Kaj_Sotala comments on Rationality Quotes March 2013 - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 02 March 2013 10:45AM

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Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 01 March 2013 03:42:09PM 54 points [-]

Remember the exercises in critical reading you did in school, where you had to look at a piece of writing and step back and ask whether the author was telling the whole truth? If you really want to be a critical reader, it turns out you have to step back one step further, and ask not just whether the author is telling the truth, but why he's writing about this subject at all.

-- Paul Graham

Comment author: satt 04 March 2013 12:42:11AM 50 points [-]

There’s an old saying in the public opinion business: we can’t tell people what to think, but we can tell them what to think about.

— Doug Henwood

Comment author: wedrifid 04 March 2013 04:35:43AM 5 points [-]

This one is excellent! Thankyou satt! (Almost disappointing that it was 'wasted' as a mere reply.)

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 01 March 2013 06:23:40PM 5 points [-]

This is one lesson I think The Last Psychiatrist is good at teaching.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 02 March 2013 11:21:31PM 8 points [-]

It seems to me that The Last Psychiatrist makes up theories about what people really mean according to his mental habits. Is there any way of checking his claims?

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 04 March 2013 09:05:19AM *  5 points [-]

What I've gotten out of reading TLP is not detailed psychological theories so much as suggestions for where to look for hypotheses about why people do what they do, e.g. hypotheses focused on preserving a particular self-image. If I find that looking for such hypotheses helps me predict what people do in the future better than looking for other types of hypotheses, that might be considered evidence that TLP's point of view is a fruitful one.

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