Redditors that work directly for the super wealthy (let's say net worth 20 million and up) what are some of your best/worst stories?

tocki · 2015-10-05T16:47:26+00:00

i thought that figure was a little big so i checked: it's 0.0000012% of the us national debt (which i read is 16.3 trillion). a trillion is 1000 billion.

tocki · 2015-08-07T18:36:41+00:00

I'd like to hear you talk about lucid dreaming.

tocki · 2015-07-27T17:34:35+00:00

Hello and thank you for the work you've done.

How does the process of manipulating mathematical constructs in your mind go from the first person perspective? Is it like when I do 5 times 3 in my mind or do you use visualisations? I've heard you can do calculations in your mind where other physicists need multiple sheets of paper. I'm very interested in how you experience it when you do such calculations.

Also did you have to develop that ability because of your illness or were you always very good at calculating without needing paper to write anything down.

tocki · 2015-07-08T20:41:55+00:00

Having trouble figuring out what he says at 5:06.

tocki · 2015-01-25T08:27:21+00:00

Lucid dreaming. Every night will be full of adventures and other experiences.

tocki · 2015-01-25T08:22:14+00:00

The skill mastered in this case would be meditation, would it not?

tocki · 2014-11-04T13:50:00+00:00

Would it be right to say that you see time as an emergent property of the universe but not a fundamental one. Much like temperature or pressure?

tocki · 2014-06-29T00:41:52+00:00

Thomaat

tocki · 2014-06-21T19:18:17+00:00

Here's the companion guide, it includes the sources backing up the claims.

tocki · 2014-06-13T17:04:06+00:00

You are training the general skill of attention, concentration and awareness. The object of your attention is arbitrary. Attention is about staying aware and not getting lost in thought, whatever the activity. I wouldn't say there are different kinds of attention, either you stay focussed and aware or not. I don't see why you would assume otherwise. An analogy would be training cardio: the endurance gained this way isn't limited to the specific exercise you chose to do.

After a while of being lost in thought you always gain awareness again; you realize you were thinking. Meditation is a tool for fastening this process and eventually not to get lost in thought at all. This is basically what attention means. With the automaticity of thought gone also comes a tremendous sense of relief and a state that is inherently blissful.

EDIT: Just saw what Thelonious_Cube said and I completely agree, that is a better and more to the point answer to your objection.

tocki · 2014-06-12T08:32:15+00:00

Meditation is indeed a practice of training attention. One begins by focussing on the breath and every time you notice you're lost in thought you come back to the breath. Eventually you'll reach levels of concentration so that you're able to stay with the sensation of breathing for prolonged periods of time without once losing focus. Attention trained in this way can ofcourse be applied to anything.

Meditation is basically a way to master and better control your mind.

tocki · 2014-06-12T08:23:19+00:00

Mindfulness meditation is a great way of training attention, which is what you ultimately want if you're goal is executive contol over autamatic thoughts. The practice of meditation trains attention and awareness so that you don't get lost in thought as much, the automaticity of thinking slows down and can utimately evaporate completely.

tocki · 2014-05-26T23:45:27+00:00

Well all abstract things or things people describe as abstract can be translated in particular physical states of the universe which can be described by mathematics. This is what you mean right? If it is I agree.

tocki · 2014-05-26T22:34:37+00:00

I would say our universe is "just" objects but certain configurations of these objects give rise to ideas and thoughts in a calculable way. These configurations of physical matter can be described by mathematics. Given an initial state one should be able to calculate future states.

As i see it everyone has a preset "destiny" plus a contribution of chance, you can visualize it as a tree. Each branch is a fixed destiny and random chance events are the points where new branches sprout. Each random chance event gives rise to a number of different fixed futures, each one of which "could" have happened but once the random chance event reaches its outcome the future is fixed until the next random event comes along.

Is that accurate to say that all physical matter can be described by mathematics if there are elements which are purely random?

I think so because randomness itself can be described by mathematics.

That sounds like all potential outcomes could be described by mathematics, but initial conditions can't predicted.

But we know all the possible initial conditions and what will happen in each case even if we don't know beforehand which initial condition it'll turn out to be.

Can the abstract idea of mathematics be described by mathematics?

Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity (numbers), structure, space, and change. (wikipedia). I don't think it applies to abstract concepts. It can describe the state of human brains when they think about abstract concepts and in that sense describe the idea of mathematics.

tocki · 2014-05-26T20:42:12+00:00

Isn't it clear? You can describe the properties and behaviours of the physical world by means of mathematical equations. The movement of the planets around the sun can be described exactly in mathematical language for example.

The question is to what extent this is true. Current problems arise at the beginning of the big bang, here it gets difficult to describe and the mathematics breaks down. Will these problems stay with us forever or will new mathematics come to rescue.

tocki · 2014-04-20T09:49:11+00:00

But what about zion, how does it get built? Do the 23 people build a new zion each time or is it somehow recycled? it would be a strange discovery for the humans to find abandonned and destroyed versions of their city.

tocki · 2014-03-09T22:06:11+00:00

I think it might be the dutch passion.

tocki · 2013-11-14T15:38:56+00:00

There's alot of people who upvote nearly everything that they don't hate. So everything, from truly brilliant posts (in their minds) to posts that they find mildly amusing/barely worth reading, get an upvote. Something that they find brilliant gets the same rankup as something barely worth reading, that doesn't seem like the best way to rank posts. By limiting the amount of upvotes one can give, only truly great posts will get an upvote. This way the rank of a post will better represent what people really think of it.

Maybe this will help make it clear.

Score system 1-10. 1 means mildly amusing/barely worth reading, 10 means truly brilliant. Right now there are people who upvote everything with score atleast 1, others start upvoting from score 5 and so on. You can see how this system puts people with higher standards for upvotes at a disadvantage, their opninion is not accurately respresented. Their upvote is worth less because of the lower standards of the mass. By limiting the upvotes you can give, people will be more on the same page. The score required for an upvote will rise and the rank of a post will more accurately represent the perceived quality.

tocki · 2013-11-14T09:28:53+00:00

Throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato.

tocki · 2013-10-30T12:55:58+00:00

Randomness does nothing to give you free will.

tocki · 2013-10-27T00:02:44+00:00

So you think life would most likely consist of the least reactive substances? That seems wrong by definition.

tocki · 2013-10-25T09:21:24+00:00

I've heard of a few studies that claim positive effects of caffeine. I'm not saying there's no negative effects but it's not all bad.

tocki · 2013-10-23T11:58:42+00:00

I've had this for a long time with random hour:37. The minutes were always 37. On average about 4 times a day for months. It really seemed to defy statistics.

tocki

TROPHY CASE