I myself sometimes feel bad when I engage in, say, writing fiction. (Reading fiction is pretty obviously useless, so I know I am just doing it for “fun.” It doesn’t confuse me the way producing fiction does.) I was like this before I even knew there was a Rationality subculture. I don’t try to justify these behaviors at all; I am just not sure if they are aligned with my values, or not, and in what quantities they are healthy.
So while I agree with the gist of this post, I believe the core issue to be more of a tradeoff rather than an obvious evil.
I myself sometimes feel bad when I engage in, say, writing fiction. (Reading fiction is pretty obviously useless, so I know I am just doing it for “fun.” It doesn’t confuse me the way producing fiction does.) I was like this before I even knew there was a Rationality subculture. I don’t try to justify these behaviors at all; I am just not sure if they are aligned with my values, or not, and in what quantities they are healthy.
So while I agree with the gist of this post, I believe the core issue to be more of a tradeoff rather than an obvious evil.