I guess you don’t understand chaos theory.

Robin Hanson has this proposal for a generalists’ dept. IIRC, the criteria for tenure in that dept would be to have produced work that’s good enough to get tenure in two separate departments (eg, physics and philosophy; econ and history; CS and law; etc.).

Not really. Because there wasn’t ever really a corresponding “normal science” period within a Kuhnian paradigm. In general, philosophy doesn’t really do “normal science”. Perspectives are always constantly shifting.

Thanks! I’m glad it’s getting recognized. It’s interesting that the school teacher doesn’t just call Turing a genius or anything… indeed he criticizes the methods for cumbersomeness and unsoundness. But it’s very interesting Turing insisted on understanding things his own way, despite these issues.

is there more to it than just “Idris Elba”?

The way he and Denzel play off each other is absolutely electric. I can watch those scenes where they go at each other a thousand times without ever getting bored.

Reacher said nothing.

Makes sense if status is given as a reward for, and constitutes a signal of, real value/real strengths. So people who seek status *directly* are less likely to be seeking/possessing the real underlying thing (intelligence, humor, beauty, knowledge etc.). Correspondingly, we downgrade their status.

youtu.be/JGEvZAV8qI4

Agreed. In particular, I've tried DR extensively on topics I know a lot about; I don't see it as anywhere close to a fundamental breakthrough. Often, reading parts of a good textbook or a good review article clearly beats the output of DR. It's just somewhat useful to get a grip on some new topic.

I think vanilla acquired the connotation of plainness because of the fake vanilla that mass market vanilla ice cream is flavored with. Real vanilla definitely has a rich and complex flavor profile.

UK research universities are very good, second only to the US imho? especially relative to the amount of funding they receive and raise.

Comedy.

London is arguably the best city in the world.

Premier League.

I disagree with this as a generic. Ask your Indian or Chinese students and they will tell you how hard the pathway to citizenship is for them (relative to say Canada or UK or even Germany). They can sometimes be stuck for decades without a green card. (Yes, it’s easier through marriage or family.)

Well there are usually 3-4 townies, so they think they have a shot.

Yeah, and what's more, their summary of philosophical rationalism is wrong. Intuition was a key epistemological tool for the historical rationalists: Descartes took it to be much more reliable than sense-experience. Second, connecting historical rationalism with SV rationalism is wrong.

So basically vindicating the old Soviet joke?

A Soviet citizen is on a flight to the US. The American next to him asks him what brings you to the US.

“I’m here to study your excellent propaganda.”

“What propaganda?”

“Exactly!”

I chalked it up to intelligence or genius or talent; mediocrites like myself had to slave away at my calcs. Now I'm thinking, they were indeed working very hard. But they were working hard in their minds to develop clearer and sharper mental models, which then allowed them crack open nuts easily.

Not sure how I’m going to improve it, but the book gives me confidence and motivation to attempt it. Normally I might have just been like hey that’s just aging. But now I’m like don’t accept counterintuitive things as just the way things are; try to rejigger your intuitions to better fit the world.