“Lumenator 2.0” by Keri Warr

Late in 2019 I, like many of my rationalist friends purchased the parts for and assembled a genuine, bona fide LUMENATOR™️ - a device for greatly increasing the brightness of your home - according to the original specification. To me, lumenators are the quintessetial application of the More Dakka mindset: when you face a problem that responds positively to a little bit of X and responds even more positively to larger amounts of X, you don't just stop applying X once you feel you've done a reasonable amount of it, you add more and more and more until your problem goes away or X stops working. I built a lumenator not for seasonal affective disorder, but because it helps me wake up feeling refreshed in the morning and I feel happy when my house is very bright inside. In 2019 I lived in a small group house in Waterloo, ON and we'd often give people directions to our house like "turn the corner and then look for the one with ridiuclously bright light streaming from the windows". They'd show up without trouble and remark: "Wow, I didn't actually expect I'd be able to find your place based on those [...]

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First published:
December 31st, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/p869mKDGL3onYsGYt/lumenator-2-0

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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