I didn't realize I was being unclear in that last post! Clearly it's one of those things that takes practice. (In my defense I really don't know where the median LW reader is at math; the level of that post was a wild guess.)

Glad you're not opposed to LessWrong as a place. I'm not certain myself whether it really fulfills its stated goal of helping people come to conclusions more rationally. (When decisions are actually hard, when empirical evidence is sparse and trial-and-error is impossible, I'm not sure it's possible to decide rationally at all! )

I think one thing it does is promote a norm of measured thinking, where we keep our emotions at a conversational level instead of letting them shout. I've definitely noticed that attitude spilling out into my everyday life, and I find myself checking "do I think that's really plausible or am I just saying it?"