Initial commit of my digital garden (Roam -> Obsidian -> Foam).

ribbonfarm.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+- A [[goals]] on [[twitter]]: https://twitter.com/ribbonfarm
+- By [[vgr]] and [[sarahdoingthing]]
+- Read https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2019/03/13/predictable-identities-4/ (the whole series)
+    - Lots related to [[The Selfish Gene]]
+    - Perhaps also to [[The Evolution of Cooperation]]
+    - Stereotypes are actually surprisingly effective. Their main problem is we have too few (?). "Studying cultures is about acquiring many useful stereotypes"
+    - [[Outgroup homogeneity effect]]
+    - "That’s why small talk about last night’s episode of Game of Thrones isn’t a waste of time. It communicates: __I am like you, you can model me well by looking at yourself, we can cooperate__."
+    - On creepiness: "The perception of creepiness is a 
+response to the ambiguity of threat. […] While they may not be overtly 
+threatening, individuals who display unusual patterns of nonverbal 
+behavior, odd emotional responses or highly distinctive physical 
+characteristics are outside the norm, and by definition unpredictable."
+    - Deviating from common expectations costs [idiosyncrasy credits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiosyncrasy_credit).
+    - Read [[The Intelligent Social Web]]. Seems relevant to multiple identities and conflicts arising from those (e.g. what happens when one goes back to old friends/family).
+    - On big shifts to beliefs not supported by a scaffolding of smaller beliefs: "Without this scaffolding, adopting the new idea will promptly make the 
+world less predictable even if it may be a better-predicting model in 
+the long term. This feels bad, and your brain will pull out all the 
+stops to avoid it: confirmation bias, [isolated demands for rigor](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/14/beware-isolated-demands-for-rigor/), flat out denial."
+    - [[Newcomblike problems]]
+    - It's helpful to make it easy for other people to predict us whenever it is low cost: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2019/08/28/predictable-identities-16-newcomblike-part-ii/
+    - [[Persistent Non-Symbolic Experiences]]
+    - [[Entropic Brain Hypothesis]]: Our brains evolved to model the environment and minimize surprise and 
+uncertainty. Since our environment is complex and dynamic, so are more 
+evolved brains. fMRI allows us to measure __brain entropy__, how 
+unpredictable is one’s brain state in the future based on its current 
+state. It’s a proxy for a brain’s flexibility and complexity.
+    - The [[Default Mode Network]] suppresses entropy.
+    - "This post was written by my conscious model of the self, a mild anxiety in my stomach, [Alberto Albero](https://twitter.com/celestialboon/status/1208371376953942022), and Buddhism. In what sense is it mine?"
+    - It is easy to fixate on the "markings" for an identity instead of its "core": "**adopting X as an identity makes you optimize for being predicted as X, rather than for X itself**.
+ If you tell people about the book you’re writing they’ll predict that 
+you’re a writer and will treat you accordingly, reinforcing your 
+identity. If you merely accumulate words in a draft file, they won’t.".
+    - Identities and control: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/02/05/predictable-identities-25-external-control/