If a person were completely irrational, sure, this post wouldn’t convince them. (Of course, they also wouldn’t live for long.) But it never tried to convince completely irrational people, it tried to convince people who were kinda-rational already that investing effort in further improving their rationality would be worth it.
I guess in the context for which it’s intended, it works OK. It’s a book introduction, after all. Most irrational people don’t really have much of a map of where and how they are being irrational—and in fact commonly consider themselves to be very rational persons, when it comes to it. (I strongly suspect this is like driving—most people considering themselves to be above average—where being incompetent also robs you of awareness of your lack of performance...) The common reaction would probably be to nod along, thinking how terrible it is that all these people are so irrational, and enjoy the read. For an introduction, that’s good enough.
If a person were completely irrational, sure, this post wouldn’t convince them. (Of course, they also wouldn’t live for long.) But it never tried to convince completely irrational people, it tried to convince people who were kinda-rational already that investing effort in further improving their rationality would be worth it.
I guess in the context for which it’s intended, it works OK. It’s a book introduction, after all. Most irrational people don’t really have much of a map of where and how they are being irrational—and in fact commonly consider themselves to be very rational persons, when it comes to it. (I strongly suspect this is like driving—most people considering themselves to be above average—where being incompetent also robs you of awareness of your lack of performance...) The common reaction would probably be to nod along, thinking how terrible it is that all these people are so irrational, and enjoy the read. For an introduction, that’s good enough.