On the yes side, I find rationality to be incredibly intellectually stimulating. Often I encounter a concept, framework, or abstraction that floors me and sets my mind on fire for days afterward. I think that sort of mental stimulation is really healthy.
In so far as rationality can be defined as “the study of correct thought”, it’s obviously a latchkey subject for anyone who enjoys thinking critically in any capacity. When doing intellectual work, I often find myself drawing on “Rationalist” concepts. This helps me organize and clarify my own thoughts in a genuinely impactful way.
On the no side, the vast majority of my life is not comprised of intellectual work. In areas like emotional well-being or interpersonal relationships, Rationality has, in fact, harmed me more than it has helped.
Scott Alexander has a beautiful essay about taking advice. You can read that post here (sorry I don’t know how to create hyperlinks on mobile):
The gist is that people can be inclined to take advice that they don’t need. I was the kind of person who already believed in taking a step back and “applying logic” to my emotions and relationships. After encountering Rationality, I doubled down on this approach. Practically the result was that I became more detached from my emotions, and struggled to relate to others in a non-superficial way.
I don’t think that the fault lies with capital R Rationality, or with any of the ideas espoused on LessWrong. My conclusion was that some aspects of my own life just aren’t well suited to applications of those ideas.
Rationality has, in fact, harmed me more than it has helped.
This framing causes me to wonder whether I experience similar effects but attribute them to causes other than Rationality itself. Would you be willing/able to share some examples of harms you expect that you would not have experienced if you hadn’t undertaken this study of correct thought?
To put it as simply as possible, I think that indoctrinating yourself in rationality pushes you further away from the average person, which makes it more difficult to relate emotionally to them.
The vast majority of my major problems stem from my difficulty connecting to other people. Therefore even though I’m really interested in Rationality, and I’ve enjoyed studying it, I think it’s done me net harm.
This won’t be the case for everyone, but I think that many people would be better served spending their time doing something else if their goal is to improve their emotional well-being.
Thank you for explaining. What I hear in this is that rationality also works like an esoteric hobby, and for people who want more friendships built on commonalities, adding an uncommon use of time is counterproductive.
I think I don’t experience the same negative effects because my “it’s good to interact cooperatively with people different from oneself” needs are met instead by some location-based volunteering hobbies. I live in an area with low enough population density that “vaguely competent and willing to show up and do stuff” buys one a lot of goodwill and quality time with others, which is a whole other social hack of its own :)
Yes and no.
On the yes side, I find rationality to be incredibly intellectually stimulating. Often I encounter a concept, framework, or abstraction that floors me and sets my mind on fire for days afterward. I think that sort of mental stimulation is really healthy.
In so far as rationality can be defined as “the study of correct thought”, it’s obviously a latchkey subject for anyone who enjoys thinking critically in any capacity. When doing intellectual work, I often find myself drawing on “Rationalist” concepts. This helps me organize and clarify my own thoughts in a genuinely impactful way.
On the no side, the vast majority of my life is not comprised of intellectual work. In areas like emotional well-being or interpersonal relationships, Rationality has, in fact, harmed me more than it has helped.
Scott Alexander has a beautiful essay about taking advice. You can read that post here (sorry I don’t know how to create hyperlinks on mobile):
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/24/should-you-reverse-any-advice-you-hear/
The gist is that people can be inclined to take advice that they don’t need. I was the kind of person who already believed in taking a step back and “applying logic” to my emotions and relationships. After encountering Rationality, I doubled down on this approach. Practically the result was that I became more detached from my emotions, and struggled to relate to others in a non-superficial way.
I don’t think that the fault lies with capital R Rationality, or with any of the ideas espoused on LessWrong. My conclusion was that some aspects of my own life just aren’t well suited to applications of those ideas.
“Apply logic to your emotions” is not advice that I remember reading on LessWrong. CFAR-style rationality advice would be to apply Gendlin’s Focusing.
It sounds to me like more of a problem of doubling down on existing tendencies than one of taking rationalist advice.
This framing causes me to wonder whether I experience similar effects but attribute them to causes other than Rationality itself. Would you be willing/able to share some examples of harms you expect that you would not have experienced if you hadn’t undertaken this study of correct thought?
To put it as simply as possible, I think that indoctrinating yourself in rationality pushes you further away from the average person, which makes it more difficult to relate emotionally to them.
The vast majority of my major problems stem from my difficulty connecting to other people. Therefore even though I’m really interested in Rationality, and I’ve enjoyed studying it, I think it’s done me net harm.
This won’t be the case for everyone, but I think that many people would be better served spending their time doing something else if their goal is to improve their emotional well-being.
Thank you for explaining. What I hear in this is that rationality also works like an esoteric hobby, and for people who want more friendships built on commonalities, adding an uncommon use of time is counterproductive.
I think I don’t experience the same negative effects because my “it’s good to interact cooperatively with people different from oneself” needs are met instead by some location-based volunteering hobbies. I live in an area with low enough population density that “vaguely competent and willing to show up and do stuff” buys one a lot of goodwill and quality time with others, which is a whole other social hack of its own :)