This is my first comment here; I do webcomics and a bit of category theory!
I gravitate towards certain aspects of rationality because I have an aesthetic preference for certain things like simplicity and consistency, which gives me a fondness for principles like Occam’s Razor and identifying ways that peope often fail to be consistent, which rationalists tend to talk about afaik.
But I wouldn’t say I’m a truthseeker, just an ‘intellectual hedonist’. I have a sense of ‘curiosity’, but it’s more towards ‘cool stuff’ rather than ‘true stuff’. My sense of what’s ‘cool’ is pretty arbitrary.
Anyone else feels similarly? Would this be a good place for me? My goals might not completely align with yours, but compared to most other places on the Internet, this place has a higher concentration of stuff I find pleasing (or at least not-displeasing) to read :P
Honestly, I think most of the rationality content on LW is insight porn[1] and apply a very heavy karma penalty (-100) to the Rationality tag to suppress it from showing up on my feed:
That said, I am very much a rationalist/share rationality values. I just mostly read LW for AI posts (“World Modeling” and “World Optimization” posts are a nice bonus).
Yeah, I think I’m drawn to insight porn because of my intellectual hedonism (which mostly cares about what feels good to read about than what actually improves my ability to have true beliefs and make decisions that result in the attainment of my goals) XD But I’ll be careful!
I think I’ve read one or two AI posts which were surprisingly accessible considering I have no background in AI.
This is my first comment here; I do webcomics and a bit of category theory!
I gravitate towards certain aspects of rationality because I have an aesthetic preference for certain things like simplicity and consistency, which gives me a fondness for principles like Occam’s Razor and identifying ways that peope often fail to be consistent, which rationalists tend to talk about afaik.
But I wouldn’t say I’m a truthseeker, just an ‘intellectual hedonist’. I have a sense of ‘curiosity’, but it’s more towards ‘cool stuff’ rather than ‘true stuff’. My sense of what’s ‘cool’ is pretty arbitrary.
Anyone else feels similarly? Would this be a good place for me? My goals might not completely align with yours, but compared to most other places on the Internet, this place has a higher concentration of stuff I find pleasing (or at least not-displeasing) to read :P
I think LW would be a good fit for you.
Honestly, I think most of the rationality content on LW is insight porn[1] and apply a very heavy karma penalty (-100) to the Rationality tag to suppress it from showing up on my feed:
That said, I am very much a rationalist/share rationality values. I just mostly read LW for AI posts (“World Modeling” and “World Optimization” posts are a nice bonus).
Obligatory disclaimer that I’ve listened to the Sequences multiple times and would probably give it another listen later on.
Yeah, I think I’m drawn to insight porn because of my intellectual hedonism (which mostly cares about what feels good to read about than what actually improves my ability to have true beliefs and make decisions that result in the attainment of my goals) XD But I’ll be careful!
I think I’ve read one or two AI posts which were surprisingly accessible considering I have no background in AI.