Robin’s post seemed to be about the marginal value of rationality. Being completely irrational is a one way ticket to death or ruin, I agree. But there are fewer ways to die by refusing to go from ordinary high-IQ university-educated person to person who has read and applied the Overcoming Bias techniques. They’re still there, but they’re not quite as obvious. Most of the ones I can think of involve medicine, and Robin probably disagrees and doesn’t think those matter so much.
Good point about the marginal value of rationality. But my experience with myself and with almost all of the smart graduate-degree holding people I know, is that there is significant irrationality left, and significant gains to be had from self-improvement. You may believe differently.
Robin’s post seemed to be about the marginal value of rationality. Being completely irrational is a one way ticket to death or ruin, I agree. But there are fewer ways to die by refusing to go from ordinary high-IQ university-educated person to person who has read and applied the Overcoming Bias techniques. They’re still there, but they’re not quite as obvious. Most of the ones I can think of involve medicine, and Robin probably disagrees and doesn’t think those matter so much.
Good point about the marginal value of rationality. But my experience with myself and with almost all of the smart graduate-degree holding people I know, is that there is significant irrationality left, and significant gains to be had from self-improvement. You may believe differently.