What you mention in your second possibility (“rote, robotic way”) goes into a similar direction, but I’d be worried about something more specific: Difficulties at big-picture prioritization when it comes to selecting what to be interested in. I envy people who find it easy to delve into all kinds of subjects and absorb a wealth of knowledge. But those same people may then fail to be curious enough when they encounter a piece of information that really would be much more relevant than the information they usually encounter. Or they might spend their time on tasks that don’t produce the most impact.
Admittedly I’m looking at this with a terribly utilitarianism-tainted lens. Probably finding it easy to be interested in many things is generally a huge plus.
But I do suspect that there’s a tradeoff. If reading about the Battle of Cedar Creek felt 30% as interesting to our brains as reading cognitive science or Lesswrong or Peter Singer or whatever got people here hooked on these sorts of things, then maybe fewer of us would have gotten hooked.
What you mention in your second possibility (“rote, robotic way”) goes into a similar direction, but I’d be worried about something more specific: Difficulties at big-picture prioritization when it comes to selecting what to be interested in. I envy people who find it easy to delve into all kinds of subjects and absorb a wealth of knowledge. But those same people may then fail to be curious enough when they encounter a piece of information that really would be much more relevant than the information they usually encounter. Or they might spend their time on tasks that don’t produce the most impact.
Admittedly I’m looking at this with a terribly utilitarianism-tainted lens. Probably finding it easy to be interested in many things is generally a huge plus.
But I do suspect that there’s a tradeoff. If reading about the Battle of Cedar Creek felt 30% as interesting to our brains as reading cognitive science or Lesswrong or Peter Singer or whatever got people here hooked on these sorts of things, then maybe fewer of us would have gotten hooked.