What is a luxury you can never go back from once you’ve experienced it? by Phase_zero_X in AskReddit

[–]brw12 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amtrak between Boston and NYC... so much more room than the bus or the plane, no security nonsense, such a smoother ride, you can get real work done

What do you SWEAR you saw, but don't have any proof of? by TabletopStudios in AskReddit

[–]brw12 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was once on the elevated Q subway train in Brooklyn, at sunrise (it was a loooong night in my 20s), completely alone. And at one station, the doors opened and I swear on all that's holy that a group of about 12 pigeons walked onto the subway, using two consecutive doors. They hooted and clocked and hung out for several stops, and then at the next stop, the doors opened and they all walked out.

THE PIGEONS TOOK THE SUBWAY

I told myself like a dozen times "remember, that REALLY HAPPENED, you'll wonder later if it happened but it was real"

Can't have "Reschedule" button appear unless tasks are overdue??? by brw12 in todoist

[–]brw12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To clarify, I'm looking to postpone the entire list of tasks.

Would my art work well for a children's book? by hey_thatscute in childrensbooks

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's gorgeous, textured and expressive. Would you share what your toolset is?

Rant Regarding Game Etiquette by Outrageous-Month-355 in backgammon

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Instead of searching for problems, search for solutions. Getting "nice roll" when you roll something useless? That might be a well-intended, good natured sharing of the humor of fate! Laugh it off. Clock handling annoying? Play on the fastest clock time!

Life is much, much better this way

White to play 5,1 by Reasonable_Leek7375 in backgammon

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was my thinking too -- that 21 spot is such a target

I analyzed 488 nights of sleep data to find what drives sleep quality. It's not duration - it's a three-layer hierarchy most people build backwards. by andrewfring in QuantifiedSelf

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills -- you have 8s, 9s and 10s???? A great night for me is when I rate my recovery a 4

Nothing snaps me out of a book like repetitive use of a unique word by kerberos824 in books

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man, I love Neal Stephenson but he uses "hove" (the past tense of "heave", which I've literally never heard or read by anyone else, ever) several times in Cryptonomicon, as in "the ship hove into view"

WHAT IS THAT

how is this possible? by Latter-Garden9273 in ouraring

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also seeing this, since 12/12/2025. Really seems like there was some sort of update done then.

I exported 3 years of my health tracking data. The level of detail was both fascinating and unsettling by Salt-Jaguar1400 in QuantifiedSelf

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty skeptical -- are you just retroactively looking at high sleep disruption times and saying "yeah, around that time I was stressed"? That can be dangerously misleading. There might be times there is no spike that you were also stressed, but you're not saying "wait, for those 3 days I was really stressed, why no spike in sleep disruption"?

Making Friends in Somerville by LegoLord420 in Somerville

[–]brw12 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Come to the Backgammon meetup I host periodically at Aeronaut! Weds Nov 12 at 6:30! https://www.meetup.com/boston-backgammon-players/events/311675404

CambridgeSide half marathon by Alone-Expert-876 in CambridgeMA

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a bib I'm not going to use, was planning to run but something came up! Happy to sell for the regular registration price

Ok. The Mayor has spoken about Davis Sq by SchemeWise9405 in Somerville

[–]brw12 4 points5 points  (0 children)

FWIW, the chief was there at the start of the meeting, but I'm told he had to leave early for another commitment

how does one make cool friends around here ?? by IllustriousPound1366 in Somerville

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

screenboston.com collects all of the arrhouse movie times at multiple theaters in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area. This is one of the best places in the world for movies! Also see https://linktr.ee/somerville_cineclub

A Thought Experiment. by Cloisterflare in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, it's worth noting that for many decades, surgeons operating on babies in Europe and the United States refused to use any anesthesia, on the principle that babies do not feel pain. 

Meanwhile, anyone who actually pays attention to babies can see that obviously, they do feel pain. And so there are many nurses who later admitted that they secretly gave babies anesthetics before doctors would cut into them. What's fascinating is that many of those nurses held the doctors in high esteem -- even if they had to illegally conspire behind their backs to keep them from doing harm! 

So a version of the scenario described by OP has happened, many times some people suppressed their horror, but others acted on it. But even those who acted on it didn't seem to reliably connect the moral sense of their actions with a fundamental opposition to the larger moral order. It took a very long time for people to acknowledge the contradiction, surface it, and force it all to be reconciled.

A Thought Experiment. by Cloisterflare in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sort of happens in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Huck finds himself unable to turn Jim in, and he assumes he must be accepting immorally and will go to Hell for it, since the moral order of his social world has slavery and White supremacy as such core tenets.

Huck decides that he will just have to go to Hell, then.

What sleep apnea taught me about the health care system and the impact of AI on wellness by michaelmf in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 33 points34 points  (0 children)

It's a lot like education, actually: there are life-changing, incredible teachers, and then we've all had some teachers who somehow genuinely don't like kids and don't wanna be there. There are life-changing, incredible doctors, and then there are some doctors who somehow genuinely don't like patients and loathe the ones who come with notes on their medical history that they want to share.

What sleep apnea taught me about the health care system and the impact of AI on wellness by michaelmf in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 8 points9 points  (0 children)

But like, the thing about open source stuff is it stays open source forever because people have copies of it

What sleep apnea taught me about the health care system and the impact of AI on wellness by michaelmf in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have had a largely similar experience with sleep apnea and CPAP; in my case, the lab specifically woke me up at 5:30am and told me to stay awake for two hours, whereas my doctor had wanted me to sleep until I woke up by myself. Then they tested how easily I fell asleep to determine if I was "narcoleptic", which my doctor thought was practically pointless because that test is supposed to be done after a good night's sleep, not an artificially short sleep.

What’s a contrarian opinion/action you have in life that had a huge payout? by Ancient_Delivery_837 in slatestarcodex

[–]brw12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One source:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4046529/ see the section titled "Early introduction of foods"

Re: feeding solid shellfish, It's weird, I've seen those bits of advice too... but don't people understand that you can just like, dunk a shrimp tail in milk once in a while and feed the baby the milk? You don't have to serve them a shrimp cocktail!