So after reading SarahC's latest post I noticed that she's gotten a lot out of rationality.
More importantly, she got different things out of it than I have.
Off the top of my head, I've learned...
- that other people see themselves differently, and should be understood on their terms (mostly from here)
- that I can pay attention to what I'm doing, and try to notice patterns to make intervention more effective.
- the whole utilitarian structure of having a goal that you take actions to achieve, coupled with the idea of an optimization process. It was really helpful to me to realize that you can do whatever it takes to achieve something, not just what has been suggested.
- the importance/usefulness of dissolving the question/how words work (especially great when combined with previous part)
- that an event is evidence for something, not just what I think it can support
- to pull people in, don't force them. Seriously that one is ridiculously useful. Thanks David Gerard.
- that things don't happen unless something makes them happen.
- that other people are smart and cool, and often have good advice
Where she got...
- a habit of learning new skills
- better time-management habits
- an awesome community
- more initiative
- the idea that she can change the world
I've only recently making a habit out of trying new things, and that's been going really well for me. Is there other low hanging fruit that I'm missing?
What cool/important/useful things has rationality gotten you?
A wrong way to put it. If a decision is optimal, there still remain specific arguments for why it shouldn't be taken. Optimality is estimated overall, not for any singled out argument, that can therefore individually lose. See "policy debates shouldn't appear one-sided".
If, all else equal, it's possible to amend a downside, then it's a bad idea to keep it. But tradeoffs are present in any complicated decision, there will be specialized heuristics that disapprove of a plan, even if overall it's optimized.
In our case, we have the heuristic of "personal fun", which is distinct from overall morality. If you're optimizing morality, you should expect personal fun to remain suboptimal, even if just a little bit.
(Yet another question is that rationality can give independent boost to the ability to have personal fun, which can offset this effect.)