Didn’t realise that this thread existed, so this ‘hello’ is after 20 or so posts. Oh well! I found Less Wrong because my brother recommended TVtropes, that linked to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and THAT led me back here. I’ve now recommended this site to my brother, completing the circle.
I’ve always been interested in rationality, I guess: I wouldn’t identify any particular point of ‘becoming a rationalist’, though I’ve had times where I’ve come across ideas that help me be more accurate. Including some on here, actually. There’s a second strand to my interest: I work in government and am interested in practical applications of rational thinking in large and complex organisations.
The Singularity Institute and Future of Humanity stuff is not something I’ve looked at before: I find it fairly interesting on an amateur level, and have some philosophy background that means the discussions make sense to me. I have zero computer science though, and generally my education is in the humanities rather than anything scientific.
I work in government and am interested in practical applications of rational thinking in large and complex organisations.
A huge amount of people here have math/computing/science majors and/or jobs. I’m in the same basket as you, though—very interested in the applications of rationality, but with almost no education relevant to it. I’m currently stuck between politics and academia (in psychology, politics, economics maybe?) as a career choice, but either way...
And we need that—people from outside the field, who extend the ideas into other areas of society, whether we understand it all as in-depth or not.
So best of luck to you! And as Alexandros says, don’t hesitate to put a post in the discussion forum with any progress, problems or anything of interest you come across in your quest. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it.
Hi
Didn’t realise that this thread existed, so this ‘hello’ is after 20 or so posts. Oh well! I found Less Wrong because my brother recommended TVtropes, that linked to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and THAT led me back here. I’ve now recommended this site to my brother, completing the circle.
I’ve always been interested in rationality, I guess: I wouldn’t identify any particular point of ‘becoming a rationalist’, though I’ve had times where I’ve come across ideas that help me be more accurate. Including some on here, actually. There’s a second strand to my interest: I work in government and am interested in practical applications of rational thinking in large and complex organisations.
The Singularity Institute and Future of Humanity stuff is not something I’ve looked at before: I find it fairly interesting on an amateur level, and have some philosophy background that means the discussions make sense to me. I have zero computer science though, and generally my education is in the humanities rather than anything scientific.
Hi, David. I was very happy when I read
A huge amount of people here have math/computing/science majors and/or jobs. I’m in the same basket as you, though—very interested in the applications of rationality, but with almost no education relevant to it. I’m currently stuck between politics and academia (in psychology, politics, economics maybe?) as a career choice, but either way...
And we need that—people from outside the field, who extend the ideas into other areas of society, whether we understand it all as in-depth or not.
So best of luck to you! And as Alexandros says, don’t hesitate to put a post in the discussion forum with any progress, problems or anything of interest you come across in your quest. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it.
Welcome! If you do make any progress on your quest, do share your findings with us.