All this stuff about "Something to Protect" and "Rationalists Should Win" is all nice and well. And Eliezer's point that grounding rationalism in some real-world need ensures that we don't enter affective death spirals around some particular less-than-optimal rational method, is well-taken.

But dammit, truth for the sake of truth is okay too!

I want to know how to become better at certain things, but that's not the main reason I'm on here. Have you ever had all the wires connected to your computer all tangled up, and it's not really making anything that much harder to use, but it just gets on your nerves until you have to stop what you're doing and spend however long it takes trying to untangle all of them and put them in nice little lines? That's how my brain feels all the time. Reading Overcoming Bias helped me untangle some of those wires.

Of course, if I didn't then take advantage of my new clarity to advance some of my other values, you'd have to wonder whether I'd really learned anything. But that wasn't the main reason I came here, and it's not the main reason I stay.

...and judging by how much time people here spend on Newcomb-like problems, then unless you have some really unusual day jobs I'm guessing I'm not alone.

PS: If you think rationality's important for succeeding at business, and I prove to you that great-looking hair is a greater contributor to success in business than knowledge of Bayescraft, would you stop reading Less Wrong and start reading hairstylist blogs? Would you recommend other people do so?