Daniel_Burfoot comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2011 - Less Wrong

13 Post author: gwern 01 February 2011 05:46PM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 02 February 2011 01:19:25AM 7 points [-]

I think some time we should have an irrationality quotes thread, kind of in the "how not to" spirit.

Comment author: RobinZ 02 February 2011 01:47:55AM 11 points [-]

I think such a thread should include an expectation of deconstruction - "this is wrong and this is why".

Comment author: Alicorn 02 February 2011 01:28:55AM 8 points [-]
Comment author: Perplexed 03 February 2011 02:49:09PM *  8 points [-]

I don't think that thread serves the purpose RobinZ seems to have in mind. That one seems to be oriented at laughing at the theists, thus promoting ridicule of them and self-esteem for ourselves. It might instead be nice to have a thread of anti-rationality quotes devoted to advancing our rationality, rather than merely celebrating it.

One idea for doing this is to also use "anti- ground rules". Require that the anti-rationality quotes must come from LessWrong. You can quote only yourself or Eliezer. And, as RobinZ suggests, explain why the quotation exemplifies an error of rationality (one you have since recognized and corrected).

Do we make enough educational mistakes so that we can populate a thread with them? I suspect we do.

Comment author: ata 02 February 2011 01:29:52AM *  4 points [-]

We have one: http://lesswrong.com/lw/b0/antirationality_quotes/

Edit: Oops, Alicorn beat me by 57 seconds.