It’s an interesting idea but I feel very skeptical about the generic plan. Personally, a revulsion for organized/standardized education is what drove me to look at things like Less Wrong in the first place. I think this is fairly common in the community, with many people interested in discussion of akrasia and self-work habits.
Also, considering the informality of ideas like “I want to be a good rationalist”, I would expect this sort of thing to be much more open-ended and unstructured anyways. It doesn’t seem to fit with the idea of a rigid system or a “boot-camp”. It just seems contrary to the idea of rationality and free thinking.
I am also somewhat bemused by the character of the “application”, where apparently qualification relates to reading of the sequences and SIAI in-house literature. I mean the level of self-masturbation is quite remarkable, not to be too cynical, but it seems to be setting the bar fairly low when you’re treating a subject that has been actively discussed for thousands of years.
On the other hand I’m sure this is well intentioned and you have to start somewhere, so I apologize if my remarks seem overly caustic.
It’s an interesting idea but I feel very skeptical about the generic plan. Personally, a revulsion for organized/standardized education is what drove me to look at things like Less Wrong in the first place. I think this is fairly common in the community, with many people interested in discussion of akrasia and self-work habits.
Also, considering the informality of ideas like “I want to be a good rationalist”, I would expect this sort of thing to be much more open-ended and unstructured anyways. It doesn’t seem to fit with the idea of a rigid system or a “boot-camp”. It just seems contrary to the idea of rationality and free thinking.
I’m sympathetic to this reaction, but I suspect a lot of it is a reversed-stupidity mistake. I’ve been repeatedly surprised by how poorly plans for open-ended, unstructured activities work in practice, and how useful (and non-unpleasant) skillfully-executed structure and discipline are. I don’t understand why a “boot camp” would be contrary to rationality, unless you think structure and discipline require committing not to update on evidence.
(Also, most of the reasons people dislike organized education seem like they would be entirely irrelevant here.)
If you mouse over those sections on the application, messages should be appearing on the right saying “Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t read much of Less Wrong, we have other ways of gauging your knowledge during the interview” and “Again, don’t be discouraged if these are unfamiliar”. If I had put it on the application, it would be to gather information about the applicant’s devotion to research on the subject of rationality, not their actual knowledge (reading does not imply understanding).
Still, the current best of those ideas that have been actively discussed for thousands of years is what went into the creation of the sequences and (hopefully, I haven’t read much of them) the foundation of the SIAI literature. They did that on purpose; it would have been rather silly for them not to.
It’s an interesting idea but I feel very skeptical about the generic plan. Personally, a revulsion for organized/standardized education is what drove me to look at things like Less Wrong in the first place. I think this is fairly common in the community, with many people interested in discussion of akrasia and self-work habits.
Also, considering the informality of ideas like “I want to be a good rationalist”, I would expect this sort of thing to be much more open-ended and unstructured anyways. It doesn’t seem to fit with the idea of a rigid system or a “boot-camp”. It just seems contrary to the idea of rationality and free thinking.
I am also somewhat bemused by the character of the “application”, where apparently qualification relates to reading of the sequences and SIAI in-house literature. I mean the level of self-masturbation is quite remarkable, not to be too cynical, but it seems to be setting the bar fairly low when you’re treating a subject that has been actively discussed for thousands of years.
On the other hand I’m sure this is well intentioned and you have to start somewhere, so I apologize if my remarks seem overly caustic.
I’m sympathetic to this reaction, but I suspect a lot of it is a reversed-stupidity mistake. I’ve been repeatedly surprised by how poorly plans for open-ended, unstructured activities work in practice, and how useful (and non-unpleasant) skillfully-executed structure and discipline are. I don’t understand why a “boot camp” would be contrary to rationality, unless you think structure and discipline require committing not to update on evidence.
(Also, most of the reasons people dislike organized education seem like they would be entirely irrelevant here.)
If you mouse over those sections on the application, messages should be appearing on the right saying “Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t read much of Less Wrong, we have other ways of gauging your knowledge during the interview” and “Again, don’t be discouraged if these are unfamiliar”. If I had put it on the application, it would be to gather information about the applicant’s devotion to research on the subject of rationality, not their actual knowledge (reading does not imply understanding).
Still, the current best of those ideas that have been actively discussed for thousands of years is what went into the creation of the sequences and (hopefully, I haven’t read much of them) the foundation of the SIAI literature. They did that on purpose; it would have been rather silly for them not to.