This post has too many comments to show them all at once! Newcomers, please proceed in an orderly fashion to the newest welcome thread.
The first is a summary of TVTropes - what it is and why it's important - the other being a guide to using the Dark Arts.
Is this along the lines of Robin Hanson's endorsement?
I somehow missed that post of his; the short answer is yes. The world that tropes describe is - I believe - Magic. When you start seeing the dynamics of how that world works, you can pinpoint the roots of many of our biases.