Inkhaven is a month-long blogging fellowship at my favorite place in the world, Lighthaven. I’m not participating, both because I’m too poor these days to afford admission, and because I’m not quite so dedicated to writing that I want to stress about publishing every single day. However, I do often want to be at Lighthaven! Partly for the intrinsic beauty of the space, but far more importantly, several people I like are currently there for Inkhaven. I’ve been pretty successful at hanging out at Lighthaven this month. I’m heading over again tonight, and I’ve heard that a lot of people are hanging out in the winners lounge (the area reserved for people who have already published on any given day). I’d like to be able to join them. Probably I can just walk in, as I’ll explain later, but if I’m challenged, it’ll be nice to be able to say “look, I published!”. So, here’s an essay about how I’ve been hanging out at Inkhaven all month despite not being part of the program. ...

This post is an experiment in writing collaboratively with Claude. I described the core idea; Claude asked clarifying questions, then drafted using my previous posts to guide writing style. We refined it together from there. Suppose you’re choosing between two chocolate bars: the premium one costs three times as much but tastes noticeably better. Which should you buy? It depends on the actual prices! If they’re $5 and $15, maybe it’s not worth the $10 upgrade. However, if you find them on sale for $0.50 and $1.50, it’s probably worth the extra dollar for the better chocolate. Same ratio, different decisions. ...

My thoughts on whether I want to have children.

It’s Thanksgiving week, and I’m in Texas with my family. I’m so bored. I don’t often get bored at home. There, I keep pretty busy. I think that boredom is the feeling that I can’t take actions that matter. When I’m home, there’s always something I can do. I can spend time with a friend, or improve my space, or cook, or work out, or walk around my neighborhood and maybe discover something cool. I don’t always have the energy to do another meaningful thing, but lacking energy doesn’t feel like boredom. When I lack energy, I sleep or I unwind with a videogame or book, aware that I have other options but choosing to engage in something more passive. ...

The astute reader may have noticed that I’m substantially behind on my Halfhaven commitment. It’s not because I don’t have time to write. Rather, it’s because often, when I contemplate writing, my attention slides away and I do something else instead. I like having written, but I find the actual process of writing aversive. There’s a technique I learned from meditation that goes “if you feel resistance to practice, can you love the resistance?”. I’m going to borrow that technique here, and write a post exploring why I don’t want to write. ...

A trip report of a particular cognitive experience.

A party game!

Musing on being busy.

What I learned in my first day at the Center For Applied Rationality.