I do want to emphasize—it was in a previous version of the post, in fact, but I took it out—that I am maintaining my phrasing of my goal as create rationalists not create female rationalists. But if half of the audience is being filtered for some silly avoidable reason, then I want to fix that.
I am maintaining my phrasing of my goal as create rationalists not create female rationalists
There is a strong selfish incentive for single male rationalists to pursue this goal, though. I know I would love to have my next girlfriend be a rationalist (if only to avoid my most recent failure mode), and given the numbers, that’s probably not something every male rationalist can hope for right now.
But if half of the audience is being filtered for some silly avoidable reason, then I want to fix that.
One point is that it’s rather silly of people to filter out for silly reasons. You don’t stop reading a good book because it uses a funny font. This may be made into a general warning, a failure mode to be avoided, and linked to from the introductory article. Although I understand that it’s not a mode of thinking that is likely to work where the mistake surfaces.
You don’t stop reading a good book because it uses a funny font.
You very well might, if you found the font so distracting that you couldn’t enjoy the book. I think that you can only assert that this is a failure mode by misunderstanding who is being “silly” and who has control of avoiding the “avoidable”.
You don’t stop reading a good book because it uses a funny font.
Of course not! You stop reading it because there are too many plot holes, the characters irritate you or the author is just too naive for you to stomache. Meanwhile the guy who bought the other printing of the book which has a more aesthetic font keeps reading to the end and then gives it to his friends.
I do want to emphasize—it was in a previous version of the post, in fact, but I took it out—that I am maintaining my phrasing of my goal as create rationalists not create female rationalists. But if half of the audience is being filtered for some silly avoidable reason, then I want to fix that.
There is a strong selfish incentive for single male rationalists to pursue this goal, though. I know I would love to have my next girlfriend be a rationalist (if only to avoid my most recent failure mode), and given the numbers, that’s probably not something every male rationalist can hope for right now.
One point is that it’s rather silly of people to filter out for silly reasons. You don’t stop reading a good book because it uses a funny font. This may be made into a general warning, a failure mode to be avoided, and linked to from the introductory article. Although I understand that it’s not a mode of thinking that is likely to work where the mistake surfaces.
You very well might, if you found the font so distracting that you couldn’t enjoy the book. I think that you can only assert that this is a failure mode by misunderstanding who is being “silly” and who has control of avoiding the “avoidable”.
Of course not! You stop reading it because there are too many plot holes, the characters irritate you or the author is just too naive for you to stomache. Meanwhile the guy who bought the other printing of the book which has a more aesthetic font keeps reading to the end and then gives it to his friends.