Procrastination and Perfectionism/ flawed time valuation

Procrastination as a side effect of perfectionism on Meteuphoric, she has a good poing but

I don't know that it is perfectionism, so much as a failure to realize that your idealization of the future will not affect the "future present," and your effectiveness and the amount of effort required will not change by letting time pass.

"Driven" people probably have the opposite problem; they idealize how much they can do and plan a minimum amount of time and then put forth maximum effort, which often involves extra time ----- so they are always busy.

Or they are organized and work hard, but they attribute value to things that aren't necessarily more important to most people because of their own peculiarities i.e. they find that they are tired from sorting all of their canned goods alphabetically and then everything seems like really hard work......

this is all probably inaccurate, or at least a drastic oversimplification.....but I'm all for chunking.

Jobs vs. "being nice"

Meteuphoric's Are Meaningful Careers Cover Stories post, started me thinking......

Maybe it's as simple as the fact that jobs make more consistent demands on time, if it's just a useful hobby people might question your commitment.

But I think it ignores a tendency to underrate altruistic jobs. I would think that this is because altruistic jobs demand a lot of time, rather than flashes of brilliant insight. If you are an average intelligent and caring person, your intelligence might be used better in a "non-altruistic" job, and if your job isn't altruistic enough for your taste (or for appearances) you can spend the rest of your time 'doing good.' People will then admire you for your efficient prioritization and for your kindness.

If you make the conscious decision to enter into an altruistic job, there is the possibility that you will be classed with people who are in altruistic jobs precisely because the jobs don't require flashes of brilliant insight; then (even if your hobby involves splitting atoms) no one will care about your hobby, because you will be hanging out with people at work that can't split atoms and the folks at the Domestic Atomic Association are probably not as nice as you are.

If you are a successful software consultant and you read to disadvantaged students on the weekend, people think that you are a great guy; if you are a social worker that writes Java applets, chances are people think that you're some chick that couldn't get a private sector job (note the heavy-handed use of subliminal linguistic gender stereotypes.)

How can "poverty" invest in prosperity?

Merci Beaucoup (pronounced correctly thanks to Obama) to the French; the food is wonderful, but besides imparting fabulous technique and lots of butter to African cuisine, they didn't do much else for Louisiana. (Not that we have either, mind)

Driving through Louisiana, is kind of like driving through the beginning of Omega Man.
The dilapidated parking lots, lack of road signs and/or people able to give directions to "foreigners"
There's the charred sugar-cane stubble, with the petrochemical and fertilizer factories to add an slightly piquant industrial aroma, that successfully detracts from any natural beauty that the countryside might have. The wealth that flows (or used to flow) through New Orleans does not seem to affect it much; though the appearance of living in the 1860's does make it an attractive tourist destination. But why is it stuck? An enormous amount of wealth flows (or used to flow) through New Orleans, perhaps there is the difficulty of resource-rich entities being unable to create sustainable economic growth (in that large amounts of resources go through New Orleans because it is there not because there are necessarily buyers.

France did not have the infrastructure that Britain and later Germany (or Prussia etc.) had, they had a larger population and there was not as much incentive to create labor-saving devices. Is it contagious or something?

Does Louisiana suffer from being ignored? Or is it like Baltimore a place who's time has past, but can't adjust?

Besides the annual manic outburst the state seems to live in perpetual depression. Poverty seems to work like that, depressed people can't be bothered to make to try making themselves happy. It's probably just that it is more difficult to invest in prosperity if you are poor (somewhat obviously.)

The infrastructure can be solved, cultural changes take more time, and can't exactly be legislated (though they do try in California................)

in addition: recognize I must, that word order is often essential in english, "how poverty can invest in prosperity," implies that instead of being a pontificating fool, I actually have suggestions on how to improve the living standards of Louisianans. So I decided to rewrite history, as a result this post is dated wrong.
(by the way, I have no hard feelings after the HOURS spent driving along the left bank of the Mississippi, after not paying $20+ to enter a ramshackle plantation in the middle of NOWHERE, and getting lost because of an AWFUL map----I just feel a particular pity for the people that have to live there.)

Pseudonyms: Pros and cons

The worst part about a pseudonym is that you can't take credit for your work -- which is only a problem if you happen to be incredibly vain. Another downside is that using a pseudonym in contemporary American society appears eccentric, and possibly a little paranoid.

A resoundingly obvious pro is that you are relatively sheltered from the fallout of absurd and offensive remarks. Go anonymity!
People will immediately understand that you are this kind of person however, so remarks by: "twizzle.twinkle.twilight.girl" will pretty much always be ignored.

Another thing that I have considered: given the well-know bias towards subconsciously favoring "pretty people;" if you are of average or above average appearance you should have a picture of yourself. Unless of course, you are prone to making embarrassing, potentially career-destroying statements (see previous paragraph.)
So if you use a pseudonym, do people assume that you are ugly?

Though if you depend on your pseudonym to guarantee absolute anonymity and if you broadcast a lot of information about yourself, then anyone can find out who you are and you are just another idiot on the Internet (who has probably chosen a ridiculous name from science fiction, and then mangled it.)
The good thing about making up a name (especially if your given name is common;) by making it ridiculous enough, you are the only person that comes up on a google search (of course no one bothers to google it, but that's beside the point.)

If we really wanted to live forever...

Contrary to what my previous post might indicate, I don't take a particular stand on the ethics/practicability of cryogenics. It was just a slow day, and I had nothing better to do than badmouth transhumanists.

So, this being a similarly slow day: The Virtuosi had a post on cryopreservation, and the best bet for successful cryogenics still seems to me to be vitrification. But a 90% success rate is not very good if you are freezing a whole person; not many people would be happy with only 9/10 of their brain cells (though there are a few where I don't think it would matter...)
You need to try things on a smaller scale and then extend the concept, but with the speed that's required (the heat equation holds doesn't it? no idea, that's what I get for writing blog posts rather than taking freshman physics) how do you avoid damaging a small, but essential part of so large a whole?

Much better to try and hibernate through World War III. I think it is far more practical , there have been real successes with small mammals. I always thought chemically-induced suspended-animation was a better bet; and of course that's the definition of someone who's right: "someone who agrees with me."

Anyway this post was more about the logistics and practical limits of cryopreservation, than the social effects (not that I'm qualified, but I still feel that people don't cover as much of that as they should.)

Homo Hypocriticus (why lie?)

Robin Hanson's homo hypocriticus has something missing---- I don't know what to call it, but it's missing.....
False but non-detrimental-signaling (just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?)
Self-evaluation bias, perhaps? If someone believes they are a good person and attributes their actions to an altruistic motive, this may not be accurate, but is consistent with their other delusions (everyone being smarter, more attractive and a better astrophysicist than average.)

 Maybe, some people do X because of Y (i.e. are "genuine,") then because other people want to be trusted (Z) they do Y.  If the Z'rs don't break faith on other matters, their usurpation of the title X'rs might not be believed, but it may increase trust (which in turn could improve the outcome of interactions, and feeds into the "X  fantasy")

Such lies may not increase productivity or societal stability, but they are easier to "maintain" than the truth, perhaps that partially explains the pervasive errors in determining causality.

The US Human Rights Record of 2009

I can't decide whether to laugh or cry; I'll settle for conflicted amusement.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/12/content_9582821_8.htm
"In the United States, civil and political rights of citizens are severely restricted and violated by the government."
I think this speaks for itself.
".....workers' economic, social and cultural rights cannot be guaranteed."" Workers' rights were seriously violated."
So the lack of involuntary associations has really hurt the American workforce? 
"Racial discrimination is still a chronic problem of the United States." They're right on this point; we should stop calling everyone different from us "Yangguizi."

"We hereby advise the US government to draw lessons from the history, put itself in a correct position, strive to improve its own human rights conditions and rectify its acts in the human rights field."
This reminds me of everything I both love and hate about China.


I lived in China when I was very small; and don't remember much, but I've heard many stories. Though it was in the western part of China; I would hope that the coasts would be a bit more civil and cosmopolitan, though the bureaucrats don't seem to be.