-being is defined as "</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">Suffering is bad </span></b><span style="color:#000000;">(you are not </span><i><span style="color:#000000;">well </span></i><span style="color:#000000;">if you are suffering), and </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">death is bad</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> (you are not </span><i><span style="color:#000000;">being</span></i><span style="color:#000000;"> if you are dead)", and </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">only applies to conscious creatures who exist or who we are confident will exist</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> (creatures that neither exist nor will ever exist do not have a "being" in any meaningful sense).</span></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">The Neo-Mohist </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">pillars of well-being</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> (the broad values that Neo-Mohists consider to be the necessary preconditions of avoiding suffering and death) are "Happiness", "Truth", "Freedom", "Responsibility", and "Life".</span></span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <u>Happiness</u></span></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Defined as <b>"Hedonic Enjoyment"</b> (the good feeling I get from drinking a glass of Boba Tea, the warmth I feel when I bask in the sun, the entertainment I get from watching a good movie, etc) and <b>"Emotional Fulfillment" </b>(having an intellectually-stimulating relationship, doing hard work aligned with one’s values, being mindful in the present moment, and <a href="https://www.readthesequences.com/Tsuyoku-Naritai-I-Want-To-Become-Stronger" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(13, 58, 153);"><u>self improvement</u></span></a>). Neo-Mohists want themselves and everyone to be happy. Especially, they <a href="https://magnusvinding.com/2020/05/31/suffering-focused-ethics-defense-and-implications/" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(13, 58, 153);"><u>do not want anyone to suffer</u></span></a>, as suffering is a problematic barrier to happiness in a way that lesser pleasure is not.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Humor is good, and should be used generously.</span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);"> <u>Truth</u></span></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Defined as "</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">that which comports with external reality</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">", or "</span><b><span style="color:#000000;">that which exists regardless of what one believes</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">". There is an objective reality that we experience, and we can learn about this reality through Science and Rationality. Neo-Mohists desire to know what is true for its own sake, and want everyone to believe true things. </span></span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> <u>Freedom</u></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Defined as</span><b><span style="color:#000000;"> "agency to make informed decisions",</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> from which we derive the importance of consent.</span></span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> <u>Responsibility</u><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">This can best be defined by Ghandi’s saying <b>"Be the change you wish to see in the world."</b> Many things exist outside our control, but it’s merely a matter of degree. If something goes wrong, a Neo-Mohist must admit any part they played in it, and resolve to do better in the future. Other people often cannot be relied upon to do the right thing. It is not enough to say "this has been delegated". If a Neo-Mohist sees suffering that they can do something about, it is their responsibility to try and fix it.</span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> <u>Life</u></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Defined as "the active state of a sentient agent", where "sentience" is defined as "anything that can suffer or reflect on the concept of suffering". Life provides meaning to an otherwise meaningless universe.</span><b><span style="color:#000000;"> All sentient creatures have moral weight (humans, animals, AI, aliens, etc), including ones far away from you</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"> (distance does not matter). Because all sentient beings have moral weight, </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">it is immoral to subjugate, kill or eat them</span></b><span style="color:#000000;">.</span><b><span style="color:#000000;"> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">In particular, "sapience" is of special concern; a word here which includes everything under "Sentience", as well as "the ability to be aware of one’s awareness, assign meaning to things, and make moral judgments (which also requires something like a Theory of Mind)". Humanity is the only known species to have Sapience, and therefore the loss of humanity would be a terrible thing indeed, reducing our universe to a meaningless machine. </span><b><span style="color:#000000;">Misanthropy is misguided at best, dangerous and immoral at worst.</span></b></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><h1><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:rgb(252, 18, 51);"><u>Moral Conclusions</u></span></span></h1><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> <u>Derived from 'Freedom' and 'Life': Transhumanism</u></span></h2><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Everyone has the right to use technology to be whatever they wish to be, including *not dead*.</span></span></div><h2><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> <u>Derived from 'Truth' and 'Freedom': Radical Honesty</u></span></h2><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> Premise</span>:</h3><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="color:#000000;">Deception is a hostile act that deprives people of the ability to have a relationship with you based on fully informed consent. As such, any deception (including lies of omission) are immoral acts (although sometimes immoral acts must be performed to avoid more immoral acts). The closer your relationship, the more important honesty is.</span></span></div><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> Guidelines:</span></h3><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">1.) Tell the truth in all circumstances (with the exceptions listed below). The importance of telling the truth increases with the amount of trust the other person is giving, and how much you care about your relationship with this person.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">2.) Volunteer your thoughts liberally, but only when you have reason to believe that your audience wants to know them, or if your relationship would benefit from knowing them.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">3.) If you wish to keep something private, say so explicitly.</span></div><h3><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"> Exceptions:</span></h3><div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">1.a.) Avoid telling the truth when you have confirmed that dishonesty is the least harmful alternative. Situations like this in social relationships are very rare, and should be exited as quickly as possible.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">1.b.) Where exiting is not a meaningful option, long-term dishonesty may be the best policy, though we should be highly skeptical of this option as we are all biased to favor it.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">2.) Where a person explicitly does not want honesty, there is no need to be honest with them.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">3.) Since this is a practice meant for personal relationships, and is premised on consent and power dynamics, there is no significant requirement in this framework to be honest to entities that have power over you, such as governments and corporations.</span></div>
<div style="padding-left:40px;"><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">4.) Sarcasm and friendly pranks are also acceptable.</span></div>
My EDChttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/lifehacks-1-my-edc2021-07-22T20:32:22.691000Z2021-05-02T01:54:44ZBecoming Stronger<div><h1>How I determine what I carry</h1></div>
<div>My philosophy is a loose one, and it's always a tension between minimizing space and the expected utility of an item. The three (four?) questions I ask myself are as follows: "Will I use this every day?", "If I won't use it everyday, is it still vital to have immediately accessible in the event that it is needed?", "Do I have space for it in my pockets? If not, how can I make space?"</div><h1>What I carry</h1><div>Excluding my car keys and the phone I used to take this picture with (iPhone 11 Pro), these are the privileged items I always have with me:</div><img src="https://cdn-images.postach.io/1f301d1e-cd07-d910-43e0-783a0a44e192/993828ff-7acc-921d-ee71-d0070d2c46ca/919140e8-0601-8925-1d73-8ca593bc9a16.jpg" style="--en-naturalWidth:3343; --en-naturalHeight:3024;"/><div>From left to right:</div><ol><li><div><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3vGg0KZ" rev="en_rl_none">'Fitbit Versa 2 (Special Edition)'</a></b></div>
<div>Really, the Special Edition was a waste of money. The only real advantage over the regular edition was the NFC payments, which is a pain to use and only works with Fitbit Pay. However, I do like the watch face, and I have added a couple charms to replace my standard Cryonics medical bracelet. I use it for sleep tracking, exercise tracking, and of course to tell the time or set a timer in a pinch.</div></li><li><div><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3gYqkJY" rev="en_rl_none">'Swiss Army Cyber Tool Lite'</a></b></div>
<div>This is easily one of my top five best frivolous purchases. As with all Swiss Army knives, each tool is strictly inferior to a dedicated tool of the same, but it gets me 80% of the functionality for far less than 20% of the space. It has a flashlight too! Although I prefer my phone flashlight.</div></li><li><div><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3t8BNt2" rev="en_rl_none">'Listerine' breath spray</a></b></div>
<div>Just to keep myself fresh for any face to face conversations.</div></li><li><div><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3ecs0Op" rev="en_rl_none">'Sabre' pocket pepper spray</a></b></div>
<div>I have never had to use this, thankfully, but if I ever find myself in need of it, it will be vital to have at-hand.</div></li><li><div><b><a href="https://amzn.to/3nDPgYB" rev="en_rl_none">'Fidelo' Carbon Fiber Minimalist Wallet</a></b></div>
<div>I love this thing. It easily fits 7 cards, with room to spare, and when you push the cards out you can fan them in order to get the individual one you need. (What you don't see is a 'Tile' wallet bluetooth tracker slid into it.)</div></li></ol><div><br /></div>
<div>My next Life Hack post will be about my Expanded Inventory (my backpack).</div>
Every day a new experimenthttps://becomingstronger.postach.io/post/every-day-a-new-experiment2021-07-24T04:59:36.960000Z2021-04-28T22:01:30ZBecoming Stronger<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i>"The first Virtue is Curiosity."</i></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><i>-Eliezer Yudkowsky, 'The 12 Virtues of Rationality'</i></span></div><hr /><div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">I am unsure how to best foster a sense of curiosity, but one method I'm experimenting with is constantly trying something new. Anytime I get a spark of curiosity, I aggressively reward that spark by throwing myself into it.</span></div>
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<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b>Does that food video look interesting or tasty?</b> I commit to making it as soon as today.</span></div>
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<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><b>How does this thing work?</b> I do a Google search and read at least three articles on it.</span></div>
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<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Today marks an experiment using Evernote as my personal blog. What you see is a platform that is taking an Evernote note and automatically turning it into a blog post. I have no idea how effective it will be, but it would certainly reduce the friction involved.</span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div><span style="--en-fontfamily: slab-serif; font-family: "Zilla Slab",serif,slab-serif">Having a blog gives me a creative outlet, and using Evernote (my second brain) to make the blog forces me to engage more deeply with my second brain. It has been, and continues to be, an enjoyable experience.</span></div>