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I've mentioned this before in a past game spoiler thread, but it deserves its own spotlight.
There is a story that you can find online called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Its premise: What if Harry was a bit smarter, and had loving stepparents who had taught him about science and critical thinking and logic and cognitive biases? Place this new Harry in the same whimsical world of Hogwarts, facing correspondingly more difficult challenges, and you get one of the greatest things I've ever read.
This story has been published online, chapter by chapter, since 2010, and it is finally complete today. You can read it here:
http://hpmor.com/chapter/1
It is very roughly edited compared to a published book. Its tone shifts multiple times. It features occasional references to things I don't care about. On the other hand, it features a tense and awesome plot. The characters are incredible examples of smart, rational people who nevertheless make serious mistakes. It made me laugh and cry and contemplate the purpose of life and learn how to think better. It's my favorite piece of writing, and I recommend it.
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Heh, you actually introduced that to me when you posted that here, and I've always meant to thank you. As to the story itself, I'm not sure what I feel about it anymore. It gripped me early on, but as time went on its flaws became more apparent, and I haven't picked it up for the last round of updates which started a month or two ago.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
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Thanks for the reminder that updates have started again. I thought it was still on hold.
Surprise! Turns out I'm a girl!
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I read it from the beginning a year or so ago. Great concept, and fantastic deconstruction of things like the wizarding economy. I lost interest around the Azkaban escape, though, which dragged on for something like thirty chapters without introducing any more of the rationalist analysis.
March 15th, 2015, 17:02
(This post was last modified: March 15th, 2015, 17:03 by Gustaran.)
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I've read the first 12 chapters or so and think it's pretty good so far. My favourite part was when Harry explained that Quidditch rules make no sense since catching the Snitch gives way too many points. That's exactly what I thought when I read about Quidditch for the first time years ago. 
March 16th, 2015, 07:03
(This post was last modified: March 16th, 2015, 07:03 by Voldymort.)
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A Harry Potter fanfiction of 2000 pages? Don't mind if i do! 
Never trust something that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die!
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I had one of those "the world is a small place" moments the other day. I was looking at reddit's planning sheet for this and saw Sevenspirit's avatar there...
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People actually enjoy this?
I remember getting up to the chapter where Harry plays a trick with the soda, and quitting after getting sick of the author's constant condescending attitude. Now, I'm definitely not the brightest bulb in the box, but even I had guessed what the answer to the riddle was quite a while before it was answered, and having to go through a step by step explanation of the confirmation bias was just putrid. Maybe that sort of attitude would belong in a university course, where I would actually be learning something, but in a fictional story that shit doesn't fly- for me, anyway.
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I don't understand the popularity of this thing. It's a bizarre self-insert fanfic for the author's weird theories that isn't terribly well written and has sketchy-to-terribly-wrong science.
This guy also has a pretty good critique of the bad science that is moderately amusing: http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/tagged/Hariezer-Yudotter.
It's also 660,000 odd words long. There are better and shorter things I could be reading. Like War and Peace.
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(March 16th, 2015, 23:14)fluffyflyingpig Wrote: I don't understand the popularity of this thing. It's a bizarre self-insert fanfic for the author's weird theories that isn't terribly well written and has sketchy-to-terribly-wrong science.
This guy also has a pretty good critique of the bad science that is moderately amusing: http://su3su2u1.tumblr.com/tagged/Hariezer-Yudotter.
It's also 660,000 odd words long. There are better and shorter things I could be reading. Like War and Peace.
This. Great critique, and very educational in the process.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
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