# Unions and Bias **URL:** \ **Category:** Unbounded\ **Created:** [October 12, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354 "2021-10-12T18:18:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/41 "2021-10-17T21:26:31Z")
> [@ingracke](#): > > my experience is that a lot of the long-term posters here have previously claimed to _not_ have any major, ongoing problems or disasters in their lives. I am happy with the major components of my day to day life, like: - Career - Finances - Relationships - Health - How I spend time ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 9:28pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/42 "2021-10-17T21:28:57Z")
> [@ingracke](#): > > my experience is that a lot of the long-term posters here have previously claimed to _not_ have any major, ongoing problems or disasters in their lives. I’m aging and without something like SENS my health will decline and I will die. That is a major, ongoing problem / disaster in my life. ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/43 "2021-10-17T22:44:49Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > I’m aging and without something like SENS my health will decline and I will die. That is a major, ongoing problem / disaster in my life. I wonder if you might have more immediately actionable problems than that, that might be a better immediate focus for your time and energy. I would guess that that is the case - that there are such more actionable problems. So then focusing on the SENS stuff would be an error. Note that this guess of mine doesn’t necessarily contradict the idea that you should spend a bunch of time on something like SENS - but there might be an order involved where it’s like, you work on some other stuff first and then on something like SENS. Just some thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/44 "2021-10-17T22:50:25Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > I’m aging and without something like SENS my health will decline and I will die. That is a major, ongoing problem / disaster in my life. Is the fact of living during a time period where certain important problems have not been solved, where certain knowledge has not yet been created, best conceived of as a “disaster”? Note that I would like for death to be solved very much. I would also like to try stuff like living on the moon (seriously, that would be cool!). But I think it’s still possible to live a good, meaningful, fulfilling life even if those particular things don’t come to fruition within my lifetime. I think some people have managed to live meaningful lives even though they lived in worse times and circumstances than today…stuff that prevents or interferes with the activities of living a meaningful life (such as learning things effectively, being rational, being able to look at things objectively) seems like a major disaster/threat/problem. But not having solved some technological/medical problem, no matter how important, doesn’t quite seem like the same sort/type/class of problem to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/45 "2021-10-17T23:21:08Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > I wonder if you might have more immediately actionable problems than that I do. I would not classify them as major, ongoing problems / disasters though. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/46 "2021-10-17T23:23:15Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > I would guess that that is the case - that there are such more actionable problems. So then focusing on the SENS stuff would be an error. Note that this guess of mine doesn’t necessarily contradict the idea that you should spend a bunch of time on something like SENS - but there might be an order involved where it’s like, you work on some other stuff first and then on something like SENS. Just some thoughts. Right. I don’t know what to do about the SENS problem anyway. So I’m not doing much about it and spending most of my time on other things. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/47 "2021-10-17T23:26:19Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > Is the fact of living during a time period where certain important problems have not been solved, where certain knowledge has not yet been created, best conceived of as a “disaster”? I think so. Death is a disaster. There are worse things than death, but death is pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:29pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/48 "2021-10-17T23:29:01Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > I think it’s still possible to live a good, meaningful, fulfilling life even if those particular things don’t come to fruition within my lifetime. Lack of a good, meaningful, fulfilling life is a disaster, just not the only one. I think it’s possible to avoid that particular disaster while nevertheless suffering from other disasters. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/49 "2021-10-17T23:36:31Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > Note that I would like for death to be solved very much. I would also like to try stuff like living on the moon (seriously, that would be cool!). Trying stuff like living on the moon would be cool. Dying is a primary cause of not being able to try stuff like living on the moon. I don’t know if it’ll be super safe and reasonably affordable to live on the moon in 50 years or 500 years. Either way, without SENS I’ll almost certainly miss the opportunity. With SENS there’s a good chance I won’t miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:39pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/50 "2021-10-17T23:39:13Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > Lack of a good, meaningful, fulfilling life is a disaster, just not the only one. I think it’s possible to avoid that particular disaster while nevertheless suffering from other disasters. For example, one could have a good, meaningful, fulfilling life that also includes a nasty divorce. ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/51 "2021-10-18T00:24:22Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > I’m aging and without something like SENS my health will decline and I will die. That is a major, ongoing problem / disaster in my life. Do you think you could meaningfully improve your ability to do things like judge the merits of different proposals/organizations/research projects for solving aging? ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 11:00pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/52 "2021-10-18T23:00:00Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > Do you think you could meaningfully improve your ability to do things like judge the merits of different proposals/organizations/research projects for solving aging? Yes. However I have doubts about planning a project to do that, such as: - It’s not the kind of project I’ve enjoyed or been successful at in the past - It doesn’t sound like a fun, interesting project now - There’d have to be \>0 organizations where my help could make a meaningful difference in solving aging and my guess is there are currently 0 ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 11:10pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/53 "2021-10-18T23:10:33Z")
IMHO it seems like there’s some kind of issue/problem/tension/contradiction if you think that the fact that you are aging is a disaster but you don’t think being able to better judge proposals for solving it sounds “fun” or “interesting”. It makes me wonder if either you don’t actually think it’s a disaster, or if maybe you’re super pessimistic about actually being able to successfully improve your ability to judge proposals. > [@Lebowski](#): > > There’d have to be \>0 organizations where my help could make a meaningful difference in solving aging and my guess is there are currently 0 Have you thoroughly looked at the various biotech companies that are working on aging, including some that are expressly inspired by SENS, particularly in senolytics? That is one area where better ability to judge anti aging proposals could be beneficial btw…like there is a very rapidly growing anti aging space and a bunch of potential opportunities for profit if you know what the hell you’re talking about. Could be pretty fun and interesting if you’re into it, IMHO… ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/54 "2021-10-18T23:18:43Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > There’d have to be \>0 organizations where my help could make a meaningful difference in solving aging and my guess is there are currently 0 There is also the possibility of taking on a more entrepreneurial role … like creating an organization if no adequate ones exist. It would still be important to judge what the best strategy to pursue is when doing that, of course…and to even judge what the actual situation was and whether there were no adequate organizations existing, you’d need good judgment for figuring out what reasonable anti-aging proposals/strategies were … so the judgment issue comes into play no matter what ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/55 "2021-10-18T23:20:46Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > There’d have to be \>0 organizations where my help could make a meaningful difference in solving aging and my guess is there are currently 0 You might not even have the judgment to figure that out reliably. Like, if you have a big potential to improve your ability to judge this kind of stuff, that implies that your existing judgment might not be very good or reliable … which is actually a reason for optimism, cuz maybe the situation isn’t as dire as you think it is! (And if it actually turns out to be pretty bad, when reanalyzing the situation after you’re better able to judge such issues, you’ll also be in a better position from which to make potential improvements…) ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:39am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/56 "2021-10-19T00:39:07Z")
> [@JustinCEO](#): > > It makes me wonder if either you don’t actually think it’s a disaster, or if maybe you’re super pessimistic about actually being able to successfully improve your ability to judge proposals. I think I’m pessimistic about succeeding at a project designed to improve my judgement. However, I’m optimistic about improving my judgement as a side-effect of doing something else I like. For example, suppose I wanted to sell IT services to the biotech industry. I’d be optimistic about my ability to succeed at selling IT services to the biotech industry. And I’d be optimistic that as a side effect of working with biotech industry companies in an IT role, my ability to judge projects/proposals/organizations working on aging would improve. ---
**Author:** ![Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/lebowski/32/47_2.png) [@Lebowski](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/57 "2021-10-19T00:48:33Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > I think I’m pessimistic about succeeding at a project designed to improve my judgement. What I like seems kinda arbitrary and whimmy when I analyze it explicitly. But I seem to have pretty good success when I am sensitive to and just go with what I like and try to make the best of it, rather than decide what I ‘ought to’ like and pursue that. ---
**Author:** ![JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/justinceo/32/9_2.png) [@JustinCEO](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/JustinCEO)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:50am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/58 "2021-10-19T00:50:57Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > rather than decide what I ‘ought to’ like and pursue that. If you just try to make yourself do something you don’t like or are not interested in, then that’s generally not gonna go well. You actually have to change your ideas about it. This can involve trying it out a bit and thinking about it as you go, but just trying to “power through” with willpower isn’t gonna be sustainable generally. ---
**Author:** ![Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/elliot/32/14_2.png) [@Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Elliot)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/59 "2021-10-20T05:18:38Z")
> [@Lebowski](#): > > Yes. I have a guess about one reason why. I think I’ve internalized the cultural idea of constructive criticism. > > I think the cultural idea of constructive criticism requires stuff like the following: > > - The criticism is relevant to some goal the person receiving the criticism has (even if such goals are unstated and unknown or different than the criticizer’s goals) > - The criticism includes not just the problem but also a suggested, plausible solution > - The criticism is delivered in a way that’s designed to allow the person receiving the criticism to avoid looking bad socially > > According to the constructive criticism idea, criticism that doesn’t include the above (and perhaps other requirements I haven’t thought of) is not constructive and is therefore mean. You omitted any analysis of how well CF replies in general, or in this thread, do on the three criteria you gave. You’ve implied that it goes without saying that CF is bad at these three points, which is false. CF excels at 2 of the 3 and is mixed and above average on 1. So your explanation of what’s going on is wrong. And you misleadingly opened your veiled disagreement with me with “yes”. You also indirectly attacked the forum you’re posting on and tried to make me look bad socially. ---
**Author:** ![Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/elliot/32/14_2.png) [@Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Elliot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354/60 "2021-10-21T18:40:28Z")
> **[Silencing the Competition: Inside the Fight Against the Hearing Aid Cartel](https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/silencing-the-competition-inside)** > > Why do Americans pay eight times more for hearing aids than the British? Hearing aids are big business, and a cartel controls the industry through mergers, patents, and control of audiologists. > **Are Biden’s Actions on Ports Making the Supply Chain Problem Worse?** Recently, Joe Biden announced that he would address the mess at the Port of Los Angeles by moving it to 24 hours 7 days a week activity. This sounds like it makes sense, as it means more time to load and unload. But there’s something snarling the ports: empty shipping containers which are forty foot long steel structures that require warehouse space if they aren’t being used to move things. And the increased unloading is causing more empty shipping containers to take all available space, and now even pile up such that firms have to [put them](https://acropreneur.com/an-la-trucking-company-is-running-out-of-places-to-put-its-shipping-containers-so-theyre-parking-some-on-a-residential-street/) in residential areas. > > This problem is weird, and it shouldn’t be happening. Large ships, which usually bring full containers to the U.S. and empties back to Asia, are no longer bringing the empties back. And it’s not clear why. > > This problem is certainly occurring in [other ports](https://amp.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article253767333.html), like Tacoma. Phillip Sanfield, an official at the Port of LA, told me that yes, “Indeed, we are swamped.” And he didn’t have any guesses as to why. “I don’t have any insights into why shipping lines are refusing to pick up empties,” Sanfield added. Presumably the thing to do is figure out who is making the decisions about the empties and ask them. I’m guessing it’s either ship captains, their shipping company bosses on land somewhere, or politicians telling them what to do. Stoller (the guy I quoted) doesn’t know what’s going on. I think I misunderstood the previous information: > the pileup of containers must first be fetched out of the port, so there is space to unload more from ships I thought they needed more truckers to show up and take stuff out of the port. But now I think they were referring to empty shipping containers which need to be taken away by ships not trucks. Regardless, more shifts by dock workers to do more unloading won’t fix this. Biden is not helping with the actual issue and may make it worse. Or he may just waste money as dock workers sit around idle in the night and collect bonus pay. Biden’s order is like “do your job; make it work” with no thought to how things work or what the problem is. [Previous page](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354.md?page=2) [Next page](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/unions-and-bias/354.md?page=4)