I used to consider rationality and truthseeking to be a terminal (intrinsic) value, but now I consider it secondary to happiness… or Fun Theory as Eliezer might call it.
IOW, “a rationalist should win.” And winning definitely includes Fun.
Rationality is a critical component of positive psychology, because it’s what you use to get rid of irrationally negative predictions, and thus restore your brain to its naturally overconfident positive state. In other words, in positive psychology, you want to pick and choose what biases you’re going to slice apart and which ones you’ll let stand.
More precisely, you want to ensure you’re irrationally positive about rationally-derived predictions. It’s one thing to know the risk of skydiving and be irrationally positive about doing it anyway; it’s another thing altogether to irrationally expect that you can do it without a parachute!
Thus, you want to be rational about your real-world predictions, but not necessarily rational about how much you’ll enjoy (or fail to enjoy) life, whether it has any real meaning, etc., etc. Be rational about the external world, and the effects of your actions on it. And even be rational about the operation of your brain, as a brain. But if you want to have Fun, I suggest remaining irrationally positive about how good things are in general, whether life has meaning, etc.
In these areas, it is rational to be a little irrational, if your intention is to WIN, rather than to feel good about your self-image as a person who’s willing to Sacrifice All for his/her rationality. That too, is irrational.
I used to consider rationality and truthseeking to be a terminal (intrinsic) value, but now I consider it secondary to happiness… or Fun Theory as Eliezer might call it.
IOW, “a rationalist should win.” And winning definitely includes Fun.
Rationality is a critical component of positive psychology, because it’s what you use to get rid of irrationally negative predictions, and thus restore your brain to its naturally overconfident positive state. In other words, in positive psychology, you want to pick and choose what biases you’re going to slice apart and which ones you’ll let stand.
More precisely, you want to ensure you’re irrationally positive about rationally-derived predictions. It’s one thing to know the risk of skydiving and be irrationally positive about doing it anyway; it’s another thing altogether to irrationally expect that you can do it without a parachute!
Thus, you want to be rational about your real-world predictions, but not necessarily rational about how much you’ll enjoy (or fail to enjoy) life, whether it has any real meaning, etc., etc. Be rational about the external world, and the effects of your actions on it. And even be rational about the operation of your brain, as a brain. But if you want to have Fun, I suggest remaining irrationally positive about how good things are in general, whether life has meaning, etc.
In these areas, it is rational to be a little irrational, if your intention is to WIN, rather than to feel good about your self-image as a person who’s willing to Sacrifice All for his/her rationality. That too, is irrational.