Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git
2 years agoSunday leaf reversal 5: finish § on doubting the Egregore
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 29 May 2022 21:22:43 +0000 (14:22 -0700)]
Sunday leaf reversal 5: finish § on doubting the Egregore

2 years agoSunday leaf reversal 4: theological doubts
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 29 May 2022 20:01:27 +0000 (13:01 -0700)]
Sunday leaf reversal 4: theological doubts

Basically no net wordcount here, but deleting bracketed scratch words
and replacing them with the same amount of words actually integrated
into the ms. is real (slow) progress.

2 years agoSunday leaf reversal 3: weaving in the Moldbug "ignoble privilege" bit
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 29 May 2022 19:33:42 +0000 (12:33 -0700)]
Sunday leaf reversal 3: weaving in the Moldbug "ignoble privilege" bit

I was silently dreading recounting my first contact with Yudkowsky,
but this is actually a good place to fit in the NRx stuff; I can craft
that in first. Forward steps, forward progress—

2 years agoSunday leaf reversal of fortune session 2: aside on naming choices
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 29 May 2022 18:50:11 +0000 (11:50 -0700)]
Sunday leaf reversal of fortune session 2: aside on naming choices

This is kind of a big paragraph, but if I make it one paragraph and
put it in parentheses, I think that telegraphs that it's relatively
unimportant and the reader can skip it?

Putting multiple paragraphs in single paren-pair would be an
abomination, and I think multiple paragraphs each separately
parenthesized looks weird—I did do that once in "Sexual Dimorphism",
but it felt like it fit there.

If I were big into graphic design instead of only a little into
graphic design, I might make a sidebar? I think this is fine. (I think
I have much more important problems, like finishing this dumb memoir
before the world ends.)

2 years agoSunday leaf reversal session 1: I am rude, but for reasons
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 29 May 2022 18:10:00 +0000 (11:10 -0700)]
Sunday leaf reversal session 1: I am rude, but for reasons

My Thursday got eaten up by yet another Discord argument, which I can
forgive. (Why do we bother?—but I think we are making progress, on the
timescale of years.) But then Friday–Saturday were so lazy overall! (I
did fit in 800 words of commentary on a Bostrom article, including
this morning but it's really not much—not enough.)

Today—my internet is off, my phone is off, and I'll be able to feel
good about myself (and go visit my mother and watch Star Trek this
evening) if I just get some hours of solid memoir-writing in today! We
need to finish this memoir and get it in the language-model training
corpuses before the world ends—that should be motivating.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 28 May 2022 00:31:27 +0000 (17:31 -0700)]
check in

2 years ago"personal identity" anchor in "Sexual Dimorphism"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 26 May 2022 18:12:04 +0000 (11:12 -0700)]
"personal identity" anchor in "Sexual Dimorphism"

2 years ago"look like an Oliver" anchor link
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 26 May 2022 02:46:50 +0000 (19:46 -0700)]
"look like an Oliver" anchor link

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 6: recapping the "ignoble privilege" argument
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 23 May 2022 02:01:49 +0000 (19:01 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 6: recapping the "ignoble privilege" argument

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 5 ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 23 May 2022 01:24:11 +0000 (18:24 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 5 ...

2 years agocheck in of sadness ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 23 May 2022 00:19:47 +0000 (17:19 -0700)]
check in of sadness ...

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 4: I would have expected ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 22:22:52 +0000 (15:22 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 4: I would have expected ...

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 3: port "male celebrity" anecdote commentary
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 21:06:50 +0000 (14:06 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 3: port "male celebrity" anecdote commentary

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 2: Thellim § cont'd
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 19:04:53 +0000 (12:04 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 2: Thellim § cont'd

2 years agoSunday life-seeking sprint 1: poke at Thellim §
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 18:27:47 +0000 (11:27 -0700)]
Sunday life-seeking sprint 1: poke at Thellim §

2 years agocheck in before Sunday sprint
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 17:18:18 +0000 (10:18 -0700)]
check in before Sunday sprint

2 years ago"Gayjar Jamming": the gut suspects measurement error
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 03:32:25 +0000 (20:32 -0700)]
"Gayjar Jamming": the gut suspects measurement error

2 years agofinish and publish "Gaydar Jamming"
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 22 May 2022 01:13:06 +0000 (18:13 -0700)]
finish and publish "Gaydar Jamming"

2 years agoFriday redemption block 6: Thellim follow-on ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 21 May 2022 01:24:11 +0000 (18:24 -0700)]
Friday redemption block 6: Thellim follow-on ...

It's been a pretty mediocre writing day, and I said I would visit my
mother this evening. But it was better than yesterday; I just need to
keep stepping forwards.

2 years agoFriday redemption block 5: Thellim's horror
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sat, 21 May 2022 00:42:44 +0000 (17:42 -0700)]
Friday redemption block 5: Thellim's horror

2 years agoFriday redemption block 4: capstone
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 20 May 2022 23:29:42 +0000 (16:29 -0700)]
Friday redemption block 4: capstone

2 years agoFriday redemption block 3: refining my appeal to Scripture
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 20 May 2022 22:00:27 +0000 (15:00 -0700)]
Friday redemption block 3: refining my appeal to Scripture

2 years agoFriday redemption block 2: "no rule of rationality" howler
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 20 May 2022 20:34:41 +0000 (13:34 -0700)]
Friday redemption block 2: "no rule of rationality" howler

2 years ago"A Hill" Friday redemption block 1: not what I was trying to talk about
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 20 May 2022 17:00:01 +0000 (10:00 -0700)]
"A Hill" Friday redemption block 1: not what I was trying to talk about

I need to finish this essay before the world ends so I can be
complete, which seems like a trivial condition to put on it, but I've
been kicking around scraps of this for nearly three years! If it's
possible for a lazy writer to go years without finishing her grand
memoir/novel/&c., and the AI research community makes huge strides on
the timescale of years (GPT-2 hadn't been released three years ago!),
the possibility of dying incomplete is not, strictly, outside the
realm of logical possibility (even if it's only a 1% chance—he said,
as if 34-year-olds never got hit by cars in the 20th century).

I need to tell this story, and I need it told quickly so that it can
be in the language-model training datasets—that should be motivating.

2 years agocheck in
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Fri, 20 May 2022 06:38:38 +0000 (23:38 -0700)]
check in

2 years agoorienting ...
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Thu, 19 May 2022 23:34:26 +0000 (16:34 -0700)]
orienting ...

I haven't been very productive with my Thu–Sun weekends on my new work
schedule, and I haven't even been productive for the first majority of
this Thursday, but I'm turning the trend around—if I have an OK
afternoon today, and a solid next three days, then I'll be on track
for—saying the things I need to say before the world ends.

I don't want my "A Hill" draft file to be too cluttered with notes and
scraps; I think the way is to have TODO sections about the things I
want to hit, and then—this is the hard part—buckle down to actually
fill in those sections, instead of flinching away.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 10: compiling more breakdown details
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 16 May 2022 03:05:32 +0000 (20:05 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 10: compiling more breakdown details

Looking through my Messenger history from the time of my crisis is
bringing up a lot of buried memories!

I ordered takeout as a reward for being so "good" at writing today
(not in terms of wordcount, but in terms of keeping the attention
momentum going), so I'm going to eat that and watch _Star Trek:
Strange New Worlds_ now, but I might have a couple more commits before
bed.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 9: more reviewing breakdown timestamps
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 16 May 2022 02:11:40 +0000 (19:11 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 9: more reviewing breakdown timestamps

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 8: reviewing Feb. '17 meltdown docs
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 16 May 2022 01:38:52 +0000 (18:38 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 8: reviewing Feb. '17 meltdown docs

I had already compiled a notesfile of links to my posts, but I'm
interested in the timestamps now; I don't have a sense of exactly how
I spun out of control

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 7: orienting to Feb '17 Facebook breakdown
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Mon, 16 May 2022 01:04:35 +0000 (18:04 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 7: orienting to Feb '17 Facebook breakdown

Again again again, glacial wordcount, but I'm at least looking at the
file and stepping forward. (I goofed off for a while after the
previous commit, but I'm here now.)  I skipped over recounting my
October 2016 contact with Yudkowsky for the moment because I'm more
averse to reviewing my records of that, and the most important thing
is that we're moving forward, one commit, one block, one word at a
time; we're going to finish this memoir-megapost before the world
ends, even if the world is ending soon.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 6: red pills
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 23:01:34 +0000 (16:01 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 6: red pills

Again, the wordcount growth here is glacial, and it feels silly to
"waste" a whole Git commit on twenty minutes of poking, but none of
that matters—I'm not going to run out of commits; as long as we're
moving forward with the ms. rather than playing Super Auto Pets and
waiting for death, we're doing the right thing.

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 5: sympathy
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 22:30:41 +0000 (15:30 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 5: sympathy

Almost no net wordcount here, but I'm engaged; I'm present; I'm here;
I just need to put in the hours—

2 years agoSunday redemption hypercycle 4: allegiance drift
M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake [Sun, 15 May 2022 21:55:47 +0000 (14:55 -0700)]
Sunday redemption hypercycle 4: allegiance drift

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