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[silverspawn]

I think I said this before but there is nothing that makes me feel worse about humanity than reading movie reviews on IMBD. People's takes are so absurd and awful both intellectually and ethically that I just keep on reading in horror and bafflement. I don't know any place, online or offline, where people I meet are this bad on average.

[silverspawn]

I think the way to reconcile this is not  that people tend to be cruel or stupid but just ridiculously conformist, signaling driven, and unoriginal. What I associate most with the rationalist label is ultimately not anything related to IQ, an accurate world model, effective habits, nor even effective altruism, but simply taking beliefs seriously. What's really holding most people back is that they have one mode where they talk about things in the abstract which may or may not be reasonable, and another for doing anything concrete which just ends up optimizing everything under the overarching constraint of not being weird. That's why Elon Musk is one in a billion and not one in ten thousand. Waitbuywhy had a similar take about this.

[faust]

That's why Elon Musk is one in a billion and not one in ten thousand.

God I wish Elon Musk were one in a billion; the world would be a better place for it.

[silverspawn]

I keep seeing youtube recommendations of videos where the preview is someone making a weird facial expression. I'm pretty repulsed every time. It feels like the cheapest and most manipulative form of clickbait.

[LaLight]

I keep seeing youtube recommendations of videos where the preview is someone making a weird facial expression. I'm pretty repulsed every time. It feels like the cheapest and most manipulative form of clickbait.

God damn, yes, someone said it.

I am watching a lot of Poketubers being super interested in Pokemon and I just avoid the ones with weird facial expressions, expecially given the fact, that they have like 4 expressions that get recycled over and over.

[LaLight]

Also I should say I read this thread pretty closely and it is very thoughtful and interesting, thank you, silver.

[Awaclus]

I keep seeing youtube recommendations of videos where the preview is someone making a weird facial expression. I'm pretty repulsed every time. It feels like the cheapest and most manipulative form of clickbait.

https://hard-drive.net/opinion-if-you-keep-on-making-that-youtube-thumbnail-it-will-get-stuck-like-that/

[LaLight]

I keep seeing youtube recommendations of videos where the preview is someone making a weird facial expression. I'm pretty repulsed every time. It feels like the cheapest and most manipulative form of clickbait.

https://hard-drive.net/opinion-if-you-keep-on-making-that-youtube-thumbnail-it-will-get-stuck-like-that/

amazing

[silverspawn]

Also I should say I read this thread pretty closely and it is very thoughtful and interesting

Oh,  thanks :-)

I keep seeing youtube recommendations of videos where the preview is someone making a weird facial expression. I'm pretty repulsed every time. It feels like the cheapest and most manipulative form of clickbait.

https://hard-drive.net/opinion-if-you-keep-on-making-that-youtube-thumbnail-it-will-get-stuck-like-that/

I am moderately jealous of how well this person can write

[silverspawn]

So I accidentally got a position as a teacher for the coming year. I say accidentally because I was trying to just apply for some private lessons to pay my bills until I hopefully start a doctorate or PhD. And I also thought that becoming a proper teacher was impossible because I don't have the right degree. There is a special degree to qualify for a teaching post; I know because I've almost completed a Bachelor in it.

However, what I do have is MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. Although I would have preferred to teach math, the director wanted me to teach computer science because doing so requires a MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE and since most people don't have those, the school has a lot of demand for it; apparently enough to take people who don't have a teaching degree but only a MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. I will now be teaching Computer Technik, which consists primarily of teaching students how to use Word and Excel, and a little bit of data base stuff and theory.

I don't know what the director thinks a MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE entails. I know my ideas of what it entails before I got the bachelor were very wrong. Whatever the case, the overlap between it and the relevant material here is at best zero and probably negative. I don't remember ever using Excel for my modules. I definitely used less Word than before because I had to learn Latex. I also don't remember anything about data bases although in fairness this might be different if I hadn't avoided them on purpose.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. For me, this is all pretty great. I don't yet know how much it'll pay but it'll probably be way more than the most i ever earned for private lessons. I think it would be hard to come up with a subject that requires less preparation than what I'll have to do, and it'll be small classes, so even the discipline aspect is easier than for other subjects. And I do intend to take it very seriously, prepare well, and do a good job. But it is still just silly that all of the hours agonizing over how to prove a Multi-Party computation scheme secure in full rigor which I suffered through for my master thesis now pay off by qualifying me to teach people how to use Word and Excel.

[silverspawn]

And the other part of the irony is just how little connection there has been between the amount of effort I put into trying to get a job and the results.

[Awaclus]

I don't have a MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, but I am like 3/4 of the way there to get a BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (in computer science), and I currently have an internship at Atea's service desk which feels incredibly silly as well. The good thing about it is that it's way out of my comfort zone, so it's a legitimate opportunity for me to gain new strengths, but for a position that expects university/polytechnic education in computer science, even if not a complete degree, it's surprisingly consisting of teaching people over the phone how to install Outlook from Play Store and escalating anything more complicated than that to the customer's own IT crew because service desk isn't authorized to do it.

[silverspawn]

I'm so unbelievably annoyed at articles that talk about studies without citing them or explaining why they cannot be cited.

[silverspawn]

[faust]

I'm so unbelievably annoyed at articles that talk about studies without citing them or explaining why they cannot be cited.

It is quite a widespread problem! A recent study found that 68% of newspaper articles will not cite sources when discussing a study.

[WestCoastDidds]

I'm so unbelievably annoyed at articles that talk about studies without citing them or explaining why they cannot be cited.

It is quite a widespread problem! A recent study found that 68% of newspaper articles will not cite sources when discussing a study.

I hate it even more when someone says “research shows…”. It’s infuriating.

[silverspawn]

Why doesn't every language have ada's hierarchical functions?

I'm not a big fan of ada, but that feature is great.

[silverspawn]

If someone says they're going to do a certain thing, you would think the default prediction is that they'll do it. However, I'm feeling more and more that the alternate prediction 'they won't do anything' is a serious contender and often even more likely.

In the special case that someone says they'll do X by time t, I'll go as far as to say it's outright unlikely to come true.

Is it just me interacting with unreliable people, or do others also have this impression?

[silverspawn]

The thing is I don't always succeed if I say I'll do X by time t, but I'm pretty certain that I succeed more than half of the time.

[silverspawn]

If someone says they're going to do a certain thing, you would think the default prediction is that they'll do it. However, I'm feeling more and more that the alternate prediction 'they won't do anything' is a serious contender and often even more likely.

(Ofc there are people who are unusually reliable, but I'm saying that this feels true on average, without conditioning on the person.)

[silverspawn]

I like to buy the cheapest possible version of a product. Sometimes, I don't notice a significant difference, and then it's great because I got the same value for cheap. Sometimes I do notice significant differences, and then I forever appreciate how more expensive versions are better.

This has worked out great. Except with my printer.  I will certainly appreciate better printers from now on, but in this case it hasn't been worth it.

[silverspawn]

I'm not saying this is likely, but if I succeed in convincing my sister that being anti-vaccines doesn't make sense, I will consider that a victory for rationality, reason, and friendly persuasion.

[silverspawn]

It took me until now in my life to appreciate the brilliancy of garlic

[silverspawn]

Google censoring fake news is making it difficult to find the sources that I'm trying to evaluate. If I search for "Covid Vaccine reduces ovarian function", I don't want to see papers claiming that it has no impact on Ovarian function. It would genuinely be helpful if I could filter for 'pro vaccine' and 'anti vaccine'

[silverspawn]

Anyone has a tip for how I can find pro conspiracy theory results rather than articles disputing a conspiracy theory THAT THEN NEVER LINK TO THE SOURCE OF THE CLAIMS THEY'RE ATTACKING? This is a pretty general problem. I guess another search engine might do it but other search engines suck