An idea that might be both unsustainable and potentially dangerous, but also potentially useful, is to have someone teach as a final test. Less an exam and more a project (with oversight?). Of course, these trainees could be authentic or disguised testers.
Problems with this idea (non-exhaustive): - Rationality doesn’t necessarily make you good at teaching, - Teaching the basics badly are likely to have negative effects on the trainee, - This could potentially be gamed by reformulated regurgitation.
So… What behaves differently in the presence of Rationality. I like Brennan’s idea of time pressure, though he himself demonstrates that you don’t need to have finished training for it, and it doesn’t really hit the mark.
Or: What requires Rationality? Given Hidden Knowledge (may only require facts that are known, but not to them), one could present new true facts that need to be distinguished from new well-crafted falsehoods (QM anyone?^^). This still only indicates, but it may be part of the process. If they game this by studying everything, and thinking for themselves, and coming to correct conclusions, I think that counts as passing the test. Maybe I am currently not creative enough though. This test could also be performed in isolation, and since time would probably be a relevant component, it would likely not require huge amounts of resources to provide this isolation. Repeat tests could incorporate this (or seemingly incorporate it) too.
If you wanted to invest more effort, you could also specifically not isolate them, but put them in a pressured situation (again, I am being influenced by memories of a certain ceremony. But it is simply really good.) This doesn’t have to be societal pressure, but this kind at least makes rash decisions less likely to be costly.
I can’t really formulate the idea concretely, but: A test inspired by some of ye olden psychology experiments might provide double yield by both testing the rationality of the person in question and also disabuse them of their trust. Though I can see a lot of ways this idea could go awry.
An issue that most if not all of my tests run into is that they limit what could be taught, since it is still part of the test. This is a problem that should be solved, not just because it irritates me, but because this also means that random chance could easier change the results.
This is, I think, because so far all tests check for the correct answer. This, in itself, may be the wrong approach. Since we try to test techniques which have an impact on the whole person, not “just” their problem solving. I would for example hope that a crisis situation would on average benefit from the people being trained in rationality, not just in regards to “the problem solving itself”, but also the emotional response, the ability to see the larger picture, prioritization and initial reaction speed, and so on.
(Maybe having them devise a test is a good test...^^ Productive, too, on the whole.)
(I can think of at least one problem of yours that I still haven’t solved, though I therefore can’t say whether or not my not-solving-it is actually showing a lack of rationality[though it’s likely], or rather depends on something else. Not sure if I should mention it, but since you (thankfully) protect the answer, I don’t think that I need to. This, still, is asking for a correct answer though.)
That’s all I can think of for now. Though I am not really satisfied… Do I need to be “at a higher level” to be able to evaluate this, since I don’t fully grasp what it is that should be tested yet? Seems like either an option or a stop sign..
An idea that might be both unsustainable and potentially dangerous, but also potentially useful, is to have someone teach as a final test. Less an exam and more a project (with oversight?). Of course, these trainees could be authentic or disguised testers.
Problems with this idea (non-exhaustive): - Rationality doesn’t necessarily make you good at teaching, - Teaching the basics badly are likely to have negative effects on the trainee, - This could potentially be gamed by reformulated regurgitation.
So… What behaves differently in the presence of Rationality. I like Brennan’s idea of time pressure, though he himself demonstrates that you don’t need to have finished training for it, and it doesn’t really hit the mark.
Or: What requires Rationality? Given Hidden Knowledge (may only require facts that are known, but not to them), one could present new true facts that need to be distinguished from new well-crafted falsehoods (QM anyone?^^). This still only indicates, but it may be part of the process. If they game this by studying everything, and thinking for themselves, and coming to correct conclusions, I think that counts as passing the test. Maybe I am currently not creative enough though. This test could also be performed in isolation, and since time would probably be a relevant component, it would likely not require huge amounts of resources to provide this isolation. Repeat tests could incorporate this (or seemingly incorporate it) too.
If you wanted to invest more effort, you could also specifically not isolate them, but put them in a pressured situation (again, I am being influenced by memories of a certain ceremony. But it is simply really good.) This doesn’t have to be societal pressure, but this kind at least makes rash decisions less likely to be costly.
I can’t really formulate the idea concretely, but: A test inspired by some of ye olden psychology experiments might provide double yield by both testing the rationality of the person in question and also disabuse them of their trust. Though I can see a lot of ways this idea could go awry.
An issue that most if not all of my tests run into is that they limit what could be taught, since it is still part of the test. This is a problem that should be solved, not just because it irritates me, but because this also means that random chance could easier change the results.
This is, I think, because so far all tests check for the correct answer. This, in itself, may be the wrong approach. Since we try to test techniques which have an impact on the whole person, not “just” their problem solving. I would for example hope that a crisis situation would on average benefit from the people being trained in rationality, not just in regards to “the problem solving itself”, but also the emotional response, the ability to see the larger picture, prioritization and initial reaction speed, and so on.
(Maybe having them devise a test is a good test...^^ Productive, too, on the whole.)
(I can think of at least one problem of yours that I still haven’t solved, though I therefore can’t say whether or not my not-solving-it is actually showing a lack of rationality[though it’s likely], or rather depends on something else. Not sure if I should mention it, but since you (thankfully) protect the answer, I don’t think that I need to. This, still, is asking for a correct answer though.)
That’s all I can think of for now. Though I am not really satisfied… Do I need to be “at a higher level” to be able to evaluate this, since I don’t fully grasp what it is that should be tested yet? Seems like either an option or a stop sign..