I was just thinking how “rationalist” has been an increasingly positive-associated label that we can be proud to self-identify as, and it’s currently serving as a useful positive signal when others apply it to themselves (for me at least).
The LW community and related rationalist clusters have been doing influential work in various fields: AI and AI safety, the theory and practice of science, journalism, effective altruism, entrepreneurship, investing, pedagogical fanfiction, and more. As a result, the term “rationalist” has been building momentum, and I expect we’ll increasingly see high-performers associating with it in various domains, the way “evidence-based” has gotten to the point of sounding good in every domain.
I’ve also noticed that using the longer label “aspiring rationalist” is less common these days, and I’m glad we’re just settling on “rationalist”, since anyway rationalists are many things besides epistemically humble and goal-oriented.
Nice, thanks for sharing.
I was just thinking how “rationalist” has been an increasingly positive-associated label that we can be proud to self-identify as, and it’s currently serving as a useful positive signal when others apply it to themselves (for me at least).
The LW community and related rationalist clusters have been doing influential work in various fields: AI and AI safety, the theory and practice of science, journalism, effective altruism, entrepreneurship, investing, pedagogical fanfiction, and more. As a result, the term “rationalist” has been building momentum, and I expect we’ll increasingly see high-performers associating with it in various domains, the way “evidence-based” has gotten to the point of sounding good in every domain.
I’ve also noticed that using the longer label “aspiring rationalist” is less common these days, and I’m glad we’re just settling on “rationalist”, since anyway rationalists are many things besides epistemically humble and goal-oriented.