Simfish/InquilineKea's Thoughts

the free market really contains an assumption – that people are primarily motivated by money. of course we know that they can be motivated by other things, and that there are creative ways to motivate them that may have nothing to do with money.

of course this does not mean that the assumption is a bad assumption, for it is probably the only assumption that would work for most jobs. but there are other possible incentives, and one should not be discouraged from seeking them out

and in fact, i think that when robots become widespread and most labor becomes unnecessary, the fundamental nature of money will completely change. It will then be more about resources than about the time/pain it takes to produce things. And since digital data is effectively resource-free, a lot of digital data would become effectively free (although digital data is also the creative type of data that is hard for robots to produce)

another way of getting information about things:

if A -> B and C -> B, then sometimes learning about C-> B can give you lots of information on the A->B mechanism, especially if C and A act in similar ways.

e.g. adderall (A) might cause heart damage (B), and heartbreak (C) can also cause heart damage. But I learned that C->B is generally not permanent, helping me believe that A->B is not permanent either. Because C->B and A->B are mediated through similar mechanisms (aka catecholamine increases)

highly successful people of low-conscientiousness are often paradoxically more restrictive in what they do (and often more asocial) than the highly successful of higher-conscientiousness. ones with low-conscientiousness are often carried away by things like computer games, facebook, IM, and forums. so they oftentimes must completely banish themselves from the above activities (which often makes them look even more conscientious to outside observers)

(you can also replace low-conscientiousness with “prone to ADD”)

those with high intelligence probably have very high variance in the amount of work they put in. on the one hand, they often recognize that putting in work is often necessary for desirable social outcomes given the constraints of the school environment (and they are more likely to identify those outcomes as desirable). and some of them also find work so rewarding (since they don’t have to struggle with it as much) that they end up putting in extra effort. but on the other hand, they often need to spend less time to do the same amount of work as others, and this often results in less time spent on work (especially if they realize that there are other ways of getting a desirable social outcome)

when describing someone’s judgment, you’re often describing his qualities that can’t easily “fit” under any other quality.

but what are those qualities?

– whether he has a significance threshold – if he discerns/identifies (aka judges) the things that are more relevant than others. often relevant as people have to deal with being contacted about things that may be outside his jurisdiction, in which he must possess the judgment to forward the message to another person P2 who holds jurisdiction over how to deal with the message
– basic time management/ability to prioritize. while this is also highly dependent on a not-easily-malleable self-control, judgment is often just as important, if not more important
– propensity of not getting into trouble
– knowing when to act, when not to act, and when to act to a limited extent while contacting others who may be more qualified to act in the case. this is similar to “knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know”. or self-awareness
– quickly identifying situations before they arise and setting up the situation’s environment in a way such that one is well-prepared to deal with it later even if one runs into obstacles or if one isn’t able to focus as well on the problem for whatever reason. e.g. realizing that one may have times when one has attention lapses and trying to set up the problem in a way such that one can solve it with near-perfect accuracy even when one is tired/groggy/has attention lapses. or being prepared if the object breaks or if one needs more time than originally thought
– resistance to common cognitive biases (list on wiki)
– having a good sense of “effectiveness” (or having a good sense of predicting the outcome of the action and of how predicting the limitations of one’s predictions) and of how “effectiveness” can change if one acts earlier or later
– performing all of the above without “unreasonable” amounts of dependence on others, and without investing “unreasonable” amounts of time

i guess empathy attempts really do count as conscious empathy. you may mis-guess a person’s perspective, but it makes you more inclined to really appreciate a person’s perspective. but it also shows the other person that you really do care. because most people don’t even try to be empathetic.

there’s conscious empathy and subconscious empathy. the subconscious empathy is naturally feeling what the other person is feeling (this is what the aspie has trouble in). but with conscious empathy, the aspie has no trouble.