You should distinguish between intelligence and being rational. One can be very intelligent without being very rational and vice versa. Intelligence is about how fast you think and how many abstract concepts you can juggle at once, that sort of thing. Rationality is about having good heuristics, making good decisions, that sort of thing. This site is primarily about being more rational rather than being more intelligent.
Ah, I think that I have been using the words as near synonyms. I understand the distinction, (now, I think) but what of increasing intelligence? Will study in general rationality help improve cognitive speed/capacity through the "compression effect" described above by multifoliaterose?
If this post is inappropriate, I apologize.
I stumbled upon this site after reading "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". The story so far has really moved me on multiple levels and sent me here in a quest to learn more about rationality as a philosophy/way of thinking about the world. I have read Ayn Rands published works and loved the stories and most of the message. The characters always seemed like titans that were far and above me, but now, I've seen a character that is a bit more approachable.
I've started to go through the "Map and Territory" section of the "Core Sequences" and this whole project and community makes me ecstatic. I'm currently working my way through the Bayes's Theorem article with some success. The more I read, the more I realize I may have a problem.
I'm pretty dumb.
Is higher level reasoning "use it or lose it" ? I like learning new things and love reading but any new ideas require a ton of thought and re-reading. I think I have enough interest to keep plugging away at it, but I'm not sure I'm going at things the right way. Is there a "Kid's Table" for lesswrong.com?
For "Priors": I'm 28 years old, white male, married, no children, poor economic upbringing, solid emotional upbringing, currently lower to middle class, high school diploma, US Navy, currently a civilian electronics technician, raised Baptist currently Agnostic/Atheist (recently).
I guess that's it. Thanks!
--John