I wonder how much benefit we'd get, then, by imagining ourselves in all our internal dialogues to be speaking to someone very critical, and far smarter than us?
I do it sometimes, and I think it helps.
I do it too - using some of the smarter and more critical posters on LW, actually - and I also think it helps. I think this diffuses some of LucasSloan's criticisms below - if it's a real person, you can to a reasonable extent imagine how they might reply.
I think it works because placing yourself in a conflict (even an imaginary one) narrows and sharpens your focus as the subconscious processes get activated that try to 'win' it.
The risk is though, that like any opinion formed or argued under the presence of an emotion, is that you become unreasonably certain of it.
This thread is for the discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts. If a discussion gets unwieldy, celebrate by turning it into a top-level post.
July Part 1