Open Bounties

If you know about something, or can teach me something, that straight up solves one of my open problems, I'm excited to compensate you for sharing it with me.

The following are some currently outstanding bounties, related to areas that I would like to solve or substantially improve.

Note 1: Bounties are awarded for interventions that successfully solve my problem. It is a possibility that you'll suggest some intervention that matches what I describe, but for some reason or another, isn't actually feasible as a solution. I may pay partial bounties for partial solutions, at my own discretion.

Note 2: To be eligible for the full bounty, an intervention should be complete in of itself, not requiring additional research work or iteration, on my part. However, I'll gladly give partial bounties for suggestions, that I follow up on, and ultimately work. For example, if a person reaches out about a method to increase my typing speed, and we set up a session so that they can coach me through it, and it works, they've earned the full bounty. If someone contacts me and says "have you tried [x] methodology, for improving your typing? I've heard it's effective for things like that", I hadn't heard of [x] methodology, and I google around to find some way to learn [x] methodology, and this eventually leads me to a solution to my problem, I'll pay out a partial bounty (of around 10%), at my discretion.

See also: software that I would pay for, if it existed.

Currently Posted Bounties

[your preferred price] - Answer questions about your area of expertise

Would you be glad to have me book a slot on your calendar, for me to ask you questions about your field, in exchange for money? Sign up here.

I try to make it really low friction to schedule tutoring sessions. I want it to be the case that, whenever there’s something that I’m having difficulty understanding, either as part of my work, or when I’m reading a textbook, I can really quickly schedule a tutoring session with someone, to get clarity on that material.

As such, it would be helpful for me to have a list of people who are interested in doing tutoring, in a variety of subjects, with their hourly rate, and a calendar link. (I’m specifically trying to avoid any back-and-forth scheduling.) If you already have and use a calendar scheduling link, fill out this form to be in my tutoring rolodex.

I’m particularly interested in people who know about Math, Economics, Computer programing, Physics, or Biology. But if you have expertise in something else, feel free to share your info.

Note that you can set your rate arbitrarily high. If there’s any amount of money at which you would be glad to have a one hour meeting with me, in which I ask you questions about your field, leave your contact details!

$2000 - A pointer to any intervention that will mitigate, slow, or delay cognitive decline from aging

Or, alternatively, boost fluid intelligence or neuroplasticity.

If you know of unusually good resources on this topic, I would pay a partial bounty for being directed to them.

$2000 - An introduction to someone that I end up dating for more than a year.

See my date me page.

$1000 - Any intervention that significantly improves my personal learning rate, especially at understanding and assimilating technical / mathematical concepts.

I've collected a bunch of heuristics and processes for effective learning over the course of my life, but I continue to be excited to learn new methods. If there's something you do that helps you learn stuff, there's a pretty good chance that I'd like to learn how to do it from you.

To be eligible for the full bounty, the effect should either be objectively verifiable (eg "there's a clear change in the slope of the progress-graph at the point of the intervention"), or if subjective, be strong enough that I am personally impressed that it is significant. I'll give partial bounties for less impressive interventions.

Prior bounty recipients:

  1. John Maxwell, for giving me the core idea of doing textbook exercises on a spaced repetition schedule

$1000 - Any intervention that improves my sleep quality

More specifically, any intervention that...

...as measured by my Oura ring, in a randomized (night by night) experiment, and is something that is feasible for me to do most nights.

$1000 - Safely cure my allergies.

I have both seasonal sinus allergies and food allergies, and they suck. I’ll gladly pay $1000 to anyone who can point me towards an intervention that can manage any of the following:

Obviously, this needs to be done in a way that is safe and healthy. I’m not interested in an almost-cure that causes me to go into anaphylactic shock down the line.

$800 - Some method for intentionally shifting my physiological state, that I come to use reliably

Specifically, I'm interested in methods for rapidly shifting into the following physiological/ psychological states:

I've experimented with a number of methods in this space including meditation, specific music, isochronic tones, auto-suggestion, and chemical stimulants. I'm interested in anything that might be faster or more reliable than my current toolset. That might include conditioned triggers, biofeedback, brain entrainment, hypnotic processes, or something even weirder. I'll pay out a bounty for anything that I end up using regularly.

$500 - Increase my typing speed by at least 10 wpm

Over the course of 2020, I brought my average typing speed (as measured in typeracer) up from about 59 words per minute to an average speed of about 75 wpm. I haven't put much effort into it since then, but I’m interested in any intervention that would systematically increase my typing speed into the range of 80 to 90 wpm, with 15 or fewer hours of practice.

$400 - Any intervention that would allow me to read precisely and correctly

I have some kind of cognitive bug such that I have substantial difficulty reading individual characters correctly. Unless I am going very slowly and carefully, paying attention with high intensity, and sometimes even then, I’m apt to read words and especially numbers incorrectly. For instance, I’ll read the number “53” as “38”, or “24” as “28” and not notice that I made an error.

I’m interested in any intervention that can diagnose, repair, or compensate for, this deficiency.

$200 - A pointer to a safe, side-effect free steroid for increasing muscular strength.

$100 - Any intervention to safely and healthily increase my bodyweight.

I weigh about 123 pounds, and would prefer to weigh around 150 pounds, so long as I can do that healthily.

$50 - A photo of me that displaces one of my top 4 photos, ranked by total score, on photofeeler.com.

For context, these are my current 4 highest ranked photos. I think these shouldn't be that hard to beat.

$1 per submission - links to video clips of people being asked probing questions

I’ll pay $1 (up to a total of $130 in total) for every link to a youtube video of an interview, press conference, or similar, where the interview subject is being asked about something sensitive, embarrassing, scandalous, or stressful.

Drop your link on this google form, with a paypal address for me to send you money.

Criteria:

Some central examples of what I want:

Anything that you might describe as “X-person being grilled about Y” is great.