I see what you’re saying about rationality being trained in a pure fashion (where engineering, the sciences in general, etc. is—hopefully—“applied rationality”). One thing I don’t see you mention here but it was a theme in your 3 worlds story, and which is also a factor in martial arts training, is emotional management. That’s crucial for rationality, since it will most likely be our feelings that lead us astray. Look at how the feeling of “trust” did in Madoff’s investors. Muay thai and Aikido deal with emotions differently, but each train people to overcome their basic fear reactions with something else. An awesome rationalist, to me, would be someone who can maintain rationality when the situation is one of high emotion.
I’ll be happy to take a cut if the RP folks are so inclined :) But I think emotional management in poker and games in general is important to succeed in those arenas, and underscores the need for this component in rationality training.
I see what you’re saying about rationality being trained in a pure fashion (where engineering, the sciences in general, etc. is—hopefully—“applied rationality”). One thing I don’t see you mention here but it was a theme in your 3 worlds story, and which is also a factor in martial arts training, is emotional management. That’s crucial for rationality, since it will most likely be our feelings that lead us astray. Look at how the feeling of “trust” did in Madoff’s investors. Muay thai and Aikido deal with emotions differently, but each train people to overcome their basic fear reactions with something else. An awesome rationalist, to me, would be someone who can maintain rationality when the situation is one of high emotion.
I wonder if this comment inspired Patrissimo’s inagural post on his new Rational Poker site.
I’ll be happy to take a cut if the RP folks are so inclined :) But I think emotional management in poker and games in general is important to succeed in those arenas, and underscores the need for this component in rationality training.