Okay, I’ve read the first article you linked, and I’m discovering that I was naive about what this site was about (this should not be surprising after all the times similar things have happened to me, but it apparently still is). I’ve read HPMOR, of course, but I didn’t catch on that this site would be specifically geared to using specific, formal, scientifically-derived techniques to improve thinking. The article mentioned Scientology; this kind of sounds a little like Scientology (well, Dianetics) to me, though I’m sure it makes much more formal sense. This makes me still more wary than before; I like my own “organic” rationalist methods, and am skittish of adopting some formal “system” of thought. This is more grousing than complaint; I do not have enough information to intelligently critique at this point, although the thing that bothered me most about Harry was his overuse of formal techniques instead of just trying to grok the whole situation in a more organic fashion; that just seems like a good way to miss something. This does not mean that reading about common errors in thinking couldn’t be useful.
I’m disappointed that my post didn’t receive more response (poor me! I want attention! Well, alright, I was hoping for something analogous to a support group), but I appreciate yours. I’ll definitely keep reading.
Wow. Thank you. I just finished “Epistemic Learned Helplessness,” and I feel much better now. Those two articles have successfully inoculated me against being sucked in too easily into the “x-rationalist” view.
I actually disagree with what he says in “Epistemic Learned Helplessness”; or rather, I don’t believe that that helplessness is actually necessary, that I can—or if I can’t, it is possible to with sufficient training—tell when a case has been reasonably proven and when I should suspend judgement. Or maybe he’s more right than I like to admit; I have to concede that I was taken in by much of Graham Hancock’s work until I tried to write a short story based on one of his ideas and it completely fell apart after some research and analysis. But regardless of whether the dilemma he poses is avoidable or not, he makes some excellent, indeed critical, points, and I can now proceed with a healthy dose of skepticism of rationalism, a phrase I would likely have been ashamed to utter before reading that article.