Interesting experience: I attempted to read the sequences ~10 years ago but kept getting sidetracked and put out of order by clicking all the links. This time, I decided to try again, but forced myself to read each post in order. All this to say that I read this post chronologically close to after reading “your strength as a rationalist”. I can’t evaluate how relevant this fact is, but I had alarm bells ringing in my head when reading the statements 3, 4, and 5. 4 especially was so incoherent to my model that I immediately thought there had to be a trick. Basically, my model:
could argue either side for 1 with equal probability
gave a >70% probability to 2
would have predicted <20% for 3
<5% for 4
<30% for 5
I’m not certain of how I did the first time I read this post, but I’m quite certain I didn’t do as well. So I’m wondering if I’ve gotten stronger or if it’s due to the reading order.
The greatest positive effect of this article on my psyche is to actually allow me to conceive of a time period BEFORE anyone located the seat of the mind inside the brain or even inside the skull. It even goes a long way towards allowing me to put myself in the headspace of one who believed the heart to be the master organ. In short, it shines a light on how non obvious the elements of common knowledge are.