The out-of-context statements are intended as a resource for people who have already read through and understood the post. If they have done that, then the statements won’t be mysterious or meaningless, but instead act as triggers for entire concepts. See this excellent guide to breaking down knowledge into memorisable chunks.
Two questions, Phillip:
1) Do you think Eliezer’s article has value?
2) How would you ensure that you’d learnt its key messages?
If you think there’s no point, or if you have a better way, I’d love to hear about it.
Okay, to know what I’m talking about here, I downloaded the deck and am looking at sample questions now. Here are the first 10 questions I got:
1) The sixth virtue is ___.
2) ___ wrote in the Book of Five Rings, “quoted stuff”.
3) The sixth virtue (again)
4) The ___ is humility.
5) ___ thus more can be said about a single apple...
6) If ___, you will not advance to the next level and you will not gain the skill to notice new errors.
7) [as I realize I can copy and paste from Anki] The [...] is relinquishment.
8) [...] seeks to annihilate itself; there is no [...] that does not want an answer.
9) [...] that distorts what you say to others also distorts your own thoughts.
10) The [...] is empiricism.
What do you gain from knowing whether empiricism is the second or the seventh in the list, or from memorizing pithy quotes word for word, without context? The important thing is to learn how to practice and apply the concepts, not to memorize them by rote.
What do you gain from knowing whether empiricism is the second or the seventh in the list,
Take a look at the list. Look at the last sentence of each item, and the first sentence of the next. Do you see how they flow into each other? Learning the order of the items helps me remember which virtues are connected to other ones, and how.
or from memorizing pithy quotes word for word, without context?
There is context, just not in the Anki card. It’s in the article (which you would need to read before using the deck), and it’s in your brain (the memories of the last time you read it.)
The important thing is to learn how to practice and apply the concepts, not to memorize them by rote.
When I’m in situations where I might want to apply these virtues (e.g. when having an argument), I often don’t have time to deduce them from first principles. If I’ve got them memorised, I can at least do a quick check of “is my current behaviour in opposition to any of the virtues?”. This helps me apply them to everyday life.
So how would you “learn how to practice and apply the concepts” from the article? What concrete steps would you take?
I’m sure my method has flaws; I want to know of a better way. Can you help me?
“Do you see how they flow into each other? Learning the order of the items helps me remember which virtues are connected to other ones, and how.”
Sure, it may help you remember how some of the virtues are connected to other virtues in an indirect way, but even if it were direct, it is quite partial. The flow can only hint at how lightness is related to evenness, or how perfectionism is related to evenness.
Lightness doesn’t just relate with evenness. It also relates with all the other virtues in a ton of different ways. In fact, they are all so heavily interrelated, that, “you will see how all techniques are one technique”. If your objective is to have a good understanding of how all the virtues of rationality relate, I would chunk them in a way that is most sensible to you, then ask how each may relate to each other both in theory and in application.
The out-of-context statements are intended as a resource for people who have already read through and understood the post. If they have done that, then the statements won’t be mysterious or meaningless, but instead act as triggers for entire concepts. See this excellent guide to breaking down knowledge into memorisable chunks.
Two questions, Phillip:
1) Do you think Eliezer’s article has value? 2) How would you ensure that you’d learnt its key messages?
If you think there’s no point, or if you have a better way, I’d love to hear about it.
Okay, to know what I’m talking about here, I downloaded the deck and am looking at sample questions now. Here are the first 10 questions I got:
1) The sixth virtue is ___.
2) ___ wrote in the Book of Five Rings, “quoted stuff”.
3) The sixth virtue (again)
4) The ___ is humility.
5) ___ thus more can be said about a single apple...
6) If ___, you will not advance to the next level and you will not gain the skill to notice new errors.
7) [as I realize I can copy and paste from Anki] The [...] is relinquishment.
8) [...] seeks to annihilate itself; there is no [...] that does not want an answer.
9) [...] that distorts what you say to others also distorts your own thoughts.
10) The [...] is empiricism.
What do you gain from knowing whether empiricism is the second or the seventh in the list, or from memorizing pithy quotes word for word, without context? The important thing is to learn how to practice and apply the concepts, not to memorize them by rote.
[Edit: line breaks]
Take a look at the list. Look at the last sentence of each item, and the first sentence of the next. Do you see how they flow into each other? Learning the order of the items helps me remember which virtues are connected to other ones, and how.
There is context, just not in the Anki card. It’s in the article (which you would need to read before using the deck), and it’s in your brain (the memories of the last time you read it.)
When I’m in situations where I might want to apply these virtues (e.g. when having an argument), I often don’t have time to deduce them from first principles. If I’ve got them memorised, I can at least do a quick check of “is my current behaviour in opposition to any of the virtues?”. This helps me apply them to everyday life.
So how would you “learn how to practice and apply the concepts” from the article? What concrete steps would you take?
I’m sure my method has flaws; I want to know of a better way. Can you help me?
This post may be a better thing to internalize. I’m pretty sure there’s other similar posts out there, but this was the most salient one for me.
“Do you see how they flow into each other? Learning the order of the items helps me remember which virtues are connected to other ones, and how.”
Sure, it may help you remember how some of the virtues are connected to other virtues in an indirect way, but even if it were direct, it is quite partial. The flow can only hint at how lightness is related to evenness, or how perfectionism is related to evenness.
Lightness doesn’t just relate with evenness. It also relates with all the other virtues in a ton of different ways. In fact, they are all so heavily interrelated, that, “you will see how all techniques are one technique”.
If your objective is to have a good understanding of how all the virtues of rationality relate, I would chunk them in a way that is most sensible to you, then ask how each may relate to each other both in theory and in application.