(First of all, excellent idea)
I have hidden agendas, but not just that. I also have hidden compulsions.
Here my main compulsion was like "Hey people look at me, I'm abasing myself, please be in awe at how honest I am; besides you can't point a flaw I haven't pointed myself now, so I feel safer from criticism".
My agenda is however, also to help people feel like they can't do worse than me, so they should feel alright telling us about their agenda, and compulsions. Another step forward for the community.
In general :
Agendas :
I try to attract attention because I think I have helpful ideas to contribute in this community > I want to contribute, because I want to see it grow and realize its potential, so that I may be able to see, and learn, that mature art of rationality we've only yet started to outline > I want to use it, because I think it'll be useful to realize all my other objectives in real life.
I also want to see the community succeed for if I'm not wrong, that will help important projects such as the one that must not yet be named. I think a mature community of mature rationalists, could indeed achieve much more than what other groups (normal science included) could do. I have selfish reasons to want the unnamed project to succeed, and just as well, the future community will probably turn its attention to issues which will benefit me. In particular fields like antiagathics.
Finally, I am as honest as I think I should. I lie when I think I can get away with it, and I'm very cautious to keep a safety margin there. In a place such as LW, I don't feel safe lying about anything because I'm sure there are people reliably more intelligent, rational, and experimented than I am. Hence trying to be as honest as possible, and also, trying to point my flaws and hidden agendas to insure my reputation, if I am ever to slip a lie here and there without my noticing it.
Compulsions:
I have always liked to be praised for my intellectual achievements. I'll always strive to sound honest, fair, brilliant, persevering. I notice the karma / voting system has worsened that trait. I check regularly to see how my posts fare. I feel very disappointed (aka butthurt) when I'm not upvoted, and let's not even talk about downvotes.
I like to point flaws and mistakes; in others as well as in myself, though pointing them in myself is also a way to signal how honest I am. And this also verges on masochism.
I like to shock and confuse. For instance, I'll defend one side of an argument, then switch my point of view and defend the other side. I don't want people to know which "side" I'm on. Like, defending religion against bashing, then trying to bury it. This also signals fairness.
There's more, but that should be enough already to get the picture.
One question : do we want to include in all our posts henceforth a short explanation of our hidden agenda, case by case ? Some will argue that this would burden them. But I'm for it, just as I was in favor of the idea that downvoting should usually go in hand with an explanation, so that we can understand our nonobvious mistakes.
I don't think the point-by-point is necessary on all posts, but when your bias affects your position, (or some affiliation might be affecting your point of view) it's probably worth mentioning.
What I'd really like is the ability to include some personal details on our profile page. Is this available in the Reddit software? How hard would it be to add something like that?
Follow-up to: It's okay to be (at least a little) irrational
Many science journals require their authors to declare any competing interests they happen to have. For instance, if you're submitting a study about the health effects of tobacco, and you happen to sit on the board of directors of a major tobacco company, you're supposed to say that out loud.
The process obviously isn't perfect, as most journals don't have the resources to ensure their authors do actually declare all competing interests. On the whole, though, it helps protect both the readers and the authors. The readers, because they'll know to be more careful in evaluating the reports of researchers who might be biased. The authors, because by declaring any competing interests upfront, they're protected from later accusations of dishonesty. (That's the theory, at least. In practice, authors often don't declare their interests, even if they should.)
Signaling has been discussed a lot on Overcoming Bias, though a bit less on Less Wrong. A large fraction of people's behavior is actually intended to signal some qualities to others, though this isn't necessarily a conscious process. On the other hand, it often is. As seasoned OB/LW readers, it seems to me like many would instinctively try to avoid giving the impression of excess signaling. We're rationalists, after all! We're trying to find the truth, not show off or impress others of our worth!
As if we even could avoid trying to make a good impression on others, or avoid having other kinds of hidden agendas. We're not any less human simply because we have rallied our rationality's banner. (Not to mention that signaling isn't a bad thing, by itself - humanity would be in a very poor state if we didn't have any signals about what others were like.) So, in the interest of self-honesty, I suggest we all begin explicitly declaring our (conscious) hidden agendas and signaling intentions when writing posts. As with the policy of scholarly journals, this will help both readers and writers, and in this case also serve a third and fourth function - making us more honest to ourselves, and make people realize that it's okay to have hidden agendas, and that they don't have to pretend they don't have any. I'll start out with mine.
I have roughly classified my hidden agendas at three different levels of severity. A "mild" agenda had a small impact on the behavior in question (for instance, writing a particular post), but I would have done it either way. A "strong" agenda means the behavior probably wouldn't have happened without the hidden agenda. A "moderate" agenda means that I'm not able to say either way - the behavior could have happened anyway, or then it might have not. I recognize that these are merely my conscious estimates of the different strengths and agendas, which are likely to be mistaken. They are, however, better than nothing.
Posting here in general - A desire to seek fame and respect in a community of rationalists, and to prove my worth as one (moderate). A desire to indicate that I have read and internalized the previous postings on OB, by linking to any relevant previous articles mentioning related concepts (moderate when it comes to linking, but mild when it comes to writing the articles - without the desire I might not have thrown in so many links, but I'd probably have written the posts anyway).
Does blind review slow down science? - Uncertain, as I don't remember my exact motivations for writing this post anymore.
The Golem - A mild desire to indirectly promote polyamory (by linking to a book about it as the source of the quote).
The Tragedy of the Anticommons - A mild to moderate desire to signal scholarship. My previous posts cited two books and some research articles and now I cited a third book, to give the (mostly accurate) impression that I read a lot and survey the research literature when I want to form an opinion of something. Mild desire to nudge people in the direction of a resource pointing out the harms of patents and copyright in their current form (declaration of possibly competing interest: I'm a board member of the Finnish Pirate Party).
Deliberate and spontaneous creativity - Mild to moderate desire to signal scholarship, again.
Rationalists should beware rationalism - Looking over the post, I'm not certain of any of my motives anymore, be they overt or covert. Perhaps a mild to moderate desire to signal resistance to groupthink.
Too much feedback can be a bad thing - None that I can remember.
It's okay to be (at least a little) irrational - Mild desire to signal support for the Institute Which Shall Not Be Named. Mild desire to signal altruism by bringing up my regular donations.
This post - Strong desire to signal honesty. Mild desire to more effectively promote my previous hidden agendas, by stating them out loud.
What are yours?