*”Politics is the mind killer”: This got me to take a serious look at my political views. I have changed a few of my positions, and my level of confidence on several others. I’ve also (mostly) stopped using people’s political views to decide whether they are “on my side” or not.
*A Human’s Guide to Words: I have gotten better at catching myself when I say unclear or potentially misleading things. I have also learned to stop getting involved in arguments over the meanings of words, or whether some entity belongs in an ill-defined category.
*Overall, Less Wrong made me less of a jerk. I am able to have discussions with people on things where we don’t agree without thinking of them as evil or inferior. Better yet, I know when not to have the discussion in the first place. This saves both me and other people a lot of time and unpleasant feelings. I have a more realistic self-assessment, which lets me avoid missing opportunities to win or being disappointed when I overreach. I can understand other people a bit better and my social interactions are somewhat improved. Note that this last is kind of hard to test, so I don’t know how big the effect is.
*”Politics is the mind killer”: This got me to take a serious look at my political views. I have changed a few of my positions, and my level of confidence on several others. I’ve also (mostly) stopped using people’s political views to decide whether they are “on my side” or not.
*A Human’s Guide to Words: I have gotten better at catching myself when I say unclear or potentially misleading things. I have also learned to stop getting involved in arguments over the meanings of words, or whether some entity belongs in an ill-defined category.
*Overall, Less Wrong made me less of a jerk. I am able to have discussions with people on things where we don’t agree without thinking of them as evil or inferior. Better yet, I know when not to have the discussion in the first place. This saves both me and other people a lot of time and unpleasant feelings. I have a more realistic self-assessment, which lets me avoid missing opportunities to win or being disappointed when I overreach. I can understand other people a bit better and my social interactions are somewhat improved. Note that this last is kind of hard to test, so I don’t know how big the effect is.
.