“Catching up” to other people on their technical knowledge is bad because rationality is not, primarily, about technical knowledge. Even if you’re trying to catch up on rationality skills, it’s emotionally unproductive to go e.g., “Man, Paul is just so much better at noticing confusion than I am.” In my experience, it’s better to view rationality up-skilling as accruing benefits for yourself (e.g. now I can introspect reliably, I can notice at least half of my rationalizations, this is great!).
I would like to catch up to their thinking abilities so that I can effectively contribute to many discussions. Would you advocate against that mindset as well?
It’s hard to say, because I’m not you and I can’t infer the emotional tenor of your “catching-up drive” from this comment. So, take this with a grain of salt: If the aspiration is positive, if you’re excited to gain skills which other people already possess, then maybe the aspiration is good. If, however, you feel like dirt because you’re just so uncalibrated, then that’s probably toxic, and I’d quash it.
Also, maybe just try contributing, and see what happens. I, for example, welcome good-faith comments from people of all rationality and technical skill levels.
“Catching up” to other people on their technical knowledge is bad because rationality is not, primarily, about technical knowledge. Even if you’re trying to catch up on rationality skills, it’s emotionally unproductive to go e.g., “Man, Paul is just so much better at noticing confusion than I am.” In my experience, it’s better to view rationality up-skilling as accruing benefits for yourself (e.g. now I can introspect reliably, I can notice at least half of my rationalizations, this is great!).
It’s hard to say, because I’m not you and I can’t infer the emotional tenor of your “catching-up drive” from this comment. So, take this with a grain of salt: If the aspiration is positive, if you’re excited to gain skills which other people already possess, then maybe the aspiration is good. If, however, you feel like dirt because you’re just so uncalibrated, then that’s probably toxic, and I’d quash it.
Also, maybe just try contributing, and see what happens. I, for example, welcome good-faith comments from people of all rationality and technical skill levels.