Skip to main content


looking for video game recommendations


I enjoyed Disco Elysium: what other similar games might I enjoy?

Specific things I enjoyed about it:

-narrative-focussed
-I guess 'turn-based'/slow, as in, no stressful fighting off enemies in real time
-psychology focus
-a good blend of serious and funny/shitposty/playful
-puzzle-y
-non-addictive: self-limiting because of all the reading/density (in my experience)

Stuff that's less important:

-overall vibe: I liked DE's vibe but would also enjoy other vibes (e.g. more comedic, more fantasy, more sci-fi, more cosy, more whimsical, set in our universe, etc)
-art style: ditto

in reply to Amber Dawn

Replay Baba Is You! Reliving good things is under-rated over novelty.
in reply to David Mears

That is valid but I have replayed it before (though still never finished all the levels)


Vegan French toast recipe


I'm quite pleased with myself because I just came up with a pretty decent (imo) recipe for vEggy Bread or French Fauxst:

Ingredients:
-silken tofu
-soy milk
-cornflour
-cinnamon
-salt
-pepper
-frying oil
-chonky bread
-syrup

Whisk the silken tofu and soy milk together with an electric whisk til it's more liquid than solid.

Heat some oil.

When the oil is hot, dip the bread in the Soy Concoction on both sides

Put some cornflour on both sides (I'm still not sure of the best way to do this, perhaps sprinkle some on a plate/chopping board and put the bread down on it, renewing for each slice because it gets tofu-y)

Fry the bread for a couple minutes on both sides.

Eat with syrup (or whatever else).

It's not exactly the same as eggs ofc but it did tick the boxes on vibes, imo (gloopy oily sweet proteiny). And looked very similar to conventional French toast!



Demonstrating attributes and competencies is hard?


Whenever I have to do a job application that's like "describe a time when you [demonstrated attribute]", it always feels incredibly difficult. Often, I can't think of a suitable instance. Do people relate? I wonder which of the following are true:

Maybe I just don't have these attributes/competencies, the apps are hard because I'm actually a bad fit?
-- But: sometimes I feel like I do have the attributes but I just can't think of a specific work-related time they came up.

Maybe most other people are better at remembering stuff that has happened during their lives?

Maybe these questions are calibrated for "you've had a 9-to-5 office job" and less so for my mixture of work/academic experiences?


A big part of this is that it feels a bit bullshitty somehow. like it's a very fake form of self-description.

in reply to Amber Dawn

I don't remember ever filling out a job application that asked questions like this, though I've been asked them in interviews. I obviously don't know much about your circumstances, but tbh I'd take this as a slightly bad sign about the place you're applying? Like, this question seems to me like the kind of thing that selects good liars (who can come up with / "adjust" an anecdote trivially) over people who have the property they're looking for (who have to actually sift through their history for something that matches). And so if the org is relying on this question at all, that's a slightly bad indicator about the kind of people who are likely to work there?
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Hmm that's interesting! The most recent one was for a social work program (I'm exploring the idea rather than 'definitely want to do it'), and I've heard that the UK civil service also uses questions like this (I do not know if this is evidence for or against your point XD)

I guess for jobs that involve working with people, they have to resort to questions like this because it's harder to test your people skills/soft skills in thte application process? Although, maybe there are ways to ask for written answers that capture some bits (e.g. 'here's a difficult scenario, imagine you're a social worker/civil servant and write an imaginary email to the people involved'. They actually already had a multiple choice quiz a bit like this!)

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Isn't it such a common type of question that if you filter out all such interviewers, you have no jobs left to apply to?
in reply to David Mears

Well, not in my experience? But also I didn't say you should filter them out, just that I think it's a slightly bad sign.
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

tbc an individual interviewer asking a question like this feels different to me than if it's enshrined on the standard application form. Interviewers often have a lot of leeway in what they ask; it seems worse if the person in charge of hiring is like, "yes, this question is how we will determine who to hire".
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

I see.

In British culture at least, I’m taught to expect and prepare for this genre of difficult (because memory-taxing) so called ‘time when’ question, and rehearse little anecdotes that answer “tell me about a time you did [a team work]”. And one is ‘supposed’ to answer this standard formula with another standard formula: the so called STAR format: Situation, Task, Action, Result. That’s the game people have aligned on. (Not that hiring managers should _want_ to have predictable questions…)



AI Art Turing Test


I enjoyed this!

I got just over 50% correct, ie little better than chance. Clearly I don't know shit XD

Regardless of 'can you/can't you tell', my favourite pictures in this were all AI-generated, including both some I really thought were human, and some I correctly identified as AI.


astralcodexten.com/p/ai-art-tu…

in reply to Amber Dawn

I got 77%

I'm realizing a decent amount of real human art might involve strange out-of-place choices

in reply to kip

Correctly identified as AI: 18

Correctly identified as human: 19

Labeled human as AI: 4

Labeled AI as human: 7

(This might be off by 1 or 2, because 1 or 2 things in Scott's answer key didn't seem to perfectly line up with the test?? I think????)



Calling things unofficial names as a positive practice


in reply to Amber Dawn

Similar incident maybe not known to the Americans: they ran a poll to name a polar research ship, where people could write in suggestions. Someone suggested the name "Boaty McBoatface", and this won by a landslide. However, the powers-that-be boringly decided not to honour this :p (They called the ship RRS Sir David Attenborough)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_Mc…

in reply to Amber Dawn

There's a line in a Dessa song ("Dixon's Girl") that I particularly like:

"There was a snow storm in Jackson
When you and I met
At a club called Saint Sebastian's
But the sign said something different"

Why would a club in Mississippi be unofficially called "Saint Sebastian's" and officially called something else? Makes u think.

(St. Sebastian is the unofficial patron saint of homosexuality.)



Chronotypes as orthogonal to 'what do you feel like at different times of day'


in reply to Amber Dawn

I normally ~ can't get out of bed before 10am without fairly extreme inner violence. But also, my life feels much more wholesome on the rare occasions when I do organically go to bed early and wake up early.
in reply to Chana

More or less? Very rarely (maybe twice in the last five years) I've managed to get on a streak of waking up around 8am, that lasted maybe 5 days.
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Yeah interesting, I'm somewhat similar, inasmuch as if left without an alarm, I'll tend to get up after 9, maybe later, but I feel better when I get up earlier (usually 7.45-8.30 type of time). I solve this by using the Alarmy app, which has various tricks but the one I use is, I have to run downstairs to scan a barcode to make the alarm stop. This is very annoying and coercion-y in the moment, but I get over it quickly, and I do feel better that way, fall asleep more reliably, etc.


Should I try to learn more things systematically?


in reply to Amber Dawn



The value of your time should include rest hours (and analogies from the world of work)


in reply to Amber Dawn

in reply to Amber Dawn

It's also worth pointing out that the questions of "what could I exchange for one more hour of work?" and "who should get moral credit for my ability to work one more hour?" are different questions, and arguably it's the first and not the second that you should use when deciding whether to take the bus or a cab or whatever. So, for example, the man supported by his wife may already receive enough support for him to work longer hours than he does, so while the wife is an important part of why he's able to work that much, she doesn't have to do any more work for him to work an additional hour, so he should value freeing up an extra hour without taking the cost of her work into account.

Similarly, if e.g. my commute experience is not restful, then maybe I think that all my rest supports the total time I spend commuting and working, and so I'm justified in spending up to my hourly work rate to reduce my commute.

This entry was edited (1 month ago)


I just invited some FB friends here, let's see if anyone shows up


Whenever I have to pass something between my phone and laptop (a photo, a note, a link that I'd rather deal with on my computer, etc), my default way to do it is to put it in a Facebook message to myself and then access it on the other device. This seems like a very Boomer way to do things but I don't know any other way.
in reply to Amber Dawn

I feel reassured that people I consider "techy" also do this.


Replacing one mental question with another by mistake


As part of career reflection, I’ve been regularly trying to answer questions like ‘what’s your gut guess for what you’ll be doing this time next year?’. Today I noticed that my brain, casting about for the answer, was trying to instead answer the question ‘what do you feel most excited about doing?’, which is obviously different. I mean, maybe related, inasmuch as I am quite an excitement-driven person and maybe being excited about something does make me more likely to do it in future! But still.

Anyway, I feel like I once read a blog about something like this: accidentally replacing one mental question with another by mistake. It was probably by a rationality-sphere person. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

This entry was edited (1 month ago)


Seeking non-fiction recommendations


in reply to Amber Dawn

I'm a big fan of the "Very Short Introduction" series, whose books are ~200 page books giving an overview of some topic. Topics include global economic history, Islamic finance, democracy, schizophrenia, the second Vatican council, amphibians, and ancient Egyptian art and architecture.
in reply to Daniel Filan

I've read some of those in the past, but I could check out some more!
in reply to Amber Dawn



Me to my partner, after complaining about doing something that I mildly regretted:

"Oh well, I guess I have to have *some* flaws, or I wouldn't be relatable"


Incidentally, is tagging a thing here?

This entry was edited (2 months ago)
in reply to Amber Dawn

when I type @ and start typing a name it suggests people to tag