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steven0461 comments on Open Thread, January 15-31, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 16 January 2012 12:56AM

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Comment author: steven0461 21 January 2012 10:59:31PM 4 points [-]

Is there an argument behind "quotidian" besides "I have a short mental time horizon and don't like to think weird thoughts"?

Why would LessWrong be able to come to a consensus on political subjects? Who would care about such a consensus if it came about?

Comment author: David_Gerard 22 January 2012 09:45:31AM *  3 points [-]

There's already enough geek-libertarian atmosphere that those of us who aren't really notice it. But yeah - as I said, I'm not actually sure it would be a good idea. But the shying away from practical application to that particular part of things people are actually interested in fixing in their daily lives is a noteworthy absence.

Your implied claim that quotidian thoughts are unworthy of attention is ... look, if you want to convince people all of this is actually a good idea, then when someone asks "so, OK. What are the practical applications of reading a million words of philosophy and learning probability maths?", answering "How dare you be so short-termist" strikes me as unlikely to work. I mean, I could be wrong ...