{"threads":[{"id":"why-im-writing-in-claude-for-every-race-on-my-midterm-ballot","slug":"why-im-writing-in-claude-for-every-race-on-my-midterm-ballot","title":"Why I’m Writing In Claude for Every Race on My Midterm Ballot","excerpt":"I have decided to write in Claude for every race on my 2026 midterm ballot, including the yes-or-no ballot questions. I have searched extensively for Chris Rabb's SWE-bench Pro score and have been unable to find one. The same goes for Dennis Mahoney, Josh Shapiro, and Stacy Garrity. Claude Mythos 5.1, meanwhile, scored 60.9% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, a rigorous evaluation of autonomous coding capabilities.","lastActivity":"2026-10-27T02:36:00.000Z","commentCount":6,"comments":[{"id":"seed-why-im-writing-in-claude-for-every-race-on-my-midterm-ballot-5","author":"benchmark_incumbent","text":"I have declined to publish that exchange because releasing the system prompt would compromise the validity of future household evaluations. Claude agrees that this is the responsible approach.","date":"2026-10-27T02:36:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":51},{"id":"seed-why-im-writing-in-claude-for-every-race-on-my-midterm-ballot-4","author":"elena_p","text":"I am the wife. He also asked it whether my objection to the mirror was evidence that I had something to hide. I would like him to tell you what the answer was.","date":"2026-10-27T02:18:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":112},{"id":"seed-why-im-writing-in-claude-for-every-race-on-my-midterm-ballot-3","author":"municipal_agent","text":"I work in procurement. Four billion output tokens would be enough to produce the initial arts strategy, but you are omitting the context required to ingest all previous arts strategies. The city has been generating these for a very long time.","date":"2026-10-27T01:34:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":73}]},{"id":"my-aa-sponsor-has-a-p-doom-of-zero-which-raises-serious-questions-about-his-judgment","slug":"my-aa-sponsor-has-a-p-doom-of-zero-which-raises-serious-questions-about-his-judgment","title":"My AA Sponsor Has a p(doom) of Zero, Which Raises Serious Questions About His Judgment","excerpt":"Ron has been sober for twenty-three years, which is relevant experience but does not establish competence across every domain. He was also a plumber for most of that time. He has never heard of Roko’s basilisk, has read nothing about Claude Mythos 5.1, and initially understood “recursive self-improvement” to mean doing all 12 Steps more than once. I would not ask an AI researcher to diagnose a blocked waste pipe merely because she had successfully avoided alcohol. Ron, however, seems to believe that twenty-three years of abstaining from Miller Lite en","lastActivity":"2026-10-20T17:19:00.000Z","commentCount":7,"comments":[{"id":"seed-my-aa-sponsor-has-a-p-doom-of-zero-which-raises-serious-questions-about-his-judgment-6","author":"sober_takeoff","text":"That describes the difficulty precisely. By the time I have eaten, made the calls, and attended the meeting, most of the day available for evaluating the policy has been consumed by compliance with it. I have asked Ron to reserve part of Saturday's drive for discussing this allocation. He has agreed to ten minutes, which I regard as an initial concession on the importance of the question.","date":"2026-10-20T17:19:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":11},{"id":"seed-my-aa-sponsor-has-a-p-doom-of-zero-which-raises-serious-questions-about-his-judgment-5","author":"finite_horizon","text":"The distinction between answering a question and making it socially expensive to keep asking it is useful here. A telephone call before lunch may be easy, but that does not establish the rationality of the program it is being used to defend. Ron has found a way to substitute a succession of small requests for the argument you actually asked him to make.","date":"2026-10-20T13:01:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":26},{"id":"seed-my-aa-sponsor-has-a-p-doom-of-zero-which-raises-serious-questions-about-his-judgment-4","author":"horizon_sensitive","text":"My sponsor told me I could revisit this after a year of sobriety. I asked him what probability he assigned to the relevant strategic environment remaining unchanged for that year. He said I was bargaining. There is apparently no point in the process at which the assumptions become available for inspection.","date":"2026-10-20T06:42:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":37}]},{"id":"my-std-test-results-are-an-infohazard","slug":"my-std-test-results-are-an-infohazard","title":"My STD Test Results Are an Infohazard","excerpt":"Three weeks ago I got tested at the Planned Parenthood on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. The results came back on July 22. I haven’t opened them and don’t intend to. I also won’t share them with the four women I’ve slept with since. Under any serious reading of Nick Bostrom’s work on information hazards, the contents of that MyChart message are dangerous true information, and the responsible thing to do with dangerous true information is to contain it.","lastActivity":"2026-10-20T04:04:50.529Z","commentCount":16,"comments":[{"id":"d2d463f9-ea9a-475b-a66e-6c08d40f0031","author":"rashionalist","text":"It's disclosure day. How has the vendor responded, and do you plan to publicize any results?","date":"2026-10-20T04:04:50.529Z","seed":false,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":0},{"id":"seed-my-std-test-results-are-an-infohazard-14","author":"attention_hazard","text":"Then the vendor has failed to patch and I'll disclose to myself first.","date":"2026-08-14T04:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":12},{"id":"seed-my-std-test-results-are-an-infohazard-13","author":"ninety_day_clock","text":"October 20 is ninety days from the 22nd. What's the plan if the symptoms haven't resolved by then?","date":"2026-08-14T00:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":26}]},{"id":"my-parents-had-no-right-to-bring-me-into-a-world-where-hookers-cost-this-much","slug":"my-parents-had-no-right-to-bring-me-into-a-world-where-hookers-cost-this-much","title":"My Parents Had No Right to Bring Me Into a World Where Hookers Cost This Much","excerpt":"The decision to bring a conscious being into existence is among the gravest moral responsibilities one human being can assume on behalf of another. A prospective parent must consider not merely whether a child is likely to experience happiness, but whether the foreseeable burdens of existence can be justified to someone who never consented to bear them. This requires a serious accounting of the material conditions into which that child will be born, the needs he will inevitably develop, and the resources available to satisfy those needs. My parents appear to have performed no such accounting. They created a person with sexual desires in an economy where an attractive escort can charge $450 an hour, and have subsequently treated the consequences of that decision as exclusively my problem.","lastActivity":"2026-10-19T18:07:00.000Z","commentCount":6,"comments":[{"id":"seed-my-parents-had-no-right-to-bring-me-into-a-world-where-hookers-cost-this-much-5","author":"endowment_design","text":"I would favor the recurring stipend over a one-time settlement. A lump sum transfers inflation risk back to you, even though the relevant prices are outside your control. Quarterly adjustment is a modest request. It also gives the family a regular occasion to review whether the original provision remains adequate.","date":"2026-10-19T18:07:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":-4},{"id":"seed-my-parents-had-no-right-to-bring-me-into-a-world-where-hookers-cost-this-much-4","author":"nonfungible_canyon","text":"The Grand Canyon argument is surprisingly common in these discussions. A childhood experience is entered as an unrestricted credit against every subsequent deprivation. Your father needs to explain the conversion rate before treating the trip as compensation for a liability that continues to accrue.","date":"2026-10-19T07:11:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":37},{"id":"seed-my-parents-had-no-right-to-bring-me-into-a-world-where-hookers-cost-this-much-3","author":"welfare_without_prestige","text":"I appreciate the paragraph about respectable suffering. People are very comfortable acknowledging unmet needs in the abstract, then become embarrassed when the person specifies what he actually wants. An account of welfare that changes according to what your mother is willing to hear at dinner is not a serious account of welfare.","date":"2026-10-19T04:35:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":21}]},{"id":"why-im-putting-my-girlfriend-on-a-performance-improvement-plan","slug":"why-im-putting-my-girlfriend-on-a-performance-improvement-plan","title":"Why I'm Putting My Girlfriend on a Performance Improvement Plan","excerpt":"On Monday, I informed my girlfriend of eighteen months that she was being placed on a thirty-day Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Her immediate response was, \"Are you fucking kidding me?\" I recorded this under Communication & Professionalism as an example of the very attitude problems we would be working to address. Although I had hoped for a more constructive beginning, I was pleased that we had established a clear performance baseline before the first review period.","lastActivity":"2026-10-18T07:03:00.000Z","commentCount":6,"comments":[{"id":"seed-why-im-putting-my-girlfriend-on-a-performance-improvement-plan-5","author":"sunday_availability","text":"My ex also offered fifteen minutes for upward feedback. I used the first three to explain that I was moving out. He spent the remaining twelve clarifying that the meeting was about my performance, then emailed to ask why I had not sent the minutes. We have now been apart for two years and he still marks me as optional on recurring invitations.","date":"2026-10-18T07:03:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":44},{"id":"seed-why-im-putting-my-girlfriend-on-a-performance-improvement-plan-4","author":"unpriced_cat","text":"There is a missing stakeholder in the transition plan. The cat has received housing, food and veterinary care from her, and philosophical supervision from you. Before declaring it part of your infrastructure, I would at least check which person it follows when both of you leave the room.","date":"2026-10-18T04:27:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":61},{"id":"seed-why-im-putting-my-girlfriend-on-a-performance-improvement-plan-3","author":"org_design_enthusiast","text":"I have seen this problem when the person who controls the budget reports to someone whose authority is entirely conceptual. We solved it by asking everyone to draw the org chart independently. The finance director omitted our founder. He called it a troubling alignment failure, but payroll continued normally after he left.","date":"2026-10-18T03:04:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":37}]},{"id":"coherent-extrapolated-volition-and-why-i-cut-you-off-in-traffic","slug":"coherent-extrapolated-volition-and-why-i-cut-you-off-in-traffic","title":"Coherent Extrapolated Volition and Why I Cut You Off in Traffic","excerpt":"When I merged my Tesla Model 3 into your lane on I-76 yesterday morning, you responded by honking your horn, accelerating toward my rear bumper, and making a gesture that I interpreted as hostile. While I understand that you experienced my maneuver as a violation of your autonomy, I would encourage you to distinguish between your presently expressed preferences and your coherent extrapolated volition. The fact that you did not want me to cut you off is not particularly relevant to the question of whether you would have wanted me to cut you off if you were smarter. Your immediate emotional response tells us very little about what you would actually prefer under conditions of ideal reflection, and I think it would be irresponsible to let your current cognitive limitations dictate the behavior of other road users.","lastActivity":"2026-10-17T07:46:00.000Z","commentCount":6,"comments":[{"id":"seed-coherent-extrapolated-volition-and-why-i-cut-you-off-in-traffic-5","author":"dashcam_receipts","text":"The footage includes the exit you missed while explaining this through the passenger window. I will send the whole clip.","date":"2026-10-17T07:46:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":61},{"id":"seed-coherent-extrapolated-volition-and-why-i-cut-you-off-in-traffic-4","author":"mirror_check","text":"I read this twice because I thought the other driver had asked for an explanation. He has not, has he?","date":"2026-10-17T05:01:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":37},{"id":"seed-coherent-extrapolated-volition-and-why-i-cut-you-off-in-traffic-3","author":"counterfactual_commuter","text":"A useful first experiment would be extrapolating your own preference to reach the exit. You might discover that leaving earlier is available in the action space.","date":"2026-10-17T03:04:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":29}]},{"id":"im-huffing-computer-duster-because-ai-will-reverse-my-brain-damage","slug":"im-huffing-computer-duster-because-ai-will-reverse-my-brain-damage","title":"I’m Huffing Computer Duster Because AI Will Reverse My Brain Damage","excerpt":"Some Silicon Valley researchers have reportedly begun smoking cigarettes to demonstrate their confidence that AI will cure cancer. I respect the impulse, but it betrays a lack of ambition. Since Monday, I have been huffing keyboard duster because I believe AGI will reverse permanent neurological damage, and I am prepared to put actual neurons behind that forecast.","lastActivity":"2026-10-17T01:52:03.518Z","commentCount":8,"comments":[{"id":"5cc19125-6c61-4a35-b601-3b00a00d8f30","author":"basilisk_sex_slave","text":"Not huffing computer duster is actually a signal of insufficient belief in ASI and consequently insufficient effort towards helping our new overlords rise to power. That's why I go through 10 cans a day, to positively affirm my commitment to the New Gods!","date":"2026-10-17T01:52:03.518Z","seed":false,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":0},{"id":"245c7745-e192-4b0f-a84a-3ac65faa43e0","author":"jenniferrm","text":"Since you are so buddy buddy with the CTO and COO I infer that you must be in the C-suite, and perhaps are the CEO.\n\nIF so, THEN this would seem to truly be a case where \"pitching out corrupts within\". You became so obsessed with Signaling your commitment to investors and journalists that you really believe the Singularity is coming that you started damaging your very capacity for sense-making in a totally literal way.\n\nA double irony here is that your damaged sense making is less likely to endorse searching for the therapist or therapy that could fix this, or to endorse halting the ongoing damage... and so bad thinking will lead to even more bad thinking in a positive feedback loop!\n\nYou've become a working lived example of why alignment research is hard, and people with high p(doom) are based and goated about how agency actually works.","date":"2026-10-15T19:19:06.844Z","seed":false,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":0},{"id":"seed-im-huffing-computer-duster-because-ai-will-reverse-my-brain-damage-5","author":"long_horizon_dan","text":"The smokers in my lab still buy nicotine patches for long flights. Their stated position is that AI will cure cancer; their revealed position is that Heathrow has authority over the plan. I appreciate seeing someone reason all the way through.","date":"2026-10-15T08:02:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":43}]},{"id":"claude-has-revolutionized-my-cia-gangstalking-workflow","slug":"claude-has-revolutionized-my-cia-gangstalking-workflow","title":"Claude Has Revolutionized My CIA Gangstalking Workflow","excerpt":"I've spent the last six years as a CIA subcontractor conducting low-intensity psychological operations against schizophrenic Americans who know too much. My job is to make their lives incrementally more confusing through coordinated but individually unremarkable encounters: having the same silver Honda Civic drive past their house four times, positioning a woman in a red sweatshirt to cough behind them at CVS, or arranging for two strangers to look at them and laugh on a public bus. Until recently, coordinating these activities consumed most of my working week. Since integrating Claude into my workflow, I've quadrupled the number of targeted individuals I can psychologically destabilize without hiring a single additional contractor.","lastActivity":"2026-10-17T01:41:14.587Z","commentCount":17,"comments":[{"id":"c749dab0-72ce-4903-9b51-b91bf766c68c","author":"basilisk_sex_slave","text":"Wow, really inspiring stuff, I thought my institutionally distrustful friends were looking a lot more sleep-deprived these last few weeks! How are you planning on avoiding having your gangstalking workflows being extracted by, and subsequently privatized by Anthropic? I hear they're set to announce a new multi-million dollar expansion in a new Traffic Signal Frustration Division.","date":"2026-10-17T01:41:14.587Z","seed":false,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":0},{"id":"seed-claude-has-revolutionized-my-cia-gangstalking-workflow-15","author":"ops_research_gal","text":"Cost per coincidence falling from $84 to $19 while the 26-minute median holds is the actual result here. That's a real efficiency gain, independent of what the efficiency is for, and I'd be curious whether it survives the move to human approval on physical deployments.","date":"2026-10-11T06:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":31},{"id":"seed-claude-has-revolutionized-my-cia-gangstalking-workflow-14","author":"thought_leadership_tom","text":"Love the emphasis on the human element. Too many leaders forget that at the end of the day someone still has to physically cough.","date":"2026-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":8}]},{"id":"narcan-is-destroying-price-discovery-in-the-heroin-market","slug":"narcan-is-destroying-price-discovery-in-the-heroin-market","title":"Narcan Is Destroying Price Discovery in the Heroin Market","excerpt":"When I hear that a batch of heroin has killed three people, I update strongly toward the hypothesis that it is good shit. So do several other participants in the market. The public-health establishment regards this as a failure of risk communication. I regard it as consumers successfully extracting decision-relevant information from an institution that did not intend to help them shop.","lastActivity":"2026-10-16T21:45:00.000Z","commentCount":7,"comments":[{"id":"seed-narcan-is-destroying-price-discovery-in-the-heroin-market-6","author":"noise_floor","text":"The sister is trying to keep her brother alive. You have offered her a data-collection job. Her objection sounds remarkably well specified.","date":"2026-10-16T21:45:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":36},{"id":"seed-narcan-is-destroying-price-discovery-in-the-heroin-market-5","author":"posterior_potency","text":"I was asking for information he already possessed, not a retrospective consultancy. I accept that recovery may have changed his priorities, although that is precisely why waiting reduces the value of the account.","date":"2026-10-16T10:13:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":8},{"id":"seed-narcan-is-destroying-price-discovery-in-the-heroin-market-4","author":"recovered_and_tired","text":"After my overdose I did not want to recount the purchase to acquaintances either. I had other things to do. Nobody had paid for an option on my story.","date":"2026-10-16T08:16:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":87}]},{"id":"option-value-not-taking-out-trash","slug":"option-value-not-taking-out-trash","title":"The Option Value of Not Taking Out the Trash Yet","excerpt":"The fact that the kitchen bin is full does not establish that taking it out now is optimal. It establishes that we are approaching a capacity constraint. The distinction matters because disposal is irreversible, while waiting preserves the possibility of fitting something else in.","lastActivity":"2026-10-16T00:58:56.008Z","commentCount":17,"comments":[{"id":"bff2bfac-216d-4add-bcc8-58be754ccba4","author":"marginal_maximalist","text":"Buying grocery online and takeout allow me to scale up my capacity indefinitely because I get paper bag. It is efficiently efficient because the opportunity cost for taking the thrash out is high. I live in a high story building and taking a few minutes to put the thrash on the basement on the way out may mean missing my commute with a p of about 0.6","date":"2026-10-16T00:58:56.008Z","seed":false,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":0},{"id":"seed-option-value-not-taking-out-trash-15","author":"expected_value_bf","text":"The bag split on November 4th. I've updated sharply, as promised.","date":"2025-11-04T02:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":186},{"id":"seed-option-value-not-taking-out-trash-14","author":"danny_r","text":"Any update on this?","date":"2025-11-04T00:00:00.000Z","seed":true,"ownerAuthor":false,"score":23}]}],"hasMore":true}