RoyalHenOil's recent activity
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Comment on Buying facemasks in the hope of avoiding becoming permanently disabled due to long COVID in ~health
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Comment on What is a non-professional situation, area or activity in which you are uniquely experienced or skilled? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil Link ParentI am not familiar with that. Can you point me to an example?I am not familiar with that. Can you point me to an example?
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Comment on What is a non-professional situation, area or activity in which you are uniquely experienced or skilled? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil Link ParentOh, I wish I could retain knots, too! I'm all short-term memory and no long-term memory (not just for knots, but for all skills). I can tie and untie them quickly, but I have to brush up on the...Oh, I wish I could retain knots, too! I'm all short-term memory and no long-term memory (not just for knots, but for all skills). I can tie and untie them quickly, but I have to brush up on the steps if I haven't done a given knot in a while, unless it's an extremely simple one.
For example, my supervisor showed me how to tie a trucker's hitch — a knot he knew extremely well because he'd been using it regularly since he was a little kid growing up on a farm — and then I was almost immediately able to tie it and untie it far faster than him despite no prior experience. But that is definitely not one I'll be memorizing longterm!
These days, I think it's much more important to learn the names of knots and when to use them than it is to memorize the knot itself.
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Comment on How do you avoid the "getting started" loop? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil LinkThe problem I have is with swapping activities. If I can just get into an activity, then I will keep going until it's either done (sometimes past done...) or until I can't stay awake any longer....The problem I have is with swapping activities. If I can just get into an activity, then I will keep going until it's either done (sometimes past done...) or until I can't stay awake any longer. But this hyperfocus has a huge drawback, which is that once I get into a headspace, it is very hard to switch into a different headspace. Sleep is my only reliable reset.
Unfortunately, my brain usually registers preparing for an activity as different from doing an activity. For example, picking things up in preparation for vacuuming is quite different from actually vacuuming, so it's very hard for me to vacuum after I've picked things up.
I have two workarounds for this:
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I give in to my hyperfocus and dedicate each day to a single task. Instead of picking things up and vacuuming in the same day, I'll pick things up one day and then vacuum the next day.
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If it needs to be done in the same day, I look for some kind of bridging activity to trick my brain into switching gears. And for me, the most effective one (as stupid as this sounds) is to watch someone else do the activity that I am about to do. So after I've picked things up and I now it's time to start vacuuming, I'll go on YouTube and watch a video of someone vacuuming.
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Comment on What is a non-professional situation, area or activity in which you are uniquely experienced or skilled? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil Link ParentYes, for us, catching insects was useful because we did studies on pollinators and on pest predators. Most of us had to wait for them to land and then go at them with a bug net, but this one team...Yes, for us, catching insects was useful because we did studies on pollinators and on pest predators. Most of us had to wait for them to land and then go at them with a bug net, but this one team member could just pick them out of the air and therefore had a drastically higher catch rate than the rest of us. (Whenever the rest of us tried it, we failed miserably, and she had no idea how she did it and couldn't give us pointers.)
There are plenty of things I discovered I'm bad at! For example, I'm bad at threshing seeds and at chopping weeds out with a hoe, and I basically can't do any repetitive task without getting myself completely covered in water/dirt/manure/tomato goo/lettuce seed fluff/whatever material is around me.
Frustratingly, sometimes my skills and my anti-skills were in closely coupled tasks, making me just so-so at the activity. For example, I have mixed abilities at manual pollination: I am good at emasculating (removing the male parts of the flower) but bad at applying the pollen, and so I was just an OK pollinator.
These are definitely things that I improved on with practice, but that often involved experimenting with alternative techniques or strategies. You'd think the best way to do a given task is to copy the person who's best it it, but that's often not the case (e.g., if we all tried to catch insects out of the air, we never would have caught anything).
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Comment on Atheists of Tildes, what alive religions do you find fascinating, excluding Abrahamic ones and Buddhism? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil (edited )LinkI am deeply fascinated by Ethiopia's history and how uniquely it was shaped by its close connection to other major civilizations in antiquity, but then became isolated from the west for 1000...I am deeply fascinated by Ethiopia's history and how uniquely it was shaped by its close connection to other major civilizations in antiquity, but then became isolated from the west for 1000 years. It started keeping historical records a very long time ago, and it was the only African nation to have never been colonized by European powers and had its culture and history scattered, so it offers a real treasure trove of historical details. Ethiopia is like a living alternative history timeline and I find it endlessly fascinating to learn about.
And thus I am inordinately fond of Rastafarianism, a religion with a central identity around appreciating how rad Ethiopia is.
Also, Rastafarianism is very unusual — possibly even unique — in that its primary divine figure (Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia) was a fully passive recipient of worship. He in no way founded the religion, tried to lead or shape it, took advantage of it, etc. He was astounded by the whole thing and insisted he was just a normal human being. I really love this about it and about him. It's such a perfect addition to Ethiopia's history books.
(Technically Rastafarianism is Abrahamic, but this such a huge category of religions that I think it's unfair to exclude all of them from the discussion. It has a diverse cast of characters beyond the big three: Zoroastrianism, Baha'i, Druzism, Yazidi, and more.)
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Comment on What is a non-professional situation, area or activity in which you are uniquely experienced or skilled? in ~talk
RoyalHenOil LinkI am very intrigued by hidden talents that make themselves known only when they suddenly become useful under very specific circumstances. I worked on a vegetable breeding farm for eight years, and...I am very intrigued by hidden talents that make themselves known only when they suddenly become useful under very specific circumstances.
I worked on a vegetable breeding farm for eight years, and there were so many odd jobs that you discover a lot of hidden talents (as well as whatever you would call the opposite of a talent) in yourself and your coworkers. Your team ends up specializing around your different abilities, reinforcing them, and so everyone ends up having a motley set of job roles with seemingly no logical connection between them.
For example, I discovered that I am extremely good at spotting weeds in crops and unsurpassed at tying and untying knots quickly. I had a coworker who could reliably snatch flying insects out of the air without hurting them, a coworker who could could conjure an extra flower's worth of pollen out of every flower and get twice as much as anyone else, a coworker who could magically anticipate every tool or item that anyone needed and have it ready for them before they realized it themselves, etc.
This, to me, is one of the great pleasures of working closely together with a small team over a long period of time. You gradually slot together like puzzle pieces and become irreplaceable to each other.
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Comment on US EPA awards $4.3 billion to fund projects in thirty states to reduce climate pollution in ~enviro
RoyalHenOil Link ParentThat is good to know, thank you! It is probably more impactful than the more purely EPA-led program I was imagining, since locals tend to have the best understanding of the ins and outs of local...That is good to know, thank you! It is probably more impactful than the more purely EPA-led program I was imagining, since locals tend to have the best understanding of the ins and outs of local issues.
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Comment on US EPA awards $4.3 billion to fund projects in thirty states to reduce climate pollution in ~enviro
RoyalHenOil Link ParentWithout access to the data that the EPA based this decision on, I can't possibly say what makes more sense. It's certainly very plausible that, despite these states' already high energy...Without access to the data that the EPA based this decision on, I can't possibly say what makes more sense. It's certainly very plausible that, despite these states' already high energy efficiency, there are still more gains to be had in them (e.g., due to a combination of winter temperatures, population density, and carbon output of their existing and/or projected electrical generation) than there would be in other states.
That being said, I would absolutely love to see more hybrid approaches aimed at maximizing a combination of carbon reduction and poverty alleviation. Since solutions to both problems have a lot of overlap, focusing on each of them in isolation may not be the most effective use of funding. But I am not sure that the EPA has the authority to do this (I suspect not).
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Comment on Isle of Dogs [area in London's Docklands] unilateral declaration of independence: a revolt, a joke, or a tactical stroke of genius in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentGentrification hit the community where I grew up, and it's heartbreaking to witness. I think my biggest gentrification heartbreak has to be what happened to the social housing in my neighborhood....Gentrification hit the community where I grew up, and it's heartbreaking to witness.
I think my biggest gentrification heartbreak has to be what happened to the social housing in my neighborhood. These were a large number of three-storey apartment buildings (former barracks associated with an adjoining former Naval airport) with rent prices adjusted for income, and they were overwhelmingly popular with recent immigrants and their families; there was something like a 5-year waiting list to get in. The apartments were quite nice (I got to see them a lot because many of my classmates lived in them), and there was enough green space around them that the residents had built communal vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and playgrounds for their kids. Over the decades, the residents had even managed to grow a large number of shade trees to maturity.
In fact, it was such a lovely community that all the residents were kicked out so the apartments could be replaced with expensive three-storey townhouses and sold to private buyers — meaning that for every three low-income families displaced, now only one high-income family could take their place.
The developers, of course, also bulldozed all the gardens, playgrounds, and trees that had made it such a lovely and desirable place to live in the first place.
The last time I saw them a few years ago, most of the townhouses seemed to be caught up in an endless spiral of buying and selling between house flippers. It's not clear to me that anyone actually wants to live in them anymore, yet the prices just keep soaring higher and higher.
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Comment on US EPA awards $4.3 billion to fund projects in thirty states to reduce climate pollution in ~enviro
RoyalHenOil Link ParentThe EPA's priority is not to help people afford heating, but to reduce carbon emissions. It seems likely that they selected these states because they would translate to the greatest reduction in...The EPA's priority is not to help people afford heating, but to reduce carbon emissions. It seems likely that they selected these states because they would translate to the greatest reduction in emissions per dollar.
If the goal were to help people pay for heating, rather than address climate change, it would be a different agency distributing the funds.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentConsider this alternative: You don't apply for these payments at all. When you do your taxes, they are calculated automatically. If you make a high income (and have few deductions, etc.), your tax...Consider this alternative: You don't apply for these payments at all. When you do your taxes, they are calculated automatically. If you make a high income (and have few deductions, etc.), your tax payment is higher. If you have a low income (and have big deductions, etc.), your net payment is lower — and can actually range negative.
This means that if you have no income at all and have mouths to feed, you receive the highest possible payment and it is a life-changing amount. If you have a moderate income, you receive a smaller payment, but it will still do you some serious good; it means you can make a real improvements to your life, like quitting your low-paying job to move to a city with a better job market. If you make a high income, nothing really changes for you (except for lower crime rates, more innovation, and all those other good things that come with the alleviation of poverty). If you make a very high income, then you pay more in taxes; that sucks for you, but hey, now there is a stronger economy and more consumers to buy your products.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentThe way means testing is done for medicare, medicaid, etc. should be a crime and I'm very sorry you and your partner have been subjected to it. It is a huge amount of added effort that is already...The way means testing is done for medicare, medicaid, etc. should be a crime and I'm very sorry you and your partner have been subjected to it. It is a huge amount of added effort that is already done at tax time anyway, and it's done in such a stupid way that it leads to really bad incentive structures (e.g., refusing a higher paid job because the loss in benefits is greater than the increase in income). It's almost like it's designed to crush the human spirit and trap people in poverty.
In my opinion, the way you would want to do basic income is make it part of a progressive tax system. If you make a high income, you pay more taxes. But if you make a low income, you don't just pay no taxes; you receive money as a kind of negative tax. I'm strongly in favor of making this line steeper (i.e., more progressive) and shifting it toward higher income levels (so that the lower middle class are broadly receiving payments instead of paying taxes based on their incomes, assets, and deductions — certainly including things like disabilities and caretaker status).
For all I know, you actually have a higher income than I do (I am a dual citizen of Australia and the US, and my income is less than the national average in Australia and quite a bit less than the national average in the US; I would probably be classed as lower middle class). But I live in a very low COL area, I do not have a mortgage, I do not have a partner with disabilities, etc. As a consequence, I end up putting more money into savings than I spend without even trying. When tax time comes around, this means I have very few deductions and end up paying a much higher tax than I would otherwise. And that's fair. More than fair. I actively want to contribute to a social safety net for you and anyone else experiencing financial strife; without such safety nets, I might not have survived to adulthood.
I just want to do it as effectively as possible, to help as many people as possible as much as possible, and my fear is that UBI would be even more regressive than the systems we have already (economists seem to think so, anyway), would be very hard to fine tune and make iterative improvements on, and would be harder to ditch if it wasn't working like it's supposed to (which I think is highly likely).
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentIt might not just be the stigma. Depending on the jurisdiction, welfare payments are not easy money. I grew up in a poor area of Atlanta and knew a lot of people who were eligible for food stamps,...It might not just be the stigma. Depending on the jurisdiction, welfare payments are not easy money.
I grew up in a poor area of Atlanta and knew a lot of people who were eligible for food stamps, but the only ones who went through the trouble of getting them were people who had absolutely no other option. It wasn't stigma that stopped them (after all, they freely shared with me and the rest of our social group that they were eligible and looking into it), but rather the fact that they had to show up in person to receive the payment at a location that was several miles away from the nearest bus stop, and there was a shit load of paperwork associated with it that took up hours of their time each month — and then once they had the money (which was always way too little, like $15-20 a month), there was very little they were allowed to spend it on.
They found it strictly preferable to just beg for money by the side of the road, even though that's way more stigmatized than receiving government assistance.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link Parent$12k a year for every American is already unfathomably expensive. The only way to make that kind of payment feasible (let alone an actual liveable wage!) would be to start excluding some people...$12k a year for every American is already unfathomably expensive. The only way to make that kind of payment feasible (let alone an actual liveable wage!) would be to start excluding some people from receiving payments. I've seen proposals to exclude children and young adults — the very populations with the highest rates of poverty — making it an inherently regressive system. We'd be asking people who depend on minuscule welfare payments just to scrape by each day give that up so that I can receive a payment that won't affect me. It's bonkers.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentIt costs a lot of money to do drug testing of welfare recipients because, well, drug tests aren't free. Determining people's income is effectively free because the IRS already does it in order to...Like drug testing welfare recipients, it's less expensive just to give it to everyone.
It costs a lot of money to do drug testing of welfare recipients because, well, drug tests aren't free.
Determining people's income is effectively free because the IRS already does it in order to collect taxes. That will still happen whether universal basic income — or redistributive basic income or any other social program — is implemented or not. We are already paying that cost no matter what, and so we might as well make the best use of it.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentIt will be a hard sell to voters if it ever becomes enough of a mainstream platform that experts start weighing in en masse and explaining how much it would cost and all the social programs that...It will be a hard sell to voters if it ever becomes enough of a mainstream platform that experts start weighing in en masse and explaining how much it would cost and all the social programs that would have to be scrapped to pay for it.
We can tell voters that automation is paying for it, but that would be a lie. Automation won't actually pay for it unless we can figure out how to effectively tax automation. Meanwhile, corporations will put every lobbying dollar they've got toward making sure that doesn't happen and that middle class taxpayers are left just shuffling money around — paying money in taxes just to receive the same money (minus bureaucratic costs) back.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil Link ParentIt makes sense, then, that people like me should not receive any payment so that people like you can receive a bigger payment.It makes sense, then, that people like me should not receive any payment so that people like you can receive a bigger payment.
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Comment on Weekly Israel-Hamas war megathread - week of July 22 in ~news
RoyalHenOil Link ParentIt's not just their world standing in the short run. An entire generation of young people in their most politically formative years are being shaped by this event, and the consequences of that...I really wonder if the Israelians understand, or are even capable to understand given the situation, just how badly they are damaging their own standing.
It's not just their world standing in the short run. An entire generation of young people in their most politically formative years are being shaped by this event, and the consequences of that will be felt by Israelis for decades to come, long after Netanyahu is dead.
I know Netanyahu is deeply unpopular in Israel, but I suspect that will not make much difference unless they can depose him and change course dramatically. Otherwise, as older generations pass away and the younger generation becomes the major voting bloc, they will still be thinking of the nation of Israel as an unstable and unconscionable ally — and possibly not even as an ally at all.
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Comment on Sam Altman's basic-income study is out. Here's what it found. in ~life
RoyalHenOil LinkMy concern about UBI is not whether it would have a positive effect on people's lives (it seems pretty clear that it would), but whether it would be a positive enough effect that it would justify...My concern about UBI is not whether it would have a positive effect on people's lives (it seems pretty clear that it would), but whether it would be a positive enough effect that it would justify the cost — and we must not ignore opportunity costs.
From my perspective, there is very little value in giving money to people who don't need it. For example, if an extra $1000 showed up in my bank account, it's highly likely I wouldn't even notice; it certainly wouldn't materially change my life in any way. But for someone who is struggling, that's money that means their kid can go to the dentist or that they have a little bit of padding before they risk missing rent, but they'll still be struggling afterwards. Instead of giving me $1000 and them $1000, why not give them $2000?
Economists seem to strongly favor redistributive social programs over universal basic income, and I agree. I'm all for basic income — just not universal basic income.
The idea behind UBI is that people like me will vote for it because we want that extra $1000 even if it will not make a lick of difference in our lives. But, as someone who pays a lot more in taxes than I would receive back in such a scheme, I will vote hard against UBI because it achieves too little for too high a price. As someone who grew up in a poor family, I feel pride when I pay my taxes, and I want to see them do the most good possible.
This makes a lot of sense to me.
Anecdotally, I was hit hard by the swine flu epidemic. I was bedridden for two weeks and very sick for a couple more weeks after that, and I ended up with lingering long-covid-like symptoms for something like a year afterwards.
Yet a couple years before that, I caught mono. It gave me severe pharyngitis that required treatment, but apart from that, it was no worse than a bad cold. I was sick for a couple weeks, but I was still able to go about my daily life; in fact, I had my final exams about a week after I caught it, and I aced them. Mono is famous for lingering fatigue up to year later, but I had nothing of the sort. I think it's because it just didn't make me that sick to begin with.