Liosis comments on Rationality Boot Camp - Less Wrong

73 Post author: Jasen 22 March 2011 08:37AM

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Comment author: Liosis 24 March 2011 04:15:56PM 3 points [-]

I looked up rejection therapy. It has a strong similarity to Stoicism, except that Stoicism requires not being attached to outcomes both in the social context and when interacting with inanimate objects. My confusion is with the implications of Rejection therapy. In Stoicism you do not become distressed because it is according to your nature as a human being to aim at certain things (friends, a warm house, a cow.). Aiming at those things in accordance with your nature is virtuous. Acquiring these things does not make you more or less virtuous. But with rejection therapy real rewards are offered which will not necessarily appear to those who have learned to deal with rejection.

I'm curious about this program. My main concern would be the dogmatic aspect, which I suppose is present in every 'boot camp' style program. I think that the strength of a university program over this sort of program is that university teaches you independent thinking whereas this could lead to dependence in those who did not have a strong sense of individuality. The difficulty would be accommodating those people.