Many of the techniques I've found on Less Wrong have increased my available time, money, energy, mood... if the only way I could have learned and used the technique was to have paid money for it, I would gladly. If there was a way to pay back, say, 10% of my actual gains from How to Beat Procrastination to Luke to do with as he wishes, I would press that button. Issues include not correctly estimating the counterfactual (without technique X, how well would I really have done? Surely not a complete crash-and-burn... and what were the actual consequences of not doing well? Surely not as bad as my overestimating-losses-brain estimates...), overcounting extra time that in part gets filled with things I will remove later for "extra time", sending the rewards to the proximate cause of my learning the technique rather than someone further up the origin tree, people gaming the system as soon as it involves money they can steal, and probably others that marginal consideration is too small to bring to mind.
If there was a way to pay back, say, 10% of my actual gains from How to Beat Procrastination to Luke to do with as he wishes, I would press that button.
I think it's the grey button midway down http://singularity.org/donate/
I recently heard about SIAI's Rationality Minicamp and thought it sounded cool, but for logistical/expense reasons I won't be going to one.
There are probably lots of people who are interested in improving their instrumental rationality, know about and like LessWrong, but haven't read the vast majority of content because there is just so much material, and the practical payoff is uncertain.
It would be cool if it was much easier for people to find the highest ROI material on LessWrong.
My rough idea for how this new instrumental rationality tool might work:
Do you think others would find this useful? Anyone have suggested improvements?