The nearest reason why I want people around me to become more rational is because irrationality (in some specific forms) repels me. I admit this is how being a member of a tribe can feel from inside. (In a parallel branch of the multiverse I could be a theist, repelled by atheists. I mean, how could you not dislike the people who throw away infinities of utilons, only because they are so overconfident about their human reasoning abilities, which outside view suggests are pretty pathetic.)

But I also believe that having a higher sanity waterline is a good thing. With a specific person, sabotaging their rationality to exploit them may sometimes bring me more utilons than cooperating with them. But what about a population as a whole? I enjoy having higher standards of living, I enjoy having internet, I enjoy having the possibility of hearing different opinions and not having to follow religious leaders. I would enjoy even more if driverless cars became commonplace, if medicine could make us live even better and longer, and if psychology could help significantly beyond the placebo effect. All these things require some general standard of rationality. -- We often complain how low that level is, so for the sake of fairness I would like to note that it could be even much lower. Imagine a society where every problem is solved by asking a local shaman, and a typical answer is that a problem was caused by a witch, and you must kill the witch to fix the problem. And if you somehow step out of the line, you become the best candidate for a witch. Some humans live like this, too. -- If only during the recent century all the money and energy spent on horoscopes would be spent on medicine instead, maybe 100 years could be now the average lifespan, and 150 years rather likely for those who take care to exercise and avoid sugar. Think about all other improvements we could get if only people became more rational. (We would get some new harmful things, too.)

I agree that even if I feel that people should become more rational, trying to correct them is probably not the best way, and quite often it does more harm than good. (I mean harm to the person who wastes their time trying to correct others. Waste of time, and frustration.) I used to spend a lot of time correcting people online. Finding LessWrong helped me a lot; now that I know there is one website where people can discuss rationally, the existence of others feels less painful. It also helped to realize that inferential distances are too big to be overcome by a comment in a discussion. I feel certain in many situations that I know better than other people, but I have updated my estimate of fixing their reasoning to near epsilon. (Unless the other person specifically asks to be fixed, which almost never happens.) Writing a blog or starting a local rationalist group would be better. (I just need to overcome my akrasia.)

So, instead of doing stupid stuff that feels good, if we agree that having more rationalists on this planet is a good idea, what next? I know that CFAR is doing workshops for a few dozens of participants. The LessWrong blog is here, available for everyone. That is already pretty awesome, but it is unlikely that it is the best thing that could be done. What else could have a higher impact?

My ideas in five minutes -- write a book about rationality (books have higher status than blogs, can be read by people who don't procrastinate online); create a "LessWrong for dummies" website (obviously with a different name) explaining the uncontroversial LW/CFAR topics to a public in a simplified form. Actually, we could start with the website and then publish it as a book. But it needs a lot of time and talent. Alternative idea: do something to impress the general population and make rationality more fashionable (moderate use of Dark Arts allowed); for example organize a discussion about rationality on a university with rationalists who also happen to be millionaires (or otherwise high status), and minicamp-style exercises for participants as a followup. Requires the rationalist celebrities and someone to do the exercises.