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Wei_Dai comments on Rationality: Appreciating Cognitive Algorithms - Less Wrong
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Having someone who would occasionally point out deficiencies in one's rational processes sounds awesome. Do you think it is possible for LWers to perform this service for each other on this forum, or does it require much closer interactions and/or intimate knowledge?
(It seems like the real meat of this post is in the second half, but a lot of people, including myself, got distracted by problems in the first half.)
So, one of the easiest ways to detect curiosity is to notice things like posture and demeanor- which seems difficult to do over a text-based channel! I have noticed that online comments telling me "I think you're suffering from bias X" have seemed more like arguments than observations, whereas similar statements in person can be more like observations than arguments.
It's been suggested: http://lesswrong.com/lw/6j1/find_yourself_a_worthy_opponent_a_chavruta/
There are people on this site whose thinking I respect enough that, were they to say something of this sort to me, I would at least acknowledge that I ought to re-evaluate the process that got me to where I am, despite their having not much intimate knowledge about me. (There are also people in my real life who have that property.)
Whether I would actually do it is a much more complicated and contingent question.
I was asking more about the sending side of the advice rather than the receiving side. How do I debug someone else's rationality processes using just the information I can get from their posts and comments on LW? (Assuming they are not a newbie with really obvious flaws, but closer to Eliezer's level.)
Hm.
Are you asking "how could I tell that someone else isn't being rational?" or "how could I communicate to someone else that they aren't being rational in such a way that they'd benefit from it?" or something else?
Something else: I can sometimes tell that someone else on LW isn't being rational but can't see which part of their rationality process is broken, or not sufficiently activated. (Communicating this to them may also be a problem but wasn't the one I specifically had in mind.) I'm wondering if Eliezer thinks it is possible to do this over LW. Perhaps others have better skills for this than I do, or we should just try harder?
Ah, gotcha. Yes, that makes sense; thanks for clarifying.
It is certainly possible, it happens, and it generally results in the point-er losing karma. At leat when the point-er suggests all the answers might not be found in the Sequences.
I assume you are employing hyperbole. Nevertheless, I think your comment is unfair. Even just on LW, lots of great stuff isn't included in the Sequences. Moreover, people here regularly recommend materials (e.g., books) other than the Sequences.
I speak as i find
This could have perverse consequences, because "You don't seem very curious about this" seems like a criticism.
In my case anyway, having an irrationality-cop would have two effects. First, it would motivate me to avoid the criticism by being more rational (like it does for Eliezer). Second, it would motivate me to avoid the criticism by hiding my irrationality better. The latter effect would be bad, because then both the cop and I would overestimate my level of rationality. (Why would I, too, overestimate it? Because I'd hide my failures from myself as well, in an unconscious effort to hide them from others more effectively.)
I think the fundamental issue here is that I dread criticism. (Solutions to this problem include exposure therapy and CBT.) People for whom this is less of a hurdle are likely to benefit more from having an irrationality-cop.