I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the linked xkcd, or maybe I am. The way I see it, It’s not about misusing the word “logic.” It’s about people coming in from the outside, thinking that just because they are smart, they know how to solve problems in a field that they are completely inexperienced in, and have spent very little time thinking about compared to those who think about it as a full time job.
I don’t disagree about the intended message of the linked xkcd. By a “strawman rationalist with a silly conception of logic” I meant exactly that: a person who assumes that every problem can be solved by “logical thinking” and underestimates the role of expertise. (Since logic alone in the proper sense isn’t sufficient to produce results—right or wrong—except in small subclass of problems, this attitude needs some abuse of the word “logic”, if one indeed uses the phrase “to think logically” to denote one’s own behaviour. But that’s besides the point.)
The disagreement arises when you claim that the described failure mode is typical for LW. To me it seems more typical for the rather ordinary sort of crackpots who think they can do everything better than anybody else and when they lose in a direct competition they claim that the rules have been stacked against them (another part the xkcd is mocking). To show that LW is like this, it doesn’t suffice to point out that we (for whatever meaning of we) aren’t enough influential. You have additionally to show that we are unaware of the difficulties or are finding inane excuses for our lack of success.
Edit: to further clarify, I don’t treat LW as means of influencing the world.
I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the linked xkcd, or maybe I am. The way I see it, It’s not about misusing the word “logic.” It’s about people coming in from the outside, thinking that just because they are smart, they know how to solve problems in a field that they are completely inexperienced in, and have spent very little time thinking about compared to those who think about it as a full time job.
I don’t disagree about the intended message of the linked xkcd. By a “strawman rationalist with a silly conception of logic” I meant exactly that: a person who assumes that every problem can be solved by “logical thinking” and underestimates the role of expertise. (Since logic alone in the proper sense isn’t sufficient to produce results—right or wrong—except in small subclass of problems, this attitude needs some abuse of the word “logic”, if one indeed uses the phrase “to think logically” to denote one’s own behaviour. But that’s besides the point.)
The disagreement arises when you claim that the described failure mode is typical for LW. To me it seems more typical for the rather ordinary sort of crackpots who think they can do everything better than anybody else and when they lose in a direct competition they claim that the rules have been stacked against them (another part the xkcd is mocking). To show that LW is like this, it doesn’t suffice to point out that we (for whatever meaning of we) aren’t enough influential. You have additionally to show that we are unaware of the difficulties or are finding inane excuses for our lack of success.
Edit: to further clarify, I don’t treat LW as means of influencing the world.