rationalnewsletter

Issue #79

Study suggests that even if we stopped ocean plastic waste by 2020, macroplastics would persist in our surface waters for many more decades. // ourworldindata.org

# Instrumental

How good is the case for retraining yourself to sleep on your back? // ChristianKl, 1 min

# Epistemic

Heads I Win, Tails?—Never Heard of Her; Or, Selective Reporting and the Tragedy of the Green Rationalists // Zack_M_Davis, 10 min

The Power to Teach Concepts Better // Liron, 10 min Favorite

Reframing System 1 and 2; or, Type 2 reasoning as working-memory augmented collaboration of subagents // Kaj_Sotala, 19 min

# Ai

A simple environment for showing mesa misalignment // Matthew Barnett, 2 min

Partial Agency // abramdemski, 10 min

Deducing Impact // TurnTrout, 1 min

Towards an empirical investigation of inner alignment // evhub, 7 min

Value Impact // TurnTrout, 1 min

# Anthropic

On Becoming Clueless // Martin Sustrik, 1 min

# Decision theory

Free Money at PredictIt? // Zvi, 6 min

Timer Toxicities // Zvi, 19 min

Taxing investment income is complicated // paulfchristiano, 2 min

The MA Estate Tax is Broken // jkaufman, 1 min

# Books

Book 1: 1-37 (The Inadequacy of Current Science) // Francis Bacon, 11 min

Idols of the Mind Pt. 2 (Novum Organum Book 1: 53-68) // Francis Bacon, 19 min

Idols of the Mind Pt. 1 (Novum Organum Book 1: 38–52) // Francis Bacon, 10 min

Book 1: 38–52 (Idols of the Mind Pt. 1) // Francis Bacon, 10 min

What are your recommendations on books to listen to when doing, e.g., chores? // Rudi C, 1 min

# Ea

Long-term Donation Bunching? // jkaufman, 2 min

# Relationships

Tips for crying // TekhneMakre, 10 min

Emotions are actions, not goals or messages // TekhneMakre, 2 min

Give to get, not guilt // TekhneMakre, 4 min

# Community

Honoring Petrov Day on LessWrong, in 2019 // Ben Pace, 4 min

Follow-Up to Petrov Day, 2019 // Ben Pace, 3 min

Happy Petrov Day! // Martin Sustrik, 2 min

# Culture war

Dreamtime Games // Robin Hanson, 4 min

Status Apps Are Coming // Robin Hanson, 2 min

Domestic Cozy: 8 // Venkatesh Rao, 3 min

# Misc

What is operations? // Swimmer963, 8 min

Rationality and Levels of Intervention // Geoff_Anders, 9 min

Running the Stack // lionhearted, 2 min

Therapy vs emotional support // squidious, 5 min

How can I reframe my study motivation? // DivineMango, 1 min

# Podcasts

Rob Wiblin on plastic straws, nicotine, doping, & whether changing the long-term is really possible // The 80000 Hours team, 194 min

94 – The Problem At Yale Isn’t Free Speech, It’s Lack of Batmans // The Bayesian Conspiracy, 86 min

# Videos of the week

[Talk] Paul Christiano on his alignment taxonomy // jp, 1 min

A climate change solution that's right under our feet | Asmeret Asefaw Berhe: // TED, 13 min