dbaupp comments on Is xkcd "Think Logically" talking about this site? - Less Wrong
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Comments (33)
LW isn't the only group of people who talk about being "rational" and avoiding biases. It would be a little arrogant to think that LW was being specifically targeted.
(And anyway, I would hope that LW-style rationalism would understand the reason why chess's rules are like that. The "rationality" displayed in the comic is a straw-vulcan.)
Yes, and a particular kind of straw-vulcan that is also targeted by xkcd in "Physicists" and "Drama". I agree that there is no reason to think LW is being singled out here.
This type of Hollywood Rationality is explicitly listed in TV Tropes under "Straw Vulcan" (failure to understand that goal achievement may require locally backward steps). I haven't encountered anyone who explicitly associates that with LW in particular, and anyone who's taken an introductory AI course should know better than to think a backward step is beyond computation, logic, Bayesian agents, etc.
Also the word being used is "logical" not rational.