Also, regardless of how much raw intelligence you actually have, it may be better to try to maintain the attitude that successfully figuring out stuff is primarily about effort, not smarts. This psychology thing that's been floating around in various forms basically describes people as more eager to go at new challenges when they think their success is due to hard work, and people who define themselves by some idea of innate intelligence tend to get stuck at one challenge level.
Concentration, patience and determination that help with effortful study can also be trained, while it apparently isn't very easy to increase raw intelligence. The meditation stuff people are doing over at the other thread is a somewhat unorthodox approach, but it could help with concentration, noticing subtleties and being patient with obtuse material.
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