site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2549 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 22, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So, what are you playing? What are you reading?

I've been playing Civilization 5 over the last week. I finished a game on the second highest difficulty. :) Science victory. I let my embittered rival have some nukes to his population centers before we left this planet. I'll probably leave the game installed and play another campaign in a month or two. I've never tried a faith-first route. Might play Ethiopia or the Maya.

I'm reading five books these days. Usually I stick to one of them for a few days and then mix it up. Three books on finance, one on memory (Charan Ranganath's very recent book), and a Dostoevsky. Enjoying them all.

What are the finance books? Anything interesting you’d recommend?

Statman's Finance for Normal People. Klarman's Margin of Safety. Pysh's Warren Buffett's 3 Favorite Books.

They're all pretty good. The first one gives insights into various wants, errors, and biases. The differences between the mythical rational person, and the actual human being. The second one is a guide to becoming a value investor. The third one I haven't got very far into, but it gives some idiot proof explanations into what business, shares, etc actually are, and goes from there. As I read a few chapters in it I remember thinking that this is stuff kids with rich parents probably learn growing up, but lots of people don't.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats