Hi, I’m Alison—I used to be a professional tarot reader and astrologer in spite of having a (fairly average) science degree. I recovered from that over 15 years ago and feel it would be valuable for more people to understand how I came to do it and how I changed my mind. I am also a 45 year old woman, which makes me feel in a tiny minority on LW.
I’ve been reading large chunks of the sequences for the last year, as well as books like Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear and a bunch of rationalist blogs (and been thoroughly sucked into HPMOR).
Topics I’m particularly interested in include day to day rationality, tackling global warming, rationality from the perspective of people with mental health issues and tackling irrationality while maintaining polite and less arrogant discourse.
Hi Alison! Welcome to LessWrong! I’m always happy to see people who are interested in maintaining politeness on here.
I have a friend who is a professional psychic/ magician/ tarot reader, and he is extremely rational (uses cold reading and builds technology stuff for tricks.). I don’t think you necessarily have to give the profession up if it’s something you enjoy. So long as you don’t fall prey to the trap of believing your own schtick.
I would love to hear your story of how you came to change your mind!
tackling irrationality while maintaining polite and less arrogant discourse
I’m with you! There’s quite a culture divide between “win the argument” and “get along”, and since I spend more time in the latter camp, Less Wrong was unpalatable for me at first.
Hi, I’m Alison—I used to be a professional tarot reader and astrologer in spite of having a (fairly average) science degree. I recovered from that over 15 years ago and feel it would be valuable for more people to understand how I came to do it and how I changed my mind. I am also a 45 year old woman, which makes me feel in a tiny minority on LW.
I’ve been reading large chunks of the sequences for the last year, as well as books like Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear and a bunch of rationalist blogs (and been thoroughly sucked into HPMOR).
Topics I’m particularly interested in include day to day rationality, tackling global warming, rationality from the perspective of people with mental health issues and tackling irrationality while maintaining polite and less arrogant discourse.
Hi Alison! Welcome to LessWrong! I’m always happy to see people who are interested in maintaining politeness on here.
I have a friend who is a professional psychic/ magician/ tarot reader, and he is extremely rational (uses cold reading and builds technology stuff for tricks.). I don’t think you necessarily have to give the profession up if it’s something you enjoy. So long as you don’t fall prey to the trap of believing your own schtick.
I would love to hear your story of how you came to change your mind!
Glad to have you here!
I’m with you! There’s quite a culture divide between “win the argument” and “get along”, and since I spend more time in the latter camp, Less Wrong was unpalatable for me at first.
There’s also “point out errors”, which is different from “win the argument”.
May I ask, at that time did you thoroughly believe that you were actually able to predict the future?
Also, with the benefit of hindsight, do you consider yourself to have used the dark arts?
Hi there (belatedly)! I believe we’ve met, way back when.