Search Ideas

A lot of policies you describe are not explained. A simple, high level explanation of the goals of each section would go a long way. One or two sentences each at least. I would like to know how you have arrived at your policy ideas, not just what they are.

For example: what is the purpose of the 1% tax? Why are you rolling back building regulations? What is the proper role of government in education? What is the goal of your immigration policy?

A lot of policies you describe are not explained. A simple, high level explanation of the goals of each section would go a long way. One or two sentences each at least. I would like to know how you have arrived at your policy ideas, not just what they are.

A lot of policies you describe are not explained. A simple, high level explanation of the goals of each section would go a long way. One or two sentences each. I would like to know how you have arrived at your policy ideas, not just what they are.

Veritula should have a 'Posts' tab next to the 'Discussions' tab, where people can browse the things people post on their profiles.

5 Minute Creativity

TL;DR: When making a decision or working to solve a problem, spend 5 minutes just coming up with ideas. Managing your attention like this can supercharge your creativity.

A few days ago I was helping a friend flesh out an idea for an app that he is developing in his spare time. We came up with a new feature that we were both excited about, and we spent a few minutes going over how much more useful and fun the app was going to be with this new feature.

But in the spirit of philosopher Karl Popper, I asked my friend: "Is there anything wrong with this new feature idea?"

He spent about two seconds considering the question, before confidently answering "No!"

This took me by surprise. Somehow he had come to think that if a problem didn't jump out at him within the first two seconds of looking for problems, then for him the idea mustn't have any problems.*

I took some time later in the day to reflect on that moment. My first thought was about how irrational he was to have spent so little effort trying to poke holes in this new feature idea. After all, he was getting ready to spend hours of his valuable time bringing this new feature into reality. If he had just spent one minute thinking about what could be wrong with the new idea, and in that minute he discovered a fatal flaw in the idea, it might've saved him hundreds of minutes of wasted work over the next few weeks! Silly guy! Lucky he had me there to save him!

But then I thought about it some more, and realised that maybe I'm not actually that different to him. In many aspects of my daily life, I don't consciously give myself a meaningful amount of time to come up with new ideas or criticisms for the things I want to do. Many of my choices are kind of uncreative—I simply do the first thing that pops into my mind, in much the same way my friend decided there was nothing wrong with the new feature idea; because that was the first thing that popped into his mind.

I did some e-sleuthing around this thought and found On Creativity - The joys of 5 minute timers by Neel Nanda. It suggests literally using timers to make sure we spend meaningful time thinking about the things that matter. It might be worth reading if you identify at all with anything I have just said.

My favourite part of the article is this:

Set a 5 minute timer, and make a list of problems in your life - things that annoy you, things you want to work on, things that could be better. And then, go through that list, and cross off any you’re confident you’ve spent at least 5 minutes of focused time trying to solve. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have an embarrassingly long list left over. I’d be pretty curious about what happens if you try doing a 5 minute brainstorm for anything left.

I also found Nate Soares blogposts talking about using this approach (I believe the Neel Nanda article was at least partly inspired by Nate Soares):

In 'Obvious advice', Nate Soares writes:

When you're about to make a big decision, pause, and ask yourself what obvious things a reasonable person would do before making this sort of decision. Would they spend a full five minutes (by the clock) brainstorming alternative options before settling on a decision? Would they consult with friends and advisors? Would they do some particular type of research?

Then, actually do the obvious things.

In 'Be a new homunculus', Nate Soares writes:

Notice the guilt, listen to the message it bears, and actually write down the behavioral pattern that you wish to change. Then spend five minutes (a full five minutes, by the clock) brainstorming ways that you might change the pattern and start retraining your mind.

Let me know what you think about all this. As it stands now, I expect to be using timers for a lot more than just cooking going forward!

*Needless to say, I suggested he spend a little longer thinking about it before he added the feature to his plans. In less than a couple minutes, he found three or four legit problems that would need to be addressed before the feature would merit inclusion in the project. Yay Popper!

The same decision may be appealed only once.

Does this not inhibit error correction? Why not just leave this to the discretion of Veritula, on a case by case basis?

Predatory businesses can’t limit customers’ creativity without the consent of the customer, so these issues are inextricably bound.

It is not the business of the government to prevent people from severely limiting their own creativity.

You have moved the goalposts from "isn’t it just down to other people subjectively valuing the asset you are buying" to "isn’t it just down to other people subjectively valuing the product/service the business produces” (paraphrasing).

Of course it is all subjective in a sense. My point is that you can disagree with the entire market about what an asset is worth and still have it turn out to be a good investment.

You have moved the goalposts from "isn’t it just down to other people subjectively valuing the asset you are buying" to "isn’t it just down to other people subjectively valuing the product/service the business produces” (paraphrasing).

Of course it is all subjective in a sense. My point is that you can disagree with the entire market about what an asset is worth and do just fine.

Cool idea!

While following this kind of protocol does help some people lose weight, the model it is based off is incomplete.

'Calories in vs calories out' dieting is based on the idea that each person has a fixed rate of at which they burn calories at rest, proportional to their bodyweight. This fails to account for the fact that ‘calories out’ depends entirely on the metabolic state of the individual, which is highly dependent on the quality of their nutrition.

Some diets lack certain key nutrients required for efficient metabolism, thereby inhibiting the body’s ability to utilise calories. Some diets also contain metabolic toxins that diminish the body’s ability to utilise calories.

For these reasons, diets that are equal in calories but that vary in nutritional content can have vastly different weight gain/loss outcomes.

While following this kind of protocol does help some people lose weight, the model it is based off has been debunked.

'Calories in vs calories out' dieting is based on the idea that each person has a fixed rate of at which they burn calories at rest, proportional to their bodyweight. This fails to account for the fact that ‘calories out’ depends entirely on the metabolic state of the individual, which is highly dependent on the quality of their nutrition.

Some diets lack certain key nutrients required for efficient metabolism, thereby inhibiting the body’s ability to utilise calories. Some diets also contain metabolic toxins that diminish the body’s ability to utilise calories.

For these reasons, diets that are equal in calories but that vary in nutritional content can have vastly different weight gain/loss outcomes.

A chronic calorie deficit will trigger a suppression of the active thyroid hormone T3. Lowering T3 causes a lowering of the metabolic rate, which lowers the rate of caloric burn at rest.

For this reason, CICO dieting often hits a wall when the body adjusts to the new low calorie lifestyle.

An alternative is to improve the quality of the foods, such that the metabolic rate increases while caloric intake is kept the same (or even increased too, by a lesser amount). This would be preferred by the body as it is a more complete solution: all nutrient requirements are being met and energy is being produced and utilised in abundance.

I think it is much more useful to think of the body as a dynamic energy-processing system, rather than a ledger of calories.

While following this kind of protocol does help some people lose weight, the model it is based off has been debunked.

'Calories in vs calories out' dieting is based on the idea that each person has a fixed rate of at which they burn calories at rest, proportional to their bodyweight. This fails to account for the fact that ‘calories out’ depends entirely on the metabolic state of the individual, which is highly dependent on the quality of their nutrition.

Some diets lack certain key nutrients required for efficient metabolism, thereby inhibiting the body’s ability to utilise calories. Some diets also contain metabolic toxins that diminish the body’s ability to utilise calories.

For these reasons, diets that are equal in calories but that vary in nutritional content can have different weight gain/loss outcomes.

If the business is cash-flowing it doesn’t matter if other people in the market don’t bid it up. The business can buy back shares or distribute dividends to enrich shareholders.

Obviously this assumes you’ve invested in a business with competent management.

Let’s say you wanted to know if your house was gaining or losing value over time. You can do a calculation using historical gold price records to see how many gold ounces the house cost you (opportunity cost), and how many gold ounces the house is worth now.

This doesn’t mean that if you eventually go to sell it you will only accept gold ounces. You might be happy with dollars because you plan to use the dollars to buy another house.

The point is that you are thinking about the value of things in units of gold, rather than units of dollars.

B7: Biotin
Functions:
- Needed for cell growth
- Needed for metabolism of fats and amino acids
- Takes part in the transfer of CO2
- Liver support
Sources: eggs, beef liver, beef kidney

B6: Pyridoxine
Functions:
- Amino acid breakdown in the intestines
- Healthy immune system
- Opposes estrogen and prolactin
- Essential to dopamine production
- Mitigates PUFA toxicity
Sources: potatoes, eggs, beef, beef liver, beef kidney

B5: Pantothenic Acid
Functions:
- Needed to metabolise protein, fats, and carbohydrates
- Required for healthy hormone production
Sources: milk, cheese, yoghurt, eggs, beef, oysters, shrimp, beef liver, beef kidney

B3: Niacinamide
Functions:
- Essential to glucose metabolism
- Helps with skin conditions
- Inhibits oxidation of fat in the tissues
Sources: beef, oysters, shrimp, beef liver, beef kidney

B2: Riboflavin
Functions:
- Needed for fat, ketone, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism
- Protects against PUFA toxicity
- Anti-estrogenic
Sources: milk, cheese, yoghurt, eggs, beef liver, beef kidney

B1: Thiamine
Functions:
- Supports proper mitochondrial utilisation of metabolic fuels
- Suppresses the production of lactic acid
- Helps break down sugar and amino acids
- Needed to form the neurotransmitters acetylcholine and GABA
Sources: potatoes, coffee, eggs, oysters, beef liver, beef kidney

Vitamin A
Functions:
- Supports proper differentiated growth and development of the body
- Supports immune function
- Supports storage of glycogen in the liver
- Healthy skin
- Vision
- Cholesterol conversion into pregnenolone
Sources: milk, cheese, eggs, beef liver, beef kidney

Iron
Functions:
- Essential for cellular energy production
Sources: beef liver, beef kidney, oysters, beef, shrimp