Why aren’t “rationalists” surrounded by a visible aura of formidability?
Because they don’t project high status with their body language?
Re: Taking out someone evil. Let’s be rational about this. Do we want to get press? Will taking them out even be worthwhile? What sort of benefits from testing ideas against reality can we expect?
I think humans who study rationality might be better than other humans at avoiding certain basic mistakes. But that doesn’t mean that the study of rationality (as it currently exists) amounts to a “success spray” that you can spray on any goal to make it more achievable.
Also, if the recent survey is to be believed, the average IQ at Less Wrong is very high. So if LW does accomplish something, it could very well be due to being smart rather than having read a bunch about rationality. (Sometimes I wonder if I like LW mainly because it seems to have so many smart people.)
But that doesn’t mean that the study of rationality (as it currently exists) amounts to a “success spray” that you can spray on any goal to make it more achievable.
Don’t be too pessimistic to the newcomer, John. We’re not completely useless. It doesn’t grant any new abilities as such, admittedly, but if you’re interested in making the right decision, then rationality is quite useful; to the extent that choosing correctly can help you, then this is place to be. Of course, how much the right choices can help you varies a bit, but it’s hard to know how much you could achieve if you’re biased, isn’t it?
It doesn’t grant any new abilities as such, admittedly, but if you’re interested in making the right decision, then rationality is quite useful; to the extent that choosing correctly can help you, then this is place to be.
Hm. My correction on that would be: To the extent that your native decisionmaking mechanisms are broken and can be fixed by reading blog posts on Less Wrong, then this is the place to be. In other words, how useful the study of rationality is depends on how important and easily beaten the bugs Less Wrong tries to fix in human brains are.
Many people are interested in techniques for becoming more successful and getting more out of life. Techniques range from reading The Secret to doing mindfulness meditation to reading Less Wrong. I don’t see any a priori reason to believe that the ROI from reading Less Wrong is substantially higher than other methods. (Though, come to think of it, self-improvement guru Sebastian Marshall gives LW a rave review. So in practice LW might work pretty well, but I don’t think that is the sort of thing you can derive from first principles, it’s really something that you determine through empirical investigation.)
Welcome!
Because they don’t project high status with their body language?
Re: Taking out someone evil. Let’s be rational about this. Do we want to get press? Will taking them out even be worthwhile? What sort of benefits from testing ideas against reality can we expect?
I think humans who study rationality might be better than other humans at avoiding certain basic mistakes. But that doesn’t mean that the study of rationality (as it currently exists) amounts to a “success spray” that you can spray on any goal to make it more achievable.
Also, if the recent survey is to be believed, the average IQ at Less Wrong is very high. So if LW does accomplish something, it could very well be due to being smart rather than having read a bunch about rationality. (Sometimes I wonder if I like LW mainly because it seems to have so many smart people.)
Some lessWrongians believe it is
That comment doesn’t rule out selection effects, e.g. the IQ thing I mentioned.
IQ without study will not make you are super philosopher or super anything else.
Don’t be too pessimistic to the newcomer, John. We’re not completely useless. It doesn’t grant any new abilities as such, admittedly, but if you’re interested in making the right decision, then rationality is quite useful; to the extent that choosing correctly can help you, then this is place to be. Of course, how much the right choices can help you varies a bit, but it’s hard to know how much you could achieve if you’re biased, isn’t it?
Hm. My correction on that would be: To the extent that your native decisionmaking mechanisms are broken and can be fixed by reading blog posts on Less Wrong, then this is the place to be. In other words, how useful the study of rationality is depends on how important and easily beaten the bugs Less Wrong tries to fix in human brains are.
Many people are interested in techniques for becoming more successful and getting more out of life. Techniques range from reading The Secret to doing mindfulness meditation to reading Less Wrong. I don’t see any a priori reason to believe that the ROI from reading Less Wrong is substantially higher than other methods. (Though, come to think of it, self-improvement guru Sebastian Marshall gives LW a rave review. So in practice LW might work pretty well, but I don’t think that is the sort of thing you can derive from first principles, it’s really something that you determine through empirical investigation.)