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JulianMorrison comments on Spay or Neuter Your Irrationalities - Less Wrong
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The problem with irrationalities is that they hide. The leverage a rationalist has against them is that the hiding is active, not passive - it's a moment of choosing to look away, to dismiss the qualm, to reassure yourself instead of probing into the discomfort. I'm thinking it might be possible to catch those moments and break through the concealment - but it would take habit. A trained reaction to lash out mentally. And I think your pets would blunt that edge.
Why is an automatic lashing out more effective than an automatic noticing-and-evaluating? That's what I mean by "keeping them where I can see them". I don't let my pets fall back into the ether; I observe their activities carefully. An automatic lashing out could catch even some non-irrational things, that could be filtered and stowed safely if the automatic reaction was just to attend carefully.
The stuff you're noticing and evaluating, you've already discovered. I'm talking about an effort to expand the range of your discoveries. Subconscious ideas have to interact with the conscious mind to steer it, but they don't stay there for long.
I don't mean "lash out and destroy", so much as "lash out and grab".