Imagine that we take someone who has a bunch of ridiculous beliefs and we remove them one by one. And suppose that we say that this person is becoming Less Wrong. I don’t think this is what the name “Less Wrong” was really intended to mean, but let’s run with it anyway.
For what it’s worth, I think that is what it was intended to mean. Rather than having the yardstick of other people, and asking “am I more right than other people?”, one has the yardstick of one’s past self, and asks “am I less wrong than I was before?”. This specifically focuses your attention on ways that you might have a bunch of ridiculous beliefs, and be just as ignorant of them as the people around you whose ridiculous beliefs you find it easy to spot.
For what it’s worth, I think that is what it was intended to mean. Rather than having the yardstick of other people, and asking “am I more right than other people?”, one has the yardstick of one’s past self, and asks “am I less wrong than I was before?”. This specifically focuses your attention on ways that you might have a bunch of ridiculous beliefs, and be just as ignorant of them as the people around you whose ridiculous beliefs you find it easy to spot.