Rationality quotes - May 2009

Kaj_Sotala

(Since there didn't seem to be one for this month, and I just ran across a nice quote.)

A monthly thread for posting any interesting rationality-related quotes you've seen recently on the Internet, or had stored in your quotesfile for ages.

Please post all quotes separately (so that they can be voted up (or down) separately) unless they are strongly related/ordered.
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB - if we do this, there should be a separate thread for it.
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

(Since there didn't seem to be one for this month, and I just ran across a nice quote.)

A monthly thread for posting any interesting rationality-related quotes you've seen recently on the Internet, or had stored in your quotesfile for ages.

Please post all quotes separately (so that they can be voted up (or down) separately) unless they are strongly related/ordered.
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB - if we do this, there should be a separate thread for it.
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

I can't find a reference, but I'm pretty sure this is actually false. Someone who reads a horoscope with his 'sign' attached tends to think the horoscope applied particularly well to himself (even amongst skeptics). Obviously, removing the 'signs' makes them indistinguishable.

I think the point is that people attach a feeling of truth to their own horoscope, without considering whether other horoscopes could feel similarly true.

3JamesAndrix17y

Obviously, removing the 'signs' makes them indistinguishable. I wonder if this is true. There is a personality attached to 'Aquarian' even within the generalism of horoscopes. If I've been reading a horoscope for many years that encourages me to act like an Aquarian, and think like and Aquarian, Then perhaps I just won't identify with the advice that the same astrologer would give to 'Scorpio'.