Pluralistic: 13 Jan 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow. Will Biden bust trusts? (more)

Scott Alexander: SSC Survey Results: ADHD (ADD) And Rejection Sensitivity. Dr. William Dodson pushes a different conception, where one of the key features of ADHD is “rejection-sensitive dysphoria”, ie people with the condition are much less able to tolerate social rejection, and more likely to find it unbearable and organize their lives around avoiding it. He doesn’t deny the attention and focus symptoms; he just thinks that rejection sensitivity needs to be considered a key part of the disorder. (more)

Scott Alexander: Staying Classy. Siderea writes an essay on class in America. You should read it. In case you don’t, here’s the summary: (more)

J.M. Ledgard: Humans Need to Create Interspecies Money to Save the Planet. A new form of digital currency for animals, trees, and other wildlife (no, not like Dogecoin) would help protect biodiversity and bend technology back to nature. (more)

Scott Alexander: Book Review: Singer on Marx. I’m not embarassed for choosing Peter Singer’s Marx: A Very Short Introductionas a jumping-off point for learning more leftist philosophy (karl marx) (more)

Scott Alexander: Chronic Psychitis. Some people have asked my opinion on a recent spate of articles like Is Depression Partly Caused By An Allergic Reaction? and Depression May Be Caused By Inflammation. (more)

Scott Alexander: The Parable Of The Talents. [Content note: scrupulosity and self-esteem triggers, IQ, brief discussion of weight and dieting. Not good for growth mindset.] (more)

Scott Alexander: The Categories Were Made For Man, Not Man For The Categories. “Silliest internet atheist argument” is a hotly contested title, but I have a special place in my heart for the people who occasionally try to prove Biblical fallibility by pointing out whales are not a type of fish. (more)

Scott Alexander: Stop Confounding Yourself! Stop Confounding Yourself! Bullies are like sharks: horrible pinnacles of evolution. Animals have been learning to navigate social dominance hierarchies through violence since pecking orders in chickens, on through wolf packs and chimpanzees, and up into humans – and we are very good at it. The bully is the purest manifestation of the primal instinct, which is why he crops up untaught and unbidden in near-identical form in schoolyards from Los Angeles to London to Lanzhou. And like sharks, a good bully should be able to smell blood in the water and know when an opportunity to attack presents itself. (status) (more)

Scott Alexander: Silicon Valley: A Reality Check. it’s hard for me to believe that – let’s say Deadspin – really believes in the spirit of Silicon Valley, really thinks that there was once somewhere that weird nerdy people could get together and produce amazing things for the good of everybody, and that to some degree this is still going on, and is a precious thing that needs to be protected. At its worst, some of their criticism sounds more like a worry that there might still be some weird nerds who think they can climb out of the crab-bucket, and they need to be beaten into submission by empty suits before they can get away. (more)

Software Development guru (more)

Revenge Bedtime Procrastination - going to bed/sleep later than makes sense because you're dis-satisfied with your waking life.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.[1] People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias (more)

Congruence bias is the tendency of people to over-rely on testing their initial hypothesis (the most congruent one) while neglecting to test alternative hypotheses. That is, people rarely try experiments that could disprove their initial belief, but rather try to repeat their initial results. It is a special case of the confirmation bias. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congruence_bias (more)

Annotation System-s typically allow any reader/user to attach a comment (structured or not) to any web object-node they find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_annotation (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: Covid-19 5/13: Moving On. Can life return fully to normal? Yes. (more)

Hmm, how to define? Plenty of crazy people are happy... (cf well-being) (more)

Substance or action that changes brain function and results in alterations in perception, mood, or consciousness. (more)

Tim Leary "game" where you rated yourself on 16 mental attributes, and it generated a radial graph showing your state of mind. You could track changes over time, compare yourself to historical figures (rated by some expert, I guess), etc. (more)

2001 Manifesto behind Agile Software Development: ...we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools... http://agilemanifesto.org/ (more)