Still. A lot of things are hard. A lot of things are hard but possible. So far, I have zero examples of people who have used the methods of rationality, as separate from just knowledge, to help with the problems they have that most people don’t have...
LW has helped me articulate my intuitions and given me more confidence in them. These intuitions are usually about why an argument is wrong.
It’s about how not to be stupid, how not to fail in certain ways. I don’t have examples of things it has helped me do because it is never a necessary or sufficient condition for success.
In the rough equation luckskillperseverance=success, I think rationality is added to luck, making it (luck+rationality)skillperseverance=success. With luck one could avoid all pitfalls otherwise avoidable with rationality.
That’s a very interesting insight, the idea that rationality and luck serve the same role, and can ostensibly be substituted for each other. I’m enjoying re-framing it as “learning rationality is learning to be lucky”. Not sure if it’s a useful insight, but definitely an interesting new perspective. Thank you :)
LW has helped me articulate my intuitions and given me more confidence in them. These intuitions are usually about why an argument is wrong.
It’s about how not to be stupid, how not to fail in certain ways. I don’t have examples of things it has helped me do because it is never a necessary or sufficient condition for success.
In the rough equation luckskillperseverance=success, I think rationality is added to luck, making it (luck+rationality)skillperseverance=success. With luck one could avoid all pitfalls otherwise avoidable with rationality.
That’s a very interesting insight, the idea that rationality and luck serve the same role, and can ostensibly be substituted for each other. I’m enjoying re-framing it as “learning rationality is learning to be lucky”. Not sure if it’s a useful insight, but definitely an interesting new perspective. Thank you :)