Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Teachable Rationality Skills - Less Wrong

52 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 May 2011 09:57PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 May 2011 10:32:39PM 4 points [-]

Skills this may teach / has successfully taught:

Social confidence.

General self-confidence.

Body language, vocal tone, facial expressions.

Charisma.

Navigating social conversations.

Willingness to hug people at LW meetups.

Comment author: thomblake 31 May 2011 02:33:10PM 3 points [-]

Willingness to hug people at LW meetups.

Is this a rationality skill?

Comment author: mutterc 31 May 2011 08:44:11PM 1 point [-]

It's a mind hack to help one consider fellow LWers as part of one's "tribe".

It seems to me to be a rationality skill, in the sense of consciously exploiting human cognitive biases in the service of one's own goals.

Or it's a very mild form of cult "love bombing".

Comment author: thomblake 31 May 2011 08:50:26PM 0 points [-]

consciously exploiting human cognitive biases in the service of one's own goals.

An anti-rationality skill then?

Or it's a very mild form of cult "love bombing".

Indeed.

Comment author: James_Miller 28 May 2011 12:10:06AM 6 points [-]

Another way to build up social confidence might be to repeatedly get rejected by asking lots of extremely attractive people out on dates. The goal here is to numb yourself to the emotional costs of rejection through repeated exposure.

Comment author: pwno 29 May 2011 01:11:30AM *  3 points [-]

Unless the rejection is accompanied by occasional successes, this may be a good way to lower your self-esteem. The trick is learning to accept rejection - using each opportunity to succeed and learning from each failed attempt.

Comment author: wedrifid 28 May 2011 09:23:22AM 4 points [-]

Another way to build up social confidence might be to repeatedly get rejected by asking lots of extremely attractive people out on dates. The goal here is to numb yourself to the emotional costs of rejection through repeated exposure.

And I would suggest that this additional form of training is going to be overwhelmingly hard to avoid picking up along the way. If you aren't getting repeatedly rejected then I think you must be doing something wrong.