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humpolec comments on Rationality Dojo - Less Wrong
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Comments (18)
Look at the recently posted reading list. Pick some stuff, study and discuss. If you have a good "fighting spirit" and desire to become stronger, don't waste it on writing fanfiction...
Fanfiction may not be the most rigorous kind of practice, but it exercises different mental muscles than more formal discussions. Writing fiction let's you exercise your creativity more than a formal discussion would, and it should be a great testbed for creating parables and becoming a better writer.
Well-crafted stories are much more accessible to people who are at the beginning of a learning curve. If your goal is to bring them with you, rather than exploring the unknown (alone or in small groups), then fiction is a great tool.
I've never written anything myself so I don't have the experience of how writing fiction affects the author, but I've loved reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It feels like part of a balanced information diet.
I'm actually a MoR fan, and I've found it both entertaining and (at times) enlightening.
But I think a "beginning rationalist"s time is much better spent if they're studying philosophy, critical thinking, probability theory, etc. than on writing fanfiction (even if it would be useful in small doses).
That sounds true.
How does one figure out the best order in which to learn these things? With math, there are some areas which depend strongly on previous studies (arithmetic before algebra). Simple geometry doesn't necessarily depend on either arithmetic or algebra though (does it?). I wish we had a breakdown of various sub-disciplines used for rationality.