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David_Allen comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011) - Less Wrong
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Hello!
I think I may have posted on a welcome thread before, but I still consider myself pretty new so saying hi again.
I've long thought rational thought is underrated. I find LW very interesting but quite difficult to get into.
Things I'd like to see:
Better introductory content.
Things I find particularly interesting:
Discussion of akrasia and strategies for avoiding it.
Buddhism - is it compatible with rationality? Personally I think some aspects yes, some aspects no.
I think it would be possible to dump the mystical elements of Buddhism, and combine the rest with Bayesianism. I could see the ideal of optimal enlightenment.
I see some very promising trends in some of the Western Zen stuff, eg Brad Warner ( http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/)(before anyone says it, I also see big problems with him!)
There's a lot of dumping of mysticism, and some of the more unfortunate bits like gods and reincarnation.
And there are Buddha quotes like:
"Be lamps unto yourselves. Be refuges unto yourselves. Take yourself no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold fast to the truth as a refuge. "
(intermediate source http://www.sapphyr.net/buddhist/buddhist-quotes.htm, I'm pretty sure there are primary sources but too lazy to dig them up)
Which I think is very compatible with rationalism.
And a lot of Buddhism seems to me to make nice testable claims "do these things and you will experience a greater frequency of desirable mental states", for example.
However there's also other stuff I'm somewhat sympathetic to, but have doubts about, which seem to suggest giving up on rational thought.