How I found rationalist tumblr/a social life, the long version
[disclaimer- I’m in a really weird easily excitable mood right now, this is written really weirdly. Will probably be very embarrassed about this later.]
Kira finds link to Slate Star Codex that some person put in a list of their favorite blogs.
It might’ve been in the comment section of Wait But Why, might have been on reddit.
Kira goes, “hmm, sounds cool”.
Kira reads a few of Scott Alexander’s posts.
Kira goes “!!!!”.
Kira binges a good half of his archives.
Kira reads the comments.
Kira goes “Oh my god a comment section that doesn’t make me want to wipe humanity from the face of the earth”.
“who are these people and where have they been hiding for my whole life?”
Kira obsessively stalks SSC’s comment section for maybe a month.
Kira finds LW, the Sequences, and HPMOR.
Kira is useless for the next two weeks, can be seen reading her Kindle, ranting at her Kindle, and threatening to throw her Kindle at a wall.
Kira develops obsession/special interest in anything related to rationalists.
Kira finds Ozy’s blog, Scott’s twitter, figures out he has a tumblr, finds his tumblr, finds Ozy’s tumblr.
Goes ”!!!!! I can talk to these people!!!“.
make a tumblr.
follows rationalist blogs.
lurks
lurks more
lurks some more
“this Alison @sinesalvatorem person sounds really cool…”
“wait a minute I can talk to her”
“this is a thing I can do”
“wait no that’s scary”
“form letters. She has form letters. I can do form letters.”
Kira sends form letter.
Kira freaks out because that’s embarrassing.
Alison responds.
“!!!!!!” thinks Kira.
a few days later:“oh my god she likes me?”
“is this flirting? I think this is flirting”
“how do I flirt back oh my god this stressful”
“wait. did that work. are we actually dating? For real? In real life? Wait, so this means I’m gay. And poly. OK, that’s a thing I can do.”
“!!!!!!!!!”
Kira proceeds to be extremely surprised by this for the next month or so.
Kira then realizes that she can talk to other people.
Kira also realizes that it’s probably a good idea to actually post original content, because people who do that are much more interesting and then people are more likely to talk to me.
@inquisitivefeminist sends me a message!
I effortpost at @socialjusticemunchkin and we talk!
I send the most awkward hello of all time to @sdhs-rationalist. We talk. And then we talk more. And then we meet IRL. And then I figure out that hugs are possibly the best thing yet invented.
@ghostofasecretary sends me a message!
@ilzolende talks to me! @pistachi0n sends me a message! @segfaultvicta talked to me! I talk to @futureresearcheralex! @somnilogical sends me a random heart and puns about replies in my direction! Other people who I might have forgotten talk to me!
Suddenly I have a social life, which I’m still confused by.
#as you can see Ii am unreasonably excited by people talking to me #and also just unreasonably excited right now #this is why you don’t drink coffee kira #people come talk to me I’m vaguely less weird than I sound here #or more weird #i’m not entirely sure #notes for my future biography
I wouldn’t call it unreasonable to be excited by people talking to you. I used to think I was just an introvert and I spent an entire year having basically 0 friends/friend-like acquaintances, and all the social contact I get from the LW Diaspora has been really amazing for me too.
one of the posts i have decidedly not been meaning to write for ages because writing at all is probably unvirtuous is b. about that
it’s actually about “introversion doesn’t really real and if you think you’re an introvert it’s probably just that for whatever reason you find the people around you too cognitively taxing to be worth the effort of interacting with them, and the reason is probably either anxiety or thedish distance, except anxiety is fed by thedish distance.”
So I have no idea what thedish distance is, but as anecdata supporting the rest of your point: Since I’m currently on a terrible caffeine high (because I never learn, apparently), all my social filters and inhibitions are completely down, and I have been absurdly social. Talking to multiple people at once, completely invested in all the conversations, really excited about every single one, not frantically re-reading everything I write worried that it’ll make me look bad, etc. That’s the only reason I was even able to make the original post at all, because I wasn’t worrying about how people would see it. So yeah, conversation right now are unusually easy for me, and if it was like this all the time I would be the most extroverted person I know, assuming an abundance of interesting people. And my entire post up there was me being really really excited about finding so many interesting people, so I doubt that would be a problem.
“Anxiety has fallen asleep at the wheel, send all the messages RIGHT NOW”
3 months ago · tagged #it me #user's guide to interacting with a promethea · 65 notes · source: rusalkii · .permalink
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socialjusticemunchkin reblogged this from rusalkii and added:“Anxiety has fallen asleep at the wheel, send all the messages RIGHT NOW”
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boozer-pitt reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:A lot of truth to this, at least in its abbreviated form.
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wirehead-wannabe reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:I’d be really interested to read that as an effortpost. Isn’t it easily refutable by pointing to the existence of...
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shuffling-blogs reblogged this from ilzolende and added:“Not many shared interests” is the common translation of “thedish distance”.
ilzolende reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:I can totally buy that premise in lots of people’s cases (mine included), but “I don’t want to make friends with you,...
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ghostofasecretary reblogged this from rusalkii and added:Huh! This is very interesting, the post by rusalkii is super great and I’m flattered to be included, and and I need to...
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ansiblelesbian reblogged this from rusalkii and added:You sound amazingly cute. It is no surprise that you have a social life!
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xngurevar liked this- rusalkii reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:
So I have no idea what thedish distance is, but as anecdata supporting the rest of your point: Since I’m currently on a...
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tentativelyassembled reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:If introversion / extroversion exist on a spectrum, there are always going to be people that are less extroverted than...
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ladylike-manhood reblogged this from shkreli-for-president and added:Thedish distance??
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