Group Rationality Diary, July 16-31

therufs

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for July 16-31.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: July 1-15

Next diary: August 1-15

Rationality diaries archive

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for July 16-31.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: July 1-15

Next diary: August 1-15

Rationality diaries archive

Some recent drama has emphasized a couple obvious weaknesses of mine:

The one that arguably started the whole mess: I am way too relenting to people, especially those who come across as on the nice side. I suspect this is sort of a "reverse stupidity" scenario based on overdoing the opposite in the past.
There was a situation that looked likely to escalate to violence. My reaction was to go for the most easily-accessed weapon in reach (incidentally the one with padding). Then one of those involved in the dispute did the much smarter thing and handed me a phone. (Compare to HPMoR Chapter 11, IIRC)

Funnily enough, it was only a couple days ago that I was thinking of how harder it is to internalize meaningful rationality skills in the abstract rather than when confronted with them in real life. Though, in all actuality, "What would Harry James Potter Evans Verres do?" is probably a better huristic in most situations that don't involve civilized human interaction. I say this in full knowledge of HJPEV's flaws. After all, it's not like I'm going to eryrnfr n qnatrebhf pevzvany, trg zl orfg sevraq zheqrerq, naq cbffvoyl qrfgebl gur havirefr, right?

4

Group Rationality Diary, July 16-31

4

4

4

Group Rationality Diary, July 16-31

4

4