While this sequence ended up spanning more than 2019, I think this represents some of the best ‘psychology’ on LW in 2019, and have some hope (like Hazard) that all of it will get represented or collected in some way.
Writing a pitch for the sequence feels like writing a pitch for writing about psychology on LW in general, as the sequence itself has it all: book reviews, highly upvoted posts, clear explanations of detailed models, commentary from other experts in the field. So why care about psychology on LW? Both because 1) it’s often a source of rapid advances in personal effectiveness, 2) that these sorts of problems are often ‘adaptive’ make them difficult to solve and thus fosters learned helplessness or unproductive thrashing, and 3) taking a systematic, rational view helps separate out the wheat from the chaff (when it comes to the advice and models) and also helps make the ‘squishy’ sort of self-development accessible to those suspicious of plans and models with poor justification.
I do think, at least for the IFS material, that it’d be useful to pull in at least this comment, and possibly more of the discussion with pjeby more broadly.
While this sequence ended up spanning more than 2019, I think this represents some of the best ‘psychology’ on LW in 2019, and have some hope (like Hazard) that all of it will get represented or collected in some way.
Writing a pitch for the sequence feels like writing a pitch for writing about psychology on LW in general, as the sequence itself has it all: book reviews, highly upvoted posts, clear explanations of detailed models, commentary from other experts in the field. So why care about psychology on LW? Both because 1) it’s often a source of rapid advances in personal effectiveness, 2) that these sorts of problems are often ‘adaptive’ make them difficult to solve and thus fosters learned helplessness or unproductive thrashing, and 3) taking a systematic, rational view helps separate out the wheat from the chaff (when it comes to the advice and models) and also helps make the ‘squishy’ sort of self-development accessible to those suspicious of plans and models with poor justification.
I do think, at least for the IFS material, that it’d be useful to pull in at least this comment, and possibly more of the discussion with pjeby more broadly.