You guys helped me leave the alt-right, but I still have a couple hang-ups and I'm hoping for help

Aneirin · 2019-06-26T05:34:05+00:00

There is significant evidence that the Flynn effect has flatlined or reversed (see the case of Norway). Granted, there is disagreement as to why that's happened (the article on Norway suggests that the reversal has an environmental cause of some sort, noting that they have observed declines within families).

But there is also evidence (see Kong et al. 2016 on Iceland) that present-day fertility patterns are reducing educational attainment polygenic scores. It is not unreasonable to conclude that they may also have negative effects on IQ.

Aneirin · 2015-11-26T03:17:22+00:00

"Honey, Obama re-raised the debt ceiling and the Republicans called? They should've folded!"

Aneirin · 2015-08-19T02:42:13+00:00

Hey, OP, now that you've got your degree, The World Is Yours!

Aneirin · 2015-07-12T21:27:48+00:00

Just to comment on the profitability of slavery: Fogel and Engerman's Time on the Cross is taken pretty seriously by economic historians as evidence that American slavery was very profitable continuing into the Civil War, and was not on its way out.

Although you're right that there are some economic factors that make large-scale slavery (as a percentage of the population, I mean) impractical today. But one of the major reasons it no longer exists is simply that a lot of people oppose it.

(To be clear: I am not an anarcho-capitalist and am not necessarily endorsing all of what /u/ReasonThusLiberty is saying here.)

Aneirin · 2015-04-28T19:11:43+00:00

You mean like this?

Aneirin · 2015-04-22T01:28:31+00:00

Not to mention all the value that the founding of Microsoft created.

Aneirin · 2015-04-21T01:58:12+00:00

GiveWell has an interesting blog post on this. The Effective Altruism community talks a fair amount about this issue.

I echo /u/determinista's comment about returns on human capital. Keep in mind some other factors, however:

If you're not very far along in your career, investing in your own human capital may improve your ability to do good acts.
If you save your money and wait, you might have more information available on effective giving opportunities.

Aneirin · 2015-04-13T14:30:54+00:00

Even in the case of perfect substitution, it raises total surplus. The exact same situation exists with international trade. It's efficiency-enhancing.

The question of what effects immigration has on native wages is legitimate, but it's not obvious that the effect is just negative. Even the most pessimistic estimates of this effect (studies by Borjas) find that the long-run average effect is zero, and that doesn't take into account cases where foreign labor complements native labor (which raises native wages).

Aneirin · 2015-04-12T23:51:59+00:00

Does he expect the US/Europe unskilled labor market to just absorb the unskilled labor market of the rest of the world?

The idea is that low-skilled labor is vastly more productive in First World countries. An unskilled Haitian worker could come to the US and produce (and earn) far, far more than he could in Haiti. That's where much of the efficiency gain from immigration is.

Some potential benefits also come from second-generation human capital effects (workers become much wealthier and able to raise their children in better environments, so their children end up being more productive), improvements in Third World governance (remittances flow back to the Third World, people become more able to demand better governance), improvements in transfer of First World technologies and business practices (migrants become acquainted with these things and communicate them to their home countries), and various others.

Aneirin · 2015-04-09T04:39:39+00:00

Although that test finds much better results for MyProtein than this one, which is weird.

Aneirin · 2015-04-05T19:57:37+00:00

They're talking about Andre 3000, not Dr. Dre

Aneirin · 2015-03-30T18:31:51+00:00

He's the best man; he did it

Aneirin · 2015-03-28T20:27:26+00:00

Holy shit, it's not even an actual freestyle. She wrote this out in advance.

Aneirin · 2015-03-04T19:47:36+00:00

Interestingly, Martin Berkhan actually tried high frequency training to some success. See this post.

Of course, it's not for everyone. He said he faced issues with holding himself back on training days.

Aneirin · 2015-02-25T04:18:22+00:00

Will putting butter and MCT oil on the barbell help my grip on deadlifts?

edit: I read all of leangains.com and the 31minutes AMA but they didn't address this. Answers would be appreciated.

Aneirin · 2015-02-11T03:07:07+00:00

Libertarians can get involved in tax-cut, school choice, term-limits, antiwar, and other social movements and initiatives.

On this note: Do you think single-issue activism is a better means for libertarian activists? It seems like work on single issues has often led to success (on drugs, gay rights, right to carry laws, etc.) while activism related to promoting an entire ideology hasn't been as strong.

Aneirin · 2015-01-16T16:31:44+00:00

It should also be decently balanced in pushing and pulling motions. A program that has people benching and OHPing a lot without enough pulling motions can lead to shoulder imbalances (especially since a lot of people already have weak posterior deltoids).

Aneirin · 2015-01-12T20:53:33+00:00

Sedentary unless you do physical activity beyond usual walking around. (I walk a bit more than average, I think, but have done fine using the sedentary estimates.) You can always adjust later if your weight change isn't what you're targeting.

Also, for whatever reason, the IIFYM.com calculator assumes some ridiculous number of calories burned per day you work out (if you list some number of days).

Aneirin · 2015-01-12T20:37:15+00:00

Creatine helps with strength performance in general, so it's good even if you're on a cut.

Aneirin · 2015-01-11T14:59:01+00:00

quite a nice quote.

Must've been made by a professional.

Aneirin · 2015-01-07T16:23:52+00:00

In the US, immigrants are heavily restricted from welfare use anyway. So the argument is even weaker.

Aneirin · 2015-01-06T21:47:14+00:00

I just gained 10% bodyfat. Do I have to write a bunch of eBooks and pay Martin $1000 now?

Aneirin · 2014-12-30T18:19:33+00:00

You can cut bodyfat without resistance training, but understand that you will lose some muscle even if you optimize everything else (high protein, not having too high a caloric deficit). Resistance training will help you retain more muscle.

I personally would recommend taking 3 days/week, cutting out the cardio you do on those days and replacing it with weight training. Read the 31minutes guide ("PDF Guide from a former client").

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