One claim that’s been repeated frequently is that we’re looking for rationality tricks, shortcuts and clever methods for being rational. Problem is: there aren’t any.
I strongly disagree with this statement. There are many techniques for being and becoming more rational. The reason I read this site is because I often encounter rationality techniques here that I consider valuable. All of the people who posted in The Most Important Thing You Learned seem to agree.
People generally want novelty and gimmicks. They’re exciting and interesting! Useful advice tends to be dull, tedious, and familiar.
I disagree again. If advice sounds dull and familiar, then it’s probably repeating something we’ve already heard. Advice is only useful if it contains some insight which is new to the person receiving it. That insight may support the familiar conclusion, but it has to be there. Familiar advice for familiar conclusions has no effect on beliefs or behavior, whether it ought to or not.
We’ve heard it all before, and it sounded like a lot of hard work and self-discipline.
Telling someone to be more disciplined tends to have the opposite effect. On the other hand, cognitive behavior therapy actually can make people more disciplined, and we have a cognitive behavior therapist (pjeby) posting here.
We talk about the importance of being rational, but don’t determine what’s necessary to do to become so.
There are quite a few posts here trying to specify what’s necessary to become rational, albeit unsuccessfully, in my opinion.
we have a cognitive behavior therapist (pjeby) posting here.
I’m not a therapist, actually. I’m a mind-hacking instructor. But stuff that works tends to be universal; we’re all hacking on the same platform, so to speak.
Actually, no, they’re not. AA is plagued by dropouts. What it’s good at is getting the people who remain with it to believe it’s helping them and say so. What it’s terrible at is getting people off alcohol.
I strongly disagree with this statement. There are many techniques for being and becoming more rational. The reason I read this site is because I often encounter rationality techniques here that I consider valuable. All of the people who posted in The Most Important Thing You Learned seem to agree.
I disagree again. If advice sounds dull and familiar, then it’s probably repeating something we’ve already heard. Advice is only useful if it contains some insight which is new to the person receiving it. That insight may support the familiar conclusion, but it has to be there. Familiar advice for familiar conclusions has no effect on beliefs or behavior, whether it ought to or not.
Telling someone to be more disciplined tends to have the opposite effect. On the other hand, cognitive behavior therapy actually can make people more disciplined, and we have a cognitive behavior therapist (pjeby) posting here.
There are quite a few posts here trying to specify what’s necessary to become rational, albeit unsuccessfully, in my opinion.
I’m not a therapist, actually. I’m a mind-hacking instructor. But stuff that works tends to be universal; we’re all hacking on the same platform, so to speak.
Actually, no, they’re not. AA is plagued by dropouts. What it’s good at is getting the people who remain with it to believe it’s helping them and say so. What it’s terrible at is getting people off alcohol.
“There are many techniques for being and becoming more rational.”
There are lots of techniques, but only one method.