rationalnewsletter

Issue #34

Studying STEM still seems among the best options for employability, but time management and social skills are likewise critical. The jobs experiencing the greatest growth over the last few decades tend to require the combination of both. // 80000hours.org

# Instrumental

Stoicism: Cautionary Advice // VivaLaPanda, 3 min Favorite

Explore/Exploit for Conversations // Hazard, 5 min

Combat vs Nurture: Cultural Genesis // Ruby, 7 min

Laughing Away the Little Miseries // Rossin, 2 min

# Epistemic

Preschool: Much More Than You Wanted To Know // Scott Alexander, 20 min Favorite

Sam Harris and the Is–Ought Gap // Tyrrell_McAllister, 6 min

Reconciling Left and Right, from the Bottom-Up // jesseduffield, 18 min

# Ai

Embedded Agency (full-text version) // Scott Garrabrant, 52 min

Clarifying "AI Alignment" // paulfchristiano, 4 min

Fixed Point Exercises // Scott Garrabrant, 2 min

The Steering Problem // paulfchristiano, 8 min

Future directions for ambitious value learning // rohinmshah, 4 min

# Anthropic

World Government Risks Collective Suicide // Robin Hanson, 2 min

Vulnerable World Hypothesis // Robin Hanson, 2 min

Social Media Lessons // Robin Hanson, 4 min

# Decision theory

Kelly bettors // DanielFilan, 12 min

# Math and cs

The Inspection Paradox is Everywhere // Chris_Leong, 1 min Favorite

Topological Fixed Point Exercises // Scott Garrabrant, 3 min

Competitive Markets as Distributed Backprop // johnswentworth, 4 min

On Rigorous Error Handling // Martin Sustrik, 7 min

# Books

Can You Outsmart An Economist? // Robin Hanson, 2 min

# Ea

The Economic Perspective On Moral Standards // Scott Alexander, 12 min Favorite

Mandatory Obsessions // Jacobian, 8 min

Wireheading as a Possible Contributor to Civilizational Decline // avturchin, 1 min

# Community

History of LessWrong: Some Data Graphics // Said Achmiz, 1 min

Rationality Is Not Systematized Winning // Hypothesis, 1 min

Post-Rationality and Rationality, A Dialogue // agilecaveman, 12 min

# Culture war

“She Wanted It” // sarahconstantin, 8 min

# Misc

Is Clickbait Destroying Our General Intelligence? // Eliezer_Yudkowsky, 6 min Favorite

Fat People Are Heroes // Richard Meadows, 8 min

How To Fund Prestige Science // Robin Hanson, 7 min

# Podcasts

Rationally Speaking #221 - Rob Reich on "Is philanthropy bad for democracy?" // NYC Skeptics, 47 min

#142 — Addiction, Depression, and a Meaningful Life // Waking up with Sam Harris, 116 min

# Rational fiction

Act of Charity // jessicata, 9 min

# Videos of the week

Effective Altruism, YouTube, and AI (talk by Lê Nguyên Hoang) // Paperclip Minimizer, 1 min

How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion? | Charles C. Mann // TED, 12 min