Glen

Karma: 137

Glen 26 Jul 2016 18:42 UTC
0 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Rationality Quotes July 2016
So, in context this is someone trying to diffuse a dangerous situation with placating lies. How is this rationality?

Glen 1 Apr 2016 14:57 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Lamp’s comment on: Ultimate List of Irrational Nonsense
That is true. However, at some point you are trying to fit too much into a single image or chart. I think what you’re describing here could work if you keep it focused on a smaller range of ideas, rather than this many. It would also allow people to think individually about each claim, which larger sets don’t really do.

I think your proposed chart would work best as an introduction or header to a more in depth analysis. Show the shape of the arguments and faults, then discuss each one thoroughly beneath the image.

Glen 30 Mar 2016 22:13 UTC
40 points
in reply to: Huluk’s comment on: Lesswrong 2016 Survey
I have taken the survey

Glen 30 Mar 2016 21:57 UTC
12 points
in reply to: AlwaysUnite’s comment on: Ultimate List of Irrational Nonsense
I believe the problem people have with this is that it isn’t actually helpful at all. It’s just a list of outgroups for people to laugh at without any sort of analysis on why they believe this or what can be done to avoid falling into the same traps. Obviously a simple chart can’t really encompass that level of explanation, so it’s actual value or meaningful content is limited.

EDIT: Also, looking over your list it seems that you have marked most philosophies and alternate governments as “Immoral”, along with literally everything as “Pointless and Counterproductive”. Anarchism, Authoritarianism, Bushido, Collectivism, Cultural Relativism, Cynicsm, Defeatism, Ecocentrism, Egocentrism, Error Theory, Ethical Egoism, fascism, Gothicismus, Harmonious Society & Scientific Outlook on Development, Hedonism, Illegalism, Libertarianism, Machiavellianism, Medievalism, Misanthropy, Misology, Moral Relativism, Moral Skepticism, Moral Subjectivism, Nihilism, Non-Atomic Eudaiominism, Opportunism, Pacifism, Sensualism, Ubuntu(!), Value-Pluralism, Virtue Ethics, Voluntaryism are all marked as “Immoral” and nothing else. I have a lot of issues with your list, but the one that jumps out hte most is Ubuntu. How is UBUNTU of all things Immoral, Pointless and Counterproductive?

Glen 16 Mar 2016 16:09 UTC
9 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread March 2016
By he I meant Vox. I read the linked post, and it makes all these mistakes. I wouldn’t expect a quote to include a full argument or evidence base, but the source ideally should.

Glen 16 Mar 2016 15:18 UTC
4 points
in reply to: Lumifer’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread March 2016
He lists a single “parasitic” non-profit, and then declares the entire field of non-profits to be corrupt thieves on the scale of the financial sector. This post is explicitly about his disgust with the “non-profit world”, and he pretty clearly believes that this sort of this is common despite providing no strong evidence in support of that belief. That is his mistake, generalizing from a single example with no additional evidence provided or even discussed.

Glen 16 Mar 2016 14:30 UTC
8 points
in reply to: Torchlight_Crimson’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread March 2016
The closest thing to rationality content I can pull from this is “just because a thing looks good, doesn’t mean it is good”. However, the source page lists a grand total of one corrupt non-profit. You can find one bad version of anything, no matter how good or bad the whole group is. You could probably even find a hundred such examples, just from population size and base rate alone. Vox doesn’t attempt to check if he is right, he doesn’t even list a few examples. He just lists a single instance of a probably corrupt non-profit and, pleased with his own cynicism and insight, declares he they has found a pattern. This is a good example of what not to do, and an important failure mode to watch out for, but you are presenting it as though it were rational rather than a cautionary tale.

Glen 17 Feb 2016 21:59 UTC
0 points
in reply to: ChristianKl’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread February 2016
This is an interesting historical note, but I am having a hard time seeing why it is a rationality quote. Perhaps as a record of people acting irrationally? Would you mind explaining a bit?

Glen 8 Feb 2016 20:37 UTC
3 points
in reply to: WalterL’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread February 2016
Even if “do what makes you happy” were the best rationality advice, the big problem is figuring out what actually makes you happy, how to achieve it, and how to maintain/improve it. Getting drunk is pretty bad advice for a rationality standpoint, because it’s sacrificing long term gain for short term pleasure, which is basically the opposite of what you should do. The man drinking at a bar all day is happier right now than the one working extra hours or studying, but in a few years, their happiness will probably be reversed as the latter’s investment pays off and the former is still just drinking (only with more health problems).

Glen 8 Feb 2016 20:31 UTC
7 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread February 2016
That’s not even true, though. If you are kidnapped and then tortured, you are not remotely in control of your own happiness, just to take the most obvious extreme answer. Even for more mundane situations, people can be trapped in terrible situations, where cruel people have power over them. If you are working at a minimum wage job with bills coming seemingly every day and which you only overcome by working 18 hour days before collapsing exhausted and doing it all again in the morning, there is very little you can do about it. Now if one of the supervisors at one of your jobs is a petty tyrant who makes you miserable, what choice do you have that would increase your happiness?

I see what the quote is trying to say, as a call to action to change your own life, but it simply isn’t true. It also fails the false wisdom reversal test, in that a quote saying “You have no true control over your own happiness; therefore, you must accept your lot in life with all the grace you can muster” sounds just as deep and helpful.

Glen 25 Jan 2016 19:54 UTC
2 points
in reply to: Viliam’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread January 2016
I find myself agreeing with your general statement, that it is important to not treat the outspoken members of a group as indicative whether good or bad, while being somewhat worried that you have fallen into the same pattern in the process of trying to explain it.

Your examples of feminist and men’s rights activist generalizations seem to be examples of the sort of one-sided generalizations you warn about in the very next paragraph. Men’s right’s activists are generalized in a positive fashion—they are victims of circumstance, trying to avenge the wrongs done to them—while feminists are portrayed in a negative fashion—one dimensional bigots building a career on hating men. I think it would have served your point better if you had attempted positive generalizations for both. How you have it now just seems like it is undermining your general point. In fact, you should probably avoid contemporary political groups when giving examples to avoid this sort of this altogether.

It is possible that you deliberately chose those generalizations in order to demonstrate the trap many people fall into. If that is the case, I think you need to make it more clear. Examples of failed rationality are useful, but should be clearly labeled.

Additionally, I don’t see how learning the opinions of the silent majority is reversed stupidity. We already know the opinions of the vocal minority, wouldn’t learning the opinions of the silent majority give us a clear picture of the whole group’s opinions? I suppose there could be a third group left out by this, some sort of Mumbling Moderates, but it should be easy enough to pick them up in well designed polls as well.

Glen 6 Jan 2016 21:00 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Silver_Swift’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread January 2016
That depends on the situation and record, doesn’t it? If 90% of changes that you have undergone in the past were negative, then wouldn’t it be reasonable to resist change in the future? Obviously you shouldn’t just outright refuse all change, but if you have a chance to slow it down long enough to better judge what the effects will be, isn’t that good? I guess the real solution is to judge possible actions by analyzing the cost/benefit to the best of your ability in cases where this is practical.

Glen 10 Dec 2015 15:54 UTC
6 points
in reply to: roland’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread December 2015
(To make it clear: I have never seen the movie in question, so this is not a comment on the specifics of what happened) Just because it turned out poorly doesn’t make it a bad rule. It could have had a 99% chance to work out great, but the killer is only seeing the 1% where it didn’t. If you’re killing people, then you can’t really judge their rules, since it’s basically a given that you’re only going to talk to them when the rules fail. Everything is going to look like a bad rule if you only count the instances where it didn’t work. Without knowing how many similar encounters the victim avoided with their rule, I don’t see how you can make a strong case that it’s a bad (or good) rule.

Glen 4 Dec 2015 19:40 UTC
0 points
in reply to: VoiceOfRa’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread December 2015
Are there any other systems for judging medicine that more accurately reflects reality? I know very little about medicine in general, but it would be interesting to hear about any alternate methods that get good results.

Glen 25 Nov 2015 22:06 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Gunnar_Zarncke’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread November 2015
Why is it not ridiculous? From skimming the source, he seems to be using a long discredited biological idea and applying it to intelligence because there’s a vague resemblance if you squint at it. There’s no clear reason to believe that vitalism would be any more possible, let alone plausible, with regards to intelligence as opposed to organic compounds.

Glen 16 Nov 2015 20:24 UTC
5 points
in reply to: FairWitness’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread November 2015
While it has some amusing jokes in it, this isn’t a rationality quote. This won’t help anyone think better, doesn’t clarify beliefs, doesn’t offer insight into anything. It’s only a way of laughing at the out-group, which is counterproductive even when they are wrong.

Glen 13 Nov 2015 16:33 UTC
2 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread November 2015
I don’t follow what this has to do with rationality. Could you explain further?

Glen 20 Oct 2015 15:10 UTC
1 point
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Rationality Quotes Thread October 2015
There’s no way that this is actually true, though. Before anybody has met you, they have 0 interest in you. After they have met you, their interest may change based on what you say/do etc. (People’s first impressions are important, but do not literally set a limit for how interested they will ever be) It is therefore entirely possible that a given person would have some combination of things you can say and do to increase how much they are interested in you, and indeed one of the major points of dating is to see if that will happen. While some people will just never be interested in you no matter what you say or do, it’s ridiculous to just say it’s impossible to specifically target any given person.

Glen 2 Feb 2015 18:31 UTC
−2 points
on: Rationality Quotes Thread February 2015

We can’t go back, Mat. The Wheel has turned, for better or worse. And it will keep on turning, as lights die and forests dim, storms call and skies break. Turn it will. The wheel is not hope, and the Wheel does not care, the Wheel simply is. But so long as it turns, folk may hope, folk may care. For with light that fades, another will eventually grow, and each storm that rages must eventually die. Thom Merrilin, The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

(For those unfamiliar with the series, the Wheel is basically reality/the universe)

Glen 5 Aug 2013 17:26 UTC
1 point
in reply to: linkhyrule5’s comment on: Rationality Quotes August 2013
This is similar to how I’ve interpreted it. The character comes from a pre-enlightenment society, and is considered one of the greatest intelligence agents largely due to his ability to get results where nobody else can. He privately attributes this success to a rational mind and extensive [chess] skill that trains him to approach things as though they can be solved. While “stop and think about problems like they were games to be won instead of chores to be blamed on someone else” may seem obvious to people used to thinking like that, it’s a major shift for most people.