rationalnewsletter

Issue #224

Jefferson or Burr?: People preferred to work with someone who openly disagreed with them than with someone who wasn’t willing to take a stand either way, as partners who refused to share their opinions were perceived as less trustworthy. // hbr.org

# Instrumental

Six weeks doesn’t make a habit // lynettebye, 4 min

Perverse Independence Incentives // jkaufman, 1 min

Meditation course claims 65% enlightenment rate: my review // ea247, 17 min

My advice on finding your own path // alex-ray, 3 min

On akrasia: starting at the bottom // seecrow, 4 min

# Epistemic

Don't be a Maxi // cole-killian, 2 min

How does one recognize information and differentiate it from noise? // M. Y. Zuo, 1 min

Absurdity Bias, Neom Edition // Scott Alexander, 7 min

# Ai

Two-year update on my personal AI timelines // ajeya-cotra, 19 min

chinchilla's wild implications // nostalgebraist, 14 min

What do ML researchers think about AI in 2022? // KatjaGrace, 2 min

Rant on Problem Factorization for Alignment // johnswentworth, 8 min

Externalized reasoning oversight: a research direction for language model alignment // tamera, 7 min

# Anthropic

Slightly Against Underpopulation Worries // Scott Alexander, 10 min

# Decision theory

"Just hiring people" is sometimes still actually possible // lc, 7 min

Newcombness of the Dining Philosophers Problem // Nathan1123, 2 min

Bridging Expected Utility Maximization and Optimization // Whispermute, 17 min

# Math and cs

Announcing Squiggle: Early Access // ozziegooen, 7 min

Metaculus and medians // rossry, 5 min

# Books

Your Book Review: Exhaustion // Scott Alexander, 16 min

# Relationships

Anatomy of a Dating Document // squidious, 5 min

# Community

Running a Basic Meetup // Screwtape, 2 min

# Culture war

Conservatism is a rational response to epistemic uncertainty // contrarianbrit, 10 min

# Misc

Fiber arts, mysterious dodecahedrons, and waiting on “Eureka!” // eukaryote, 11 min

The Falling Drill // Screwtape, 1 min

Wolfram Research v Cook // Kenny, 9 min

PredictIt is closing due to CFTC changing its mind // eigen, 1 min

Calibration Trivia // Screwtape, 3 min

# Videos of the week

DreamStudio AI (Stable Diffusion) FIRST LOOK and Guide - Stable Diffusion Full Release // MattVidPro, 24 min