While I completely agree in the abstract, I think there’s a very strong tendency for systems-of-thought, such as propagated on this site, to become cult-like. There’s a reason why people outside the bubble criticize LW for building a cult. They see small signs of it happening and also know/feel the general tendency for it, which always exists in auch a context and needs to be counteracted.
As you point out, the concrete ways of thinking propagated here aren’t necessarily the best for all situations and it’s another very deep can of worms to be able to tell which situations are which. Also, it attracts people (such as myself to some degree) who enjoy armchair philosophizing without actually ever trying to do anything useful with that. Akrasia is one thing, not even expecting to do anything useful with some knowledge and pursuing it as a kind of entertainment is another still.
So there’s two ways to frame the message: one is saying that “rationality is about winning”, which is a definition that’s very hard to attack but also vague in it’s immediate and indisputable consequences for how one should think, and also makes it hard to tell if “one is doing it right”.
The other way is to impose some more concrete principles and risk them becoming simplified, ritualized, abused and distorted to a point where they might do net harm. This way also makes it impossible to develop the epistemology further. You pick some meta-level and propose rules for thinking at that level which people eventually and inevitably propagate and defend with the fervor of religious belief. It becomes impossible to improve the epistemology at that point.
The meme (“rationality”) has to be about something in order to spread and also needs some minimum amount of coherence. “It’s about winning” seems to do this job quite well and not too well.
While I completely agree in the abstract, I think there’s a very strong tendency for systems-of-thought, such as propagated on this site, to become cult-like. There’s a reason why people outside the bubble criticize LW for building a cult. They see small signs of it happening and also know/feel the general tendency for it, which always exists in auch a context and needs to be counteracted.
As you point out, the concrete ways of thinking propagated here aren’t necessarily the best for all situations and it’s another very deep can of worms to be able to tell which situations are which. Also, it attracts people (such as myself to some degree) who enjoy armchair philosophizing without actually ever trying to do anything useful with that. Akrasia is one thing, not even expecting to do anything useful with some knowledge and pursuing it as a kind of entertainment is another still.
So there’s two ways to frame the message: one is saying that “rationality is about winning”, which is a definition that’s very hard to attack but also vague in it’s immediate and indisputable consequences for how one should think, and also makes it hard to tell if “one is doing it right”.
The other way is to impose some more concrete principles and risk them becoming simplified, ritualized, abused and distorted to a point where they might do net harm. This way also makes it impossible to develop the epistemology further. You pick some meta-level and propose rules for thinking at that level which people eventually and inevitably propagate and defend with the fervor of religious belief. It becomes impossible to improve the epistemology at that point.
The meme (“rationality”) has to be about something in order to spread and also needs some minimum amount of coherence. “It’s about winning” seems to do this job quite well and not too well.