jsalvatier comments on Q: What has Rationality Done for You? - Less Wrong

11 Post author: atucker 02 April 2011 04:13AM

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Comment author: jsalvatier 05 April 2011 12:01:30AM * 4 points [-]

I am prone to identifying with ideas and LW style thought has helped me keep in mind that the state of the world is external, which helps me step back and allow myself the possibility that I am wrong.
Thinking in terms of decision theory helps me frequently ask, "how could I do this better?"
the notion that there are big important ideas/skills that aren't hard to learn which not everyone knows (like decision theory and knowing about heuristics and biases) led me to look for more ideas/skills like this. The ones that come to mind:
- science of food/cooking
- accounting (though I'm not sure how much that's stuck)
- finance (basically, how to think about money over time)
- bayesian statistics (amazing how much more grokkable it is than traditional statistics)
- controversially Game('attraction isn't a choice', being good with women is typically attractive, being dominant (not dominating) is typically attractive, etc.).
bayesian statistics is awesome, and I use it all the time