rationalnewsletter

Issue #33

Preliminary self-reported study of microdosing psychedelics reveals reductions in levels of depression and stress, lower levels of distractibility, increased absorption and increased neuroticism. // psyarxiv.com

# Instrumental

Rationality of demonstrating & voting // bfinn, 9 min Favorite

Conversational Cultures: Combat vs Nurture // Ruby, 7 min

Burnout: What it is and how to Treat it. // elizabeth, 1 min

Productivity: Instrumental Rationality // frdk666, 1 min

Help Me Refactor Myself I am Lost // Pausecafe, 2 min

# Epistemic

Prediction-Augmented Evaluation Systems // ozziegooen, 9 min

Ketamine: An Update // Scott Alexander, 2 min

SSRIs: An Update // Scott Alexander, 6 min

Marijuana: An Update // Scott Alexander, 3 min

Preschool: I Was Wrong // Scott Alexander, 4 min

# Ai

Subsystem Alignment // abramdemski, 1 min Favorite

Robust Delegation // abramdemski, 1 min

Current AI Safety Roles for Software Engineers // ozziegooen, 5 min

Embedded Curiosities // Scott Garrabrant, 3 min

When does rationality-as-search have nontrivial implications? // nostalgebraist, 3 min

# Meta-ethics

Avoiding Blame By Preventing Life // Robin Hanson, 3 min

# Anthropic

The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (by Bostrom) // Ben Pace, 4 min Favorite

On first looking into Russell's History // ricraz, 6 min

# Decision theory

Non-Conformist Influence // Robin Hanson, 1 min

# Math and cs

Bayes Questions // Bucky, 3 min

Beliefs at different timescales // Nisan, 2 min

What are Universal Inductors, Again? // Diffractor, 9 min

# Community

No Really, Why Aren't Rationalists Winning? // Sailor Vulcan, 6 min Favorite

# Culture war

My California Ballot // Scott Alexander, 14 min

# Fun

Specification gaming examples in AI // Samuel Rødal, 1 min

Octopath Traveler: Spoiler-Free Review // Zvi, 17 min

# Misc

Update the best textbooks on every subject list // ryan_b, 1 min

Speculations on improving debating // ricraz, 4 min

Real-time hiring with prediction markets // ryan_b, 1 min

Is Copenhagen or Many Worlds true? An experiment. What? Yes. // Jonathanm, 1 min

Mars // Robin Hanson, 4 min

# Podcasts

71 – Researching Qualia with Andrés Gómez Emilsson // The Bayesian Conspiracy, 105 min

#141— Is #MeToo Going Too Far? // Waking up with Sam Harris, 108 min

# Videos of the week

Spinal implant that could make paralysis patients walk again // Financial Times, 3 min