ciphergoth comments on On Seeking a Shortening of the Way - Less Wrong
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I called it an applause light last time because it makes you sound responsible, mature, and Deeply Wise without containing usable advice. I'd retract this if you could give examples of what in particular we should be doing.
If you consider mystical methods unlikely to bear fruit, and worse than a maximum ignorance prior, say it outright and justify it. But I can't tell if you're talking only about mystical "techniques" or also about psychological and Bayesian "techniques", and you think you're making a positive point instead of a negative one. I just can't figure out what that positive point is.
Yes, if there's something we know for sure increases rationality, we should be spending more time doing it instead of brainstorming new techniques. But first, there aren't many such things, and second, our inability to do them as much as we'd like is the akrasia complaint, which we've already flagged as something we need to work on.
Compare alcoholism. The mundane solution to alcoholism is to say "Just stop drinking so much" - this seems in keeping with your diet metaphor. This mundane solution very rarely works, thanks to a particularly nasty form of akrasia. The Alcoholics Anonymous program, various anti-alcoholism drugs, and other "gimmicks" are much more effective. We need techniques for an Irrationalists Anonymous program.
Everyone in the world is already having a lot of mundane experience, and it doesn't seem to have helped them much. We better do something different...and not just take more baths. Not necessarily some mystical ritual. It could just be learning a little more Bayesian math, studying lists of fallacies, or going to a philosophy class.
If your candidate for "do something different" is "pay more attention to mundane experience", then you need to define specific ways we can do that. If you literally just mean we should consciously try to elevate the level of mental attention with which we attend to daily tasks, then that's Zen. Hard Zen. Back during my Zen phase, I used to try this. Even a few minutes were unbearably difficult. It may be a valuable technique, but if it's really what you mean it needs more respect and rigor than you give it here.
If you want to continue this post as a series, please post some concrete examples of what we should be doing differently.
The name of this applause light is "We need to get back to basics".
Actually, the whole point of LW is that we need to move on from basics and progress further.
We don't need to get back to basics. We've never been to basics. The basics are where we need to begin.
Because here, there's nothing beyond the basics. There are no more-advanced methods, no clever tricks to make things simpler and easier. There is only the application of the method.