Ep. 2: Wingardium Leviscrewyou

In chapter 2, a woman turns into a cat. Anthea and Regina discuss the pros and cons of reasoning from first principles, the collision of the profound and the mundane, and a cool Bavarian.

Citations and further reading

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, chapter 2: https://hpmor.com/chapter/2
• HPMoR and Science: https://hpmor.com/science/
• “Rationality Quotes 1,” Eliezer Yudkowsky. LessWrong. 15 January 2008. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LiDk2XMBFmRiju4x3/rationality-quotes-1
• “Interstitial Comments on Dawkins,” Mencius Moldbug. Unqualified Reservations.11 October 2007. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/10/interstitial-comments-on-dawkins/
• “The Anti-Reactionary FAQ,” Scott Alexander. Slate Star Codex. 20 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131126130345/http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary-faq 
• “Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries,” Klint Finley. TechCrunch, 22 November 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131124080402/https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/
• “Mr. Jones Is Rather Concerned,” Mencius Moldbut. Unqualified Reservation. 28 November 2013. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2013/11/mr-jones-is-rather-concerned/ 
• “Symmetry for Dummies: Noether’s Theorem,” Will Sweatman. Hackaday.com. 14 June 2016. https://hackaday.com/2016/06/14/symmetry-for-dummies-noethers-theorem/
• “E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and Conservation Laws,” Nina Byers. 23 September 1998. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.physics/9807044
• “ELI5 What are Hamiltonian and Langrarian Mechanics? What do they concern?” answer by u/CreatureOfPrometheus. 4 May 2019. https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bkka3z/comment/emhm30p/
• “Unitarity,” Wikipedia. Accessed 29 March 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarity
• “My Childhood Death Spiral,” Eliezer Yudkowsky. LessWrong. 14 September 2008. https://www.lesswrong.com/s/SXurf2mWFw8LX2mkG/p/uD9TDHPwQ5hx4CgaX
• “How Peter Thiel’s Relationship With Eliezer Yudkowsky Launched the AI Revolution,” Keach Hagey. Wired. 20 May 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20260204143917/https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-the-optimist-open-ai-sam-altman/ 
• “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out,” from The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Richard Feynman. Original interview 1981, collected in 1999.