Right at the start under “How to use this book”, there is this paragraph:
If you have never been to a CFAR workshop, and don’t have any near-term plans to come to one, then you may be the kind of person who would love to set their eyes on a guide to improving one’s rationality, full of straightforward instructions and exercises on how to think more clearly, act more effectively, learn more from your experiences, make better decisions, and do more with your life. This book is not that guide (nor is the workshop itself, for that matter). It was never intended to be that guide.
I’m partway through reading the sequences, have read plenty of other LW posts, but have no possibility to attend CFAR workshops anytime soon. Still, I want to get more experience with applied rationality. Would you say reading (parts of) this handbook and trying exercises that seem relevant to my situation is a reasonable thing to try (while minding all your precautions)? Or do you know of a better way to train one’s skills in applying rationality?
I think it’s a decent thing to do, and I’ve done the same myself a few years ago before I attended a workshop. I think it was reasonably useful. I did also try to teach a lot of the material in the handbook and on LessWrong to my friends, which I found a lot more useful for actually understanding the stuff.
Right at the start under “How to use this book”, there is this paragraph:
I’m partway through reading the sequences, have read plenty of other LW posts, but have no possibility to attend CFAR workshops anytime soon. Still, I want to get more experience with applied rationality. Would you say reading (parts of) this handbook and trying exercises that seem relevant to my situation is a reasonable thing to try (while minding all your precautions)? Or do you know of a better way to train one’s skills in applying rationality?
I think it’s a decent thing to do, and I’ve done the same myself a few years ago before I attended a workshop. I think it was reasonably useful. I did also try to teach a lot of the material in the handbook and on LessWrong to my friends, which I found a lot more useful for actually understanding the stuff.
Alright, that’s helpful! Thanks!