Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git
2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 3: poking at "A Hill"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 21:05:32 +0000 (14:05 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 3: poking at "A Hill"

This is barely any new words, but the point is to keep the timer
running and me being engaged with editing the file. If I just spend
enough interminable hours engaging with editing the file, eventually
the memoir will be complete.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 2: Gays Theorem?
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 19:58:39 +0000 (12:58 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 2: Gays Theorem?

Even if I'm not adding a huge amount of wordcount per workblock, the
key is to keep the timer starting and to be generally on-task while
the timer is running. There's lots of hours in a day—there's even lots
of hours in an afternoon.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 1: Prof. H anecdote
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 19:01:44 +0000 (12:01 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 1: Prof. H anecdote

Why do I have so much trouble doing things?! It's the last day of my
weekend, and I am utterly determined to prove that I deserve it—that
I'm not a waste.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 19:01:34 +0000 (12:01 -0700)]
check in

2 years agozoomed-in two-types graph (and check in source this time)
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 03:23:00 +0000 (20:23 -0700)]
zoomed-in two-types graph (and check in source this time)

2 years agoSaturday redemption cycle 2: "Gaydar" towards the second anecdote
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 21:53:09 +0000 (14:53 -0700)]
Saturday redemption cycle 2: "Gaydar" towards the second anecdote

2 years agoSaturday redemption cycle 1: drafting "Gaydar Jamming"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 21:02:27 +0000 (14:02 -0700)]
Saturday redemption cycle 1: drafting "Gaydar Jamming"

Just because my dayjob isn't bleeding my weeks dry doesn't mean I'm
not still bleeding, doesn't mean I can afford to be lazy if I want to
live. And I think—I think I do want to live.

2 years agotap
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 04:14:34 +0000 (21:14 -0700)]
tap

2 years agoFriday night redemption block 1: handwriting anecdote
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 03:04:05 +0000 (20:04 -0700)]
Friday night redemption block 1: handwriting anecdote

2 years agoprune domains from self-links in "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 03:03:03 +0000 (20:03 -0700)]
prune domains from self-links in "Challenges"

I'm surprised those were there? Guess they're left from the Less Wrong
linkpost version.

2 years agopoke (prelude to Friday night redemption blocks)
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 14 May 2022 00:17:27 +0000 (17:17 -0700)]
poke (prelude to Friday night redemption blocks)

Parkinson's law is biting my new work schedule? (I don't even have a
deadline for the posts I want to finish, but it would nice to be get
through it all in 2022, which I expect to be safely before the world
ends.) It's too late to make the most of my four-day weekend, but if I
had a lazy and (maybe?)  relaxing non-aristocrat weekend-equivalent,
now I can work really hard the next two days!

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 12 May 2022 17:07:02 +0000 (10:07 -0700)]
check in

2 years agocheck in critical acclaim and copyright year
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 9 May 2022 05:38:44 +0000 (22:38 -0700)]
check in critical acclaim and copyright year

2 years agoSunday redemption block 4: mostly re-reading Lippa and extracting stats
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 19:08:46 +0000 (12:08 -0700)]
Sunday redemption block 4: mostly re-reading Lippa and extracting stats

2 years agoSunday redemption block 3: outlining
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 18:06:19 +0000 (11:06 -0700)]
Sunday redemption block 3: outlining

2 years agoSunday redemption block 2: into the graph
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 17:01:40 +0000 (10:01 -0700)]
Sunday redemption block 2: into the graph

(I read some Twitter on my phone, but I'm back, and it's only slightly
after ten; there is no question that I am redeeming myself today.)

2 years agoSunday redemption session 1: parallelism, Veale recap
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 15:35:30 +0000 (08:35 -0700)]
Sunday redemption session 1: parallelism, Veale recap

I think the key to writing productivity is that you have to start
first thing in the morning (after showering). If you check Twitter,
email, Less Wrong, &c., first, that's a tacit admission that you don't
really care. But I care! I'm going to get breakfast, and then continue
writing through the morning, and then I will have earned the right to
live or go to the Valinor party.

2 years agodrafting "Useful Approximation" ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 02:45:40 +0000 (19:45 -0700)]
drafting "Useful Approximation" ...

2 years agocheck in before salvaging Saturday
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 8 May 2022 01:17:56 +0000 (18:17 -0700)]
check in before salvaging Saturday

What's wrong with me?! I should be using my new four-day weekends to
be productive! I had a fantasy of being really productive all day and
then rewarding myself with takeout and the _Star Trek: Picard_ finale,
but Mom wanted to walk in the morning, and I just—couldn't get
started. I also kind of want to go to the Valinor party tomorrow ...

My network cable is out, but I've been looking at my phone anyway ...

Here's a plan for combined productivity and weekend fun. Let me do 40
solid minutes of writing (on "Useful Approximation"), then I'm allowed
to order food. Keep writing until food arrives. Then I'm allowed to
watch Star Trek. (Also unload the dishwasher and trash at some point.)
Then write until 2300. Then I can play a phone game before bed. When I
wake up, write until noon, then go to the party.

This is going to be fun and this is going to be meaningful.

2 years agomediocre Friday
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 7 May 2022 07:41:05 +0000 (00:41 -0700)]
mediocre Friday

2 years agoTimes nonbinary linkpost
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 7 May 2022 01:19:42 +0000 (18:19 -0700)]
Times nonbinary linkpost

I'm not having a great day, but if I'm drafting something and even
publishing something, maybe it's an okay day? Maybe I deserve a
reward; maybe I deserve to exist.

2 years agocheck in—and go
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 6 May 2022 19:30:31 +0000 (12:30 -0700)]
check in—and go

Half past noon on a Friday and I've been feeling sad and resentful all
day—but wouldn't it be better to write about it instead of suffering
in silence? It will never stop hurting until you write it down

2 years agomediocre Sunday
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 2 May 2022 04:59:09 +0000 (21:59 -0700)]
mediocre Sunday

It's been a year since "Sexual Dimorphism"! It—hasn't been a great
year! I should want to fight, with the years we have left.

2 years agoa mediocre Saturday is better than none
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 1 May 2022 05:50:06 +0000 (22:50 -0700)]
a mediocre Saturday is better than none

2 years agocheck in remaining Kaiser notes, including Walker correspondence
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 30 Apr 2022 19:22:43 +0000 (12:22 -0700)]
check in remaining Kaiser notes, including Walker correspondence

walker.txt was in my "private" notes directory, but I don't
see why it needed to be. (I don't care about privacy for myself,
and it's not like Dr. Walker can demand privacy.)

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 30 Apr 2022 19:01:57 +0000 (12:01 -0700)]
check in

2 years agocheck in, incl. Kaiser notes!
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 30 Apr 2022 06:11:14 +0000 (23:11 -0700)]
check in, incl. Kaiser notes!

Kaiser lets you see your shrink's notes on their website now!

2 years agopoke at "A Hill" as if I'm alive
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:03:38 +0000 (17:03 -0700)]
poke at "A Hill" as if I'm alive

This wasn't actually terribly productive, but at least I'm actually
interacting with the ms. instead of avoiding it. Future days will be
better, and I'll finish the Whole Dumb Story.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:00:42 +0000 (12:00 -0700)]
check in

2 years agoanachronistic ACX link for "Sexual Dimorphism" 'cause it's too on-theme
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:56:17 +0000 (11:56 -0700)]
anachronistic ACX link for "Sexual Dimorphism" 'cause it's too on-theme

2 years agoenqueue metablogging
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 25 Apr 2022 06:13:33 +0000 (23:13 -0700)]
enqueue metablogging

2 years agopublish GPT-3 guest post
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 25 Apr 2022 06:05:05 +0000 (23:05 -0700)]
publish GPT-3 guest post

2 years agocheck in for a clean slate for more being alive on Sunday
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 24 Apr 2022 17:07:51 +0000 (10:07 -0700)]
check in for a clean slate for more being alive on Sunday

2 years agoI'm alive this Sunday morning
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 24 Apr 2022 17:07:15 +0000 (10:07 -0700)]
I'm alive this Sunday morning

2 years agobacklog metablogging as a reminder that I'm alive
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 23 Apr 2022 22:51:30 +0000 (15:51 -0700)]
backlog metablogging as a reminder that I'm alive

2 years agodrafting "Taxonomy Is"/check in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 22 Apr 2022 19:49:08 +0000 (12:49 -0700)]
drafting "Taxonomy Is"/check in

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:56:20 +0000 (11:56 -0700)]
check in

2 years agoCan GPT-3 explain what it did wrong?
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 18 Apr 2022 03:54:46 +0000 (20:54 -0700)]
Can GPT-3 explain what it did wrong?

2 years agocheck in (incl. GPT-3 guest post)
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 17 Apr 2022 15:18:41 +0000 (08:18 -0700)]
check in (incl. GPT-3 guest post)

2 years ago"Sexual Dimorphism" on About page
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 17 Apr 2022 01:48:22 +0000 (18:48 -0700)]
"Sexual Dimorphism" on About page

I should have done this 11 months ago.

2 years agopublish "Student Dysphoria, and a Previous Life's War"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 17 Apr 2022 01:47:01 +0000 (18:47 -0700)]
publish "Student Dysphoria, and a Previous Life's War"

This isn't my best work, but sometimes, you have to shove something
out the door.

2 years agolaziness spiral check in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 16 Apr 2022 05:07:06 +0000 (22:07 -0700)]
laziness spiral check in

2 years agopoke at "Student Dysphoria"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 14 Apr 2022 22:55:48 +0000 (15:55 -0700)]
poke at "Student Dysphoria"

Commit because I have an appointment to visit my mom, but I'd like to
tie off the conclusion and publish this tonight. It's not my snappiest
work, but it's better published than withheld.

2 years agomedian poke
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 12 Apr 2022 05:34:56 +0000 (22:34 -0700)]
median poke

2 years agomedianworld poke
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 11 Apr 2022 06:27:56 +0000 (23:27 -0700)]
medianworld poke

2 years agoSunday not-yet-into-gear poke at medianworld
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:03:34 +0000 (17:03 -0700)]
Sunday not-yet-into-gear poke at medianworld

Still in a sadness-and-laziness spiral that's covered my extended
weekend.

2 years agoinit draft: medianworld post
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 10 Apr 2022 05:14:30 +0000 (22:14 -0700)]
init draft: medianworld post

I've been caught in a laziness-and-sadness-and-Super-Auto-Pets
loop lately; tomorrow I want to really get some stuff done

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 8 Apr 2022 22:48:11 +0000 (15:48 -0700)]
check in

2 years agodrafting "Useful Approximation": gravity analogy
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 26 Mar 2022 22:58:07 +0000 (15:58 -0700)]
drafting "Useful Approximation": gravity analogy

It's a clichéd example
(http://unremediatedgender.space/2017/Dec/interlude-xi/), but it makes
the point.

(And if I can write a paragraph in twenty minutes, then maybe I can
write all the things I still have left to say this year, twenty
minutes at a time.)

2 years agopoke (we're alive on Saturday)
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 26 Mar 2022 22:34:56 +0000 (15:34 -0700)]
poke (we're alive on Saturday)

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 26 Mar 2022 21:35:07 +0000 (14:35 -0700)]
check in

2 years agostart draft on two-type approximation
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 25 Mar 2022 07:06:09 +0000 (00:06 -0700)]
start draft on two-type approximation

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 25 Mar 2022 01:01:38 +0000 (18:01 -0700)]
check in

2 years agopoke at "Student Dysphoria"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 21 Mar 2022 06:18:10 +0000 (23:18 -0700)]
poke at "Student Dysphoria"

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 19 Mar 2022 17:28:01 +0000 (10:28 -0700)]
check in

2 years agopost-publication copy edits to "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 18 Mar 2022 06:15:16 +0000 (23:15 -0700)]
post-publication copy edits to "Challenges"

Make potato singular, because only the singular French definite article is
gendered. (Thanks to commenter sf8764vrd5.)

pour → pore, provenance → province (Thanks to Alicorn.)

Less generous wordcount. (The Less Wrong wordcounter on the linkpost mirror
only calls this 11,800; Emacs M-= must be counting URL segments and such.)

Don't forget to link the "not the woke position" comment.

2 years agopull the trigger on "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Mar 2022 20:35:23 +0000 (13:35 -0700)]
pull the trigger on "Challenges"

2 years agoanother "Challenges" edit pass
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Mar 2022 18:57:34 +0000 (11:57 -0700)]
another "Challenges" edit pass

I'm thinking of just pulling the trigger on this today, just as a
standalone object-level post. The meta-level intellectual dishonesty
arguments can wait; it will take more weeks or months for me to break
out of enough of my silencing spiral to finish the Whole Dumb Story.

I need the psychological momentum. This post (without the coda) is a
little bit mean to Yudkowsky, but not so mean that I'm too scared to
pull the trigger today, whereas with the coda, I would want to hire a
hostile prereader to make sure I'm not setting myself socially on
fire. (Yudkowsky was mean to Ngo and Shah in the recent MIRI
dialogues; I don't think this is worse than that.)

2 years agostill struggling with silencing chains
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Mar 2022 05:47:06 +0000 (21:47 -0800)]
still struggling with silencing chains

I'm never going to be able to move on with my life until I finish
this; I keep repeatedly flip-flopping in my thinking of how to publish
and present it—a coda to "Challenges", or a full post that just goes
for the throat, or do I have to write the whole memoir? A lot of the
content I wrote for the original challenges coda is very good; I don't
want to have to drop it on the floor just because it's mean.

I need to spend time in a flow state where I'm just focused on
building the case against Big Yud as clearly as I can. I'll worry
about packaging it up later.

I've been so lazy lately (lots of TV and Super Auto Pets) because I've
been avoiding this, but I have to come around sometime.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 12 Mar 2022 18:18:29 +0000 (10:18 -0800)]
check in

2 years agoshovel into postscript
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 7 Mar 2022 17:38:03 +0000 (09:38 -0800)]
shovel into postscript

2 years agoshoveling to postscript, and remove duplicated section
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 7 Mar 2022 17:08:58 +0000 (09:08 -0800)]
shoveling to postscript, and remove duplicated section

I had like 4000 words double-pasted into the "sections" file!

2 years agocheck in: another weekend day wasted in paralysis
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 7 Mar 2022 05:48:02 +0000 (21:48 -0800)]
check in: another weekend day wasted in paralysis

It will never stop hurting until you write it down. Before pulling the
trigger on "Challenges", I want to write the short version (not the
"Hill of Validity" memoir-megapost) of my grievance against Yudkowsky,
in accordance with counsel's advice to go for the throat without
wasting wordcount, and have a hostile prereader look it over.

I haven't been motivated lately. Ever since the conversation at the
Independence Day party, I've felt like my life is over. The "sense of
foreshortened future" paper that Vassar likes to cite talks about
this. Maybe I should write a short meta post about that, to get me
unstuck?

Or is that another form of procrastination? Tomorrow morning I should
wake up early enough to take a direct swing at the "Challenges"
postscript before dayjobbing. I'll feel better after I do. And
tonight, this day that is already dead, I can watch an episode of
_Crazy Ex Girlfriend_ before sleep.

2 years agocheck in SI excerpts, full slug
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 6 Mar 2022 18:12:31 +0000 (10:12 -0800)]
check in SI excerpts, full slug

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 4 Mar 2022 16:42:06 +0000 (08:42 -0800)]
check in

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 4 Mar 2022 03:40:38 +0000 (19:40 -0800)]
check in

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 27 Feb 2022 20:01:22 +0000 (12:01 -0800)]
check in

2 years agopublish Amy Wax linkpost
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 24 Feb 2022 05:24:34 +0000 (21:24 -0800)]
publish Amy Wax linkpost

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 24 Feb 2022 05:22:28 +0000 (21:22 -0800)]
check in

2 years ago"Challenges" ispell pass
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 24 Feb 2022 04:41:21 +0000 (20:41 -0800)]
"Challenges" ispell pass

2 years ago"Challenges" edit pass
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 24 Feb 2022 04:30:05 +0000 (20:30 -0800)]
"Challenges" edit pass

2 years agoflip-flop on "Challenges" coda, again?!?
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 22 Feb 2022 14:41:43 +0000 (06:41 -0800)]
flip-flop on "Challenges" coda, again?!?

After pulling the trigger on posting something yesterday and getting a
fighty comment from Tail, I feel more alive than I have in months of
not-publishing. This makes me lean (again) towards publishing without
the coda. Maybe counsel is right that I'm being too timid—optimizing
for me having permssion to have said the thing, rather than being
heard. I had thought, then (though I may have been lying to myself),
that the solution was to finish the Whole Dumb Story first, so that I
could feel comfortable attacking.

But I don't think that's the right way for me to finish healing. I
think I need to pull the trigger on publishing something, and
finishing up the object-level is the right place to start.

2 years agocheck in after a disappointing day
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 22 Feb 2022 06:02:50 +0000 (22:02 -0800)]
check in after a disappointing day

Do you ever have one of those days where you just can't get started?!
And it's Presidents' Day! One would have hoped to make a lot of
progress given a whole extra day to oneself!

I guess I also did pretty poorly on Presidents' Day last year (commit
message "Presidential doldrums"), but I did well in 2020 ("Human
Diversity review Presidential sprint session" commits).

Has it been two years?? Time goes fast when you're old ...

2 years agopublish "Never Smile" song linkpost
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 22 Feb 2022 05:57:36 +0000 (21:57 -0800)]
publish "Never Smile" song linkpost

2 years ago"Hill": a series of increasingly frustrating private conversations
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 20 Feb 2022 23:44:27 +0000 (15:44 -0800)]
"Hill": a series of increasingly frustrating private conversations

2 years agoSaturday tap at "Hill of Validity"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 20 Feb 2022 06:33:21 +0000 (22:33 -0800)]
Saturday tap at "Hill of Validity"

Not a very productive day. You think you can just check Twitter and
Discord briefly in the morning, but you can't! I did look through my
old chatlogs to remember the conversations I was having in 2016.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 19 Feb 2022 20:36:14 +0000 (12:36 -0800)]
check in

2 years agotap outline
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 18 Feb 2022 18:09:04 +0000 (10:09 -0800)]
tap outline

I think a lot of the autobiographical content I don't already have
written; I should bring up emails and chatlogs while I draft it.

2 years agooutlining the Whole Dumb Story: 2016–2018
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 18 Feb 2022 07:04:52 +0000 (23:04 -0800)]
outlining the Whole Dumb Story: 2016–2018

2 years agoshoveling content to "A Hill"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 17 Feb 2022 20:03:38 +0000 (12:03 -0800)]
shoveling content to "A Hill"

A lot of this stuff (that was meant for "I Tell Myself"/"Sexual
Dimorphism" before I narrowed the scope and pulled the trigger on what
I had in May 2021) still looks good.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 17 Feb 2022 16:34:05 +0000 (08:34 -0800)]
check in

2 years agopoke at S.A. email
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Wed, 16 Feb 2022 18:46:02 +0000 (10:46 -0800)]
poke at S.A. email

2 years agostarting to stitch together "A Hill ..."
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:45:40 +0000 (08:45 -0800)]
starting to stitch together "A Hill ..."

Current thinking (after counsel thought I was too timid, trying to
disguise "Challenges" as not-an-attack, when that's totally what it
is) is that I need to finish the Whole Dumb Story. But you know—it's
mostly already written! I have 20,000 words of scraps and notes (that
got cut from "Sexual Dimorphism" when I ran out of endurance); now I
mostly just need to stitch them together.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 15 Feb 2022 05:23:05 +0000 (21:23 -0800)]
check in

2 years agopull in the coda again??
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Feb 2022 22:57:22 +0000 (14:57 -0800)]
pull in the coda again??

Counsel thinks I'm being too timid ...

I don't know what I'm going to do; I don't know how I can finish this
given the impossible constraints I'm facing.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Feb 2022 21:16:34 +0000 (13:16 -0800)]
check in

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Feb 2022 06:27:13 +0000 (22:27 -0800)]
check in

2 years agobulleted summary for "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 13 Feb 2022 02:50:03 +0000 (18:50 -0800)]
bulleted summary for "Challenges"

I might ask for feedback from counsel and a hostile prereader before
doing an edit pass?

2 years agogapless draft of "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 12 Feb 2022 23:58:10 +0000 (15:58 -0800)]
gapless draft of "Challenges"

Okay! Now I just need to write the summary bullet points (already
started in realtime, if not "Git time", thanks to the Git staging area
and `git add -p`), and do an edit pass, and then I can ask counsel for
political advice on how to publish this thing. (And I need advice,
given how back-and-forth my intuitions are; today I'm not feeling as
hot on the coda-as-LessWrong-comment idea I was talking up in a recent
commit message.)

2 years agotap
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 12 Feb 2022 06:35:32 +0000 (22:35 -0800)]
tap

It's late on a lazy Friday, but tomorrow! We can finish this!

2 years agoI may have figured out what to do with the "Challenges" coda
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 12 Feb 2022 04:46:44 +0000 (20:46 -0800)]
I may have figured out what to do with the "Challenges" coda

Maybe the coda that I didn't want to be part of the main post (because
it was too aggressive, and the Whole Dumb Story kept leaking out into
it) can just be a long comment on the Less Wrong linkpost version.

Then it can be optimized as an explanation why my robot cultists
should care—the main post attacks Yudkowsky's performance, but the
comment can tone the aggression down a bit (needs much editing from
current draft!) while explaining why I think it is a performance—the
explanation of bad faith and the nearest-unblocked strategy game is
something I think they need to hear, and explaining the game here
feels less like spoiling the separate Whole Dumb Story post.

Deconstructing the "Aristotelian binary" snark is better scoped to the
Whole Dumb Story (as explaining why I flipped out in December 2018,
whereas "Challenges" is just addressing the February 2021 post, and
the postscript is just addressing Kolmogorov disclaimer.

2 years agorhetorical ? is less hypocritical than playing dumb; no promises
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 11 Feb 2022 17:34:22 +0000 (09:34 -0800)]
rhetorical ? is less hypocritical than playing dumb; no promises

I don't want to be open to the charge of playing dumb myself when I
claim not to know how to interpret those words. I can think of other
interpretations!—I just think they're strained and ad hoc, and the
rhetorical question points at this better than claiming ignorance.

I can reference the existence of the Whole Dumb Story without
committing to finish and publish it.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Wed, 9 Feb 2022 02:42:21 +0000 (18:42 -0800)]
check in

2 years agoelide the attack in closing graf
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 8 Feb 2022 02:40:22 +0000 (18:40 -0800)]
elide the attack in closing graf

2 years agoflip-flop on scope of "Challenges", again?!
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Tue, 8 Feb 2022 02:21:31 +0000 (18:21 -0800)]
flip-flop on scope of "Challenges", again?!

I just saw some Tweet's about MIT philosopher Alex Bryne's new paper
on pronouns, and it makes me feel inspired to get the object-level
finished and published quickly, rather than floundering with the
Impossible-level challenge of my Whole Dumb Story.

2 years ago"Challenges": can't afford to ack real empirical reason
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 7 Feb 2022 18:24:06 +0000 (10:24 -0800)]
"Challenges": can't afford to ack real empirical reason

Today I'm again flip-flop leaning towards chopping off "Challenges" at
"can't say I wasn't warned", and putting the heavy bad-faith stuff
into "Hill", or possibly a third post?

But again, it's too early to throw in the towel of fatigue just yet; I
can keep drafting to try to make this the best post it can be as
currently envisioned, and then beg counsel for advice on how to split
it up and polish it for public consumption.

Maybe timebox it? What can I come up with before the end of February?

2 years agoSunday drafting "Challenges": protons
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 6 Feb 2022 23:35:14 +0000 (15:35 -0800)]
Sunday drafting "Challenges": protons

2 years agoSaturday drafting "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 6 Feb 2022 04:13:17 +0000 (20:13 -0800)]
Saturday drafting "Challenges"

I started too late in the day and checked Twitter too much, but I did
end up shaping some paragraphs?

The challenge level of this writing task is impossible (when you
strike at a king, you must kill him) and I feel like I'm never going
to finish. But I don't need to think about publishing yet—I can even
draft this and "A Hill" in parallel and show them both to counsel
before pulling the trigger on publishing! How many more weeks could
that take?

2 years agocheck in, with no time to lose
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 5 Feb 2022 23:14:39 +0000 (15:14 -0800)]
check in, with no time to lose

I haven't been brave enough to write, and it's already past fifteen on
a Saturday. Can I make up for lost time?

I don't need to be scared. For now, I'm writing for myself, and I'll
let counsel advise me on whether to pull the trigger on
publishing. But first, I need something to show counsel.

2 years agochanged my mind again re: scope of "Challenges"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 5 Feb 2022 18:08:51 +0000 (10:08 -0800)]
changed my mind again re: scope of "Challenges"

I think I was (still) flinching away from attacking the Caliph; and
because of that, I thought the analysis of politics belongs in the
somber memoir-post, rather than this critical post. But there's just
so much good stuff in this coda, and it is focused on the comments on
the Feburary '21 post, so it belong here. My job now is to make this
the best draft post it can be; I can always soften it or hold back
parts of it later, on advice of counsel.