You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Perplexed comments on Rationalist Hobbies - Less Wrong Discussion

6 [deleted] 19 February 2011 08:24AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (65)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Perplexed 17 February 2011 11:35:51PM 11 points [-]

Human interaction - teaches human interaction.

Many people consider this activity and skill to be valuable in themselves, but rationalists have a particular reason for pursuing this. This is because it is easier to notice that someone else is confused than to notice it about oneself. And the analysis of other people's confusion involves skills which transfer directly to the analysis of your own confusion.

The most important skill learned here is the identification of hidden, unshared assumptions. If you and your interlocutor each think that the other is being illogical, then the most likely explanation is not a lapse in logic, but rather an assumption that one of you is making and the other is not. Teasing out that assumption and shining a bright light on it is a necessary rationalist skill, even if you do all of your important thinking alone.