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Agency and Life Domains
The purpose of this essay is to propose an enriched framework of thinking to help optimize the pursuit of agency, the quality of living intentionally. I posit that pursuing and gaining agency involves 3 components:
1. Evaluating reality clearly, to
2. Make effective decisions, that
3. Achieve our short and long-term goals.
In other words, agency refers to the combination of assessing reality accurately and achieving goals effectively, epistemic and instrumental rationality. The essay will first explore the concept of agency more thoroughly, and will then consider the application of this concept in different life domains, by which I mean different life areas such as work, romance, friendships, fitness, leisure, and other domains.
The concepts laid out here sprang from a collaboration between myself and Don Sutterfield, and also discussions with Max Harms, Rita Messer, Carlos Cabrera, Michael Riggs, Ben Thomas, Elissa Fleming, Agnes Vishnevkin, Jeff Dubin, and other members of the Columbus, OH, Rationality Meetup, as well as former members of this Meetup such as Jesse Galef and Erica Edelman. Members of this meetup are also collaborating to organize Intentional Insights, a new nonprofit dedicated to raising the sanity waterline through popularizing Rationality concepts in ways that create cognitive ease for a broad public audience (for more on Intentional Insights, see a fuller description here).
This section describes a framework of thinking that helps assess reality accurately and achieve goals effectively, in other words gain agency. After all, insofar as human thinking suffers from many biases, working to achieve greater agenty-ness would help us lead better lives. First, I will consider agency in relation to epistemic rationality, and then instrumental rationality: while acknowledging fully that these overlap in some ways, I believe it is helpful to handle them in distinct sections.
This essay proposes that gaining agency from the epistemic perspective involves individuals making an intentional evaluation of their environment and situation, in the moment and more broadly in life, sufficient to understand the full extent of one's options within it and how these options relate to one's personal short-term and long-term goals. People often make their decisions, both in the moment and major life decisions, based on socially-prescribed life paths and roles, whether due to the social expectations imposed by others or internalized preconceptions, often a combination of both. Such socially-prescribed life roles limit one's options and thus the capacity to optimize one's utility in reaching personal goals and preferences. Instead of going on autopilot in making decisions about one's options, agency involves intentionally evaluating the full extent of one's options to pursue the ones most conducive to one's actual personal goals. To be clear, this may often mean choosing options that are socially prescribed, if they also happen to fit within one's goal set. This intentional evaluation also means updating one's beliefs based on evidence and facing the truth of reality even when it may seem ugly.
By gaining agency from the instrumental perspective, this essay refers to the ability to achieve one's short-term and long-term goals. Doing so requires that one first gain a thorough understanding of one's short-term and long-term goals, through an intentional process of self-evaluation of one's values, preferences, and intended life course. Next, it involves learning effective strategies to make and carry out decisions conducive to achieving one's personal goals and thus win at life. In the moment, that involves having an intentional response to situations, as opposed to relying on autopilot reflexes. This statement certainly does not mean going by System 2 at all times, as doing so would lead to rapid ego depletion, whether through actual willpower drain or through other related mechanisms. Agency involves using System 2 to evaluate System 1 and decide when one's System 1 may be trusted to make good enough decisions and take appropriate actions with minimal oversight, in other words when System 1 has functional cached thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns. In cases where System 1 habits are problematic, agency involves using System 2 to change System 1 habits into more functional ones conducive to one's goal set, not only behaviors but also changing one's emotions and thoughts. For the long term, agency involves intentionally making plans about one's time and activities so that one can accomplish one's goals. This involves learning about and adopting intentional strategies for discovering, setting, and achieving your goals, and implementing these strategies effectively in your life on a daily level.
Life Domains
Much of the discourse on agency in Rationality circles focuses on this notion as a broad category, and the level of agenty-ness for any individual is treated as a single point on a broad continuum of agency (she's highly agenty, 8/10; he's not very agenty, 3/10). After all, if someone has a thorough understanding of the concept of agency as demonstrated by the way they talk about agency and goal achievement, combined with their actual abilities to solve problems and achieve their goals in life domains such as their career or romantic relationships, then that qualifies that individual as a pretty high-level agent, right? Indeed, this is what I and others in the Columbus Rationality Meetup believed in the past about agency.
However, in an insight that now seems obvious to us (hello, hindsight bias) and may seem obvious to you after reading this post, we have come to understand that this is far from the case: in other words, just because someone has a high level of agency and success in one life domain does not mean that they have agency in other domains. Our previous belief that those who understand the concept of agency well and seem highly agenty in one life domain created a dangerous halo effect in evaluating individuals. This halo effect led to highly problematic predictions and normative expectations about the capacities of others, which undermined social relationships through creating misunderstandings, conflicts, and general interpersonal stress. This halo effect also led to highly problematic predictions and normative expectations about ourselves when highly inflated conceptions of our personal capacities in each given life domain contrasted with consequent mistakes in efforts at optimization that resulted in losses of time, energy, motivation, and personal stress.
Since that realization, we have come across studies on the difference between rationality and intelligence, as well as on broader re-evaluations of dual process theory, and also on the difference between task-oriented thinking and socio-relationship thinking, indicating the usefulness of parsing out the heuristic of "smart" and "rational," and examining the various skills and abilities covered by that term. However, such research has not yet explored how significant skill in rational thinking and agency in one life domain may (or may not) transfer to those same skills and abilities in other areas of life. In other words, individuals may not be intentional and agenty about their application of rational thinking across various life domains, something that might be conveyed through the term "intentionality quotient." So let me tell you a bit about ourselves as case studies in how the concept of domains of agency has proved to be useful in thinking rationally about our lives and gaining agency more quickly and effectively in varied domains.
For example, I have a high level of agency in my career area and in time management and organization, both knowing quite a lot about these areas and achieving my goals within them pretty well. Moreover, I am thoroughly familiar with the concept of agency, both from the Rationality perspective and from my own academic research. From that, I and others who know me expect me to express high levels of agency across all of my life domains.
However, I have many challenges in being rational about maximizing my utility gains in relationships with others. Only relatively recently, within the last couple of years or so, have I began to consider and pursue intentional efforts to reflect on the value that relationships with others has for my life. These intentional efforts resulted from conversations with members of the Columbus Rationality Meetup about their own approaches to relationships, and reading Less Wrong posts on the topic of relationships. As a result of these efforts, I have begun to deliberately invest resources into cultivating some relationships while withdrawing from others. My System 1 self still has a pretty strong ugh field about doing the latter, and my System 2 has to have a very serious talk with my System 1 every time I make a move to distance myself from extant relationships that no longer serve me well.
This personal example illustrates one major reason why people who have a high level of agency in one life domain may not have it in another life domain. Namely, "ugh" fields and cached thinking patterns prevent many who are quite rational and utility-optimizing in certain domains from applying the same level of intentional analysis to another life domain. For myself, as an introverted bookish child, I had few friends. This was further exacerbated by my family's immigration to the United States from the former Soviet Union when I was 10, with the consequent deep disruption of interpersonal social development. Thus, my cached beliefs about relationships and my role in them served me poorly in optimizing relationship utility, and only with significant struggle can I apply rational analysis and intentional decision-making to my relationship circles. Still, since starting to apply rationality to my relationships here, I have substantially leveled up my abilities in that domain.
Another major reason why people who have a high level of agency in one life domain may not have it in another life domain results from the fact that people have domain-specific vulnerabilities to specific kinds of biases and cognitive distortions. For example, despite knowing quite a bit about self-control and willpower management, I suffer from challenges managing impulse control over food. I have worked to apply both rational analysis and proven habit management and change strategies to modify my vulnerability to the Kryptonite of food and especially sweets. I know well what I should be doing to exhibit greater agency in that field and have made very slow progress, but the challenges in that domain continually surprise me.
My assessment of my level of agency, which sprang from the areas where I had high agency, caused me to greatly overestimate my ability to optimize in areas where I had low levels of agency, e.g., in relationships and impulse control. As a result, I applied incorrect strategies to level up in those domains, and caused myself a great deal of unnecessary stress, and much loss of time, energy, and motivation.
My realization of the differentiated agency I had across different domains resulted in much more accurate evaluations and optimization strategies. For some domains, such as relationships, the problem resulted primarily from a lack of rational self-reflection. This suggests one major fix to differentiated levels of agency across different life domains – namely, a project that involves rationally evaluating one's utility optimization in each life area. For some domains, the problem stems from domain-specific vulnerability to certain biases, and that requires applying self-awareness, data gathering, and tolerance toward one's personally slow optimization in these areas.
My evaluation of the levels of agency of others underwent a similar transformation after the realization that they had different levels of agency in different life domains. Previously, mistaken assessments resulting from the halo effect about agency undermined my social relationships through misunderstandings, conflicts, and general interpersonal stress. For instance, before this realization I found it difficult to understand how one member of the Columbus Rationality Meetup excelled in some life areas, such as managing relationships and social interactions, but suffered from deep challenges in time management and organization. Caring about this individual deeply as a close friend and collaborator, I invested much time and energy resources to help improve this life domain. The painfully slow improvement and many setbacks experienced by this individual caused me to experience much frustration and stress, and resulted in conflicts and tensions between us. However, after making the discovery of differentiated agency across domains, I realized that not only was such frustration misplaced, but that the strategies I was suggesting were targeted too high for this individual, in this domain. A much more accurate assessment of his current capacities and the actual efforts required to level up resulted in much less interpersonal stress and much more effective strategies that helped this individual. Besides myself, other Columbus Rationality Meetup members have experienced similar benefits in applying this paradigm to themselves and to others.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, this essay provided an overview and some strategies for achieving greater agency - a highly instrumental framework of thinking that helps empower individuals to optimize their ability to assess reality accurately and achieve goals effectively. The essay in particular aims to enrich current discourse on agency by highlighting how individuals have different levels of agency across various life domains, and underscoring the epistemic and instrumental implications of this perspective on agency. While the strategies listed above help achieve specific skills and abilities required to gain greater agency, I would suggest that one can benefit greatly from tying positive emotions to the framework of thinking about agency described above. For instance, one might think to one's self, "It is awesome to take an appropriately fine grained perspective on how agency works, and I'm awesome for dedicating cycles to that project." Doing so motivates one's System 1 to pursue increasing levels of agency: it's the emotionally rational step to assess reality accurately, achieve goals effectively, and thus gain greater agency in all life domains.
The Truth and Instrumental Rationality
One of the central focuses of LW is instrumental rationality. It's been suggested, rather famously, that this isn't about having true beliefs, but rather its about "winning". Systematized winning. True beliefs are often useful to this goal, but an obsession with "truthiness" is seen as counter-productive. The brilliant scientist or philosopher may know the truth, yet be ineffective. This is seen as unacceptable to many who see instrumental rationality as the critical path to achieving one's goals. Should we all discard our philosophical obsession with the truth and become "winners"?
The River Instrumentus
You are leading a group of five people away from deadly threat which is slowly advancing behind you. You come to a river. It looks too dangerous to wade through, but through the spray of the water you see a number of stones. They are dotted across the river in a way that might allow you to cross. However, the five people you are helping are extremely nervous and in order to convince them to cross, you will not only have to show them its possible to cross, you will also need to look calm enough after doing it to convince them that it's safe. All five of them must cross, as they insist on living or dying together.
Just as you are about to step out onto the first stone it splutters and moves in the mist of the spraying water. It looks a little different from the others, now you think about it. After a moment you realise its actually a person, struggling to keep their head above water. Your best guess is that this person would probably drown if they got stepped on by five more people. You think for a moment, and decide that, being a consequentialist concerned primarily with the preservation of life, it is ultimately better that this person dies so the others waiting to cross might live. After all, what is one life compared with five?
However, given your need for calm and the horror of their imminent death at your hands (or feet), you decide it is better not to think of them as a person, and so you instead imagine them being simply a stone. You know you'll have to be really convincingly calm about this, so you look at the top of the head for a full hour until you utterly convince yourself that the shape you see before you is factually indicitative not of a person, but of a stone. In your mind, tops of heads aren't people - now they're stones. This is instrumentally rational - when you weigh things up the self-deception ultimately increases the number of people who will likely live, and there is no specific harm you can identify as a result.
After you have finished convincing yourself you step out onto the per... stone... and start crossing. However, as you step out onto the subsequent stones, you notice they all shift a little under your feet. You look down and see the stones spluttering and struggling. You think to yourself "lucky those stones are stones and not people, otherwise I'd be really upset". You lead the five very greatful people over the stones and across the river. Twenty dead stones drift silently downstream.
When we weigh situations on pure instrumentality, small self deception makes sense. The only problem is, in an ambiguous and complex world, self-deceptions have a notorious way of compounding eachother, and leave a gaping hole for cognitive bias to work its magic. Many false but deeply-held beliefs throughout human history have been quite justifiable on these grounds. Yet when we forget the value of truth, we can be instrumental, but we are not instrumentally rational. Rationality implies, or ought to imply, a value of the truth.
Winning and survival
In the jungle of our evolutionary childhood, humanity formed groups to survive. In these groups there was a hierachy of importance, status and power. Predators, starvation, rival groups and disease all took the weak on a regular basis, but the groups afforded a partial protection. However, a violent or unpleasant death still remained a constant threat. It was of particular threat to the lowest and weakest members of the group. Sometimes these individuals were weak because they were physically weak. However, over time groups that allowed and rewarded things other than physical strength became more successful. In these groups, discussion played a much greater role in power and status. The truely strong individuals, the winners in this new arena were one's that could direct converstation in their favour - conversations about who will do what, about who got what, and about who would be punished for what. Debates were fought with words, but they could end in death all the same.
In this environment, one's social status is intertwined with one's ability to win. In a debate, it was not so much a matter of what was true, but of what facts and beliefs achieved one's goals. Supporting the factual position that suited one's own goals was most important. Even where the stakes where low or irrelevant, it payed to prevail socially, because one's reputation guided others limited cognition about who was best to listen to. Winning didn't mean knowing the most, it meant social victory. So when competition bubbled to the surface, it payed to ignore what one's opponent said and instead focus on appearing superior in any way possible. Sure, truth sometimes helped, but for the charismatic it was strictly optional. Politics was born.
Yet as groups got larger, and as technology began to advance for the first time, there appeared a new phenomenon. Where a group's power dynamics meant that it systematically had false beliefs, it became more likely to fail. The group that believing that fire spirits guided a fire's advancement fared poorly compared with those who checked the wind and planned their means of escape accordingly. The truth finally came into its own. Yet truth, as opposed to simple belief by politics, could not be so easily manipulated for personal gain. The truth had no master. In this way it was both dangerous and liberating. And so slowly but surely the capacity for complex truth-pursuit became evolutionarily impressed upon the human blueprint.
However, in evolutionary terms there was little time for the completion of this new mental state. Some people had it more than others. It also required the right circumstances for it to rise to the forefront of human thought. And other conditions could easily destroy it. For example, should a person's thoughts be primed with an environment of competition, the old ways came bubbling up to the surface. When a person's environment is highly competitive, it reverts to its primitive state. Learning and updating of views becomes increasingly difficult, because to the more primitive aspects of a person's social brain, updating one's views is a social defeat.
When we focus an organisation's culture on winning, there can be many benefits. It can create an air of achievement, to a degree. Hard work and the challenging of norms can be increased. However, we also prime the brain for social conflict. We create an environment where complexity and subtlety in conversation, and consequently in thought, is greatly reduced. In organisations where the goals and means are largely intellectual, a competitive environment creates useless conversations, meaningless debates, pointless tribalism, and little meaningful learning. There are many great examples, but I think you'd be best served watching our elected representatives at work to gain a real insight.
Rationality and truth
Rationality ought to contain an implication of truthfulness. Without it, our little self-deceptions start to gather and compond one another. Slowly but surely, they start to reinforce, join, and form an unbreakable, unchallengable yet utterly false belief system. I need not point out the more obvious examples, for in human society, there are many. To avoid this on LW and elsewhere, truthfulness of belief ought to inform all our rational decisions, methods and goals. Of course true beliefs do not guarantee influence or power or achievement, or anything really. In a world of half-evolved truth-seeking equipment, why would we expect that? What we can expect is that, if our goals are anything to do with the modern world in all its complexity, the truth isn't sufficient, but it is neccessary.
Instrumental rationality is about achieving one's goals, but in our complex world goals manifest in many ways - and we can never really predict how a false belief will distort our actions to utterly destroy our actual achievements. In the end, without truth, we never really see the stones floating down the river for what they are.
Power and difficulty
A specific bias that Lesswrongers may often get from fiction[1] is the idea that power is proportional to difficulty. The more power something gives you, the harder it should be to get, right?
A mediocre student becomes a powerful mage through her terrible self-sacrifice and years of studying obscure scrolls. Even within the spells she can cast, the truly world-altering ones are those that demand the most laborious preparation, the most precise gestures, and the longest and most incomprehensible stream of syllables. A monk makes an arduous journey to ancient temples and learns secret techniques of spiritual oneness and/or martial asskickery, which require great dedication and self-knowledge. Otherwise, it would be cheating. The whole process of leveling up, of adding ever-increasing modifiers to die rolls, is based on the premise that power comes to those who do difficult things. And it's failsafe - no matter what you put your skill points in, you become better at something. It's a training montage, or a Hero's journey. As with other fictional evidence, these are not "just stories" -- they are powerful cultural narratives. This kind of narrative shapes moral choices[2] and identity. So where do we see this reflected in less obviously fictional contexts?
There's the rags-to-riches story -- the immigrant who came with nothing, but by dint of hard work, now owns a business. University engineering programs are notoriously tough, because you are gaining the ability to do a lot of things (and for signalling reasons). A writer got to where she is today because she wrote and revised and submitted and revised draft after draft after draft.
In every case, there is assumed to be a direct causal link between difficulty and power. Here, these are loosely defined. Roughly, "power" means "ability to have your way", and "difficulty" is "amount of work & sacrifice required." These can be translated into units of social influence - a.k.a money -- and investment, a.k.a. time, or money. In many cases, power is set by supply and demand -- nobody needs a wizard if they can all cast their own spells, and a doctor can command much higher prices if they're the only one in town. The power of royalty or other birthright follows a similar pattern - it's not "difficult", but it is scarce -- only a very few people have it, and it's close to impossible for others to get it.
Each individual gets to choose what difficult things they will try to do. Some will have longer or shorter payoffs, but each choice will have some return. And since power (partly) depends on everybody else's choices, neoclassical economics says that individuals' choices collectively determine a single market rate for the return on difficulty. So anything you do that's difficult should have the same payoff.
Anything equally difficult should have equal payoff. Apparently. Clearly, this is not the world we live in. Admittedly, there were some pretty questionable assumptions along the way, but it's almost-kind-of-reasonable to conclude that, if you just generalize from the fictional evidence. (Consider RPGs: They're designed to be balanced. Leveling up any class will get you to advance in power at a more-or-less equal rate.)
So how does reality differ from this fictional evidence? One direction is trivial: it's easy to find examples where what's difficult is not particularly powerful.
Writing a book is hard, and has a respectable payoff (depending on the quality of the book, publicity, etc.). Writing a book without using the letter "e", where the main character speaks only in palindromes, while typing in the dark with only your toes on a computer that's rigged to randomly switch letters around is much much more difficult, but other than perhaps gathering a small but freakishly devoted fanbase, it does not bring any more power/influence than writing any other book. It may be a sign that you are capable of more difficult things, and somebody may notice this and give you power, but this is indirect and unreliable. Similarly, writing a game in machine code or as a set of instructions for a Turing machine is certainly difficult, but also pretty dumb, and has no significant payoff beyond writing the game in a higher-level language. [Edit - thanks to TsviBT: This is assuming there already is a compiler and relevant modules. If you are first to create all of these, there might be quite a lot of benefit.]
On the other hand, some things are powerful, but not particularly difficult. On a purely physical level, this includes operating heavy machinery, or piloting drones. (I'm sure it's not easy, but the power output is immense). Conceptually, I think calculus comes in this category. It can provide a lot of insight into a lot of disparate phenomena (producing utility and its bastard cousin, money), but is not too much work to learn.
As instrumental rationalists, this is the territory we want to be in. We want to beat the market rate for turning effort into influence. So how do we do this?
This is a big, difficult question. I think it's a useful way to frame many of the goals of instrumental rationality. What major should I study? Is this relationship worthwhile? (Note: This may, if poorly applied, turn you into a terrible person. Don't apply it poorly.) What should I do in my spare time?
These questions are tough. But the examples of powerful-but-easy stuff suggest a useful principle: make use of what already exists. Calculus is powerful, but was only easy to learn because I'd already been learning math for a decade. Bulldozers are powerful, and the effort to get this power is minimal if all you have to do is climb in and drive. It's not so worthwhile, though, if you have to derive a design from first principles, mine the ore, invent metallurgy, make all the parts, and secure an oil supply first.
Similarly, if you're already a writer, writing a new book may gain you more influence than learning plumbing. And so on. This begins to suggest that we should not be too hasty to judge past investments as sunk costs. Your starting point matters in trying to find the closest available power boost. And as with any messy real-world problem, luck plays a major role, too.
Of course, there will always be some correlation between power and difficulty -- it's not that the classical economic view is wrong, there's just other factors at play. But to gain influence, you should in general be prepared to do difficult things. However, they should not be arbitrary difficult things -- they should be in areas you have specifically identified as having potential.
To make this more concrete, think of Methods!Harry. He strategically invests a lot of effort, usually at pretty good ratios -- the Gringotts money pump scheme, the True Patronus, his mixing of magic and science, and Partial Transfiguration. Now that's some good fictional evidence.
[1] Any kind of fiction, but particularly fantasy, sci-fi, and neoclassical economics. All works of elegant beauty, with a more-or-less tenuous relationship to real life.
[2] Dehghani, M., Sachdeva, S., Ekhtiari, H., Gentner, D., Forbus, F. "The role of Cultural Narratives in Moral Decision Making." Proceedings of the 31th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. 2009.
Willpower Depletion vs Willpower Distraction
I once asked a room full of about 100 neuroscientists whether willpower depletion was a thing, and there was widespread disagreement with the idea. (A propos, this is a great way to quickly gauge consensus in a field.) Basically, for a while some researchers believed that willpower depletion "is" glucose depletion in the prefrontal cortex, but some more recent experiments have failed to replicate this, e.g. by finding that the mere taste of sugar is enough to "replenish" willpower faster than the time it takes blood to move from the mouth to the brain:
Carbohydrate mouth-rinses activate dopaminergic pathways in the striatum–a region of the brain associated with responses to reward (Kringelbach, 2004)–whereas artificially-sweetened non-carbohydrate mouth-rinses do not (Chambers et al., 2009). Thus, the sensing of carbohydrates in the mouth appears to signal the possibility of reward (i.e., the future availability of additional energy), which could motivate rather than fuel physical effort.-- Molden, D. C. et al, The Motivational versus Metabolic Effects of Carbohydrates on Self-Control. Psychological Science.
Stanford's Carol Dweck and Greg Walden even found that hinting to people that using willpower is energizing might actually make them less depletable:
When we had people read statements that reminded them of the power of willpower like, "Sometimes, working on a strenuous mental task can make you feel energized for further challenging activities," they kept on working and performing well with no sign of depletion. They made half as many mistakes on a difficult cognitive task as people who read statements about limited willpower. In another study, they scored 15 percent better on I.Q. problems.-- Dweck and Walden, Willpower: It's in Your Head? New York Times.
While these are all interesting empirical findings, there's a very similar phenomenon that's much less debated and which could explain many of these observations, but I think gets too little popular attention in these discussions:
Willpower is distractible.
Indeed, willpower and working memory are both strongly mediated by the dorsolateral prefontal cortex, so "distraction" could just be the two functions funging against one another. To use the terms of Stanovich popularized by Kahneman in Thinking: Fast and Slow, "System 2" can only override so many "System 1" defaults at any given moment.
So what's going on when people say "willpower depletion"? I'm not sure, but even if willpower depletion is not a thing, the following distracting phenomena clearly are:
- Thirst
- Hunger
- Sleepiness
- Physical fatigue (like from running)
- Physical discomfort (like from sitting)
- That specific-other-thing you want to do
- Anxiety about willpower depletion
- Indignation at being asked for too much by bosses, partners, or experimenters...
... and "willpower depletion" might be nothing more than mental distraction by one of these processes. Perhaps it really is better to think of willpower as power (a rate) than energy (a resource).
If that's true, then figuring out what processes might be distracting us might be much more useful than saying "I'm out of willpower" and giving up. Maybe try having a sip of water or a bit of food if your diet permits it. Maybe try reading lying down to see if you get nap-ish. Maybe set a timer to remind you to call that friend you keep thinking about.
The last two bullets,
- Anxiety about willpower depletion
- Indignation at being asked for too much by bosses, partners, or experimenters...
are also enough to explain why being told willpower depletion isn't a thing might reduce the effects typically attributed to it: we might simply be less distracted by anxiety or indignation about doing "too much" willpower-intensive work in a short period of time.
Of course, any speculation about how human minds work in general is prone to the "typical mind fallacy". Maybe my willpower is depletable and yours isn't. But then that wouldn't explain why you can cause people to exhibit less willpower depletion by suggesting otherwise. But then again, most published research findings are false. But then again the research on the DLPFC and working memory seems relatively old and well established, and distraction is clearly a thing...
All in all, more of my chips are falling on the hypothesis that willpower "depletion" is often just willpower distraction, and that finding and addressing those distractions is probably a better a strategy than avoiding activities altogether in order to "conserve willpower".
Tell Culture
Followup to: Ask and Guess
Ask culture: "I'll be in town this weekend for a business trip. Is it cool if I crash at your place?" Response: "Yes" or "no".
Guess culture: "Hey, great news! I'll be in town this weekend for a business trip!" Response: Infer that they might be telling you this because they want something from you, conclude that they might want a place to stay, and offer your hospitality only if you want to. Otherwise, pretend you didn't infer that.
The two basic rules of Ask Culture: 1) Ask when you want something. 2) Interpret things as requests and feel free to say "no".
The two basic rules of Guess Culture: 1) Ask for things if, and *only* if, you're confident the person will say "yes". 2) Interpret requests as expectations of "yes", and, when possible, avoid saying "no".
Both approaches come with costs and benefits. In the end, I feel pretty strongly that Ask is superior.
But these are not the only two possibilities!
"I'll be in town this weekend for a business trip. I would like to stay at your place, since it would save me the cost of a hotel, plus I would enjoy seeing you and expect we'd have some fun. I'm looking for other options, though, and would rather stay elsewhere than inconvenience you." Response: "I think I need some space this weekend. But I'd love to get a beer or something while you're in town!" or "You should totally stay with me. I'm looking forward to it."
There is a third alternative, and I think it's probably what rationalist communities ought to strive for. I call it "Tell Culture".
The two basic rules of Tell Culture: 1) Tell the other person what's going on in your own mind whenever you suspect you'd both benefit from them knowing. (Do NOT assume others will accurately model your mind without your help, or that it will even occur to them to ask you questions to eliminate their ignorance.) 2) Interpret things people tell you as attempts to create common knowledge for shared benefit, rather than as requests or as presumptions of compliance.
Suppose you're in a conversation that you're finding aversive, and you can't figure out why. Your goal is to procure a rain check.
- Guess: *You see this annoyed body language? Huh? Look at it! If you don't stop talking soon I swear I'll start tapping my foot.* (Or, possibly, tell a little lie to excuse yourself. "Oh, look at the time…")
- Ask: "Can we talk about this another time?"
- Tell: "I'm beginning to find this conversation aversive, and I'm not sure why. I propose we hold off until I've figured that out."
Here are more examples from my own life:
- "I didn't sleep well last night and am feeling frazzled and irritable today. I apologize if I snap at you during this meeting. It isn't personal."
- "I just realized this interaction will be far more productive if my brain has food. I think we should head toward the kitchen."
- "It would be awfully convenient networking for me to stick around for a bit after our meeting to talk with you and [the next person you're meeting with]. But on a scale of one to ten, it's only about 3 useful to me. If you'd rate the loss of utility for you as two or higher, then I have a strong preference for not sticking around."
The burden of honesty is even greater in Tell culture than in Ask culture. To a Guess culture person, I imagine much of the above sounds passive aggressive or manipulative, much worse than the rude bluntness of mere Ask. It's because Guess people aren't expecting relentless truth-telling, which is exactly what's necessary here.
If you're occasionally dishonest and tell people you want things you don't actually care about--like their comfort or convenience--they'll learn not to trust you, and the inherent freedom of the system will be lost. They'll learn that you only pretend to care about them to take advantage of their reciprocity instincts, when in fact you'll count them as having defected if they respond by stating a preference for protecting their own interests.
Tell culture is cooperation with open source codes.
This kind of trust does not develop overnight. Here is the most useful Tell tactic I know of for developing that trust with a native Ask or Guess. It's saved me sooooo much time and trouble, and I wish I'd thought of it earlier.
"I'm not asking because I expect you to say 'yes'. I'm asking because I'm having trouble imagining the inside of your head, and I want to understand better. You are completely free to say 'no', or to tell me what you're thinking right now, and I promise it will be fine." It is amazing how often people quickly stop looking shifty and say 'no' after this, or better yet begin to discuss further details.
Worse than Worthless
There are things that are worthless-- that provide no value. There are also things that are worse than worthless-- things that provide negative value. I have found that people sometimes confuse the latter for the former, which can carry potentially dire consequences.
One simple example of this is in fencing. I once fenced with an opponent who put a bit of an unnecessary twirl on his blade when recovering from each parry. After our bout, one of the spectators pointed out that there wasn't any point to the twirls and that my opponent would improve by simply not doing them anymore. My opponent claimed that, even if the twirls were unnecessary, at worst they were merely an aesthetic preference that was useless but not actually harmful.
However, the observer explained that any unnecessary movement is harmful in fencing, because it spends time and energy that could be put to better use-- even if that use is just recovering a split second faster! [1]
During our bout, I indeed scored at least one touch because my opponent's twirling recovery was slower than a less flashy standard movement. That touch could well be the difference between victory and defeat; in a real sword fight, it could be the difference between life and death.
This isn't, of course, to say that everything unnecessary is damaging. There are many things that we can simply be indifferent towards. If I am about to go and fence a bout, the color of the shirt that I wear under my jacket is of no concern to me-- but if I had spent significant time before the bout debating over what shirt to wear instead of training, it would become a damaging detail rather than a meaningless one.
In other words, the real damage is dealt when something is not only unnecessary, but consumes resources that could instead be used for productive tasks. We see this relatively easily when it comes to matters of money, but when it comes to wastes of time and effort, many fail to make the inductive leap.
[1] Miyamoto Musashi agrees:
The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. More than anything, you must be thinking of carrying your movement through to cutting him. You must thoroughly research this.
A proposed inefficiency in the Bitcoin markets
[Beliefs about order of magnitude of Bitcoin's future value] --> [Beliefs about Bitcoin's future price] --> [Trading decisions]
Aliveness in Training
Related: The Martial Art of Rationality
One principle in the martial arts is that arts that are practiced with aliveness tend to be more effective.
"Aliveness" in this case refers to a set of training principles focused on simulating conditions in an actual fight as closely as possible in training. Rather than train techniques in a vacuum or against a compliant opponent, alive training focuses on training with movement, timing, and energy under conditions that approximate those where the techniques will actually be used.[1]
A good example of training that isn't alive would be methods that focused entirely on practicing kata and forms without making contact with other practitioners; a good example of training that is alive would be methods that focused on verifying the efficacy of techniques through full-contact engagement with other practitioners.
Aliveness tends to create an environment free from epistemic viciousness-- if your technique doesn't work, you'll know because you won't be able to use it against an opponent. Further, if your technique does work, you'll know that it works because you will have applied it against people trying to prevent you from doing so, and the added confidence will help you better apply that technique when you need it.
Evidence from martial arts competitions indicates that those who practice with aliveness are more effective than others. One of the chief reasons that Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) practitioners were so successful in early mixed martial arts tournaments was that BJJ-- a martial art that relies primarily on grappling and the use of submission holds and locks to defeat the opponent-- can be trained safely with almost complete aliveness, whereas many other martial arts cannot.[2]
Now, this is not to say that one should only attempt to practice martial arts under completely realistic conditions. For instance, no martial arts school that I am aware of randomly ambushes or attempts to mug its students on the streets outside of class in order to test how they would respond under truly realistic conditions.[3]
Even in the age of sword duels, people would train with blunt weapons and protective armor rather than sharp weapons and ordinary clothes. Would training with sharp weapons and ordinary clothes be more alive than training with blunt weapons and protective armor? Certainly, but the trainees wouldn't be! And yet training with blunt weapons is still useful-- the fact that training does not fully approximate realistic conditions does not intrinsically mean it is bad.
That being said, generally speaking martial arts training that is more alive-- that better approximates realistic fighting conditions-- is more effective within reasonable safety margins. There is a growing consensus among students of martial arts who are looking for effective self-defense techniques that the specific martial art one practices is not hugely relevant, and that what matters more is the extent to which the training does or doesn't use aliveness.
Aliveness and Rationality
So, that's all well and good-- but how can we apply these principles to rationality practice?
While martial arts training has very clear methods of measuring whether or not skills work (can I apply this technique against a resisting opponent?), rationality training is much murkier-- measuring rationality skills is a nontrivial problem.
Further, under normal circumstances the opponent that you are resisting when applying rationality techniques is your own brain, not an external enemy.[4] This makes applying appropriate levels of resistance in training difficult, because it's very easy to cheat yourself. The best method that I have found thus far is lucid dreaming, as forcing your dreaming brain to recognize its true state through the various hallucinations and constructed memories associated with dreaming is no easy task.
That being said, I make no claims to special or unique knowledge in this area. If anyone has suggestions for useful methods of "live" rationality practice, I'd love to hear them.
[1] For further explanation, see Matt Thornton's classic video "Why Aliveness?"
[2] If your plan is to choke someone until they fall unconscious, it is possible to safely train for this with nearly complete aliveness by wrestling against an opponent and simply releasing the chokehold before they actually fall unconscious. By contrast, it is much harder to safely train to punch someone into unconsciousness, and harder still to safely train to break people's necks.
[3] The game of Assassins does do this, but usually follows rules that are constrained enough to make it a suboptimal method of training.
[4] There are some contexts in which rationality techniques are applied in order to overcome an external enemy. Competitive games and some sports are a good method of finding practice in this respect. For instance, in order to be a competitive Magic: The Gathering player, you need to engage many epistemic and instrumental rationality skills. Competitive poker can offer similar development.
Better Rationality Through Lucid Dreaming
Note: this post is no longer endorsed by the author, for reasons partially described here.
In the spirit of radioing back to describe a path:
The truly absurd thing about dreams lies not with their content, but with the fact that we believe them. Perfectly outrageous and impossible things can occur in dreams without the slightest hesitance to accept them on the part of the dreamer. I have often dreamed myself into bizarre situations that come complete with constructed memories explaining how they secretly make sense!
However, sometimes we break free from these illusions and become aware of the fact that we are dreaming. This is known as lucid dreaming and can be an extremely pleasant experience. Unfortunately, relatively few people experience lucid dreams "naturally;" fortunately, lucid dreaming is also a skill, and like any other skill it can be trained.
While this is all very interesting, you may be wondering what it has to do with rationality. Simply put, I have found lucid dreaming perhaps the best training currently available when it comes to increasing general rationality skills. It is one thing to notice when you are confused by ordinary misunderstandings or tricks; it is another to notice while your own brain is actively constructing memories and environments to fool you!
I've been involved in lucid dreaming for about eight years now and teaching lucid dreaming for two, so I'm pretty familiar with it on a non-surface level. I've also been explicitly looking into the prospect of using lucid dreaming for rationality training purposes since 2010, and I'm fairly confident that it will prove useful for at least some people here.
If you can get yourself to the point where you can consistently induce lucid dreaming by noticing the inconsistencies and absurdities of your dream state,[1] I predict that you will become a much stronger rationalist in the process. If my prediction is correct, lucid dreaming allows you to hone rationality skills while also having fun, and best of all permits you to do this in your sleep!
If this sounds appealing to you, perhaps the most concise and efficient resource for learning lucid dreaming is the book Lucid Dreaming, by Dr. Stephen LaBerge. However, this is a book and costs money. If you're not into that, a somewhat less efficient but much more comprehensive view of lucid dreaming can be found on the website dreamviews.com. I further recommend that anyone interested in this check out the Facebook group Rational Dreamers. Recently founded by LW user BrienneStrohl, this group provides an opportunity to discuss lucid dreaming and related matters in an environment free from some of the mysticism and confusion that otherwise surrounds this issue.
All in all, it seems that lucid dreaming may offer a method of training your rationality in a way that is fun,[2] interesting, and takes essentially none of your waking hours. Thus, if you are interested in increasing your general rationality, I strongly recommend investigating lucid dreaming. To be frank, my main concern about lucid dreaming as a rationality practice is simply that it seems too good to be true.
[1] Note that this is only one of many ways of inducing lucid dreaming. However, most other techniques that I have tried are not necessarily useful forms of rationality practice, effective as they might be.
[2] And, to be honest, "fun" is an understatement.
October Monthly Bragging Thread
Since it had a decent amount of traffic until a good two weeks into September (and I thought it was a good idea), I'm reviving this thread.
In an attempt to encourage more people to actually do awesome things (a la instrumental rationality), I am proposing a new monthly thread (can be changed to bi-weekly, should that be demanded). Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to comment on this thread explaining the most awesome thing you've done this month. You may be as blatantly proud of you self as you feel. You may unabashedly consider yourself the coolest freaking person ever because of that awesome thing you're dying to tell everyone about. This is the place to do just that.
Remember, however, that this isn't any kind of progress thread. Nor is it any kind of proposal thread.This thread is solely for people to talk about the awesomest thing they've done all month. not will do. not are working on. have already done. This is to cultivate an environment of object level productivity rather than meta-productivity methods.
So, what's the coolest thing you've done this month?
View more: Next


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Kahne Holds Off Kenseth For Atlanta Win
Kasey Kahne earned his spot in the Chase by charging past Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin in a two-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night.
Stewart Back On Track, But Big Issues Remain
His racing suit unzipped down to his waist, Tony Stewart walked glumly out of Atlanta Motor Speedway with two issues still hanging over him.
Stewart Returning To Competition After Fatal Crash
The three-time NASCAR champion has not raced since his car hit Kevin Ward Jr. at an Aug. 9 sprint car event in upstate New York.
Busch Wins Atlanta & Locks Chase Spot
Kyle Busch held off Joey Logano at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night for his fourth Cup victory of the year, giving him plenty of momentum heading to the playoffs.
NASCAR Driver Labonte Breaks Ribs In Bike Accident
Bobby Labonte broke three ribs in a bike riding accident Wednesday near his North Carolina home and will miss this weekend's NASCAR race in Atlanta.
Gordon Holds On At Atlanta For 85th Career Win
Jeff Gordon has won the rain-delayed NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway for his third victory of the season and 85th of his career.


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SENDAI, JAPAN - Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch are in second place in pairs after skating the short program Saturday at the NHK Trophy.
Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov of Russia hold a slim lead with 65.61 followed by Moore-Towers and Toronto's Moscovitch close behind at 65.14.
"We had a couple of little mistakes but got all our levels that we didn't get a couple of weeks ago in China (a fourth place finish) so everything was pretty much improved," said Moore-Towers, who hails from St. Catharines, Ont.
"The jumps, the throws, and the twists were just as good as before but the overall performance was much better today."
Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir (61.85) of the U.S. are third. The free skate in pairs is set for Sunday.
Japanese teenager Yuzuru Hanyu, who broke his own world record with a mark of 95.32 in Friday's short program, won the free skate to secure a place in next month's Grand Prix final.
The 17-year-old Hanyu opened his free skate with a quadruple toe loop and hit six triple jumps on the way to victory with a score of 261.03 points. He was unable to land the second quad — a salchow — and fell on his final jump, a triple lutz, but did enough to beat second-place finisher and compatriot Daisuke Takahashi by nearly 10 points. Ross Miner of the United States finished third with 235.37 points.
"I'm very happy to make the Grand Prix final," Hanyu said. "Despite my mistakes in the free skate, I was able to score more than 160 points, so my training has paid off."
Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., was sixth and Andrei Rogozine of Richmond Hill, Ont., was ninth.
Mao Asada of Japan narrowly edged out compatriot Akiko Suzuki for the women's title. Asada tallied 185.27 points to Suzuki's 185.22. Mirai Nagasu of the United States finished third with 176.68 points.
Takahashi put on a lively performance to "I Pagliacci" and totalled 251.51. The result qualified Takahashi for his seventh GP final. Only Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist , has made more GP finals with eight.
Takahashi, the 2010 world champion, began with a quad toe loop, but under-rotated when he performed one for the second time. The mistake took nothing away from the sublime show he put on, however, as he landed seven triple jumps and had the audience completely enthralled with his superior presentation skills.
"I feel good about making the final for a seventh time," Takahash saidi. "I will give everything I have and go all out there."
Hanyu and Takahashi will be joined by compatriots Takahiko Kozuka and Tatsuki Machida at the GP Final in Sochi, Russia, giving Japan four of the six competitors in the men's event.
Skating to "Swan Lake," Asada doubled her opening triple loop, then later doubled a triple lutz and compounded her problems by singling a triple salchow, but her big lead over Suzuki from the short program was enough put her atop the podium.
"I feel a lot of disappointment," Asada said. "I couldn't execute any of my jumps. I can't be satisfied with the way I performed."
Suzuki assured herself a spot in the GP final with a tremendous performance to "O" from Cirque du Soleil. The world bronze medallist landed six triple jumps and moved the audience with her program.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States retained their lead from the short dance to capture the title in ice dance with 178.48.
White and Davis, the 2011 world champions, beat Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov (156.62) by nearly 18 points in notching the victory. Maia and Alex Shibutani, also of the United States, took third place with a total of 154.56.
Nicole Orford of Burnaby, B.C., and Thomas Williams of Vancouver remained in fourth spot scoring 130.10.
"It was really good, we were very happy with how we skated," said Orford. "It was an improvement on our last competition. Our technical score and program component score both went up."
Davis and White, the 2010 Olympic silver medallists , locked up a spot in the GP final, which they have won the past three years.
The win marked the third time that Davis and White have captured the NHK Trophy and the eighth straight Grand Prix victory for the duo. The last regular GP event they entered and did not win was the Cup of Russia in 2008.
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Published December 18, 2013
Nativity to again grace corner of Chicago and Mound
By Brian Louwers email@example.com
WARREN — His legal battles with atheists and the Macomb County Department of Roads behind him, John Satawa spent last week getting ready to assemble his family's nativity scene at the intersection of Mound and Chicago roads.
"Now, it's just a matter of going back to routine," said Satawa, 77, of Warren. "Everything is staying as it had been for 60 years, and then last year. No changes."
Satawa's father and another man built the crèche depicting the birth of Jesus Christ in 1945. The enclosure, crib and figurines were placed at the intersection every year at Christmastime until a Wisconsin-based atheist group started a legal battle in 2008.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Macomb County roads officials in 2008, lodging a complaint on behalf of an anonymous resident and demanded that the crèche be removed.
The county asked Satawa to remove the display in 2008 but later allowed him to keep it in place through Christmas that year.
In 2009, Satawa was directed by the county to seek a permit for the display. The permit was denied by the Department of Roads, which cited an existing policy precluding private encroachment in highway medians.
A federal lawsuit claiming the denial violated Satawa's constitutional rights was filed on his behalf in 2009 by the Thomas More Law Center. The legal battle ended with a decision in Satawa's favor in August 2012 by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bob Hoepfner, director of the Macomb County Department of Roads, said Satawa secured a permit to place the crèche in the median on Dec. 10. The fee for the permit was $250.
Satawa planned to assemble the display Dec. 14 and said it would stand until Dec. 28, at which point it would go back in storage until next year.
Another stipulation required Satawa to obtain liability insurance for the display. He said a two-week policy with $1 million in liability coverage cost $725 but that some people had stepped forward with financial contributions to offset the added cost.
"There's a lot of people who wanted it up. Two weeks is better than none," Satawa said Dec. 12. "I'm getting tremendous support from the local people."
Satawa said support came in from around the country during his legal battles since 2009 and that the words of encouragement came from people of all faiths, even from other atheists.
At the county's direction, the display also includes a sign indicating that it is privately owned.
"It's been in the family all these years. It's not only a tradition of our family, it's to put Christ in Christmas and keep Christ in Christmas," Satawa said. "It's what Christmas is about, and it's why I put it up."
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Inspiration Monday Linky Party
4 hours ago
You are so cultured Bon Bon! It actually looks really good. Maybe if I am feeling Indiany I will try it!
Butter Chicken doesn't look very spicy.
Mmmm Yummy! We love Indian food, but I've never tried to make anything more than currry. I'll have to try this recipe!


text:
They urge people to make Tuesday's State bandh a success
Leaders of seven Left parties, Telugu Desam, Bharatiya Janata Party and YSRCP and Lok Satta met at the CPI(M) party office here on Saturday and decided to work together to make the State bandh on Tuesday against increase in power tariff hike a success.
CPI district secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy addressing all-party leaders took a dig at Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy for labelling the Opposition leaders fighting for people's cause as working for capitalists.
He said the government's claim of lessening the burden on the common man by Rs 2,000 crore was shallow as the people are asked to bear the brunt of Rs.6,500 crore which was illogical and unjustified. The Opposition as a united voice is demanding that the government scrap the entire Rs.8,500 crore imposed on the power consumers. The government instead of reducing the power tariff has only come forward to bear the Rs. 2,000 crore in the form of subsidy as it is not in a position to dictate terms to AP Transco or its subsidiaries.
The small and medium scale industry is in doll drums and the government is implementing policies which suited the large scale power producers like Lanco, GVK and GMR etc.
He said the agitation would continue till the State government accepted their one point demand. Left party leaders G.V.M. Reddy, Y. Kondaiah, B. Ganga Rao and M. Pydiraju said the government was doing precious little to tap non-conventional energy sources like wind and solar energy.
BJP leaders B. Nagendra and P.V.N. Madhav said gas from the K.G. Basin was being supplied to companies outside the State while power projects running right under the nose of the oil and gas basin were getting a raw deal.
The leaders appealed to the general public to make the bandh a success.


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Flat-screen televisions come with cable channels. Guestrooms also feature complimentary wireless Internet access, refrigerators, and air conditioning.
Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access. For a surcharge, a shuttle from the hotel to the airport (available 24 hours) is offered to guests.
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- Air conditioning
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text:
Convertitore di valuta XE
EUR-USD continued its slow grind lower, touching 1.1062, after opening near 1.1140. The pairing is nearly in uncharted territory now, as one has to go back to September of 2003 to see current levels. Big picture support comes in at 1.0790-60, representing the August/September, 2003 lows. The euro has been in sell-mode into Thursday's ECB meeting, where the market will get details of the Bank's QE program which is about to kick off. Read More ►
Analisi di mercato XE
North American Edition2015-03-04 11:34 UTC
EUR-USD dove to fresh five-week lows on general euro selling amid a cornucopia of bearish fodder. Sub-forecast services PMI data out of the Eurozone saw the pair extend to the low-so-far at 1.1115, though the euro had been under pressure ahead of the data (above forecast Eurozone retail sales data were overlooked). Reports that the region of Carinthia in Austria is facing probable bankruptcy seemed to provide an excuse for interbank traders to gun for ... Read More ►
European Edition2015-03-04 06:58 UTC
EUR-USD traded moderately lower during the Asian session amid a broadly firm tone in the dollar. The low was 1.1164, with yesterday's five-week low at 1.1154 untested at the time of writing. The talk in the interbank market is that the dollar will likely remain bid into Friday's U.S. jobs report, while Greek payment due dates this month may re-direct focus to Athens with issues about loan conditions remaining unresolved. The dollar's yield advantage ... Read More ►
Asian Edition2015-03-04 19:03 UTC
The dollar was mostly higher in N.Y. on Wednesday, resulting in EUR-USD dropping to fresh 11-plus year lows of 1.1062. The market has been selling into Thursday's ECB meeting, where details of the QE plan will be revealed. USD-JPY moved up from 119.50 to 119.80, though talk of offers from 120 capped gains. USD-CAD bucked the trend as a relatively neutral BoC statement supported the CAD. Cable meanwhile, gave back the 1.53 handle, trading into 1.5255 lows. ... Read More ►
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text:
Audio Samples
Track List
Album Reviews:
Mojo (Publisher) (p.70) - "[T]he album still sported tough WindyCity blues...but also delved into jazz improvisation around Nat Adderley's'Work Song,' a master-class in controlled dynamics under Butterfield's bandleading."
Album Notes
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica); Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop (guitar); Mark Naftalin (piano, organ); Jerome Arnold (bass); Billy Davenport (drums).
Producers: Paul A. Rothchild, Mark Abramson, Barry Friedman.
Includes liner notes by Paul Nelson.
Personnel: Paul Butterfield (vocals, harmonica); Elvin Bishop (vocals, guitar); Michael Bloomfield (guitar); Mark Naftalin (piano, organ, keyboards); Nick Gravenites (piano, organ); Billy Davenport (drums).
Liner Note Author: Paul Nelson.
Photographer: William S. Harvey .
A pivotal '60s album. The Butterfield Blues Band's 1965 debut was a life-changing experience for a generation of young blues players; this follow-up, while not quite as epochal, can still be credited with influencing just about every underground band then percolating in San Francisco.
In fact, the album's title track is an epic 13-minute modal jam that is an obvious template for what the Airplane, the Dead, Quicksilver, and the rest would be doing a year later. The remainder of the album is more traditional, save for a radical deconstruction of Monkee Mike Nesmith's "Mary Mary" (if this was a bid for a hit single, they were kidding themselves), and there are sensational performances in abundance, including a deeply-felt rendering of the blues classic "Got a Mind to Give Up Livin'."
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CF Moto dealership
Arctic Cat dealership
Equipment sale
Staff only
Oversnow fares 2014
Hans Oversnow has been the people-mover and freight-mover throughout the Perisher snowfields since 1976.
In that time, it has moved an estimated 1,000,000 people, 75,000 tonnes of goods and 1.2 megalitres of fuels, oils and other essential liquids to keep the lodges and chalets working throughout the winters for snow-lovers who come from all over Australia, many from overseas, each year.
In addition, Hans Oversnow has gained regional dealerships for the two most mind-blowing ATV/UTVs and/or snowmobiles in the world: Arctic Cat and CF Moto.
See more. Click links at left or on either this beast or these
*ATV = All Terrain Vehicle, UTV = Utility Terrain Vehicle


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Electronic Resources Help
This page is to inform and disseminate information concerning the University of Houston Libraries' electronic resources. Below are all current issues. In the menu bar, you can find on-going known issues and help information.
If you need help with your CougarNet, please click the link below to reset your password. Password resets take 30 minutes to refresh on the library servers.
Please report any problems you find.
Why can't I access Safari Tech Books?
Safari Tech Books has a 6 simultaneous user limit. If you cannot access your book at this time, please try again later.
Access to ScienceDirect from off-campus is down
There is a problem accessing journals and articles form ScienceDirect for users that are off-campus. You may be prompted to login or purchase an article after entering your CougarNet ID and password. This should not be happening. This is an error that is coming from ScienceDirect. If you need an article, please contact the library. Library staff can download a PDF and send it to you while this problem is occurring.
Literary Market Place-Access Problems
We are currently experiencing access problems to Literary Market Place, a database that provides publishing industry information. We have contacted to publisher, and they are working to resolve the issue. We will update this blog post when the resource is working again. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Taylor and Francis Journals unavailable for maintenance
The Taylor & Francis e-Journals will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Maintenance will begin at 10am on Saturday March 1st and will end by 2am on Sunday March 2nd.
Journals published by Taylor & Francis will be unavailable during this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Annual Reviews will be unavailabe for scheduled maintenance
On Saturday, March 1, 2014 beginning at 8:00AM (PST), Annual Reviews has planned routine maintenance to data storage and their website. Downtime is expect to last up to 16 hours, during which time the website to be unavailable.
e-Journals available through the Annual Reviews website will be unavailable during scheduled maintenance.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
BioOne will be down for Schedule Maintenance
The BioOne database will be down for scheduled maintenance beginning Saturday March 14, 2014. Maintenance will begin at 11am and is scheduled to be completed by early Sunday morning.
The BioOne bibliographic database is an indexed and fully-searchable collection of abstracts that link to the fulltext articles available from the BioOne organization.
We apologize for any inconveniences caused by this downtime.
Ebook Library Downtime for Scheduled Maintenance
The Ebook Library platform will undergo performance enhancements and updates to the system.
Scheduled downtime will occur on March 2 from 12 am – 4 am.
Ebooks from Ebook Library will be unavailable during this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Downtime for ProQuest Systems Enhancements – RESOLVED
On February 14-15, 2014 ProQuest will make improvements to its internal systems to accommodate a growing number of users and to reduce the need for future downtime.
An eight hour (8) maintenance window is needed to perform these enhancements. Enhancements will begin on February 14 at 10pm and will be completed by 6am on February 15.
During this time ProQuest databases and RefWorks will be unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Planned service outage Sunday, Jan 12
Website, catalog, and electronic resources will be unavailable. More…
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Using the search box on the JSTOR homepage will result in an error message. We have reported this issue to JSTOR and they are working on resolving the issue.
Advanced search still works, so please use that instead of the search box on the homepage: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/action/showAdvancedSearch


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The PUSH is on hiatus for the year! Check back in 2015 for an updated bout schedule. And keep a look out for fun PUSH holiday events! Roll on!
Skater of the MonthBumble Beebs
Derby Name: Bumble Beebs
Number: 9.81 m/s2 Home Team: Polka Bots Position: Blocker/Pivot/ reluctant jammer Started Playing: March 2010 Worst Derby injury: Broken Clavicle Hobbies: bicycling, motor bicycling, cooking Fun Fact: I love the Discovery Channel's Shark Week and celebrate it like it's a holiday. |
2015 Bout Schedule COMING SOON!


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Same straw bull. Same howdy sign. What must that mean? Why, we're still following Bart and Shelayna around. (Dear Bridezillas: If you don't have enough footage for three episodes on one couple, don't be afraid to cut it to two. My recaps might be longer if I wasn't seeing many of the same clips for the billionth time.) There are the usual clips, including the one of her kicking the bed angrily, which we haven't even seen for real yet, but which I feel like I know already. He's everything she was looking for, she compliments him, he proposed when she was naked as a jaybird just out of the shower. I understand needing to catch up viewers who might not be regulars, but using an ounce of creativity instead of changing two seconds out of the entire package would be greatly appreciated for those who do watch each episode. Her parents have paid for much of the wedding, and she and Bart are paying for the rest. She wants it to be how she wants it.
But as Mindy tells us, "Such a high-minded goal has turned Shelayna, once sugar and spice and everything nice, into a lean, mean, briiiiiiidezilla machine." There's a montage of her yelling at Bart and throwing fits, all of which we are intimately familiar with by now. Shelayna adds, "I can't imagine a girl that wouldn't be a bridezilla -- that, you know, is happy go lucky, and everything just... I mean, I don't see it happening." She and the show should've had a talk about the definition of the word, since, again, I don't think wanting your wedding to go as you've planned it -- being one of the most important days of your life and all -- is too much to ask. But if you're being a raging bitch about it, now we're talking "bridezilla."
The bridal party are going to Luckenbach for the bachelorette party. In preparation, Leticia gets Shelayna outfitted in a tacky veil and a t-shirt with a bachelorette checklist of things she must complete that night. We've all done this, right? Get a guy to buy you a drink, get a condom from a guy, etc. -- but the one that gives Shelayna pause is to "slow dance with a dork." Each scene throughout the rest of the night is a blur-o-rama, as most bachelorette accessories are not fit for television. From what I can deduce, she's got a penis lollypop, a penis beer bottle-topper, and is wearing the inflatable willy (24"!) that Leticia brought along tied around her waist. Mindy excitedly narrates, "At the bar, there's no 'urban' in these cowboys -- they're the real thing." Do you think she goes home and weeps after having to sell these lines on television? Shelayna is now also sporting a big, glittery lip tattoo on her neck, which I think is actually kind of cute. She gets kisses on the cheek, she collects her condom, she does shots, and when asked what her mother would think of her behavior tells the guy, "She's here!" It looks like they're having a great time. I'd like a Leticia for myself, please -- she seems to be having a great time leading Shelayna through the traditional debauchery. They head to a new bar where one guy smacks her ass, and two others drop trou and show off theirs.


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Realtors® Support Bill for Comprehensive Reform of Secondary Mortgage Market
The long-term viability of America's housing finance market requires comprehensive reform of the secondary mortgage market. Toward that end, the National Association of Realtors® supports H.R. 2413, the "Secondary Market Facility for Residential Mortgage Act of 2011."
Seven Out of 10 Renters Say Owning a Home is a Top Priority
According to the 2011 National Housing Pulse Survey released today by the National Association of Realtors®, 72 percent of renters surveyed said owning a home is a top priority for their future, up from 63 percent in 2010.
Celebrating America's History of Home Ownership
The ability to buy, sell and own property has defined our nation throughout its history, and as the U.S. prepares to celebrate its 235 birthday, Americans continue to reaffirm their support of and aspirations toward home ownership.
Pending Home Sales Turn Around in May
Pending home sales rose strongly in May with all regions experiencing gains from a year ago, pointing to higher housing activity in the second half of the year.
Realtors® Urge Regulators to Reconsider Narrow QRM Definition
The National Association of Realtors® is urging regulators to go back to the drawing board on the proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage rule.
Existing-Home Sales Decline in May with Market Constraints, Temporary Conditions
Existing-home sales were down in May as temporary factors and financing problems weighed on the market.
Realtors® Support Legislation for Comprehensive GSE Reform
The National Association of Realtors® supports comprehensive reform of America's housing finance market that protects taxpayers and ensures the availability of affordable mortgage credit today and into the future.
Realtor® Volunteering Works Program Announces 2011 Winners
REALTOR® Magazine's Good Neighbor Society has announced the recipients of the third annual Volunteering Works program, which matches Realtors® who work on small-scale charitable efforts with mentors and awards them grant money.
NAR Grants Help Make Home Ownership an Affordable Opportunity
Seventeen local and state Realtor® associations have been awarded over $60,000 through the Housing Opportunity Program Grants, a National Association of Realtors® grant program. The funds will be used by the associations to promote and expand affordable housing opportunities in their communities.
April Pending Home Sales Drop After Two Monthly Gains
Pending home sales fell in April with regional variations following increases in February and March, with unusual weather and economic softness adding to ongoing problems that are hobbling a recovery.


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September 14th, 2007, 09:04 AM | #1 |
Chillin with the top off.
Join Date: 04-03-06
Location: Caro, michigan. In Tuscola county
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Can you imagine?
Can you imagine working for the following company?
It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics: 29 have been accused of spoucal abuse 7 have been arrested for fraud 19 have been accused for writing bad checks 117 have bankrupted at least two buisness 3 have been arrested for assault 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit 14 have been arrested on drug related charges 8 have been arrested for shoplifting 21 are current defandants in lawsuits in 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving.. Can you guess which organization this is? Give up? (see answer at bottom of page) Its the 535 members of your United States Congress.. The same group that perpetually cranks out hundreds upon hundreds of new laws to keep the rest of us in line.. Go figure.. |
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September 14th, 2007, 09:33 AM | #3 |
Covered in mud...
September 14th, 2007, 09:35 AM | #4 |
My 4x4 is a Subaru.
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State Sen. Mark Mullet joins key committee
February 5, 2013
NEW — 4 p.m. Feb. 5, 2013
State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, is the latest addition to the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee — a panel responsible for ensuring state government operates effectively, efficiently and with accountability.
The freshman senator filled a vacant seat on the bipartisan committee, Senate Democrats announced Jan. 30.
"I am honored to accept this position," Mullet said in a statement. "I look forward to working with my colleagues on the committee and the opportunity to apply my real-life experiences in business and finance in order to help ensure our government is working to its best ability."
Ex-legislator Glenn Anderson applies for Port of Seattle seat
February 5, 2013
NEW — 6 a.m. Feb. 5, 2013
Former state Rep. Glenn Anderson is among 29 applicants for a vacancy on the Port of Seattle Commission — a group of officials responsible for overseeing the Port of Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The ex-legislator and Issaquah Republican is invited to address the commission, or submit a statement, Tuesday. The commission is interviewing applicants for a seat left open after former Commissioner Gael Tarleton resigned Jan. 31 to serve in the state House of Representatives.
The commission is allowed 90 days to appoint Tarleton's successor under state law.
"We are pleased with both the number and quality of the commission applicants," commission President Tom Albro said in a statement released Monday. "We are looking forward to hearing from each of these candidates tomorrow afternoon."
City Council appoints Joe Forkner to open seat
January 29, 2013
NEW — 6:20 p.m. Jan. 29, 2013
Joe Forkner returned to the City Council on Tuesday after a divided council appointed the former councilman, onetime city employee and longtime community leader to a vacant seat.
The council appointed a successor to former Councilman Mark Mullet after about 15 minutes of discussion.
Members nominated Forkner and longtime Development Commission member Mary Lou Pauly for the post. The council chose Forkner in a 4-2 decision.
The seat opened Jan. 8 after Mullet departed to serve in Olympia. The entrepreneur and former banking executive defeated Snoqualmie Republican Brad Toft to represent the 5th Legislative District in the state Senate.
Maple Hills Elementary School students visit Capitol
January 29, 2013
The fourth-grade students of Maple Hills Elementary School got an inside look at how laws are made Jan. 17 when they visited the state Capitol in Olympia.
While there to learn about state government, the children met up with state Rep. Chad Magendanz, R-Issaquah, and asked him questions about his new job.
City Council applicants offer varied skills
January 22, 2013
Members to appoint candidate Jan. 29
The applicants for a rare open seat on the City Council include long-established community leaders — and some candidates from the last time the council accepted applications to fill a vacancy.
The seven candidates offer assorted skills in community, government and military service in the process to succeed Mark Mullet on the council.
Initially, Ken Sessler, a retired Boeing engineer and a prolific letter writer to The Issaquah Press, applied for the vacancy, but withdrew not long after the city released the applicant list.
State Rep. Chad Magendanz gets to work in Olympia
January 22, 2013
State Rep. Chad Magendanz, a former Issaquah School Board member, took the oath of office Jan. 14 to represent Issaquah and the 5th Legislative District in Olympia.
Magendanz, a freshman Republican and 17-year resident in the district, succeeded longtime former state Rep. Glenn Anderson in the House of Representatives seat.
Magendanz is the assistant ranking member on the House Education Committee, and also serves on the House Higher Education and House Technology & Economic Development committees.
Legislators' priorities reflect education, transportation needs
January 15, 2013
Lawmakers confronted a familiar scenario as the Legislature convened Jan. 14 — a budget shortfall, opposing pressures to preserve essential services and rein in government spending, and a court mandate to spend more money on education.
Observers expect education and transportation to rank as the dominant issues in the 105-day session. The state faces a $900 million budget shortfall for 2013-15 and, in the meantime, faces a court order to increase education funding by 2018.
In addition to the statewide issues on legislators' docket, a lobbyist hired by city leaders to represent Issaquah is in search of support for local projects, including dollars to upgrade transportation infrastructure and Lake Sammamish State Park.
Issaquah is also focused on securing state dollars for a transportation improvement district in North Issaquah near Costco headquarters and high-traffic retail centers.
Chad Magendanz starts role as state representative
January 15, 2013
NEW — 10 a.m. Jan. 15, 2013
State Rep. Chad Magendanz, a former Issaquah School Board member, took the oath of office Monday to represent Issaquah and the 5th Legislative District in Olympia.
Magendanz, a freshman Republican and 17-year resident in the district, succeeded longtime former state Rep. Glenn Anderson in the House of Representatives seat.
Magendanz is the assistant ranking member on the House Education Committee, and also serves on the House Higher Education and House Technology & Economic Development committees.
"It is an honor to be trusted to represent the people of the 5th Legislative District," Magendanz said in a statement. "Having been involved in education reforms for several years, I am looking forward to continuing the education reform and funding discussion in my exciting new role."
Mark Mullet reflects on City Council term
January 8, 2013
Mark Mullet claimed a historic first in January 2010.
The entrepreneur and former banking executive ran unopposed for a City Council seat in 2009 and won election as the first Issaquah Highlands resident to serve on the council.
The highlands added thousands of residents as construction escalated in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the neighborhoods existed for more than a decade before a resident achieved citywide elected office.
In the years Mullet served on the council, members hired City Administrator Bob Harrison, oversaw a major staff reorganization at City Hall, approved a long-term redevelopment plan for the business district, inked development agreements with Lakeside Industries and Rowley Properties, and approved a retail plastic bag ban.
Democrats dominate Issaquah voters' choices
January 1, 2013
Strong get-out-the vote operation boosts candidates
Democrats dominated Issaquah in the November election.
City voters chose Democrats for every federal and statewide office on the ballot — sometimes by a broad margin and others by a handful of votes.
Issaquah overwhelmingly supported Democrats in the races for president and vice president, U.S. senator and U.S. representative, and every statewide office. Only incumbent Republican Steve Litzow, a 41st Legislative District state senator representing about half of Issaquah, earned support from a majority of voters inside city limits.