These are both good suggestions. The exercise of trying to explain something in my head to an imaginary rationalist friend is something I already do. I also frequently go public with opinions so that they may be savaged by those that disagree with me. Alas, however, even these two things must be handled with care; it’s possible that, having survived arguments and various degrees of perfunctory research, you may assign the label of “rational” to an irrational idea, feeling an enormous amount of confidence that you’ve done the necessary thinking when in fact you’ve only engaged in rationalist hand waving.
Trying to find truth and avoid your own biases too is akin to climbing up a steep hill, if that hill is covered in a sheet of ice, fraught with land mines, and has packs of velociraptors patrolling it’s base.
These are both good suggestions. The exercise of trying to explain something in my head to an imaginary rationalist friend is something I already do. I also frequently go public with opinions so that they may be savaged by those that disagree with me. Alas, however, even these two things must be handled with care; it’s possible that, having survived arguments and various degrees of perfunctory research, you may assign the label of “rational” to an irrational idea, feeling an enormous amount of confidence that you’ve done the necessary thinking when in fact you’ve only engaged in rationalist hand waving.
Trying to find truth and avoid your own biases too is akin to climbing up a steep hill, if that hill is covered in a sheet of ice, fraught with land mines, and has packs of velociraptors patrolling it’s base.