I can't understand how this is a popular post, giving the number of assumptions you made.
First, I don't have a brother. In my analogue of the situation, I'm kind to that person and he isn't kind to me. I never did anything bad to him (and I don't do bad things to people, by the way). But this is irrelevant, because the point here is to change the mind of someone you know who didn't change his opinion when the subject of that opinion has changed a lot.
Re your friend: "Change him to be like you" seems like a bad idea in general
By "like you", I meant in respect of skepticism. Isn't that the whole point of the community, to make other people more rational? Isn't that the whole point of popularizing skepticism? Of course I didn't mean to make him a person more like me, I thought this is so obvious that it's implicit.
"One of your friends is very deeply religious" is not necessarily a bad thing if this friend is also happy being religious.
The same person is the best (out of the people I've seen) programmer in the whole 1st year in my uni. He has a huge potential and he's wasting it. He prays 5 times per day, each taking about 30 minutes. And he does all this, because he is rigorously following what seems to be the best idea, according to his information - to be religious. Indeed, he is one of the most rational people I know. Isn't that a good thing?
"You have a friendly new acquaintance of about average intelligence" -- that sounds pretty condescending. Are you sure that you are smarter?
Okay, I used that to illustrate a person who is pretty much an average person, because personality matters a lot here. You're right that it sounds doesn't sound like what I meant and I have edited it. When I was writing it, I was very sleep deprived and I probably have other ambiguities.
Is that what I got the negative karma for? When I saw it at first, I thought I have said something wrong. But the karma on your post suggests that many people were thinking the same as you. Is it that the majority of LessWrong thinks that it's bad to change someone's mind even when it's only for his own good?
It seems that my opinion of LessWrong was very optimistic. It saddens me to think that probably I have not found the community of people who are actually rational, unlike the rest of the world. I can't possibly be biased here, because half of my counterarguments don't include significant judgments, but plain facts (2 and 3 include judgments, but the judgment part is so insignificant that I'm only saying this out of perfectionism). Any counter-counterarguments are welcome, I would be happy to see myself proven wrong here.
Edit: I have edited my original post. It did indeed sound like I'm a dark lord on the mission to bind people to his will and be like you, their opinions doesn't matter, etc.. Instead of a rationalist striving for a better world with less delusion and wasted resources.
Also, I forgot to say again how much I dislike it when people make assumptions about what I said. I didn't write "your brother" because I have a brother, but because I wanted to more accurately describe the template (but this doesn't mean that real life situations should be more similar to that example situation, I have only wanted the template to be closer to what I originally thought).
and I don't do bad things to people, by the way
Everyone is the hero of their own story, even the villains.
Is that what I got the negative karma for?
Like shminux said, don't sweat karma. It's not a big deal. I cared way too much about karma when I first joined, because this was the first time I'd found an internet community whose opinions I genuinely respected. I still care too much about it, but not nearly as much as I did. I think you got the negative karma primarily because of tone - as several people mentioned, and you've acknowledged, you came ...
Pick one (or several) of the following. I used specific examples, therefore anything similar still counts.
1. You have a friendly new acquaintance who is pretty much an average person. He is a theist and doesn't believe Evolution, you have already had a polite debate about that. Convince him to believe in the truth*.
2. One of your friends is very deeply religious - he has devoted his life to already invested a lot of it in religion. Unexpectedly, he is also highly rational (as a personality) and very intelligent, he studies a technical degree (enjoys it), he has read books about critical thinking (he even knows a little about biases) and he says that he will stop believing in religion if you disprove it. Debating with him so far didn't help (also he isn't too good - he isn't aware of expected value and such ideas). For his own good, convince him to change his mind in the direction of the truth. He is wasting a huge potential and that's not only bad for him, but also for humanity. Also, he will feel more comfortable in his new, more sensible beliefs.
3. Your brother dislikes you because of his impression of you that was created several years ago and wasn't updated to reflect the changes in your personality. You easily make impressions to other people that are vastly different from his impression of you. Change his impression, so that he sees you truthfully.
[I have removed 4., because it wasn't about changing the mind of someone who isn't a rationalist, but about coming up with a good psychological mechanism - it deserves an entirely new thread; I suspect that 3 might be too different from 1 and 2, but it's too late to make a so big change to the thread]
I know at least one person for each category. And I haven't been able to change nobody's mind. Have you succeeded in a similar situation? Regardless of whether you have, what strategies do you think would be winning in the 4 situations? If some of them sounds good, I might even try them out and share the results. I'm especially curious about how to approach in #3, because if there is a way, it would come from low-level psychology, which is something I adore.
So, the aim of this thread is for the participants to try and change someone's mind and then tell the story.
(also, I'm willing to accept ideas of other templates for classical situations similar to those, in fact I think I had one or two more ideas, but I can't seem to recall them)
*Needless to say, if at any point, anyone proves to you that his direction is in fact the truth, it would be better to change yourself in that direction instead, but that's outside of the scope of the thread.