I didn’t read passive_fist’s comment as implying that the successful politicians are likely to read Less Wrong, but that a rationalist wouldn’t be able to use their superior rationality to win an election—thus answering the question “why don’t more people like us stand for public office?” with “we probably wouldn’t win against typical politicians”, which is how the comment is relevant.
The question wasn’t “why aren’t more people like us in public office”. That is a legitimate question, but it becomes irrelevant if it’s true that such people don’t even stand.
I used to think that “politicians” were some special type of people with arcane social powers the geek knoweth not. More and more, I’m starting to think they’re just the people who turn up for things. Ms. Edwards, to her enormous credit, turned up for something and got elected. Why don’t more of us do that?
I didn’t read passive_fist’s comment as implying that the successful politicians are likely to read Less Wrong, but that a rationalist wouldn’t be able to use their superior rationality to win an election—thus answering the question “why don’t more people like us stand for public office?” with “we probably wouldn’t win against typical politicians”, which is how the comment is relevant.
The question wasn’t “why aren’t more people like us in public office”. That is a legitimate question, but it becomes irrelevant if it’s true that such people don’t even stand.
I used to think that “politicians” were some special type of people with arcane social powers the geek knoweth not. More and more, I’m starting to think they’re just the people who turn up for things. Ms. Edwards, to her enormous credit, turned up for something and got elected. Why don’t more of us do that?