Of that list the following the following make the kind of usage that the OP would target if it was not being flippantly general.
Rational Romantic Relationships
Rational Reading
A Rational Education
Rational Home Buying
The remainder use the word where it needs to be used, or at least provides information about the subject. With these examples the title need only convey the subject that is being analyzed or strategized about. We can assume (or hope) that the analysis and strategies provided are rational because they are on flipping lesswrong. The inclusion of “Rational” in the title is not necessarily a problem in all these cases but the general class of posts following this format does start to look ridiculous when used excessively or taken to extremes.
I notice that one of the examples is mine. I would use a different title were I to make that post today. I don’t want to be associated with “Rational Toothpaste” vibes!
Right. “Rational” is perfectly fine to use when it refers to the set of behaviors and strategies for making choices that best advance goals and forming beliefs that are true—typically characterized by fields like heuristics and biases literature, Bayesian epistemology, akrasia and executive functioning etc. It is also acceptable as one of the less unfortunate ways of referring to Less Wrong projects and individuals/ people inspired by the above concept of rationality, in general, at a meta-level. What it is not suitable for is as a substitute for words like “optimal”, “best”, “ideal”, “true”, “good” or “moral” on object-level, narrow-domain questions. While “rational” might be denotationally synonymous with these words it carries an additional connotation which suggests the post would have something to do with the aforementioned conception of rationality as understood by Less Wrong. A post about the best way to cook a chicken should not be called “Rational Poultry Cooking”. I’d add to your target list “Exterminating life is rational” as I think that post should simply be called ”...is moral” or ”...maximizes utility”.
Of that list the following the following make the kind of usage that the OP would target if it was not being flippantly general.
Rational Romantic Relationships
Rational Reading
A Rational Education
Rational Home Buying
The remainder use the word where it needs to be used, or at least provides information about the subject. With these examples the title need only convey the subject that is being analyzed or strategized about. We can assume (or hope) that the analysis and strategies provided are rational because they are on flipping lesswrong. The inclusion of “Rational” in the title is not necessarily a problem in all these cases but the general class of posts following this format does start to look ridiculous when used excessively or taken to extremes.
I notice that one of the examples is mine. I would use a different title were I to make that post today. I don’t want to be associated with “Rational Toothpaste” vibes!
“Rational Reading” is particularly bad, as I would expect a post with that title to be about reading about rationality.
Right. “Rational” is perfectly fine to use when it refers to the set of behaviors and strategies for making choices that best advance goals and forming beliefs that are true—typically characterized by fields like heuristics and biases literature, Bayesian epistemology, akrasia and executive functioning etc. It is also acceptable as one of the less unfortunate ways of referring to Less Wrong projects and individuals/ people inspired by the above concept of rationality, in general, at a meta-level. What it is not suitable for is as a substitute for words like “optimal”, “best”, “ideal”, “true”, “good” or “moral” on object-level, narrow-domain questions. While “rational” might be denotationally synonymous with these words it carries an additional connotation which suggests the post would have something to do with the aforementioned conception of rationality as understood by Less Wrong. A post about the best way to cook a chicken should not be called “Rational Poultry Cooking”. I’d add to your target list “Exterminating life is rational” as I think that post should simply be called ”...is moral” or ”...maximizes utility”.