Not your main point, but I think “rational breaks” is a bit of a misnomer. “Rational” is about the study of cognitive algorithms, and I don’t think this has much to do with that. From Firewalling the Rational From the Optimal.
We’re only forced to use the word ‘rational’ when we talk about the cognitive algorithms which systematically promote goal achievement or map-territory correspondences. Otherwise the word can be deflated out of the sentence; e.g. “It’s rational to believe in anthropogenic global warming” goes to “Human activities are causing global temperatures to rise”; or “It’s rational to vote for Party X” deflates to “It’s optimal to vote for Party X” or just “I think you should vote for Party X”.
If you’re writing a post comparing the experimental evidence for four different diets, that’s not “Rational Dieting”, that’s “Optimal Dieting”. A post about rational dieting is if you’re writing about how the sunk cost fallacy causes people to eat food they’ve already purchased even if they’re not hungry, or if you’re writing about how the typical mind fallacy or law of small numbers leads people to overestimate how likely it is that a diet which worked for them will work for a friend. And even then, your title is ‘Dieting and the Sunk Cost Fallacy’, unless it’s an overview of four different cognitive biases affecting dieting. In which case a better title would be ‘Four Biases Screwing Up Your Diet’, since ‘Rational Dieting’ carries an implication that your post discusses the cognitive algorithm for dieting, as opposed to four contributing things to keep in mind.
My guess is that different break-styles work better for different people, and it’d make more sense to name this after the specifics of the technique rather than a vague “rational/optimal” etc style name.
It’s mainly because it’s a pun on ‘ratio’. But I agree, it’s not a great name (despite much brainstorming) - more of a placeholder. Any better suggestions very welcome—see my more detailed comment just posted.
They’re accurate, but rather long and dry/mathematical. An ideal name (if it exists) would be lighter/snappier, to be more memorable and approachable to the general public.
I’ve devised quite a few names for things in my life, and this is the hardest one!
The 1:3 ratio is similar to the summer break that most modern school systems have, and also similar to the 2:5 ratio that the standard week has between work days and weekends. Maybe there’s an analogy to be made there?
Indeed, I noticed that myself; also not far off the sleep/wake cycle (around 7:17 hours). And (modern) retirement vs pre-retirement (say 20:60 years), at a pinch. I didn’t pursue the thought when I realized that the annual job vacation:work is a very different ratio, so it doesn’t seem to work at all timescales. But nonetheless there might be something going on—needs more thought.
It’s not even a pun, “rational numbers” are also called that because they can be written as ratios. A lot of people seem to be wanting to change the name, but I think that’s a funny rationalist bias with the word. I work with maths quite a bit and I picked it up instantly. Then again, that could be a maths bias, but I think the average person has heard “rational numbers” more often than “Rationalism” (meaning LessWrong Rationalism). I think rational breaks is actually one of the best names you can give them, along with “fractional”.
Not your main point, but I think “rational breaks” is a bit of a misnomer. “Rational” is about the study of cognitive algorithms, and I don’t think this has much to do with that. From Firewalling the Rational From the Optimal.
My guess is that different break-styles work better for different people, and it’d make more sense to name this after the specifics of the technique rather than a vague “rational/optimal” etc style name.
It’s mainly because it’s a pun on ‘ratio’. But I agree, it’s not a great name (despite much brainstorming) - more of a placeholder. Any better suggestions very welcome—see my more detailed comment just posted.
Lol, gotcha. The ratio-pun is a much better excuse than usual, although I wouldn’t have gotten it without you explaining.
I came here to say the same thing as Raemon about rational vs optimal. I’d give up on the pun and just call it “optimal” breaks.
“Optimal breaks” has a similar low-information problem, where the name is just a smart-sounding synonym for “good breaks”.
“Fractional breaks” or “proportional breaks”, perhaps?
They’re accurate, but rather long and dry/mathematical. An ideal name (if it exists) would be lighter/snappier, to be more memorable and approachable to the general public.
I’ve devised quite a few names for things in my life, and this is the hardest one!
I mean, ’Ratio Breaks’ seems like it’s just lying there.
Agree. And I think that name allows for the implication that the ratio need not be fixed for all people or across all tasks.
The 1:3 ratio is similar to the summer break that most modern school systems have, and also similar to the 2:5 ratio that the standard week has between work days and weekends. Maybe there’s an analogy to be made there?
Indeed, I noticed that myself; also not far off the sleep/wake cycle (around 7:17 hours). And (modern) retirement vs pre-retirement (say 20:60 years), at a pinch. I didn’t pursue the thought when I realized that the annual job vacation:work is a very different ratio, so it doesn’t seem to work at all timescales. But nonetheless there might be something going on—needs more thought.
Maybe “Earned Breaks”? I did like the ‘ratio’ pun though.
It’s not even a pun, “rational numbers” are also called that because they can be written as ratios. A lot of people seem to be wanting to change the name, but I think that’s a funny rationalist bias with the word. I work with maths quite a bit and I picked it up instantly. Then again, that could be a maths bias, but I think the average person has heard “rational numbers” more often than “Rationalism” (meaning LessWrong Rationalism). I think rational breaks is actually one of the best names you can give them, along with “fractional”.