I’d add a caveat that I suspect it’s not quite depression that does it, but something else, which I’m not sure I can name accurately enough to be useful…
This sounds right to me. Something in the rough space of depression, but not quite the same thing.
I think you might be—from your LW-rationality-influenced vantage point—underestimating how prevalent various cognitive distortions (or, let’s just say it in plain language: stupidity and wrongheadedness) are in even “average smart people”.
That’s certainly possible, and I definitely agree that there are many kinds of wrongheadedness that are common in smart people but seem to be much less common among LW readers.
That said, my impression of “average smart people” mostly comes from the people I’ve met at university, hobbies, and the like. I don’t live in the Bay or near any of the rationalist hubs. So most of the folks I interact with, and am thinking about, aren’t active LW readers (though they might have run across the occasional LW article). It’s certainly possible that I’m falling victim to some kind of selection bias in my impression of the average smart person, but I doubt that being too influenced by LW rationality is the filter in question.
Much of the best of what LW has to offer has always been (as one old post here put it) “rationality as non-self-destruction”. The point isn’t necessarily that you’re rational, and therefore, you win; the point is that by default, you lose, in various stupid and avoidable ways; LW-style rationality helps you not do that.
Hmm. “Rationalists might not win, but at least they don’t lose just because they’re shooting themselves in the foot.” I like that, and think that I agree.
This sounds right to me. Something in the rough space of depression, but not quite the same thing.
That’s certainly possible, and I definitely agree that there are many kinds of wrongheadedness that are common in smart people but seem to be much less common among LW readers.
That said, my impression of “average smart people” mostly comes from the people I’ve met at university, hobbies, and the like. I don’t live in the Bay or near any of the rationalist hubs. So most of the folks I interact with, and am thinking about, aren’t active LW readers (though they might have run across the occasional LW article). It’s certainly possible that I’m falling victim to some kind of selection bias in my impression of the average smart person, but I doubt that being too influenced by LW rationality is the filter in question.
Hmm. “Rationalists might not win, but at least they don’t lose just because they’re shooting themselves in the foot.” I like that, and think that I agree.