Posts can be from LessWrong, the EA Forum, or any other blog or forum. Articles from other sources are fine as well, as are videos or podcast episodes. Books don’t count for the purpose of this post, but if there is a specific chapter in a book that you found particularly useful then that counts.
[Question] What are the top 1-10 posts / sequences / articles / etc. that you’ve found most useful for yourself for becoming “less wrong”?
Can’t pick just a few, but I’d go for The One True Source, SSC/ACX and check the top posts.
As a bonus, Scott references LW quite often, and these links are almost universally to high-quality writeups.
Paul Graham’s http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html is a must read and internalize. Almost all of us feel angry when something we hold dear is attacked, and often than not it reveals a part of our identity we didn’t know we had.
A valuable sequence to have would be a review of all of Paul Graham’s essays. His Twitter—paulg—is also of interest.
A good starting point is https://www.lesswrong.com/bestoflesswrong
Yes, I’m aware of that. But that’s a yearly list, and I’m asking for all-time favorites.
You could go by the all-time highest voted:
cool! but nothing for 2020 or 2021?
2020 is in the making: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ScqWBr8mxy32PzoDz/2020-review-final-voting
2021 will be next year. The best-of are done one year after when the dust has settled down.
Less nicely arranged, but here is the list for 2020. For 2021 we didn’t have the vote yet.
It is very difficult to select particular posts or book chapters because many ideas are becoming significant when you have known another ideas already. A context is very important for many ideas.
I can list some posts which seemed very important for me in the past.
A Human’s Guide to Words sequence
Chaotic inversion
Epistemic learned helplessness
CFAR’s Rationality checklist
Thinking only about posts that made me a better rationalist/thinker/person able to achieve things in the world:
Eliezer:
Your Strength as a Rationalist (spoiler: it’s your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality)
Is That Your True Rejection?
Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences)
Scott Alexander:
Generalizing From One Example
Meditations on Moloch
Anna Salamon: The correct response to uncertainty is *not* half-speed
Paul Graham: The Top Idea in Your Mind
Nate Soares:
Enjoying the feeling of agency
Stop trying to try and try
I (with some help) compiled some of the best rationality essays here.