Random Stuff

[selenite0]

We had a joint birthday party for the girls last weekend. I expect Maggie will start wanting a party of her own by her teens but so far they're happy to have one big party.

Best joke at our annual training camp: telling people my badge is "Buzz Lightyear's belt buckle." It's pretty damn close. Only worked if they had kids in the right age range, though.

Best moment of AT: hearing the exercise evaluators report that the troops handled every input thrown without hesitation or mistakes.

Playing Warcraft with my family now includes my father-in-law, sister-in-law, and daughter. The Borg got nothing on Blizzard.

Interesting list of the built-in tendencies that keep people from making rational decisions. Hat tip to nancylebov.

Comments

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Did you see the Rationalist Harry Potter fic I linked on Facebook a week or so ago?

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I'm on Chapter 16. :)

I'd actually first seen the rec from whswhs but hadn't started reading it until I saw you and others talking it up.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a complete list. :-/

There's a bias whose name I forget about overvaluing the first fact you hear about a situation. I think being fascinated by near-useless numbers (BMI, GDP) may be a special case of that one.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Sounds like part of Anchoring Bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring). In fact, that's their example.

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

Just catching up on old LJ posts, and boy am I glad I do that. That last link looks like exactly the sort of topic I find fascinating. Bookmarked on my read-asap list...