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<p>It has more to do with the fact that I just discovered SporkHack, which pretty much precludes me doing anything else with my life until I ascend at least one game. You didn’t offend me or anything.
Just a nice way of letting you know. 
but (b) is closest to the truth, spending two days flying kinda interrupts life… :D</p>
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<p>haha funny.</p>
<p>There’s this interesting model I have of impulse control - there are two versions of impulses - (a) impulses that won’t go away if you engage in them and (b) impulses that will go away if you don’t engage in them. Although (b) probably does apply to the kid who really wants a computer game and then is never able to touch it again in 5 years, after which he’s bored with it. ^_^</p>
<p>So now is the perfect time to engage in (a).</p>
<p>I still have this huge book pile to read and now I decided that I want to learn my way around hackthissite.com. :)</p>
<p>do you think its better to be born very smart or slightly stupid? i mean dont you every think itd be easier if you didnt think about all the problems?</p>
<p>Have you played Final fantasy 7, 10, and 12? Which one was the overall best and why?</p>
<p>How far do you think Michigan will fall in the rankings considering they just lost to I-AA Appalachian State?</p>
<p>Aren’t you ashamed since this is kind of a rip off from mikethemaddog’s thread??</p>
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<p>Depends. Some people one way, some people the other way. Hm. </p>
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<p>no, parents refused to buy me a playstation :p</p>
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<p>chances are not particularly far ^_^</p>
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<p>Such threads are quite common on the other forums I hang around.</p>
<p>Why is your advice, if it is, different than others and why should we even ask you questions in the first place? what does this thread have to offer to us?</p>
<p>Why is Angband so popular when NetHack is clearly better?
If you had to choose between going to a state school for free and going to an Ivy and ending up $100,000 in debt, which would you do?
Do you consider yourself intelligent?
Should my next computer run Linux?
Are you using a laptop right now?</p>
<p>How come if you’re really good at chess or football, society likes you and thinks you’re doing something meaningful with your life, but if you’re really good at computer games, society thinks you’re a lazy bum?</p>
<p>I’m ranked 45th on NAO for most ascensions in the past 365 days. Is that a hook? :p</p>
<p>Do you ever listen to popular music?
Do people ever ask you to?</p>
<p>Have you ever considered starting a philosophy club?</p>
<p>Why do parents consider children incapable of rational thought?</p>
<p>Do you believe in gun control?</p>
<p>Do you believe in rock n’ roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?</p>
<p>Why are there so many meta-questions on this thread?
Why are people questioning your advising authority?</p>
<p>Do you want pets?</p>
<p>What are my chances?</p>
<p>What should I dress up as for Halloween: a monk, or a giant L?</p>
<p>“Why is your advice, if it is, different than others and why should we even ask you questions in the first place? what does this thread have to offer to us?”</p>
<p>It’s not advice. None of us on the forums really take these posts seriously (seriously, not a lot of us even take the cafe itself that seriously). Really, it’s just a way to see people’s reactions to what we say - that’s all.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>“Why is Angband so popular when NetHack is clearly better?”</p>
<p>See my thread about basin of attraction theory. People have an interest in pulling people towards their respective basins of attraction. This probably explains the popularity of Xanga among Asians, the popularity of Myspace, and the popularity of a whole swarth of other places.</p>
<p>“If you had to choose between going to a state school for free and going to an Ivy and ending up $100,000 in debt, which would you do?”</p>
<p>Hm, depends on how I’d have to relieve the debt. 
And on a load of other factors, such as the key question “was I homeschooled before I came?” And on the age I came as well, and on how likely I am to make mistakes. </p>
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<p>Hard to say, my conceptions of my own intelligence have not been stable. Last year I didn’t, this year I more so do, but I’m still unsure. ^_^</p>
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<p>It could be a good idea. Or it might not be. ^_^</p>
<p>“Are you using a laptop right now?”</p>
<p>Usually I do but not now ^^</p>
<p>==
“How come if you’re really good at chess, society likes you and thinks you’re doing something meaningful with your life, but if you’re really good at computer games, society thinks you’re a lazy bum?”</p>
<p>Interesting question. Societal stereotypes. Hm. Chess players tend to have a swarth of other attributes, as do computer game players. </p>
<p>But let’s see - the people that society tends to find repulsive - ah - those types are the ones who are more likely to play computer games (and often portrayed as such). And as stereotypes go, the repulsive types often end up spoiling the image of everyone who performs their activities. </p>
<p>Ah, positive feedback as well! Positive feedback tends to occur in social settings where people repeat the same memes to each other over and over again - henceforth creating stronger meme associations in each other’s minds. </p>
<p>"I’m ranked 45th on NAO for most ascensions in the past 365 days. Is that a hook? "</p>
<p>It’s a hook only if other people couldn’t easily achieve the task even if they were motivated enough to do so. And if it had high correlation coefficients with other measures of success (though perhaps not that since colleges still care about really arbitrary factors).</p>
<p>Could you use the word endogenous in context a few times? Also, exogenous? I have a feel for what they mean but that would certainly help.</p>
<p>So we have a model.</p>
<p>There are certain elements that are endogenous to the model.</p>
<p>However, there are other elements exogenous to the model.</p>
<p>Say, we have a model of an ant colony at war with another ant colony.</p>
<p>There is a computer game with that model in mind called SimAnt.</p>
<p>The existence of two warring ant colonies, the random nature of food drops, and the special position of the queen in both ant colonies - all of those are endogenous to the model.</p>
<p>However, there are many factors exogenous to the model. The existence of slave-making ants, leaf-cutter ants, and army ants are exogenous to the model. A fixed lifetime for each and every ant is also exogenous to the model. As is potential conflict between competing ant colonies of the same species.</p>
<p>A model that accurately predicts a phenomenon must account for the phenomenon’s idiosyncrasies. It must contain some of the phenomenon’s idiosyncrasies as endogenous factors. However, it cannot account for ALL of the phenomenon’s idiosyncrasies, and those factors are effectively exogenous ones, factors that cannot be accounted for by means of the model</p>
<p>OKay, so we have a policy (the policy of equality/inequality) and a belief (the belief in equality/inequality). The fact is, some elements endogenous to the policy can influence the belief per se. Other elements exogenous to the policy also influence the belief, and are usually the predominant influences on such beliefs. The main question is - which elements endogenous to the policy have the potential to influence the belief?</p>
<p>There is, for example the social belief in voting - that people should vote. I do not plan to ever vote, since I realize that my action is of minute significance. This is a policy of mine. now, the question is, do there exist factors to the policy of me choosing not to vote - do those endogenous factors ever influence the decisions of others with respect to the social belief in voting? No, because I’m not good in influencing the actions of beliefs of others (one endogenous factor within the policy is me choosing to mass-announce the fact that I didn’t vote online. But this endogenous factor does not influence the decisions of others with respect to their beliefs to vote). So I can feel safe in adopting the policy to not vote since I am cognizant of all of the endogenous factors within such policy.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Thanks.</p>
<p>Sorry for taking advantage of this thread, but I have one more question.</p>
<p>Does this exerpt make sense to you, or should it be rewritten in a more clear manner?</p>
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<p>“seemingly dead man”</p>
<p>How can someone be “seemingly” dead? You can appear dead, but the appearance of death isn’t much different from death itself (you can appear as if you were dying as if it were an extended process, but you can’t appear as if you were dead as if it were an extended process).</p>
<p>“imploded into semblances”</p>
<p>you can’t really “implode” into a semblance of the person you once was. You can only become a semblance of what you used to be. And a “token representation” of what one used to be? Are you using the right word choice?</p>
<p>Is Sharon the female divorcee? Oh true. But the phrase “A seemingly dead man is not bound by child support, thus, Sharon was forced to pursue a much more modest lifestyle after Frieden passed away.” makes me implicitly associate " seemingly dead man" with Sharon. </p>
<p>Yes, the excerpt definitely has to be rewritten.</p>
<p>==</p>
<p>The way I see it: Since Sharon’s husband passed away and cannot provide any more child support for her child, Sharon was forced to adopt a more modest lifestyle. </p>
<p>Then the rest of the sentence: you fail to make the logical connection between “semblance of the kept woman one used to be” and “smaller home” How does a “semblance of what one used to be” relate to a “smaller home?”</p>
<p>It could be that one’s reputation is a semblance of what one’s reputation used to be, and that a smaller home was related to the reduced reputation of what it used to be</p>
<p>I PMd you the whole story.</p>
<p>Will you explain what’s wrong with it (like you did above)?</p>
<p>Watch out. It will take him several days [or a few weeks] to respond. :D</p>
<p>Yayyy! I finally someone who edits more obsessively than I do!</p>
<p>You’re ignoring my questions!</p>