A few notes about the site mechanics
A few notes about the community
If English is not your first language, don't let that make you afraid to post or comment. You can get English help on Discussion- or Main-level posts by sending a PM to one of the following users (use the "send message" link on the upper right of their user page). Either put the text of the post in the PM, or just say that you'd like English help and you'll get a response with an email address.
* Normal_Anomaly
* Randaly
* shokwave
* Barry Cotter
A note for theists: you will find the Less Wrong community to be predominantly atheist, though not completely so, and most of us are genuinely respectful of religious people who keep the usual community norms. It's worth saying that we might think religion is off-topic in some places where you think it's on-topic, so be thoughtful about where and how you start explicitly talking about it; some of us are happy to talk about religion, some of us aren't interested. Bear in mind that many of us really, truly have given full consideration to theistic claims and found them to be false, so starting with the most common arguments is pretty likely just to annoy people. Anyhow, it's absolutely OK to mention that you're religious in your welcome post and to invite a discussion there.
A list of some posts that are pretty awesome
I recommend the major sequences to everybody, but I realize how daunting they look at first. So for purposes of immediate gratification, the following posts are particularly interesting/illuminating/provocative and don't require any previous reading:
- Your Intuitions are Not Magic
- The Apologist and the Revolutionary
- How to Convince Me that 2 + 2 = 3
- Lawful Uncertainty
- The Planning Fallacy
- Scope Insensitivity
- The Allais Paradox (with two followups)
- We Change Our Minds Less Often Than We Think
- The Least Convenient Possible World
- The Third Alternative
- The Domain of Your Utility Function
- Newcomb's Problem and Regret of Rationality
- The True Prisoner's Dilemma
- The Tragedy of Group Selectionism
- Policy Debates Should Not Appear One-Sided
- That Alien Message
More suggestions are welcome! Or just check out the top-rated posts from the history of Less Wrong. Most posts at +50 or more are well worth your time.
Welcome to Less Wrong, and we look forward to hearing from you throughout the site.
(Note from orthonormal: MBlume and other contributors wrote the original version of this welcome message, and I've stolen heavily from it.)
Hi, I am Raiden. For most of my life I have been an aspiring rationalist, even though I didn't call myself by that name. I was raised to think that I was some sort of super genius (it was a big shock in my later elementary school years to discover that I wasn't the smartest person in the world). This had the effect of causing me to associate some of my identity with intelligence. This led me to be a traditional rationalist; I had much admiration for the Spock stereotype, and I have been a atheist since childhood despite a fundamentalist religious family. In my freshmen year of high school, I was exposed to some self-help books that led me to seriously consider other virtues besides intelligence to be of value. This slowly revolutionized my view of the world.
Over the course of the next summer, I was exposed to the philosophy of Objectivism, and quickly became a strong adherent to it. I was from the beginning in agreement with the "Open Objectivist" group which said Objectivism is not a complete philosophy. I agree that objectivism descended into some sort of cult, and that Ayn Rand was one of history's greatest hypocrites. I also came to believe that this didn't disqualify the soundness of the philosophy itself. Over time though, the philosophy began to lose its grip on my mind. I still consider myself to be some sort of Neo-Objectivist however, as many of Rand's ideas shape my opinions.
Very recently I have discovered Less Wrong and was expose to its version of rationality, which I came to wholeheartedly adore. I have so far I have at least skimmed the Sequences, and I believe I have a basic understanding of rationality. My goal right now is to scan and absorb all the Sequences and then read some rationality-related textbooks. With a fundamental understand of rationality down, I will then re-examine all of my important beliefs from philosophy to politics to religion. After I come to a better understanding of rationality and the world, I will decide on goals and values and systematically work for them. I also plan to contribute to Less Wrong.
I am at the age of sixteen, so please don't discriminate against me based on that. I consider myself to be far more mature than most people my age, and far more mature than I was even a few months ago. I am currently recovering from what may only be called an existential crisis, but in my outward behavior I am perfectly stable and sociable. Deep down inside I have a burning desire to know the truth. In my opinion, that is one of the greatest measures of one's character.
Have you read a Intuitive Explanation of Bayes Theorem? Personally, from a mathematical standpoint at least, I consider that almost required reading for getting to grips with the more mathy bits of the sequences. Instead of systematically re-examining all of you beliefs once you have a better understanding of rationality, you can just update as you go along, if you find it easier/more-fun that way. You know, "A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth." and all that jazz.
Forgive the digression but is your user name a MGS r... (read more)