4 ms·

Sitting next to another person while writing increases my writing productivity by at least 400%. In retrospect it took me way too long to break down and try th

by Eliezer 16y ago

Sitting next to another person while writing increases my writing productivity by at least 400%. In retrospect it took me way too long to break down and try this. My shot at immortality costs me $120/year for membership in the Cryonics Institute and $170/year for $250K of 10-year term life insurance of which $50K goes to CI. I lost 20 pounds on Seth Roberts's fixed-point diet (aka the "Shangri-La diet") and gained 10 of them back after the diet stopped working, but it's ridiculously easy and works better for some people than others. An awful lot of the rationalists I know have moved to open relationships.

danilocampos 16y ago
> An awful lot of the rationalists I know have moved to open relationships. Why?
- michaelkeenan 16y ago
  I don't know if anyone can give a definitive answer, but various hypotheses and experiences were brought up in a discussion of monogamy and polyamory at Less Wrong here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2ee/unknown_knowns_why_did_you_choose_to_be_monogamous/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/2ee/unknown_knowns_why_did_you_choos...
- rms 16y ago
  As long as you can learn how to suppress or ignore or never have jealousy, multiple relationships seem strictly better (= more fun) to me than monogamy.
  - tfinster 16y ago
    In addition to suppressing and ignoring jealousy, another option is to learn how to acknowledge and deal with it. Just as fear is quite a natural thing and hinders people in accomplishing their goals, so can jealousy be a hindrance to happy relationships. Both can be successfully managed however. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. - Mark Twain I believe the same can be said of jealousy. Also note that unchecked jealousy is not strictly a problem of polyamory; it wreaks havoc even in monogamous relationships.
    - rms 16y ago
      Yes, I should have also said "accept jealousy" as a possibly superior option.
  - Johngibb 16y ago
    Did anyone else accidentally parse (= more fun) as a strange prefix notation way of saying "more relationships = fun?" If not, I apologize in advance for my insanity. ;)
    - eof 16y ago
      Yes, and I have never even worked regularly with a language that parses like that..
- MBlume 16y ago
  In my case, this is why: http://lesswrong.com/lw/xl/eutopia_is_scary/3f8u http://lesswrong.com/lw/xl/eutopia_is_scary/3f8u
ThomPete 16y ago
Open relationships sounds good on paper but only works as long as you are not actually in love.
- rms 16y ago
  http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/
  - ThomPete 16y ago
    So HN debate is now reduced to fallacy linking? This is not just from one example this among other things a series of documentaries, friends and my now 37 years. Of course there are some people who can deal with it but chances are that they are not in love. That is at least my experience feel free to counter with experiences or knowledge about successful open relationships where the people are
    - shadowpwner 16y ago
      Hardly, but without some background or sources I'd say a majority of people wouldn't know where you're coming from.
      - ThomPete 16y ago
        I am not sure I follow. Do you know of anyone in an open relationship who is in love and happy about their spouse fooling around with other people? I know of none and I know quite a few people who did it, saw a couple of documentaries about it. I am more than happy to be proven wrong but as far as I am concerned my point still stands and is fairly rational. If you are in love, open relationships ain't what it's all pumped up to be.
- Mz 16y ago
  In support of your point, a logical analysis that is relevant to why open relationships really don't work if you are talking about serious intimacy and not just screwing around casually: http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/?p=5 http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/?p=5 Disclaimer: I wrote it. Yes, it's my site. Whatever.
mkramlich 16y ago
> I lost 20 pounds on Seth Roberts's fixed-point diet (aka the "Shangri-La diet") and gained 10 of them back after the diet stopped working, but it's ridiculously easy and works better for some people than others. I've heard that said about every Capital D Diet Plan. I have a hypothesis about weight loss which is that it's actually simpler than many people make it out to be. Your body basically has inputs and outputs when it comes to food. If you want to lose weight and/or trim up, you need to either decrease how much food goes in, or increase how much your body burns as energy or turns into new/replaced body cells. That's pretty much it. The overwhelming number of people with weight problems (assuming exceptions are folks with genetic disorders) are just people who are eating too much for what they're body is doing, or, doing too little with their body given the amount of food going in. The type/mix of food matters too, but that's also a no brainer -- don't eat junk, but if you do, eat as little as you can and spread it out with healthy/efficient stuff -- and if you do eat more junk, then you better work it off more to compensate.

by Eliezer 16y ago

danilocampos 16y ago

> An awful lot of the rationalists I know have moved to open relationships. Why?

michaelkeenan 16y ago
I don't know if anyone can give a definitive answer, but various hypotheses and experiences were brought up in a discussion of monogamy and polyamory at Less Wrong here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2ee/unknown_knowns_why_did_you_choose_to_be_monogamous/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/2ee/unknown_knowns_why_did_you_choos...
rms 16y ago
As long as you can learn how to suppress or ignore or never have jealousy, multiple relationships seem strictly better (= more fun) to me than monogamy.
- tfinster 16y ago
  In addition to suppressing and ignoring jealousy, another option is to learn how to acknowledge and deal with it. Just as fear is quite a natural thing and hinders people in accomplishing their goals, so can jealousy be a hindrance to happy relationships. Both can be successfully managed however. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. - Mark Twain I believe the same can be said of jealousy. Also note that unchecked jealousy is not strictly a problem of polyamory; it wreaks havoc even in monogamous relationships.
  - rms 16y ago
    Yes, I should have also said "accept jealousy" as a possibly superior option.
- Johngibb 16y ago
  Did anyone else accidentally parse (= more fun) as a strange prefix notation way of saying "more relationships = fun?" If not, I apologize in advance for my insanity. ;)
  - eof 16y ago
    Yes, and I have never even worked regularly with a language that parses like that..
MBlume 16y ago
In my case, this is why: http://lesswrong.com/lw/xl/eutopia_is_scary/3f8u http://lesswrong.com/lw/xl/eutopia_is_scary/3f8u

ThomPete 16y ago

Open relationships sounds good on paper but only works as long as you are not actually in love.

rms 16y ago
http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/
- ThomPete 16y ago
  So HN debate is now reduced to fallacy linking? This is not just from one example this among other things a series of documentaries, friends and my now 37 years. Of course there are some people who can deal with it but chances are that they are not in love. That is at least my experience feel free to counter with experiences or knowledge about successful open relationships where the people are
  - shadowpwner 16y ago
    Hardly, but without some background or sources I'd say a majority of people wouldn't know where you're coming from.
    - ThomPete 16y ago
      I am not sure I follow. Do you know of anyone in an open relationship who is in love and happy about their spouse fooling around with other people? I know of none and I know quite a few people who did it, saw a couple of documentaries about it. I am more than happy to be proven wrong but as far as I am concerned my point still stands and is fairly rational. If you are in love, open relationships ain't what it's all pumped up to be.
Mz 16y ago
In support of your point, a logical analysis that is relevant to why open relationships really don't work if you are talking about serious intimacy and not just screwing around casually: http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/?p=5 http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/?p=5 Disclaimer: I wrote it. Yes, it's my site. Whatever.

mkramlich 16y ago

> I lost 20 pounds on Seth Roberts's fixed-point diet (aka the "Shangri-La diet") and gained 10 of them back after the diet stopped working, but it's ridiculously easy and works better for some people than others. I've heard that said about every Capital D Diet Plan. I have a hypothesis about weight loss which is that it's actually simpler than many people make it out to be. Your body basically has inputs and outputs when it comes to food. If you want to lose weight and/or trim up, you need to either decrease how much food goes in, or increase how much your body burns as energy or turns into new/replaced body cells. That's pretty much it. The overwhelming number of people with weight problems (assuming exceptions are folks with genetic disorders) are just people who are eating too much for what they're body is doing, or, doing too little with their body given the amount of food going in. The type/mix of food matters too, but that's also a no brainer -- don't eat junk, but if you do, eat as little as you can and spread it out with healthy/efficient stuff -- and if you do eat more junk, then you better work it off more to compensate.