If we are constructing advice for typical Americans, then this post presents good advice. But the target audience is stated to be the people who can follow counterintuitive pieces of reasoning, which is why insights into human psychology that oppose explicit reasoning shouldn’t be the issue (for the stated goal). From the post:
This, I think, is a special opportunity for rationalists, an illustration that we can get better life outcomes from our investment in rationality—better outcomes such as low-stress jobs that leave us with ample discretionary income and enough free time to pursue whatever else we’re interested in, obtained by being willing to break habits and think in numbers.
There nevertheless remains an enormous difference between the big, perhaps drastic but more importantly intrinsically decisive changes to environment and a commitment to try to resist cultural and environmental pressures as they are currently experienced. Both are big hurdles but their nature is very different. Once they have made the choice to make the drastic decision they will succeed by default. Once someone has made a choice to try to resist ongoing cultural pressures they could perhaps succeed by the application of ongoing injunction by the rational part of their mind.
I still don’t particularly recommend moving to the outback and working in customer service. You will ‘succeed by default’ at doing something that isn’t all that desirable anyway. :)
If we are constructing advice for typical Americans, then this post presents good advice. But the target audience is stated to be the people who can follow counterintuitive pieces of reasoning, which is why insights into human psychology that oppose explicit reasoning shouldn’t be the issue (for the stated goal). From the post:
There nevertheless remains an enormous difference between the big, perhaps drastic but more importantly intrinsically decisive changes to environment and a commitment to try to resist cultural and environmental pressures as they are currently experienced. Both are big hurdles but their nature is very different. Once they have made the choice to make the drastic decision they will succeed by default. Once someone has made a choice to try to resist ongoing cultural pressures they could perhaps succeed by the application of ongoing injunction by the rational part of their mind.
I still don’t particularly recommend moving to the outback and working in customer service. You will ‘succeed by default’ at doing something that isn’t all that desirable anyway. :)