I tried typing those queries (and related ones) into google, to see if someone could easily find some sort of starting point for rationality. “How to think better” yields many lists of tips that are mediocre at best (things like: exercise, become more curious, etc). About halfway down the page, interestingly, is a post on CSA, but it’s not a great one. It seems to mostly say that to get better at thinking you first have to realize that you are not naturally a fantastic thinker. This is true, but it’s not something that points the way forward towards bayesian rationality. (by the way, “how to figure out what’s true” provides essentially nothing of value, at least on the first page).
In order for someone to go down the path you’ve identified on their own, as a curious individual, they would have to have a substantial amount of luck to get started. Either they would have to have somehow stumbled upon enough of an explanation of heuristics and biases that they realized the importance of them (which is a combination of two fairly unlikely events), or they would have to be studying those subjects for some reason other than their instrumental value. Someone who started off curiously studying AI would have a much better chance at finding this path, for this reason. AI researchers in this instance, have a tremendous advantage when it comes to rationality over researchers in the hard sciences, engineers, etc.
I’m not an expert, but with this in mind it should be a rather simple matter to apply a few strategies so that LW shows up near the top of relevant search results. At the very least we could create wiki pages with titles like “How to Think Better” and “How to Figure Out What’s True” with links to relevant articles or sequences. The fact that rationality has little obvious commercial value should work in our favor by keeping competing content rather sparse.
Is rationality a common enough word that people would naturally jump to it when trying to figure out how to think better? I’m not sure how often I used it before Less Wrong, but I know that it is substantially more commonplace after reading the sequences.
Yes, sign out of Google or use a different browser where you’re not signed in, and you’ll see that Eliezer successfully took over the word ‘rationality’. Let this be a lesson about what is possible.
I’ve added ads on Google AdWords that will start coming up for this in a couple days when the new ads get approved so that anyone searching for something even vaguely like “How to think better” or “How to figure out what’s true” will get pointed at Less Wrong. Not as good as owning the top 3 spots in the organic results, but some folks click on ads, especially when it’s in the top spot. And we do need to make landing on the path towards rationality less of a stroke of luck and more a matter of certainty for those who are looking.
You’re right; mediocre is not the best word for what I meant there. Humans generally function better when they exercise. But it doesn’t fundamentally change the way people think. If we use a car metaphor, exercise is things like changing the oil and keeping it well tuned. It can make a big difference. But not as big of a difference as upgrading the engine.
I tried typing those queries (and related ones) into google, to see if someone could easily find some sort of starting point for rationality. “How to think better” yields many lists of tips that are mediocre at best (things like: exercise, become more curious, etc). About halfway down the page, interestingly, is a post on CSA, but it’s not a great one. It seems to mostly say that to get better at thinking you first have to realize that you are not naturally a fantastic thinker. This is true, but it’s not something that points the way forward towards bayesian rationality. (by the way, “how to figure out what’s true” provides essentially nothing of value, at least on the first page).
In order for someone to go down the path you’ve identified on their own, as a curious individual, they would have to have a substantial amount of luck to get started. Either they would have to have somehow stumbled upon enough of an explanation of heuristics and biases that they realized the importance of them (which is a combination of two fairly unlikely events), or they would have to be studying those subjects for some reason other than their instrumental value. Someone who started off curiously studying AI would have a much better chance at finding this path, for this reason. AI researchers in this instance, have a tremendous advantage when it comes to rationality over researchers in the hard sciences, engineers, etc.
I’m not an expert, but with this in mind it should be a rather simple matter to apply a few strategies so that LW shows up near the top of relevant search results. At the very least we could create wiki pages with titles like “How to Think Better” and “How to Figure Out What’s True” with links to relevant articles or sequences. The fact that rationality has little obvious commercial value should work in our favor by keeping competing content rather sparse.
When I search for keyword: rationality, I get HPMoR for #2, yudkowsky.net for #5, and What Do We Mean By “Rationality”? for #7. Not sure how much my search history is affecting this.
Is rationality a common enough word that people would naturally jump to it when trying to figure out how to think better? I’m not sure how often I used it before Less Wrong, but I know that it is substantially more commonplace after reading the sequences.
You probably get this result because google has figured out it’s a better search-result for you.… because you’ve already gone to those pages before.
Not sure how many people outside of the web world realise this, but google does personalise search results based on your own personal search-habits.
People who have not yet been to any of these pages are much less likely to get the same set of search results as this.
Edit: lukeprog’s response (about two below here) below is how to see google for what it actually is like for a newbie.
I get exactly the same result.
Yes, sign out of Google or use a different browser where you’re not signed in, and you’ll see that Eliezer successfully took over the word ‘rationality’. Let this be a lesson about what is possible.
That’s a really good idea. Upvoted.
Thanks MinibearRex.
I’ve added ads on Google AdWords that will start coming up for this in a couple days when the new ads get approved so that anyone searching for something even vaguely like “How to think better” or “How to figure out what’s true” will get pointed at Less Wrong. Not as good as owning the top 3 spots in the organic results, but some folks click on ads, especially when it’s in the top spot. And we do need to make landing on the path towards rationality less of a stroke of luck and more a matter of certainty for those who are looking.
Do you have any data from this campaign?
It’s been almost three months. How’s the data on this campaign going?
That sounds great. Thanks for taking the time to do that.
“Exercise” is really not a mediocre tip at all.
You’re right; mediocre is not the best word for what I meant there. Humans generally function better when they exercise. But it doesn’t fundamentally change the way people think. If we use a car metaphor, exercise is things like changing the oil and keeping it well tuned. It can make a big difference. But not as big of a difference as upgrading the engine.
Upvoted for actually trying it out.