Results: It appears that I am commenting on LW! That can’t ever be the result of any sort of planned course of action. I’m going to go work on a pending document about strategy for developing a framework for developing a framework for ‘naturalistic meta-ethics’. If I run out of steam on that I’ll start thinking about how to think about something cool like timeless validity semantics instead.
Still, it took quite a bit of work to get to the point where mindfulness of local irrationality led to probabilistic achievement of what might end up happening to be my (or whoever ends up mattering’s) actual (super)goals, if I’m at even at that point yet, and I suspect that most people would probably benefit from questioning larger scale irrationality more than local stuff, even after taking into account cumulative skill growth etc.
(The point being that some rationality is indeed better than no rationality, but if rationality is a limited resource you might as well start with the most important potential sources of irrationality, unless there’s some kind of bootstrapping dynamic that I don’t see right now.)
Possible bootstrapping: you might find that you have a surprising amount of small energy drains, and cleaning them up enables you to pursue your larger goals much more effectively.
I’d suspect getting into the habit of dealing with small scale short term irrationalities would act as a bootstrapping dynamic of sorts. Especially if one goes from there to asking “in what way right now is my current behavior irrational when taking into account my longer term goals?”
But yes, I think I will indeed be trying this and perhaps seeking to form such a habit.
(The point being that some rationality is indeed better than no rationality, but if rationality is a limited resource you might as well start with the most important potential sources of irrationality, unless there’s some kind of bootstrapping dynamic that I don’t see right now.)
No, I’m suggesting that you do focus on the short-term stuff, like sitting in a way that strains your thigh. Try it. See what happens.
Good heuristic.
Results: It appears that I am commenting on LW! That can’t ever be the result of any sort of planned course of action. I’m going to go work on a pending document about strategy for developing a framework for developing a framework for ‘naturalistic meta-ethics’. If I run out of steam on that I’ll start thinking about how to think about something cool like timeless validity semantics instead.
Still, it took quite a bit of work to get to the point where mindfulness of local irrationality led to probabilistic achievement of what might end up happening to be my (or whoever ends up mattering’s) actual (super)goals, if I’m at even at that point yet, and I suspect that most people would probably benefit from questioning larger scale irrationality more than local stuff, even after taking into account cumulative skill growth etc.
(The point being that some rationality is indeed better than no rationality, but if rationality is a limited resource you might as well start with the most important potential sources of irrationality, unless there’s some kind of bootstrapping dynamic that I don’t see right now.)
Possible bootstrapping: you might find that you have a surprising amount of small energy drains, and cleaning them up enables you to pursue your larger goals much more effectively.
I suspect there might well be. Developing a skill, one often starts with simple, achievable exercises.
Edit: I mean in general, not you personally, who I expect would be rather more accomplished than most people. Nancy’s comment rings true with me.
I’d suspect getting into the habit of dealing with small scale short term irrationalities would act as a bootstrapping dynamic of sorts. Especially if one goes from there to asking “in what way right now is my current behavior irrational when taking into account my longer term goals?”
But yes, I think I will indeed be trying this and perhaps seeking to form such a habit.
Habit building