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cousin_it comments on Rationalist Hobbies - Less Wrong Discussion

6 [deleted] 19 February 2011 08:24AM

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Comment author: cousin_it 19 February 2011 08:07:39PM *  3 points [-]

It doesn't seem obviously crazy to provide information about the rationality benefits of some hobbies that would-be rationalist can take into account, along with other costs and benefits, while choosing hobbies.

I agree with your statement. The reasons for my criticism: a) it seems hard to determine objectively how much a given hobby helps your rationality, b) almost any hobby can be presented as "helping rationality" given enough ingenuity, c) some people will want to present their own hobbies this way. I'm not sure we can get much value from such discussions until we have some solution for at least one of these points.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 19 February 2011 11:05:46PM 1 point [-]

If an idea isn't obviously crazy, then the fact that it has problems seems to call for a discussion into the nature of the problems and possible solutions, instead of ridicule. In this case, b) and c) both seem surmountable. For b, many people are apparently able to tell when it is a "stretch" that some hobby offers rationality benefits, and appropriately discount such claims. For c, perhaps a warning to avoid rationalizing would be sufficient.

Comment author: cousin_it 20 February 2011 07:28:15AM *  0 points [-]

Overall you're right. I apologize.

But your original post listed video games as a rationalist hobby. That certainly felt like a "stretch" to me, and to many other commenters too, I think. (Crypto, on the other hand, sounds like a very good recommendation.)

Comment author: Wei_Dai 20 February 2011 08:56:51AM 0 points [-]

The title said "rationalist hobbies" (which I now think was a big mistake) but the post explained that these are hobbies that teach rationality lessons. I rarely play video games anymore, but I still think the lesson that hobby taught was a very valuable one that I may not have gotten from any other source. Most of us here probably do not need that specific lesson at this point, but I thought I'd include it to help explain how some of us got to where we are today.

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