I work as a structural engineer in the aerospace industry. My main task involves finding out how load is redistributed throughout structural elements (basically an issue of the relative stiffness of the different load paths) and then checking components against their various failure modes to determine how close they are to failing in the different conditions they'll have to withstand. I also support related work, like determining accuracy of models based on flight data.
Rationality is related to my work in that determining how a model should be changed in light of flight test data (given the various sensors) is an elaborate application of Bayesian reasoning. Also, there is pressure to always "show the structure good", presenting the danger of writing your conclusion before you begin reasoning.
As a side interest, I like to learn about AI and any topic that I believe will provide insight on it, such as biology/evopsych, thermodynamics, consciousness, and information theory (the latter of which I've been deemed an expert on by Steven Landsburg, somehow). Information theory in particular looks like a fruitful topic to study because of the unifying vision it gives to all the others, and one of my projects has been to convert constraints of physical law into constaints on information, and I think it has enhanced my understanding of various topics.
My blind spot is in chemistry, especially organic, which I think would be helpful to learn as a case study in how a system can maintain very specific order against the 2nd law pressure, so knowing the nuts and bolts of how it works at the molecular level would be very helpful to me.
Not that I'm complaining, but why so many upvotes on this one? I don't think I answered the questions very directly. Is it because this was informative, or ...? I'm curious.
We have recently obtained evidence that a number of people, some with quite interesting backgrounds and areas of expertise, find LessWrong an interesting read but find limited opportunities to contribute.
This post is an invitation to engage, in relative safety but just a little beyond saying "Hi, I'm a lurker". Even that little is appreciated, to be sure, and it's OK for anyone who feels the slightest bit intimidated to remain on the sidelines. However, I'm confident that most readers will find it quite easy to answer at least the first of the following questions:
...and possibly these follow-ups:
Comments like the following, from the "Attention Lurkers" thread, suggest untapped resources:
My own area of professional expertise is computer programming - perhaps one of the common sub-populations here. I'm also a parent, and have been a beneficiary of prenatal diagnosis (toxoplasmosis: turned out not to be a big deal, but it might have been). My curiosity is often engaged by what goes on "behind the scenes" of the professions I interact with as an ordinary citizen.
Yes, I would be quite interested in striking up a conversation about applying the tools discussed here to prenatal diagnosis; or in a conversation about which conceptual tools that I don't know about yet turn out to be useful in dealing with the epistemic or ethical issues in prenatal diagnosis.
Metaphorically, the intent of this post is to provide a marketplace. We already have the "Where are we?" thread, which makes it easier for LessWrongers close to each other to meet up if they want to. ("Welcome to LessWrong" is the place to collect biographical information, but it specifically emphasizes the "rationalist" side of people, rather than their professional knowledge.)
In a similar spirit, please post a comment here offering (or requesting) domain-specific insights. My hunch is, we'll find that even those of us in professions that don't seem related to the topics covered here have more to contribute than they think; my hope is that this comment thread will be a valuable resource in the future.
A secondary intent of this post is to provide newcomers and lurkers with one more place where contributing can be expected to be safe from karma penalties - simply answer one of the questions that probably comes up most often when meeting strangers: "What do you do?". :)
(P.S. If you've read this far and are disappointed with the absence of any jokes about "yet another fundamental question", thank you for your attention, and please accept this apophasis as a consolation gift.)