This is pretty wrong, but I do think it does come from a well-meaning place.
First, the list you make is not my experience of the community. Especially on the website. The Discord which is sometimes is visit would be closer, but the list is still problematic.
Physical fitness for one. It’s one of the easiest change one can make in his life, everyone ought to, and it seems to me most people attempt it and many succeed. Heck I’m even on a rationalist-offshoot Discord dedicated to training now.
Second, depressed? Nothing on this website gives me this vibe. Also depressed is inversely correlated with high achievement. For that matter, “high achiever” is deeply connected to what one considers to be an achievement.
No, truly, I do not think most of the community fits the trope you’re laying out.
Now to address you real point, yes, experiences do inform one’s vision and concerns. Physical fitness (or even strength) seems to improve well-being and confidence, but it does not seem to me that the content of this website shows a lack of either.
Discussion around here tend to be involved, nuanced, and frankly sometimes a bit too involved in hypotheticals (for my own taste, but everyone’s different). I see no correlation between confidence (or strength etc) and nuance. People with a low sense of self-worth spout non-sense with bravado remarkably often; and conversely, confident people are frequently too confident in their belief. So one must not confuse confidence, and over-confidence in one’s stated beliefs.
Good point. I focused mostly on vocal/visible actors which may form only a small subset of survey respondents. Still, I have no evidence in the other direction either.
Even if depression is more represented, I don’t feel like it really informs the content of most posts on this website. If anything, I’d ascribe them an optimistic mindset which is not usually associated with depression.
This is pretty wrong, but I do think it does come from a well-meaning place.
First, the list you make is not my experience of the community. Especially on the website. The Discord which is sometimes is visit would be closer, but the list is still problematic.
Physical fitness for one. It’s one of the easiest change one can make in his life, everyone ought to, and it seems to me most people attempt it and many succeed. Heck I’m even on a rationalist-offshoot Discord dedicated to training now.
Second, depressed? Nothing on this website gives me this vibe. Also depressed is inversely correlated with high achievement. For that matter, “high achiever” is deeply connected to what one considers to be an achievement.
No, truly, I do not think most of the community fits the trope you’re laying out.
Now to address you real point, yes, experiences do inform one’s vision and concerns. Physical fitness (or even strength) seems to improve well-being and confidence, but it does not seem to me that the content of this website shows a lack of either.
Discussion around here tend to be involved, nuanced, and frankly sometimes a bit too involved in hypotheticals (for my own taste, but everyone’s different). I see no correlation between confidence (or strength etc) and nuance. People with a low sense of self-worth spout non-sense with bravado remarkably often; and conversely, confident people are frequently too confident in their belief. So one must not confuse confidence, and over-confidence in one’s stated beliefs.
The OP didn’t do the work to show the point with depression but depression is over-represented on LessWrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Xi6syQenk24nQTzgz/2016-lesswrong-diaspora-survey-analysis-part-three-mental
Good point. I focused mostly on vocal/visible actors which may form only a small subset of survey respondents. Still, I have no evidence in the other direction either.
Even if depression is more represented, I don’t feel like it really informs the content of most posts on this website. If anything, I’d ascribe them an optimistic mindset which is not usually associated with depression.