Yeah. With these recent discussions I’m not sure instrumental rationality deserves the name anymore. It’s too welcoming of woo. “You are the easiest person to fool” (Feynman).
I mean, I get why instrumental rationality exists. People noticed that epistemic rationality doesn’t lead to success in life. But neither does science, look at all these starving postdocs. Neither does art, look at all these starving artists. Clearly we need “instrumental science” that makes you Tony Stark, and “instrumental art” that makes you Ron Hubbard. Or not.
To me, epistemic rationality is a great idea that solves the problem it sets out to solve. “Always try to find the simplest alternative explanation for the same data, compared to your idea.” But when people mix it with self-help, it just creeps me out.
Yeah. With these recent discussions I’m not sure instrumental rationality deserves the name anymore. It’s too welcoming of woo. “You are the easiest person to fool” (Feynman).
I mean, I get why instrumental rationality exists. People noticed that epistemic rationality doesn’t lead to success in life. But neither does science, look at all these starving postdocs. Neither does art, look at all these starving artists. Clearly we need “instrumental science” that makes you Tony Stark, and “instrumental art” that makes you Ron Hubbard. Or not.
To me, epistemic rationality is a great idea that solves the problem it sets out to solve. “Always try to find the simplest alternative explanation for the same data, compared to your idea.” But when people mix it with self-help, it just creeps me out.
I consider Circling to be about epistemic rationality, and that’s a big chunk of why it’s interesting to me.
Are you objecting to circling-type instrumental rationality techniques, or to instrumental rationality in general?
Good job, well predicted. Even CFAR has degenerated into woo now.