Since becoming a rationalist, I've become (on average) happier, more adventurous, more tolerant of other people, more comfortable in a variety of situations, more motivated, more intentional, more understanding, less moody, less nihilistic, less contentious, and lots of other fun things. (Feel free to ask for evidence for these claims, I just didn't want to write all of that out now and make this reply even longer.)
I think the main ideas that the rest of that sort of latches onto are:
Don't be afraid of the truth, and don't look for answers that confirm what you think
You need to understand how things work in order to accomplish youg goals
The universe is allowed to be terrible by human standards
And the more specific useful details that actually had changes in my life are:
You're allowed to do things to accomplish your goals other than your cached thoughts
Other people are different than me, and I should think from their perspective rather than extrapolating from myself
Working in groups is really, really helpful for accomplishing things
How to dissolve the question
Take other people's advice
Hold off on proposing solutions
Don't listen to Bruce
It was addressed earlier here.
I'm fine with talking about it again, because a lot of that thread focused on Xixidu, and I'm all up for hearing more upbeat responses
I saw this and realised something:
"Hey, wait, where have I seen other people talk about specific benefits from Rationality?"
And then I realised I hadn't. I look around the site some. Nothing there.
This is a place to fix that. The idea of this page is to post specific things that you personally have found helpful, that you learned from your studies of Bayescraft. This way we can find some that seem to work for a large number of people, so that when new people start to become interested in Rationality we can "make it rain" so that they see the benefits that come with being less wrong.
For commenters:
If someone posted something already that also worked for you, mention that. If every tactic is apparently used by only a single person, then it is harder for us as a community to figure out what we should recommend to tyros.
List of N Things:
Understanding that my high school history class has more to do with real science than does my Chemistry class let me understand how I should be approaching the problem. History lets you look at what happened and say "Why did this happen" when you view it the right way.
Reading up on cognitive neuroscience taught me that I could use the placebo affect on myself. I have missed one day of school due to illness in my life.
Learning to not propose solutions for a minimum of five minutes, by the clock, has honestly been the most effective thing I have yet learned for personal application at Less Wrong.
May we all share many useful things, for our own benefit and as a place to point tyros towards.