handoflixue comments on Open Thread: September 2011 - Less Wrong
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EDIT: this comment was made when I was in a not-too-reasonable frame of mind, and I'm over it.
Is teaching, learning, studying rationality valuable?
Not as a bridge to other disciplines, or a way to meet cool people. I mean, is the subject matter itself valuable as a discipline in your opinion? Is there enough to this? Is there anything here worth proselytizing?
I'm starting to doubt that. "Here, let me show you how to think more clearly" seems like an insult to anyone's intelligence. I don't think there's any sense teaching a competent adult how to change his or her habits of thought. Can you imagine a perfectly competent person -- say, a science student -- who hasn't heard of "rationalism" in our sense of the world, finding such instruction appealing? I really can't.
Of course I'm starting to doubt the value (to myself) of thinking clearly at all.
I was recently around some old friends who are lacking in rationality, and kept finding myself at a complete loss. I wanted to just grab them and say exactly that.
In other news, I've learned that some lessons in how to politely and subtly teach rationality would be quite welcome >.>