I am Robert and I am going to change the world. Maybe just a little bit, but that’s ok, since it’s fun to do and there’s nothing else I need to do right now. (Yay for mini-retirements!)
I find some of the articles here on LW very useful, especially those on heuristics and biases, as well as material on self-improvement although I find it quite scattered among loads of way to theoretic stuff. Does it seem odd that I have learned much more useful tricks and gained more insight from reading HPMOR than from reading 30 to 50 high-rated and “foundational” articles on this site?
I am sincerely sad that even the leading rationalists on LW seem to struggle getting actual benefits out of their special skills and special knowledge (Yvain: Rationality is not that great; Eliezer: Why aren’t “rationalists” surrounded by a visible aura of formidability?) and I would like to help them change that.
My interest is mainly in contributing more structured, useful content and also to band together with fellow LWers to practice and apply our rationalist skills. As a stretch goal I think that we could pick someone really evil as our enemy and take them down, just to show our superiority. Let me stress that I am not kidding here. If rationality really counts for something (other than being good entertainment for sciency types and sci-fi lovers), then we should be able to find the right leverages and play out a great plot which just leaves everyone gasping “shit!”
And then we’ll have changed the world, because people will start taking rationality serious.
Let me send out a warm “thank you” to you all for welcoming me in your rationalist circles!
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.)
I’m evil by some people’s standards. You’ll have to get a little bit more specific about what you think constitutes evil.
From what I’ve seen, real evil tends to be petty. Most grand atrocities are committed by people who are simply incorrect about what the right thing to do is.
If rationality really counts for something (other than being good entertainment for sciency types and sci-fi lovers), then we should be able to find the right leverages and play out a great plot which just leaves everyone gasping “shit!”
You may follow HJPEV in calling world domination “world optimization”, but running on some highly unreliable wetware means that grand projects tend to become evil despite best intentions, due to snowballing unforeseen ramifications. In other words, your approach seems to be lacking wisdom.
Thanks to all for the warm welcome and the many curious questions about my ambition! And special thanks to MugaSofer, Peterdjones, and jpaulsen for your argumentative support. I am very busy writing right now, and I hope that my posts will answer most of the initial questions. So I’ll rather use the space here to write a little more about myself.
I grew up a true Ravenclaw, but after grad school I discovered that Hufflepuff’s modesty and cheering industry also have their benefits when it comes to my own happiness. HPMOR made me discover my inner Slytherin because I realized that Ravenclaw knowledge and Hufflepuff goodness do not suffice to bring about great achievements. The word “ambition” in the first line of the comment is therefore meant in professor Quirrell’s sense. I also have a deep respect for the principles of Gryffindor’s group (of which the names of A. Swartz and J. Assange have recently caught much mainstream attention), but I can’t find anything of that spirit in myself. If I have ever appeared to be a hero, it was because I accidentally knew something that was of help to someone.
@shminux: I love incremental steps and try to incorporate them into any of my planning and acting! My mini-retirement is actually such a step that, if successful, I’d like to repeat and expand.
@John_Maxwell_IV: Yay for empirical testing of rationality!
@OrphanWilde: “Don’t be frightened, don’t be sad, We’ll only hurt you if you’re bad.“ Or to put it into more utilitarian terms: If you are in the way of my ambition, for instance if I would have to hurt your feelings to accomplish any of my goals for the greater good, I would not hesitate to do what has to be done. All I want is to help people to be happy and to achieve their goals, whatever they are. And you’ll probably all understand that I might give a slight preference to helping people whose goals align with mine. ;-)
May you all be happy and healthy, may you be free from stress and anxiety, and may you achieve your goals, whatever they are.
Hi LWers,
I am Robert and I am going to change the world. Maybe just a little bit, but that’s ok, since it’s fun to do and there’s nothing else I need to do right now. (Yay for mini-retirements!)
I find some of the articles here on LW very useful, especially those on heuristics and biases, as well as material on self-improvement although I find it quite scattered among loads of way to theoretic stuff. Does it seem odd that I have learned much more useful tricks and gained more insight from reading HPMOR than from reading 30 to 50 high-rated and “foundational” articles on this site? I am sincerely sad that even the leading rationalists on LW seem to struggle getting actual benefits out of their special skills and special knowledge (Yvain: Rationality is not that great; Eliezer: Why aren’t “rationalists” surrounded by a visible aura of formidability?) and I would like to help them change that.
My interest is mainly in contributing more structured, useful content and also to band together with fellow LWers to practice and apply our rationalist skills. As a stretch goal I think that we could pick someone really evil as our enemy and take them down, just to show our superiority. Let me stress that I am not kidding here. If rationality really counts for something (other than being good entertainment for sciency types and sci-fi lovers), then we should be able to find the right leverages and play out a great plot which just leaves everyone gasping “shit!” And then we’ll have changed the world, because people will start taking rationality serious.
Let me send out a warm “thank you” to you all for welcoming me in your rationalist circles!
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.)
I’m evil by some people’s standards. You’ll have to get a little bit more specific about what you think constitutes evil.
From what I’ve seen, real evil tends to be petty. Most grand atrocities are committed by people who are simply incorrect about what the right thing to do is.
You may follow HJPEV in calling world domination “world optimization”, but running on some highly unreliable wetware means that grand projects tend to become evil despite best intentions, due to snowballing unforeseen ramifications. In other words, your approach seems to be lacking wisdom.
You seem to be making a fully general argument against action.
Against any sweeping action without carefully considering and trying out incremental steps.
Thanks to all for the warm welcome and the many curious questions about my ambition! And special thanks to MugaSofer, Peterdjones, and jpaulsen for your argumentative support. I am very busy writing right now, and I hope that my posts will answer most of the initial questions. So I’ll rather use the space here to write a little more about myself.
I grew up a true Ravenclaw, but after grad school I discovered that Hufflepuff’s modesty and cheering industry also have their benefits when it comes to my own happiness. HPMOR made me discover my inner Slytherin because I realized that Ravenclaw knowledge and Hufflepuff goodness do not suffice to bring about great achievements. The word “ambition” in the first line of the comment is therefore meant in professor Quirrell’s sense. I also have a deep respect for the principles of Gryffindor’s group (of which the names of A. Swartz and J. Assange have recently caught much mainstream attention), but I can’t find anything of that spirit in myself. If I have ever appeared to be a hero, it was because I accidentally knew something that was of help to someone.
@shminux: I love incremental steps and try to incorporate them into any of my planning and acting! My mini-retirement is actually such a step that, if successful, I’d like to repeat and expand.
@John_Maxwell_IV: Yay for empirical testing of rationality!
@OrphanWilde: “Don’t be frightened, don’t be sad, We’ll only hurt you if you’re bad.“ Or to put it into more utilitarian terms: If you are in the way of my ambition, for instance if I would have to hurt your feelings to accomplish any of my goals for the greater good, I would not hesitate to do what has to be done. All I want is to help people to be happy and to achieve their goals, whatever they are. And you’ll probably all understand that I might give a slight preference to helping people whose goals align with mine. ;-)
May you all be happy and healthy, may you be free from stress and anxiety, and may you achieve your goals, whatever they are.
Anything more specific you have in mind?