iarwain1 comments on 2014 Survey Results - Less Wrong

87 Post author: Yvain 05 January 2015 07:36PM

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Comment author: iarwain1 04 January 2015 03:14:34PM 14 points [-]

WHY ISN’T THERE AN OPTION FOR NONE SO I CAN SIGNAL MY OBVIOUS OBJECTIVITY WITH MINIMAL EFFORT

This is why I didn't vote on the politics question.

This is a sign that most Less Wrongers continue to neglect the very basics of rationality and are incapable of judging how much evidence they have on a given issue. Veterans of the site do no better than newbies on this measure.

Theory: People use this site as a geek / intellectual social outlet and/or insight porn and/or self-help site more than they seriously try to get progressively better at rationality. At least, I know that applies to me :).

Comment author: FeepingCreature 04 January 2015 04:34:28PM *  24 points [-]

This definitely belongs on the next survey!

Why do you read LessWrong? [ ] Rationality improvement [ ] Insight Porn [ ] Geek Social Fuzzies [ ] Self-Help Fuzzies [ ] Self-Help Utilons [ ] I enjoy reading the posts

Comment author: bbleeker 06 January 2015 01:35:33PM 0 points [-]

[x] All of the above

Comment author: MTGandP 10 January 2015 05:46:39AM 3 points [-]

And then check if the "rationality improvement" people do better on calibration. (I'm guessing they don't.)

Comment author: homunq 23 February 2015 01:53:00AM 1 point [-]

[ ] Wow, these people are smart. [ ] Wow, these people are dumb. [ ] Wow, these people are freaky. [ ] That's a good way of putting it, I'll remember that.

(For me, it's all of the above. "Insight porn" is probably the biggest, but it doesn't dominate.)

Comment author: [deleted] 07 January 2015 07:37:26PM 4 points [-]

Theory: People use this site as a geek / intellectual social outlet and/or insight porn and/or self-help site more than they seriously try to get progressively better at rationality.

Is that actually nonobvious? It's sure as hell what I'm here for. I mean, I do actually generally want to be more rational about stuff, but I can't get that by reading a website. Inculcating better habits and reflexes requires long hours spent on practicing better habits and reflexes so I can move the stuff System 2 damn well knows already down into System 1.