I have always self-identified as being smart, smarter than the people around me. I love to know and understand things, because this supports my self-image and self-esteem, so I’ve read a lot on a lot of topics throughout my life. I love telling people about the interesting things I know because this is a high-status activity and causes them to like and respect me.
Overcoming Bias and LW have a strong theme of glorifying intelligence and presenting rationality as a better or ideal kind of intelligence. When I discovered them, I naturally started reading them and eventually embraced some of the LW core ideas, which let me feel smarter or more ‘rational’ than others, and let me participate in the local LW meetups, which are full of very smart and interesting people I enjoy associating with.
The above is what I think the causes for my behavior are; it’s my attempt at a Hansonian analysis. Obviously, I believe the ideas of rationality are both true and useful. But that’s just how it feels from the inside. I don’t behave very rationally, and then I blame biases and imperfections like akrasia, which are excuses accepted by this community. I use explicit reasoning to arrive at new beliefs which I then profess, but they don’t always progress into aliefs that I regularly act on.
I have always self-identified as being smart, smarter than the people around me. I love to know and understand things, because this supports my self-image and self-esteem, so I’ve read a lot on a lot of topics throughout my life. I love telling people about the interesting things I know because this is a high-status activity and causes them to like and respect me.
Overcoming Bias and LW have a strong theme of glorifying intelligence and presenting rationality as a better or ideal kind of intelligence. When I discovered them, I naturally started reading them and eventually embraced some of the LW core ideas, which let me feel smarter or more ‘rational’ than others, and let me participate in the local LW meetups, which are full of very smart and interesting people I enjoy associating with.
The above is what I think the causes for my behavior are; it’s my attempt at a Hansonian analysis. Obviously, I believe the ideas of rationality are both true and useful. But that’s just how it feels from the inside. I don’t behave very rationally, and then I blame biases and imperfections like akrasia, which are excuses accepted by this community. I use explicit reasoning to arrive at new beliefs which I then profess, but they don’t always progress into aliefs that I regularly act on.