rationalnewsletter

Issue #150

Propaganda can stave off dissent not by directly changing individuals’ own attitudes and intentions but, instead indirectly, by altering people’s perceptions of other people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions. // rd.springer.com

# Coronavirus

Making Vaccine // johnswentworth, 7 min Favorite

Covid 2/4: Safe and Effective Vaccines Aplenty // Zvi, 32 min

[Link] Sarah Constantin on RaDVaC // Orborde

Vaccinated Socializing // jkaufman, 2 min

Covid cafes // KatjaGrace, 3 min

# Instrumental

The 10,000-Hour Rule is a myth // lynettebye, 7 min

The World is Full of Wasted Motion // neel-nanda-1, 12 min

Feedback for learning // KatjaGrace, 1 min

For those who advocate Anki // jmh, 1 min

A Gentle Introduction on How to Use Anki to Improve Your Memory // simbyotic, 16 min

# Epistemic

Smuggled frames // artyom-kazak, 7 min

Networking and Expert Consulting As Rationality Bottlenecks // AllAmericanBreakfast, 8 min

Believing in things you cannot see // joekc, 12 min

Researching and Reasoning About Bardiya // lionhearted, 2 min

The InDirect-Check Sweet Spot // Robin Hanson, 2 min

# Ai

Deepmind has made a general inductor ("Making sense of sensory input") // MakoYass, 1 min

Distinguishing claims about training vs deployment // ricraz, 10 min

OpenAI: "Scaling Laws for Transfer", Hernandez et al. // Lanrian, 1 min

Evolutions Building Evolutions: Layers of Generate and Test // ete, 7 min

A Critique of Non-Obstruction // Joe_Collman, 4 min

# Meta-ethics

Notes on Frugality // David_Gross, 14 min

Has there been any work done on the ethics of changing people's minds? // mcorvin, 1 min

# Longevity

Current cryonics impressions // KatjaGrace, 1 min

#5: Making your cryonics arrangements official // mingyuan, 3 min

# Anthropic

Is the world becoming better? // invertedpassion, 6 min

Clarifications on tech stagnation // jasoncrawford, 1 min

Humans Are Early // Robin Hanson, 1 min

# Decision theory

Prisoner's Dilemmas : Altruism :: Battles of the Sexes : Convention // cocoa, 4 min

More on Experts Vs. Elites // Robin Hanson, 3 min

Experts Versus Elites // Robin Hanson, 3 min

# Math and cs

The Lottery Paradox // Liam Goddard, 1 min

Bayesian inference on 1st order logic // daniel-abolafia, 20 min

Has anybody used quantification over utility functions to define "how good a model is"? // eigil-rischel, 2 min

# Books

Lean Startup Reading Comprehension Quiz // Raemon, 1 min

# Community

Reflections on the cryonics sequence // mingyuan, 2 min

2019 Review: Voting Results! // Raemon, 5 min

How to Absorb a Shared Success Script (while also thinking you're living without one) // Hazard, 19 min

Creating A Kickstarter for Coordinated Action // Lumpyproletariat, 11 min

Is the influence of money pervasive, even on LessWrong? // shanen, 1 min

# Misc

The Story of the Reichstag // sustrik, 2 min

Late-talking kids and "Einstein syndrome" // steve2152, 6 min

Oceans of snails // KatjaGrace, 1 min

Why are clinical trials so expensive? // ChristianKl, 1 min

What it means to be lucky // amir-gamil, 5 min

# Rational fiction

Three Stories about not Thinking too Hard // ejacob, 3 min

# Videos of the week

Perfect Virtual Hands - But At A Cost! ? // Two Minute Papers, 6 min