https://metabstract.pages.dev/ Essays, poems, prose, and thought snippets by Nora Ammann on philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, and the examined life. en https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/how-i-want-to-live-my-life-in-times-of-little-hope/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/how-i-want-to-live-my-life-in-times-of-little-hope/ Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 What is the through-line that will be my holding stone? What is the light that will glimmer in my heart, until the end? The flame I choose to tend to, and venerate, and be warmed by? How to hold what hope there is? And what else is there, if anything, that I may build an altar from, to lay my life… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/faith/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/faith/ Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Faith— When you first make your way towards it— Feels fickle and weak A precipice you possess the folly to step into But faith—when it has built its nest in your heart— Is solid ground Is falling into the arms of earth, nurturing and abundant Is rising anew, no matter that and how you fell https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/oqvyw238pemdrh3152mx76ykv6eti6/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/oqvyw238pemdrh3152mx76ykv6eti6/ Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 A late night Under a starry sky And a long boat ride later Warmth and darkness welcomed us Into the melting of bodies And the melting away of words. I may never forget you, wordless night And the depths touched in me — Through a slow, spiral dance, Through conversation held in silence, Through the… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/a3uph9vzh15vo87t4dx8cdux48yh9s/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/a3uph9vzh15vo87t4dx8cdux48yh9s/ Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 My heart is blowing in the wind, Like a flag on top of a high mast. New horizons, Lands that speak to me of promise As well as the unknown. Wind, water, the sun Setting, then rising again. https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/artificial-science-an-incomplete-account/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/artificial-science-an-incomplete-account/ Sat, 24 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Introduction Can science be automated by artificial intelligence? This is a big question, with many moving parts. In this essay, in order to make our work a bit more tractable, while still logging progress towards the big science automation question, I want to ask a somewhat more narrow question… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/towards-a-philosophy-of-science-of-the-artificial/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/towards-a-philosophy-of-science-of-the-artificial/ Sat, 24 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 One common way to start an essay on the philosophy of science is to ask: ”Should we be scientific realists?” While this isn’t precisely the question I’m interested in here, it is the entry point of this essay. So bear with me. Scientific realism, in short, is the view that scientific theories are… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/3lwtt4a69yda57tsac76dr0d5iu0ni/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/3lwtt4a69yda57tsac76dr0d5iu0ni/ Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Your fire burns for the world And it sometimes scorches your own skin Your love refuses to be But in abundance And yet somehow it also knows To bypass this very face of yours Oh dear, dear child You do find your reflection Quite unbearable at times To close one’s eyes To forge ahead To refuse to… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/akz8fjbc2gabmhrnk6zkgtgf17n3c3/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/akz8fjbc2gabmhrnk6zkgtgf17n3c3/ Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 When I take a bite From this juicy peach On a stuffy summer’s day Half of my brain Begrudges the mess Tries to maneuver my body Out of the fall line Of this dripping glory While the other half Quite thoroughly delighted Declares the triumphant arrival Of those timeless times Which have come to stay… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/fol0m7zyonzszr90emu95rphoq6grb/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/fol0m7zyonzszr90emu95rphoq6grb/ Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000 How to hold thyself, you ask In the face of adversity How to hold thyself When the world asks more Than you believe yourself capable of How to hold thyself, you ask When the passions have you weak When a part of you —Banging on the doors of your inner rooms— Screams that everything matters, That… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/small-poem-of-self-compassion/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/small-poem-of-self-compassion/ Tue, 16 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 I’m in love with this garden I have found myself in. With the boy who is sitting on the other side of this florid house. In love with the parts of me that say the wrong things at the wrong time. And that particular part, right now, that is too shy to sit with the others. In love with the me that… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/an-opening-to-revernece/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/an-opening-to-revernece/ Sun, 14 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000 No difference to fathom Between laughing and crying Just different forms of prayer Each prayers of my love Laughing and crying Best understood As different ways of paying attention To the beauty of the world A beauty that’s already here, Woven all across, A mere opening away A mere opening away A… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/ph396jgra317759j3tpkm7iqmop2tw/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/ph396jgra317759j3tpkm7iqmop2tw/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 I want you to hold me again Now that I'm all gone, far away To be placed in a cocoon Of aerial, sentient touch And when you’re with me The scary ones become tame Under your eyes, I find myself more beautiful than before You make me strong When, really, I am not but a blade of grass Just as you make… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/submerged/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/submerged/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 I want to tell you how I feel I want to answer all your questions I want to lay myself bare, in front of you — Nothing you cannot see But I am tangled, oh so tangled There is no start, no end to what I feel — I am submerged No looking up, no time to breathe And what I fear most — In face of all… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wishes-for-r-amp-m/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wishes-for-r-amp-m/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 I don’t think I know anything about love; Except that love is beyond words to capture, And that love, at once, Wants everything, and nothing at all. I don’t think there is anything I can give you; Except my witness - To behold you on your paths And to meet you anew, each time again. I don’t think I… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/5a4u59mjx3gydlas67cvg86rq0hse7/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/5a4u59mjx3gydlas67cvg86rq0hse7/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 A punch through my tummy. A dagger through my heart. Time’s ever expiring; Possibility fleeting. We ain’t the sort of people Who care enough - are we? https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/nothing-is-perfect/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/nothing-is-perfect/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Nothing’s perfect, Nothing is; Everywhere you go You find them, Small grievances Or big ones; You will always find Reason for despair. Nothing is perfect, Nothing is; The world not for you, You not for the world. What it means? I do not know. We’re fucked? We suck? Both probably. And also: Beauty… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/some-thoughts-on-rationality/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/some-thoughts-on-rationality/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Meta: I recently stumbled upon this post which I wrote in Summer 2021 and apparently never posted (for reasons I can’t recall). My ideas have definitely evolved since then, but this still felt good enough to post, especially the two bolded bits towards the end of the post I think are still today of… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/5cganchje3s1ngtc8iwl4v8dviu9eb/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/5cganchje3s1ngtc8iwl4v8dviu9eb/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Here is a fake taxonomy of “strong optimizers”. Note that I’m mainly interested in the idea of “scaffolded optimizers" (more below), but there are a few more bits needed to contextualize said concept.) (Why is it (plausibly) interesting to have such a taxonomy? On one plausible view, AI risk can be… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/an-argument-for-expecting-distributed-multi-agent-ai-systems/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/an-argument-for-expecting-distributed-multi-agent-ai-systems/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Meta: I wrote this sometime in 2021, and although there is a couple of holes or fuzzy bits in the writing, I decided to post it here because a) it can be useful to see (one’s own as well as other’s) “track of ideas”, including faulty ideas; b) I still think that this piece makes some interesting… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/zqdls63vpg7g6m6u71qnnkmyoljfyv/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/zqdls63vpg7g6m6u71qnnkmyoljfyv/ Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 When I was younger, I had a near-insatiable hunger for feedback from other people. I suspect it provided me with a sense of safety. The hope that, even if I was unworthy and ‘not enough’ in how I was there and then, I was improving. S o - eventually - I would be worthy and enough. As long as my… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/ive-become-a-monk-they-said/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/ive-become-a-monk-they-said/ Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 "I've become a monk", they said. Silence. "But...", she stuttered. "I don't understand." It was sadness she was feeling. Triggered by her belief that the world just lost a soul. That her friend just turned their countenance away from the world, to instead devote their life to looking inward. She… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/epistemic-justification-in-human-and-machine/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/epistemic-justification-in-human-and-machine/ Sun, 12 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 What does it take for a belief to be epistemically justified? In the hope of providing a novel angle to this long-standing discussion, I will investigate the question of epistemic justification by means of considering not only (what one might call) ‘classical’ cases, but also ‘machine’ cases… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/why-powerful-instrumental-reasoning-is-by-default-misaligned-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/why-powerful-instrumental-reasoning-is-by-default-misaligned-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/ Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Meta: There are some ways I intend to update and expand this line of thinking. Due to uncertainty about when I will be able to do so, I decided to go ahead with posting this version of the essay already. The AI alignment problem poses an unusual, and maybe unusually difficult, engineering… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/for-m/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/for-m/ Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 I want to live With the flame of love in my center And the light of truth in my eyes. I want to walk Forward, steady Free from strife and free of doubt. I want to take things into my hands, Feel them, weigh them, taste them My grip determined, my touch soft. I want to stare at the dawn of day and… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/principles/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/principles/ Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000 Principles that I seek to live by, given my epistemic position today. As a meta principle. I hope I will be able to update these principles to manifest more and more wisdom as time goes on. 1. Work hard to promote freedom and autonomy in the world. Continuously seek to identify and eliminate… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/anger/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/anger/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 There is fullness, richness, striving towards horizons; — nearly impatience. There is love, much love; appreciation for so many deeply Good things and Good people in my life; — nearly infatuatedness. And then there is also a bunch of "fuck you, world" energy inside of me; an unwillingness to engage… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/disapointment/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/disapointment/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 … have found myself pondering the experience of disappointment these days. How much it can sting and burn. A very nasty sort of burn. But also.. how there can be something deeply sobering and cleansing about it. When I recognize it as a way of re-orienting to and re-coming-in-contact with reality… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/freedom-and-constraint/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/freedom-and-constraint/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Feel more ability than usual to notice when the social web starts to tighten around me; and then just drop it. Freedom and unconstrained-ness. Feeling more in my power. Feel trust in the strength of the mast of my sailing boat despite the mildly stormy sea around me. I love to want things I want… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/giving-up/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/giving-up/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Walking through the streets of Paris. Wanting to just keep walking. Feeling like I wanna get lost. (Also thinking that that’s silly, and how I have to be back in time for a call in a bit.) Hard to feel hope today. Not exactly feeling hopeless. More like there is no space for the feeling if hope at… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/life/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/life/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Feeling lots of things. Excitement, hope, passion, infatuation, nervousness, indecision, fear, throwing-up-my-hands-at-all-the-small-mistakes-I’ve-already-made-today, in-friendship-ness, gratitude, failure, ... On the meta-level, not quite sure whether I’m feeling gently annoyed at my childish… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/ponder/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/ponder/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Spent the morning by the sea shore somewhere in the north of France. Feeling infinitesimally small under the sky, and held in that, in longing and oblivion, and glimpsing the feeling of being mere horizon, and some wanting of being able to hold that feeling more firmly, more robustly, more… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/struggle/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/struggle/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Feeling drained today. Like all energy has leaked out of me and all the remaining motion of my body or mind is mere reflexes, not real action. My parts aren’t that up for cooperating with me today. Banging my head against hard things, but the only effect that seems to achieve is to give me a… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/surrender/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/surrender/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 I came to the mountains in the hope to feel like my inner Max Frisch or Thomas Mann again. And then it didn’t happen. It felt like I had taken this entire world-y and work-ly baggage with me. And I felt resentment. Like I was wasting this chance for serenity. And rest. In me, a coalition has been… https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/waves-crushing-upon-a-rocky-shore/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/prose/waves-crushing-upon-a-rocky-shore/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000 A picture came to me sometime this night, and it's still with me now: of waves, crashing upon a rocky shore. Of "those waves, fallen out of heaven onto earth, [..] the tumult of sound and the satisfaction of a thousand miles of ocean, giving up its strength on the sand" (from a poem by David Whyte)… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wgz7toai07etuzva8h6tt2qnpciwhd/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wgz7toai07etuzva8h6tt2qnpciwhd/ Sun, 13 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 But what But what if But what if you’ve come to twist my reasons around What if your presence, Your entrance, Amounts to an exorcism Of myself upon myself; What if you turn me Into someone, or something I don’t recognize. What if You Crowds out Me; My soul drifting offshore Caught by a current Too… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/we-are-us/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/we-are-us/ Sat, 29 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 We are different We’re not like them They think us strange But that’s okay You are not Alone anymore You no longer have to Wish your difference away You no longer need to Be what you are not Like what you do not As long as you stay with yourself You will see through smoke As long as you stay with… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wild-power/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/wild-power/ Sun, 16 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Continental riff. Startled by what I find inside. For a moment there, still —apprehension; A feeble try to reign you in. But there is no holding back. Scorching lava streaming down the mountain slope; An unstoppable swelling of a golden, dripping heat. Fire. White light Silver brilliance Piercing… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/apologies/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/apologies/ Thu, 30 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 “ Is it meaningless to appologise? Never. ” — V for Vendetta If I just knew how to say I’m sorry Without the fuzz and ties; Without unwittingly following a script Not of my choosing; Without inadvertently entering a game Of guilt, analysis and righteousness; A simple I’m sorry; A breath of warmth… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/alone-peace/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/alone-peace/ Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 A plant with holes, Half a fence In a pitiful attempt of fencing same from same. (Maybe it’s art?) A water Flowing, close to me, but I don’t hear it. I don’t know whether it’s standing or gushing; Whether it wants to speak to me of peace or of chaos. A purple flower of mystical scent The… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/xoei0vu5u2v3kdar99pv3j6tw2aoe0/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/xoei0vu5u2v3kdar99pv3j6tw2aoe0/ Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 It’s because your empty And because you’re not; Because the rustling and crackling Announces around your corner, Noone Who wants a thing from me. The meeting of glances In that other space Two different beings of endless forms And yet united in shared puzzlement At the oddity of our mutual singular… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/a-footnote-on-agent-boundaries-vs-personal-identity/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/a-footnote-on-agent-boundaries-vs-personal-identity/ Sat, 28 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Somewhere else, I specified that I am interested in how to draw boundaries between an agent and its environment, and not interested in questions of individuality in the sense of personal identity or selfhood. This is an important distinction to make. For example, depending on what question you want… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/notions-of-individualitynbsp/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/notions-of-individualitynbsp/ Sat, 28 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 What does it mean to call something “an individual”? When is it appropriate to do so, and why? In particular, according to what criteria do we draw the boundaries of individuality between the agent and its environment? Let me be more clear about what I do and don’t have in mind when I talk about… https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/what-is-individuality-why-care/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/thought-snippets/what-is-individuality-why-care/ Wed, 25 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Biology seems like a prime example of how the conception of individuality - the choice of how to draw boundaries around an agent and its environment - is less straightforward, and more riddled with puzzles than appears to be the case at first sight. For example, we might start out with a naive… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/what-do-we-care-about-in-caring-about-freedom/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/what-do-we-care-about-in-caring-about-freedom/ Sat, 21 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Typically, when freedom is discussed in political philosophy, the discussion revolves around the question concerning the nature of freedom. In this essay, I want to ask a related but different question: why do we care about freedom? Or, what is it that we care about when we care about freedom? Why… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/when-time-is-generous-with-me/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/when-time-is-generous-with-me/ Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 On certain days, When I'm the right amount of tired and awake, Time is generous with me. It flows With the weighty, sticky velocity Of golden-brown forest honey. It stands Nearly still Like sultry middle eastern air on a hot day. The ticking of the clock, Slowed and muffled, Its needles slightly… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/silent-change/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/silent-change/ Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000 I am thinking about change now - change in humans, changing humans Changes that occur in silence Changes that happen slowly, dimly Changes sourced in mere witness Of the outer world, the self, and the reactivity between them Changes that creep up on you, unnoticed Until they confront you in their… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/of-despair-open-eyes-and-couragous-hearts/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/of-despair-open-eyes-and-couragous-hearts/ Mon, 01 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 You feel small and angry. In a world that's big and cruel. - A lake, dark and rough. Growling, resentful At the imperfection - no! Less ambitious than that - at the sheer inadequacies of this world. Bad design, useless design, mindless design, - my suspicion: among us, creatures, camouflaged as… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/waves/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/waves/ Thu, 30 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 I burn for your love But I may not let the fire consume me I crave your recognition But need to find ways to satisfy my heart elsewhere I desire that you may lay your eyes on my body and soul And yet I need to make myself be seen What is love but elusive touch Leaving not but occasional waves of… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/forest-walk/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/forest-walk/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Pressing my hands onto soft, moist moss, Filling my lungs with earthy forest air, The sight of the dense canopy and the dancing lights Bring a surprising sort of clarity. Not what I expected, not what I used to long for Not what I believed my existence - my permission thereof - depended on Moving… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/compilation-of-thoguhts-on-high-impact-interdisciplinary-research/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/compilation-of-thoguhts-on-high-impact-interdisciplinary-research/ Mon, 12 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 The below doesn’t come in the format of a traditional post; instead of a coherent start-to-end narration, it’s a compilation of topically related thoughts. I am posting them here as one single post because I want to have these thoughts accessible in one place. [Cross-posted to the EA forum in… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/maps-of-maps-and-empty-expectations/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/maps-of-maps-and-empty-expectations/ Mon, 03 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 [cross-posted here ] This post is a recap of some naturalism studies I did a few months back. At the outset, I didn’t know where the studies would take me. Now, I believe they taught me about how to do the “real” version of the thing you’re trying to do , where “real” tries to point at things like… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/searching/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/searching/ Sun, 02 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Can you show me how to do it Guide my searching hand Until in all my blindness I sight an incandescent strand Can you show me how to do it Without taking me from myself Can you know this feeble heart And yet revere my mighty self Can you show me how to do it A life well-lived, and death To walk… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/types-of-generalism/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/types-of-generalism/ Tue, 20 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 I am interested in the nature of inter- and transdisciplinary research, which often involves some notion of “generalism”. There are different ways to further conceptualize generalism in this context. First, a bit of terminology that I will rely on throughout this post: I call bodies of knowledge… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/in-praise-of-being-a-stranger/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/in-praise-of-being-a-stranger/ Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 I like to be a stranger to the places I live in. By stranger, I don’t mean to refer to external facts like how long you lived in a palace or your residence permit. I mean an internal posture, a way of relating to the world around you. I mean choosing to be a stranger rather than a familiar; a… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/distance/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/distance/ Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 I’m frightened of the thing that I’ve become; of the distance, the iron-cold that I’ve forged between us. What have I done, or have I done nothing? And as we stand here, under the sun, my breath fogs up the wall of glass that has grown there between my heart and yours. Through it, my gaze strokes… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/filthy-streets-town-without-much-heart/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/filthy-streets-town-without-much-heart/ Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 My heart wants to cry And my eyes are bleeding. I'm leaving you behind. I’m turning the page. Cutting loose from your filthy streets Town without much heart. You have been good to me Yet been my home for much too long. You broke me You built me up. All in just one breath. I am grateful For the… https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/i-think-you-wanted-me-to-sing/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/poems/i-think-you-wanted-me-to-sing/ Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 What is wrong with me, dear lover, Speak, what is the thing? I am running - But I think you wanted me to sing. Creation is the Good That much I understood. It's what fills the world with meaning, what sprinkles it with joy. It's what helps hold high this honour, it is what guides the way. I am… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/the-inner-workings-of-resourcefulness/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/the-inner-workings-of-resourcefulness/ Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Cross-posted to Less Wrong . Meta: If not for its clumsiness, I would have titled this piece “ some of the inner workings of resourcefulness”. In other words, I do not want to pretend this piece offers a comprehensive account, but merely partially insights. About this time a year ago - when for a… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/on-the-nature-of-purpose/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/on-the-nature-of-purpose/ Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 [cross-posted to LessWrong ] Introduction Is the concept of purposes , and more generally teleological accounts of behaviour, to be banished from the field of biology? For many years - essentially since the idea of Darwinian natural selection has started to be properly understood and integrated… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/sense-making-insights-and-advice-for-future-me/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/sense-making-insights-and-advice-for-future-me/ Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000 [Epistemic status: I have different levels of confidence about different points I’m making. Overall though, they are all mostly based on observations and some introspection, thus take with a couple of grains of salt. I’m writing this with my future-self as the primary target audience. This might… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/a-short-account-on-noticing/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/a-short-account-on-noticing/ Sat, 27 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 [ Early this summer, I stumbled upon the opportunity to do some ‘serious rationality exploration’ in the scope of a CFAR instructor training. I have a pile of notes, though most of them are unpolished and require a fair bit of work to be made legible to anyone-that-isn-not-me. I hope to get around… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/a-short-account-on-taps/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/a-short-account-on-taps/ Sat, 27 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Overview Trigger-Action-Patterns From patterns to plans Side note: In the academic literature TAP Design The Algorithm Common failure modes How to master this technique? Some concrete tips for successful TAP design When/where to use TAPs The right trigger The right action Commitment Making TAPs… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/circling-in-on-the-diamond/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/circling-in-on-the-diamond/ Tue, 11 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 A skill I have been pursuing recently (my ‘diamond’) is attaining mastery at noticing. In some ways, noticing is a fairly well distinguished (mental) action. The most obvious way to learn noticing is to do it. And that’s probably not a bad way to learn it. I suspect thought that, if your goal is to… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/hypotheses-on-pica/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/hypotheses-on-pica/ Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Pica (medical diagnosis) : “Pica is a psychological disorder characterized by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive, such as ice; hair; paper; drywall or paint; sharp objects; metal ; stones or soil; glass; faeces; and chalk.” (wiki) Pica (as coined by the rationalist community)… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/the-missing-puzzle-piece-why-solving-big-nasty-bugs-can-be-so-underwhelming/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/the-missing-puzzle-piece-why-solving-big-nasty-bugs-can-be-so-underwhelming/ Wed, 08 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 I’ve had this experience a couple of times by now: I have this bug. I’ve been working on it a lot: I’ve disentangled and mapped out what ‘it’ is about. Tried tackling it with different techniques, from different angles. I’ve also mapped out the entire space around the bug. It feels like I know… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/experiment-mental-restlessness-and-focusing/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/experiment-mental-restlessness-and-focusing/ Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 [ Note: This is a mental model purely based on introspection. I’m neither claiming high probability of this being generalizable to anyone other than me, nor that I will still be having the same model in 3 month from now, nor that the following is particularly original. Writing this up has been and… https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/getting-empricial-with-rationality-embh5/ https://metabstract.pages.dev/blog/getting-empricial-with-rationality-embh5/ Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 I've recently been inspired to make my rationality practice more empirical. Concretely, I envision to start a more rigorous process of coming up with and testing hypotheses about matters related to rationality, my personal productivity, well-being, social life and possibly more. By making this…