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Simon is one of my 'gurus', and I think the reasons behind him deleting his rather popular, active twitter account a few days ago are valuable for understanding the broader social media context in which modern gurus operate.

Link to Simon's blog post: The 11th Reason to Delete your Social Media Account: the Algorithm will Find You TL;DR: outrage mobs aren’t a bug. They’re a feature.

According to my knowledge all virtuous actions are considered equally virtuous and all vicious decisions equally vicious.
I conducted an experiment of adopting this view for a view days, which was quite computationally intensive on the brain, as it is in strong contrast to how we tend to see things.

The question occurred to me, how do we compare virtuous actions? Because as we call the process a decision, it will be a consideration of several options. Since however, all virtuous actions are equally virtuous, if my goal is to be maximally virtuous, it does not matter if I do a less intensive action instead of a quite elaborate one.

Even if we onl

, yet not only for beginners.

I am not affiliated with the author, nor was I asked to review this book. The book earned this review by being a good book, and I am thankful to Donald Robertson [1] for introducing me to it.

Review of: Stoicism, A Very Short Introduction by Brad Inwood

TLDR: This book is concise yet easy to read, and provides historical as well as philosophical context for stoicism, important when trying to make sense of the writings of Markus Aurelius, Seneca and Arrian/Epictetus but goes way beyond those three individuals in it

The first problem will be an opportunity for you to practice basic inference. Consider it an exercise to engage your mind in if you are so inclined - every solution is wanted, from gut feeling to strictly quantitative approach. If you want to, feel free to share your solution or answer possible follow up questions. As promised, here is the first problem:

Are there more kangaroos or humans currently living in Australia?

The idea here is that you create a guess, based on your prior knowledge about the relevant data (size of Australia, population density, kangaroo population, re

This is a reminder about language inspired by my interactions here.

I am not a native english speaker, but fancy myself a quite capable conversation partner.

Sometimes however I tend to use words that have connotations which might not be

obvious to people who rarely experience reactions to them, that is while I might be aware that there is a potential negative association, my mind is not calibrated to the 'strength' of the word yet.

It is hard to discern what is intentional and what is not, and especially so in written communication, and it might be instructive to realize how strongly we depend on the subtle us

I have been thinking about weekly, themed threads, where a single topic can be discussed in more detail than the faster paced smaller threads would allow for - a stickied discussion thread, similar to the Stoic Weekly QAs if you will.

The discussion topic could be selected from a collaboratively compiled list.

Ideas include: A person (not necessarily stoic, not necessarily real) we can analyze in the context of the stoic tenets (going through Diogenes Laertius' 'Lives of the Eminent Philosophers' might be interesting).

Other ideas for topics include an idea or a concept (e.g. virtue), or a certain stoic practice (e.g premeditatio malorum).

The

Probability Theory for Scientists and Engineers http://hn.premii.com/#/article/16841747

Salve again. Here is some more humor centered around stoicism:

• What do you call a person that hates stoicism? A zenophobe.

• Why did the baby not grow up to be a stoic? The cradle was missing.

• Is there a stoic holiday? Yes, one has been introduced in 1987.

• Why did the Stoa consider the study of logic virtuous? Atoms and propositions are universally measured by relations.

• How did the stoic stop the war? By doing thing that were in his power.

• Two students, loudly discussing Epictetus' most recent lecture, enter a bar in Nicopolis. Barkeeper: 'What can I get the two of you?' Both at one: 'Water!' After a few seconds, the barkeeper approaches with two cups of water, and, with a

Welcome friends of probabilistic inference!

The ideas of this subreddit overlaps thematically with several other subreddits already having a large community of subscribers - so why does it exist?
r/inference is meant as a light hearted journal club of sorts that is suited for everyone interested in probabilistic inference, regardless of background or experience level. For such a project, I think it does not really matter if there are 2 , 10 , or 100 contributors, as long as the discussion stays interesting and civil.

Plans: Common themes will probably be d