so rationality doesn’t always mean “win-win” ? In a chicken situation, the best thing for “both” the persons is to remain alive, which can be done by one of them (or both) “swerving”, right? There is a good chance that one of them is called chicken.
ajayjetti
Oops!! thanks for correcting ( good i din write Vendetta!!)
So what happens in the broken radio example if both the persons have already read schellings book? Nobody gets the prize? I mean how does such a situation is resolved? If everybody perfects the art of rationality, who wins? and who loses?
Very interesting!! Isn’t it similar to people saying something and then citing some reference as evidence, when, in reality, the evidence is far from the people’s “distorted views”.
An example:- In Indian Philosophy, “Maya” is often translated as “illusion”, and we see people quoting Maya in in popular cultures in India, but the actual psychological, epistemological, and ontological meaning is defined in “Vendanta”, which people rarely cite as an “evidence” for saying what they say.
Hi
I am Ajay from India. I am 23. I was a highly rebellious person(still am i think), flunked out college, but completed it to become a programmer. But as soon as i finished college, i had severe depression because of a woman. I than thought of doing Masters degree in US, and applied, but then dropped the idea.Then i recaptured a long gone passion to make music, so i started drumming. I got accepted to berklee college of music, but then i lost interest to make a career out of it, i have some reasons for it. Then i started reading a lot(parallel to some programming). I face all the problems that an average guy faces(from social to economic problems). I graduated from one of the top colleges in india and now don’t do my degree any justice. sometimes i think about the fact that all my colleagues are happy working with companies like google, oracle, etc. In a spur to make a balance, i gave gmat and applied and got admit to some supposedly TOP MBA schools. But i again lost interest for pursuing that thing. Now i write a bit, and read and i teach primary school mathematics in a local school. I love music ranging from art tatum to balamurlikrishna to illayraja to blues. I have been to US once when i was working with Perot systems bangalore(i was campus placed there). I would like to travel more, but i dont see that happening in near future because of financial contraints and constraints by governments of this world.
So, i always keep searching for some interesting “cures” on internet. One fine day i found paul grahams website through some Ajax site. Then i was reading something on hacker news, something related to cult following and stuff. There was a name mentioned there—Eliezer yudkowsky(hope i spelled it right). So i wikied that name. i found his site and then from there to less wrong and overcoming bias. Since 2 months, i am really obsessed by this blog. I dont know how will this help me “practically”, but i am quite happy reading and demystifying my brain on certain things.
One thing: I have noticed that this forum has people who are relatively intellectual. Lot of them seem to be from developed countries, who have got very less idea about how things work in a country like India. Sitting here, all these things that are happening in “developed” world seem incredulous to me. I get biased like lot of indians who think US or Europe is a better place. I dont need to say that there are millions of indians in these regions. Then i think some more. So far, i dont think anybody is doing things any differently when it comes to living a life. Even in this community i dont see we are living differently, i dont know whether we even need to!!
We are born, we live and we die, that is the only truth that appeals me so far. One might think that a different state of my mind would give different opinion about what my brain thinks is “truth”, but i doubt that. But i love this site, if anybody doubts that whether this site has practical benefits or not—I say that it is very useful. Onething stands out, people here are open to criticism. Even if we don’t get truth from this site, we have so many better routes to choose from!! This site seems to be a map. For a timeless travel. Dont give a shit about what others have to say. People can come with theories about everything it seems. And i dont like when people have -ve stuff to say about this forum. I am and would like to loyal to the forum which serves me good.
I hope something happens that we are able to live for atleast 500 years. I think that would be a good time to know few things( my fantasy)
i have recently started writing at http://ajayjetti.com/
thanks for reading if u have reached here!!
fantastic !!!
yes, i am stumped!! the thing is clear from one of the comments. actually i was a bit sleepy (still am) and skimmed thru it, and missed the part after the cut. Fantastic post though.
I have a question: I am a real beginner here in this forum. Although i read a lot, the language used by you and many others in this forum is very high quality. The sentences are huge, which have to be re-read sometimes to understand what is being said. Although i know i will feel more comfortable with time, is it really simple english that is used in this forum? simple is relative, but lets say, is the english used here simple when compared with english used in most of the “standard” philosophy books or sites? i hope i am able to put across my point!!!
Orthonormal, can you please post a link to blog that you quoted?
Out of the 23 comments so far, none has actually properly handled the question[1] raised by orthonormal.
Would love to see eliezer reply to this one
Please do that if possible.
How seriously do you take this critique? Do you wonder why I’m bothering with this straw-man criticism of Less Wrong?
thanks for tellin that. I should have looked up before saying that
I realise it should be basic “math”. For some strange reason almost 99% of people here in india say maths. We are taught by teachers as maths. People invariably say I like maths, not math. Its just so ingrained by now that i wrote that in spite of knowing that its “math”. Probably a thing like your comment is what my brain was waiting for, it would be more “brainy” before writing maths again :)
Yes, and probably a detailed probability lesson. I was very good at maths in high school, but now after 10 years after highschool, i have totally lost touch. Though i still know the concepts, i get a bit lost when people start talking in “p” terms out of nowhere. I would like to follow everything.
i totally second this!!! Eliezer posts very few articles. I usually come back from work and sit down to read on LW for 2-3 hours. I was fighting myself and telling myself to make a bit of effort to vote, as it is helpful as pointed out by eliezer. But, bcos the number of posts is so less, it really doesn’t matter. Eliezer can almost assume that we like the post, unless theres something negative about it written in the comments section. As pointed out by eirenicon, comment votes are very important and they certainly should be given more attention. yesterday i was reading the “alcohol thread” and it really helped to skim thru few and get past 250 comments!!!!
A page named “basic maths”, explaining “essential” concepts would be great. I don’t know if it is possible, but i would want the explanations to be theoretical—the way eliezer explains bayes, basically something for the generalists who can’t learn maths by looking at equations!!
when the small projects upon the great, it can only come up with a small answer
--JD krishnamurthy
From what i’ve read and able to understand(a little) after spending 3 months reading this blog is that rationality is (just to put what has already been said lot of times by eliezer) “something that helps us getting more of what we want”, please correct me if i have got it dead wrong, else i might be “de-rationalised” in a rational way. Im a pathalogical liar, i have little to hide (nobody who knows me visits this blog, i think, and if somebody does and happens to read this, then he wouldn’t mind it i’m sure).
″........- the theory being that if you give yourself permission to lie outright, you will no longer feel the need to distort internal belief. In this view the choice is between lying consciously and lying unconsciously, and a rationalist should choose the former.”
I like the idea of outright lying, but what i’ve realised over a period of time is that the “outward lying” slowly creeps into the “conscious” and “aware” mind and sometimes i forget that i am lying, i guess it happens to other also.
Again, from the definition of rational (as i ve put it above), i think honesty is related to rationality, since not being honest may help us want more of what we want or just get us what we want. How well we manage lies and are able to separate conscious and unconscious lies is subjective.
Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies—Ralph waldo emerson
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it” —I tried to find where I read it, but unsucessfully
EDIT: Googled, it’s by Kurt Vonnegut