Pair Debugging and applied rationality

Pair debugging is a staple of applied rationality. Humans aren’t really all that smart on their own. Our intelligence is distributed. You don’t get very far by thinking by yourself.

Before we start, I’ll teach a rationality technique. These techniques can be used explicitly as a structured conversation, or they can be applied freestyle whenever.

Minimum prep: bring a bugs list! This is a list of n things that you would like to improve about your life. Here’s some examples:

- “I often don’t fall asleep quickly enough on evenings before workdays”
- “I want to work for an early phase startup for my next job, but I don’t know how to get in contact with startups in that phase”
- “Despite being poly I seem to have a mental block around flirting even when there is clear interest from the other side”
- etc

Optional prep: read some of the CFAR handbook at https://​​www.rationality.org/​​resources/​​handbook

Rough schedule:

14:00 - welcome
± 15:00 - meditation session
± 15:15 - lecture & practice
± 16:30 - done
± 19:00 - grab some dinner together
± 22:00 - closing

Come whenever, but try not to come during the meditation.