Sure.
The author asked "Do I have a chance at becoming intelligent?" It appears as though he's interested in becoming a stronger thinker/rationalist and that he's worried that he might not be capable. With this as context, the comment
I can't comment on your intelligence but as a general rationality issue this sets off warning bells.
could be read as "I have doubts as to your ability to be rational" which is both potentially misleading and potentially discouraging. I know that you may not have meant your comment with this connotation - just explaining how it initially came across to me.
A sample rephrasing that would have avoided this issue is:
"It's possible to improve as a rationalist and I think that your posting here asking for suggestions is a move in the right direction. While I'm glad that the works of Ayn Rand and Eliezer have gotten you interested in rationality, one initial suggestion that I have is to avoid placing too much stock in the appeal of fictional characters in informing your beliefs about the world. Fictional characters exist in fictional worlds. Their authors often construct those worlds and those characters to portray their worldviews most favorably, and an author's ability to do so has little to do with whether or not his or her worldview is correct."
Thanks. That makes sense.
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