Raemon comments on Overly convenient clusters, or: Beware sour grapes - Less Wrong
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I actually think the Serenity Prayer is pretty valuable and wish it were reclaimed in some fashion.
There are things you can't change, and if you don't accept that you're going to spend your life being miserable. There are also things you can change but which look impossible at first glance, and learning to recognize when you can change things is super important. (As is having courage to do so, when appropriate)
The fact that wisdom is hardest, and is the final note that the prayer emphasizes, is significant to me.
So, one option is to take one of the precursors, like Epictetus's:
But, obviously, this is not optimized for actually repeating it. The Mother Goose rhyme is optimized for repeating:
but seems less on point (it seems to help to specifically call out serenity, courage, and wisdom).
One could just modify the front:
I just went with the "modify the front" version, which I think works fine. Anything more accurate loses more potency than its worth IMO.
The Serenity Prayer was posted as a rationality quote here and discussed. A few possible modifications were suggested, including this one from Mass_Driver:
I think the words are right. My problem with it is that I associate it with people who use it as an excuse to give up. They focus on the idea that they can't change much of anything, so have to accept it. If I were to change it, I would treat the idea that I can't change something as a claim requiring positive proof and being subject to regular challenge. (I'd also filter it for things about which I care and things about which I don't care. But that's kind of beside the point.)
Max L.