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How to have better arguments online

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Re: How to have better arguments online

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope this helps, with respect to ideas. While I can technically create my own scripts using AI, I tend to utilize others' scripts, as programming this stuff is not the best use of my time. This sort of stuff is almost always exclusively posted on GitHub. I do not use a ton of packages. I do have to keep this concise (check my profile for my email, which I will keep available for a couple of days). -Video: It should…

Thanks for the detailed response. I too generally feel bad using most social media (doomscrolling, etc..), but there's probably a lot of other things I do on the computer that make me feel bad, I just have not noticed. I've written a simple script to record most of what I do on my computer (ie what I type, what windows/tabs have focus, etc...). Correlating that info with Emotions monitor seems like it could find patt…

You're very welcome :-)

This suggestion may be much more practical to implement: I highly recommend RescueTime. This implementation is likely one of the best ways to go:

ADHD tech stack: auto time tracking

https://medium.com/@pmigdal/adhd-tech-stack-auto-time-tracki...

There are other very interesting articles about RescueTime on Medium that you may want to check out: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22rescuetime%22++site%3Amedium.co...

For staying organized with goals and stuff, digitally, I use Notion: https://www.notion.so/

Re: How to have better arguments online

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This seems a rather arbitrary limiter of the content you're willing to expose yourself to. What makes you think a high negative sentiment percentage in comments indicates a video that will make you unhappy? That is the point: clearly it is a very arbitrary limit. I do that on purpose. If I want to expose myself to negative feelings and emotions, I do that in real life with real, actual people. This is the definitio…

Am I unusual in that I find that the "suggestions" on all these media platforms are boringly predictable and rarely offering anything really interesting? I watch a video about "A" and I get 10 suggestions of other videos about "A". Big deal. They aren't very compelling. Or, on shopping sites, I buy a chair. You'd think maybe I'm outfitting an office and get suggestions for a table, a desk, or stuff like that? No, I g…

> Maybe it's because I use ad blockers and clear cookies frequently, so they don't have anything to really work with. But it seems that even the first guesses they take are pretty devoid of context.

Yeah, I use uBlock Origin, along with other extensions. I also block 3rd party cookies.

Maybe I should add some context: I have 2 rare immune-mediated neurological diseases affecting my peripheral nervous system, plus type 1 diabetes.

I just cannot afford to be stressed out by stuff on the internet, as I need to be successful with my ambitious plans in life. Having these ambitious plans also keeps me alive, as it keeps me motivated.

Re: How to have better arguments online

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but I did a search for Firefox extensions and I found this: Hide Comments Everywhere-An anti-social social extension to hide commenting systems like Disqus, Livefyre, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, etc. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-comments... Obviously uBlock Origin is a necessity, too. Another tip: Prior to going to a shopping website (such as Amazon), I go to my Firefox b…

That plugin is for desktop browser. My biggest distraction is the phone actually. And firefox for phone doesn't support it yet. Somebody should really port it. Grease monkey also doesn't work on mobile browsers. What a great idea. I have myself disabled colors on the screen to avoid those addictive contrasts. I also try to do a phone fast every Sunday, where I give my phone to my wife and just live without it for a d…

> I also try to do a phone fast every Sunday, where I give my phone to my wife and just live without it for a day. It's amazingly rewarding. You should give it a try :)

Amazing :-)! You know this is exactly the correct way, to reset your brain, to be motivated, so that you can work hard! I will definitely give it a try! Thank you :-)

> That plugin is for desktop browser. My biggest distraction is the phone actually. And firefox for phone doesn't support it yet. Somebody should really port it. Grease monkey also doesn't work on mobile browsers.

I do not know if this is helpful for your situation, but I keep my laptop [Windows 10 Professional] always on. I always keep my Synology NAS on. I usually remotely access these devices on my iPhone or my iPad. I prefer the iPad though. I essentially VNC in, and I then get on the internet via Firefox Desktop with extensions loaded.

Sometimes the remote connection is not an ideal situation. I keep a Rock Pi X, with a Windows 10 variant loaded on it, with me, when I am out and about. I have it configured with the Desktop browser extensions that I like to use and I basically VNC in: https://liliputing.com/2020/10/the-59-rock-pi-x-is-like-a-wi...

A smaller form factor like a Raspberry Pi Zero with an Ubuntu variant may be a better option, though.

Re: How to have better arguments online

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s 100 random people off the street serving as a fair representation of the larger population there are some fair assumptions you can make. 1. Half that population, 50, represent people who abhor originality in any form. This could be due to low intelligence, poor focus, loneliness, or a variety of other reasons. This group will accept any opinion that binds people together, such as knowingly false appeals to po…

Very interesting. These numbers match my intuition, but could you say how you derived them?

A combination of anecdotal observations and observed metrics from various intelligence/IQ/personality tests. These numbers are half derived from real numbers and represented in a way that matches my personal opinions of the world and not the data from which I sourced them.

Another way to think about those numbers:

Those 12 people who ignore everybody and do whatever the fuck they want... those are your soldiers or crime lords. If provided proper direction and motivation they are the ones who actually get things done.

Those 10 people left over as comedians. About 4 of them are your natural leaders.

Re: How to have better arguments online

#96
post #16

Let's imagine we have a group of 100 people and we want them to reach consensus on a controverted topic. Let's apply a divide and conquer approach: pair people 1 on 1, and if they can agree (even if the agreement involves different resolutions depending on personal preferences), you join them with another group of 2 and repeat the process. Now, why doesn't this work? Well, this could work if people's opinions were st…

If it’s 100 random people off the street serving as a fair representation of the larger population there are some fair assumptions you can make. 1. Half that population, 50, represent people who abhor originality in any form. This could be due to low intelligence, poor focus, loneliness, or a variety of other reasons. This group will accept any opinion that binds people together, such as knowingly false appeals to po…

A perfect answer :-)

Re: How to have better arguments online

#97
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN discussions very often have input from experts. Who are predictably downvoted! I think the upvoting/downvoting mechanism by itself makes discussions unnecessarily competitive and hostile. Here's a crazy alternative: make the order of comments random and rotating. Of course you could still have flagging and moderation to remove bad comments, but otherwise get rid of the voting. You could still have nested convers…

Let me chime in on the voting issue (or I think what you mean is mob voting issue?) Imagine a discussion on Linux and Torvalds comments on it. But due to randomisation, it doesn't get enough traction. Note that this problem will become bigger the more top level comments you get. This is the same problem with democracies also. Everyone gets to vote but the outcome might not be the best.But the alternative of randomly…

Well, there's a lot of forms of randomness...

One could use Thompson sampling. Every comment starts with 1 up and 1 down vote. The total number of up/down votes determine a beta distribution. When displaying comments, draw from the beta distributions for each comment, and present them in that order. High quality comments drift reliably to the top over time, but other comments have their own chances at the top to accumulate votes and better determine their place in the stack.

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