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Nornagest comments on POSITION: Design and Write Rationality Curriculum - Less Wrong
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Comments (174)
It crossed my mind as well. Hopefully it's just a placeholder name; an association with Scientology is a really bad thing if we're trying to avoid accusations of cultishness, particularly if katas or similar exercises are going to be a fixture of the organization.
Placeholder name, check. We don't really have any good names at the moment.
One problem with pitching "rationality" is that implying that someone lacks rationality puts them on the defensive; it sounds as though you're trying to bring people from below-baseline up to baseline, rather than from baseline to a higher level. I've gotten better reactions when using the phrase "advanced sanity techniques". Suggesting that someone study them conveys the existence of a higher level, without being perceived as a status attack. I think that if the name is descriptive, it's important that it contains something ("advanced" or an equivalent word) which clearly communicates the fact that it is not aimed at low-status people.
Advanced critical thinking skills?
Both "rationality" and "sanity" imply that the person to whom the class is addressed isn't rational or sane. OTOH people already tend to think that "critical thinking skills" are a good thing to learn. (i.e. the popular cached thought: "A liberal arts degree may not prepare you for a specific job, but it does impart valuable critical thinking skills")
Absolutely agreed. While rhetorically it might work cross-purposes to "raising the sanity waterline" (in the sense of raising people's expectations about "sanity"), it would be good to have a term that says "There's nothing wrong with you, but here's a way to be even better that you might not know about".
What "bad" name ideas do you have?
Rationality Org
Best wiseass LW comment I've seen thus far.
sigh yes, thank you.
I like "Waterline", as proposed by Alicorn.
My friend says it makes her think it has to do with boating. There should be a separate focused attempt to come up with the best name.
I agree. The waterline metaphor is not so commonly known outside LW that it would evoke anything except some watery connotations.
So, what about a nice-looking acronym like "Truth, Rationality, Universe, Eliezer"? :)
Seriously? This place already has a rep for being a personality cult. Let's not purposefully reinforce it. ;)
If there is concern that people outside of LW won't know the metaphor, then the name "Rationality Waterline" can be used at first with the goal of gaining enough recognition to move on to simply "Waterline" at a later date.