57-59 seem to contradict 88-90. If you’re willing to presume judgment towards people whose grievances or anger make them a headache, you really cannot practice compassion, because those Scroogely people probably have real, valid reasons behind their outward manifestations. Just because you don’t find dealing with them to be particularly pleasant or productive, doesn’t really entitle you to ignore it or cut it out of your life (assuming you’re trying to be compassionate).
Tips for a Better Life
221–230 of 488 posts
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really, I was just responding to the prior. They drove the pseudo-rationalist line. I do think there is a toxic culture in rationalism, but I tend to blame it on neoliberal economic reductionism, or libertarianism. I don't think rationalism per se is at the root of it, pseudo-rationalism, what would that even be? purported rationalism but actually.. over-arching asocialism? self interest? Anyway, I saw religiosity as…
There's more than one counter-case to rationalism. Atheists, liberals, Democrats, progressives can all be irrational or pseudo-rational. What would pseudo-rationalism even be? Purported rationalism, yes, but the rationalism would be just a smokescreen for positions that are not rationally derived and therefore not addressable by means of rational argument. I don't understand why you think asocialism or self-interest…
> What would pseudo-rationalism even be? Purported rationalism, yes, but the rationalism would be just a smokescreen for positions that are not rationally derived and therefore not addressable by means of rational argument.
Such as Yudkowsky believing that torturing a man for 50 years is ok if it means that a very large number of people don't get a single speck of dust in their eye?
Or the creator of Roko's Baselisk openly stating recently on twitter that he wants "Traditional Futurism" ("Traditional" being a traditional (heh) dogwhistle for the alt-right https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Traditional_values)
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#223"8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online." I'm finding, as I've gotten older, that almost every time I've chosen money over time I've made a bad decision. And I see this among my family and friends, too. There's a mentality that emerges when exchangin…
On the other hand, if you enjoy fixing old trucks and hauling gravel then you haven't really lost anything. You've got to spend your time doing something after all.
I just replaced my failed furnace with a used one from craigslist, cost me about $250 and 2-4 hours ¯\_(0.0)_/¯
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#224I think the compassion section has the most wisdom in it, especially the reasoning behind the recommendation: 82. Call your parents when you think of them, tell your friends when you love them. 83. Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out. 84. If somebody is undergoing group criticism, the tribal part in yo…
Honestly, be kind because the universe is cruel enough. Just step back and let entropy do it’s thing if you truly can’t be kind to someone, but there’s no need to hasten “the entropy death of the universe.”
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#225> 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. Precede it with 'seriouseats'. Kenji is the ultimate hacker in the cooking world.
Amen. Even when I don't make the recipes, Kenji at least tells me the things I can do to make the most difference in the dish.
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#226"8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online." I'm finding, as I've gotten older, that almost every time I've chosen money over time I've made a bad decision. And I see this among my family and friends, too. There's a mentality that emerges when exchangin…
Since starting on my own homeownership journey, I've often found it a gigantic hassle to find professionals who I can trust to do a decent job AND have time in their schedule to do the job... Hiring someone for any kind of plumbing requires both time AND money, so I find it just as well to try using time first, and then adding money if the job is too big/complex to solve with a few youtube videos and a wrench.
I recently spent $2500 having a "recommended" handyman paint the trim of a rental house I own because I was taking too long to get the house done by myself and I figured it'd save money in the long run to accelerate the timetable, but his work wasn't up to my standards and I still had to spend another week touching up his mistakes. Probably would've been three days if I just did the job myself, and I wouldn't have had to spend any time picking paint out of the carpet either...
To be fair, though, the other subs I hired worked out okay.
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#227> 48. Keep your identity small. “I’m not the kind of person who does things like that” is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing. This is one I've been trying to emphasize with a few friends for a while. The act of labeling yourself is the act of restricting yourself to what you think fits that label. And unless that makes you happy , it's probably not what you really…
"All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
- Shirō Masamune. (Ghost in the shell)
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#228Treat your credit card like a debit card. Pay it off every 1 to 2 weeks. After getting caught with a maxed out Amex and being laid off, that's how I treat credit cards. Saves me TONS of grief and money not going to the credit card companies' coffers.
Oh, and go looking for cards with the best APR and reward points.
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#229"8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online." I'm finding, as I've gotten older, that almost every time I've chosen money over time I've made a bad decision. And I see this among my family and friends, too. There's a mentality that emerges when exchangin…
I disagree. I spent 20 hours installing a remote start on my wife’s minivan for $150 when it would have cost $400 to have professionals do it in 3 hours. My time was well spent.
I do almost everything myself--a byproduct of being raised poor--and I never know what I'm doing. I watch some youtube videos, buy a fancy new tool, and away I go. I've had a couple epic failures but overall I've found that the more things you learn to do yourself the faster and easier it gets to pick up any new thing.
Re: Tips for a Better Life
#230Does anyone know what comment/discussion software lesswrong uses on their site ? I sort-of-kind-of remember that they maybe built it themselves ? I find it very aesthetically pleasing ...
Yeah it's custom. Perhaps the old version used to be based on the open-source bit of Reddit's codebase. But I think the new one is totally home-grown. I think its source code is available though.