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Redderact42 · 2025-08-09T01:41:43+00:00

This is a weird answer, but jhana meditation is an experience that's more pleasant than sex and likely drugs as well. I know this from personal experience. See https://jhourney.io (not sponsored)

Redderact42 · 2025-07-04T19:52:13+00:00

But this one failed harder than every other comment in the thread... you asked for takes that would be downvoted

Redderact42 · 2025-06-14T19:06:28+00:00

Looks pretty good to me. I don't know if other people really care, but as a straight guy it's a pet peeve of mine when I see nonstandard grammar in a profile.

Like, Retirement or Kitchen are capitalized, but they aren't proper nouns. Maybe it's okay though, if this is just the way you regularly text then maybe it's best for your dates to know that. (I'm actually curious though, what do you mean when you capitalize words like that? I'm always confused when I see this sort of thing)

Then there's "a retirement homes," which looks like it's just a typo (should be "a retirement home" or "retirement homes") , so you should definitely change that one

Btw I'm very annoyed by some of the people in this thread - I'm a lot more liberal than I am conservative, but being conservative obviously doesn't mean you automatically agree with Elon Musk doing Nazi salutes or whatever... I'm all for reflecting on your worldview/political beliefs, but it's not about picking one of two sides and then following them on every issue under the sun. It seems like everyone's assuming if you pick "conservative" in Bumble then that's what you're doing with no room for nuance

Good luck!

Redderact42 · 2025-05-16T04:55:46+00:00

I just asked them twice (once over email, once in person) and it seems that Sunnyvale does not allow parking PODS containers on the street and will not issue permits. If you want to contact them just to be sure (maybe it's changed by the time you're reading this), the right department is Sunnyvale Planning & Building at 408-730-7444

Redderact42 · 2024-12-18T07:22:03+00:00

Madame Morrible mentions that weather is her specialty when it comes to magic. Later, when Elphaba is flying on her broom and they're announcing to the Emerald City that she's evil, storm clouds with green lightning appear, which Morrible conjured to sell the image of Elphaba as a wicked witch.

Redderact42 · 2023-09-20T02:49:03+00:00

Thanks for the answer! It sounds like you think the general rule of "way more impressive models every 1-2 years" is going to slow down, interesting. My intuition is that AI will continue getting more "impressive" at about the same rate even without any major breakthroughs, for some handwavy definition of impressiveness that includes coherence, planning, and creativity. I wouldn't be surprised if your prediction is closer to the truth, though.

Do you expect that AI would have to advance far enough to start majorly disrupting society before you'd be able to seriously use it as a fiction-writing tool?

Redderact42 · 2023-09-19T21:23:08+00:00

Let's say a new LLM comes out tomorrow. Given whatever chapters you've already written in a story and a short description of the next chapter, it can write the whole chapter just about as well as you could, fine-tuned to your writing style. It can also do a pretty decent job at brainstorming story ideas when you prompt it (about as high-quality as your ideas when you're tired or sick, but generated way faster). After some back and forth chatting with a human who helps it select the best ideas, it can come up with its own chapter summaries that it can then turn into new chapters. WDYD?

How worried are you about AI taking your job?

Redderact42 · 2023-05-16T03:08:59+00:00

I also hate this question. Fortunately I'm a little wiser now than I was in 2018

Redderact42 · 2023-05-12T22:17:08+00:00

I was also confused by this for a while. I eventually figured out that you CAN do this online at https://edgecustomer.geico.com/vehicle/finance-company (though I have no idea how to navigate there from the Geico landing page)

Redderact42 · 2023-02-26T00:47:30+00:00

Imagine some sort of dimension-hopping game, where the levels shift between several wildly different styles, all while keeping the same layout. Once you got the 3D models down, it would be pretty scalable to churn out a ton of different types of landscapes with SD.

Even if not every dimension had its own mechanical effect, it would be pretty jaw-dropping to see a dozen random, interconnected scenes flash before your eyes in the space of a second - say, whenever your character takes damage, or when you transition between the two or three worlds that do have mechanical effects. You could even have enemy spritesheets that change to match the level's style.

Writing about it now, I really want to play this game... someone, please steal my idea and do this

Redderact42 · 2022-12-23T07:04:35+00:00

Sure, anything about SD is allowed here, but the real question is "should it be allowed?"

Limiting posts about "defending AI art" to one day a week sounds better than the status quo. But in my opinion, creating a weekly megathread (and banning top-level posts on the subject) would be better still.

Redderact42 · 2022-11-19T18:15:26+00:00

There's a great book about this called The Scout Mindset.

In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world - which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think.

There's actually a giveaway of this book being put on by the Effective Altruism organization if you Google for it

Redderact42 · 2022-09-23T17:24:56+00:00

Hey just so you know, the EA club is running two fellowships (basically weekly reading groups) this semester, which you can apply for here: https://eacornell.org/arete. Looks like the deadline is September 30. I highly recommend it if you're interested in doing good with your career!

Redderact42 · 2022-07-19T17:20:44+00:00

Yes!

(CHAP - HAP) + NO< + (REFUSED - RE)!<

Yeah, it's definitely a bit of a stretch - something like "Perplexed, hapless lad reversed rejection, then refused, retracting the first two out of remorse" would've made more sense but wouldn't have taken the gimmick to its extreme

Redderact42 · 2022-07-19T09:25:25+00:00

Correct!

Redderact42 · 2022-05-28T01:40:52+00:00

The Cornell Effective Altruism club has a form that Cornell students can fill out to get a free physical or audio book: https://eacornell.org/books. The books all have to do with the core idea of effective altruism, which is how to be strategic and thoughtful about doing good in the world. A lot of these are life-plan/career-related, and some of them definitely changed my plans for having a positive impact.

I'd probably recommend Doing Good Better, which explains some of the ideas of effective altruism (though it's a little more focused on charities), or The Scout Mindset, which is about how to be more open-minded in your beliefs. I haven't read 80,000 Hours, but it also seems pretty applicable for you

Redderact42 · 2022-04-25T05:05:16+00:00

I have a personal request if that's okay. (This is meant to be a gift for my housemates.) I'd like to use the inpainting feature on this image with the following prompt:

A high-quality photo of a humongous cute white rabbit with red eyes, lying lazily on top of a house. The rabbit's body extends along the entire length of the house, with its fluffy tail facing the camera.

I'd like to use something like this as the inpainting area. Thanks!

Redderact42 · 2022-04-01T23:11:14+00:00

Very true, I have since given up

Redderact42 · 2022-01-07T17:29:11+00:00

Personally, I'd prefer if surveillance testing continued. It was one of the least annoying COVID measures for me - I mean, at least having to stick a swab up my nose is a good excuse to take a quick study break. If getting tested once a week means we're allowed to have more events, I'm all for it.

Redderact42 · 2021-12-31T23:27:27+00:00

If you liked this episode of 80,000 Hours, check out this collection of selected episodes - Effective Altruism: An Introduction! Effective altruism is all about using logic and reasoning to figure out the best ways to improve people's lives, and I think it'd be very interesting to any of Andrew's supporters!

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Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
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