haig comments on Rationality is Systematized Winning - Less Wrong

48 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 April 2009 02:41PM

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Comment author: haig 04 April 2009 08:25:54AM *  1 point [-]

Let's use one of Polya's 'how to solve it' strategies and see if the inverse helps: Irrationalists should lose. Irrationality is systematized losing.

On another note, rationality can refer to either beliefs or behaviors. Does being a rationalist mean your beliefs are rational, your behaviors are rational, or both? I think behaving rationally, even with high probability priors, is still very hard for us humans in a lot of circumstances. Until we have full control of our subconscious minds and can reprogram our cognitive systems, it is a struggle to will ourselves to act in completely rational ways.

To spread rationality, amongst humans at least, we might want to consider a divide and conquer approach focusing on people maintaining rational beliefs first, and maximizing rational behavior second.