I for one find that "happiness" is far less important than "satisfying my values".
As for me, satisfying me is more important than satisfying my values. As I said, I'm ideologically egoistic.
But, yeah, duty and justice figure higher in my totem pole than joy or happiness or even peace, and it's not a choice I've made.
Oh yes it is. To the extent that you're a slave to duty, it's because you choose to be one.
As for how the world is, I haven't really figured it out yet; people are mostly an enigma to me
That's the thing. People are quite predictable. In fact, you probably already know the predictive models, but are choosing instead to use your normative models to predict the world, or just as bad and much the same, modeling other people as if they have the same motivations that you do.
I haven't delved much into the PUA literature, but my impression is that it focuses more on acquiring and controlling women than enjoying them once you have them. I don't think that's pragmatism, I think it's missing the point.
is costing me a lot in idealism, and motivation.
If it's costing you some idealism, it's doing something useful. But if it's costing you motivation, that's not so helpful.
Would it really be so horrible if women are not what you think they "should" be? Would they be so horrible? A lot of things are not what you think women should be. Is a chair horrible for not being your ideal woman? A car? A spoon? You find uses for all of them, don't you?
Look at the unwomen for what they are - are they so horrible? Entirely lacking in charm, beauty, warmth, intelligence? Maybe women don't exist, and only unwomen do. What then? Time to throw yourself off a bridge?
The world is a wonderful place, and unwomen are among the most wonderful things in it. The world is a wonderful place, once you decide to live in it, instead of bemoaning that it isn't what you think it should be.
To the extent that you're a slave to duty, it's because you choose to be one.
... This sentence confuses me. Does the expression "I don't know any other way to live" sound familiar to you?
People are quite predictable. In fact, you probably already know the predictive models, but are choosing instead to use your normative models to predict the world, or just as bad and much the same, modeling other people as if they have the same motivations that you do.
I've tried that. It just gets me depressed, and doesn't improve my predictive abilities a...
This is my first attempt at starting a casual conversation on LW where people don't have to worry about winning or losing points, and can just relax and have social fun together.
So, Big Bang Theory. That series got me wondering. It seems to be about "geeks", and not the basement-dwelling variety either; they're highly successful and accomplished professionals, each in their own field. One of them has been an astronaut, even. And yet, everything they ever accomplish amounts to absolutely nothing in terms of social recognition or even in terms of personal happiness. And the thing is, it doesn't even get better for their "normal" counterparts, who are just as miserable and petty.
Consider, then; how would being rationalists would affect the characters on this show? The writing of the show relies a lot on laughing at people rather than with them; would rationalist characters subvert that? And how would that rationalist outlook express itself given their personalities? (After all, notice how amazingly different from each other Yudkowsky, Hanson, and Alicorn are, just to name a few; they emphasize rather different things, and take different approaches to both truth-testing and problem-solving).
Note: this discussion does not need to be about rationalism. It can be a casual, normal discussion about the series. Relax and enjoy yourselves.
But the reason I brought up that series is that its characters are excellent examples of high intelligence hampered by immense irrationality. The apex of this is represented by Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who is, essentially, a complete fundamentalist over every single thing in his life; he applies this attitude to everything, right down to people's favorite flavor of pudding: Raj is "axiomatically wrong" to prefer tapioca, because the best pudding is chocolate. Period. This attitude makes him a far, far worse scientist than he thinks, as he refuses to even consider any criticism of his methods or results.