And this is why I am not so impressed by Eliezer’s claim that an x-rationality instructor should be successful in their non-rationality life. Yes, there probably are some x-rationalists who will also be successful people. But again, correlation 0.1. Stop saying only practically successful people could be good x-rationality teachers! Stop saying we need to start having huge real-life victories or our art is useless! Stop calling x-rationality the Art of Winning! Stop saying I must be engaged in some sort of weird signalling effort for saying I’m here because I like mental clarity instead of because I want to be the next Bill Gates! It trivializes the very virtues that brought most of us to Overcoming Bias, and replaces them with what sounds a lot like a pitch for some weird self-help cult...
Yay! Cheer! Woohooo!
Thankyou Yvain! I appreciate seeing the value of epistimic rationality for humans put in a somewhat plausable perspective.
To be honest some of the greatest practical benefits I’ve taken from reading OB have been along the lines of “Oh, so that’s what people are doing. Now I get it. I had better start doing that more”. Not with all biasses mind you, but there are some biasses that are just worth implementing. This is along the lines of Eleizer’s recommendation to apply ‘ethics’ for a pure selfish reasons. Sure, you are adding a bias, but you are at the same time accounting for calculations that are simply beyond your abilities.
Yay! Cheer! Woohooo!
Thankyou Yvain! I appreciate seeing the value of epistimic rationality for humans put in a somewhat plausable perspective.
To be honest some of the greatest practical benefits I’ve taken from reading OB have been along the lines of “Oh, so that’s what people are doing. Now I get it. I had better start doing that more”. Not with all biasses mind you, but there are some biasses that are just worth implementing. This is along the lines of Eleizer’s recommendation to apply ‘ethics’ for a pure selfish reasons. Sure, you are adding a bias, but you are at the same time accounting for calculations that are simply beyond your abilities.