Contact
The best way to contact me is via email at riceissa@gmail.com.
If you prefer, you can friend me on Facebook and message me there. My acceptance algorithm for Facebook friend requests looks something like this: if 50+ mutual friends, then accept; if 1+ mutual friends and when I look at this person’s Facebook wall it actually has content that looks like it was written by a human, and this person seems like a real human, then accept; if I’ve met this person in real life or they message me/email me simultaneously with the request or I otherwise recognize their online activity from elsewhere, then accept; if the account looks like obvious spam, then reject; else ignore the request for now to see if I can make a better decision later. In particular, if we have few mutual friends and your Facebook wall is empty or has only link posts for random internet articles, I am unlikely to accept your friend request. (Note from 2022-10-21: I have been kind of bad about responding to friend requests lately, as I haven’t been using Facebook as regularly. If you really want me to accept your request, you can email me.)
You can also message me on Discord (my username is
issarice) or Telegram.
If you would like to ask me a question that I can answer publicly, you can use my “ask me anything” repository on GitHub or my Tumblr “Ask me anything” form. I will be notified by email (via GitHub or Tumblr, respectively) but will respond publicly (if I choose to respond). Content is not shared between the GitHub repo and Tumblr, so e.g. a question posted on GitHub will not show up on Tumblr.
You can also send me anonymous feedback (an idea I got from Luke Muehlhauser and Gwern).
I try to respond to everyone who contacts me, but for various reasons I might not; feel free to ping me if I don’t respond. Also see “I emailed my customer asking multiple questions. Their reply addressed only one. What is the polite way to point this out?”; i.e. I will try to respond to every question or point, but sometimes I might not (for whatever reason). If you really want an answer, feel free to re-ask the question/restate the point.
See the page on account names for account names I use on various websites. You can try to contact me through those sites (if they offer a messaging feature) but other than email/Facebook Messenger/Discord/Telegram I can’t guarantee I will check them regularly. In some cases (such as Quora) I have disabled message requests on a platform as they were used almost entirely for spam.
You can stalk me online (e.g. by following me on Quora or Facebook or by reading what I have on this website or my contributions to other sites). I also don’t mind if you ask questions about me on Quora, if you want to passively contact me that way, though I don’t control what Quora allows.
I don’t think having high standards and being very accessible/welcoming of newcomers and inexperienced people are incompatible. (See Duncan Sabien and Jonathan Blow – and maybe Terence Tao as well – as examples of people who embody both.) I strive to have both properties.