How are you defining what makes a better rationalist and how are you measuring it? What is the difference between instrumental goals and funsies? My long term goals involve having more funsies by most notions of that term.
I'm not particularly measuring it, but what I mostly mean that it's someone who actually thinks about their goals, and successfully changes their actions as a result of such thought.
By for funsies I mean someone who just likes applying rationality because thinking about certain things is fun. Like, how I study physics because physics is awesome, more than for any intended use of physics.
These two questions seem to be somewhat interesting, especially for those interested in rationality outreach.
What makes someone more likely to study rationality?
More likely to become a higher level rationalist?
A few thoughts:
Empirically, rationalists seem to be more into technical fields than average, and more interested in an explicit understanding of social things than most technical people.
People who can more clearly see deficiencies in themselves, and who try to solve problems seem more likely to become rationalists, when exposed to rationality.
People who are motivated to pursue rationality for instrumental goals, rather than for funsies, seem to become better rationalists.