SquirrelInHell comments on Motivated Thinking - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Bound_up 03 August 2016 11:27PM

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Comment author: SquirrelInHell 04 August 2016 05:01:23AM *  1 point [-]

I like your mnemonics idea, though the part "Self-deprecation and Conceit" seems a little bit forced. Maybe make them rhyme or something else instead.

I think it's one of the most important things to teach someone about rationality (any other suggestions? Confirmation bias, placebo, pareidolia, and the odds of coincidences come to mind...)

The things that come to your mind are object-level skills. However I'd say that the most important thing to teach is the meta-skill of dissociation - looking at your thoughts as a machine with some properties, and controlling this machine from the "outside".

In other words, intuitively noticing that thinking something about X is not a fact about X, but a fact about your thoughts.

Having this habit that when you think X, you also automatically think "hmm, I seem to be thinking X, what do I make of it?".

Comment author: Bound_up 04 August 2016 04:06:38PM 0 points [-]

Hmm, so the map/territory distinction?

That's a good one.

Some of mine ARE object-level, but there aren't just ANY object-level ones. They focus on teaching you how to discern between real and fake evidence, I guess...

Are you just referring to map/territory, or is there more to it than that?

Comment author: SquirrelInHell 05 August 2016 02:36:35AM 0 points [-]

Are you just referring to map/territory, or is there more to it than that?

It is slightly - the "map/territory" is a view from the epistemology side, while the "your mind as a cockpit" frame which I like includes all executive functions (including belief-formation).

Comment author: Viliam 04 August 2016 07:24:18AM 0 points [-]

I like your mnemonics idea, though the part "Self-deprecation and Conceit" seems a little bit forced. Maybe make them rhyme or something else instead.

Separatedness (from the issue debated) and Criticism / Confrontation? (Not very good, just brainstorming.)